June 3 - Death Strikes the Family Again

Ruth 1:4-6

“They took for themselves Moabite women as wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. And they lived there about ten years. Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and the woman was bereft of her two children and her husband. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the land of Moab, for she had heard in the land of Moab that the Lord had visited His people in giving them food.”

Death is not proud. It comes upon us all at sometime. We can only live just so long, but these young men were still young—leaving behind them young wives and a grieving mother. Famine had enticed this family to leave Palestine and probably weakened their undernourished bodies. They may have been spiritually hungry as well as underfed since they chose to leave God’s promised land in search of food rather than trusting God to provide for them.

Mahlon and Chilion have grown up there in Moab for about ten years. Now they are of marrying age and they fall in love with women from Moab, namely Ruth and Orpah. There is a midrash legend that Ruth and Orpah were daughters of the King of Moab, Eglon. Now it was not acceptable for these Jewish men to marry outside of their faith, but then they were living in Moab, not Judah. It was not likely that there were many Jewish young ladies in their community. In Deuteronomy 23:3 it says that no Moabite shall enter into the assembly of the Lord, meaning a group of Jewish men gathered at the Temple, none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the Lord. The restriction is for their offspring, not them. The men of Moab were not allowed by their religion to convert to the Jewish faith, but it was acceptable for the young women in that country to become Jewish converts.

Neither couple had children before the young men, Mahlon and Chilion, died. Now Naomi had lost her sons, as well as her husband. She was in grief. At this point in the story, she and her daughters-in-law heard that the famine was over in Judah, so Naomi wanted to return home. After ten years in Moab, food wasn’t the primary concern for Naomi as much as the comfort of going “home” to the land where she was comfortable and familiar. She just wanted to go home. How often when you go away on vacation or for work commitments do you just long to go home? That was probably how Naomi felt, too. I love to travel, but after a while, I feel like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, there’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.

God had provided food for the people of Judah. God always provides, maybe not on our time schedule, but He does provide. Naomi had waited for ten years for God to provide—and now He had visited His people, the Israelites, and given them food. Likely this was food that they had to work for, with the barley harvest about to begin. It was not manna, like the food that He provided for them in the desert. God promised the Hebrew people in Psalm 132:15, “I will abundantly bless her provisions; I will satisfy her needy with bread.” This is a great verse for anyone to claim—physically or spiritually.

Spiritually God provides food for us daily, but we have to work for it, too. We have to pick up our Bibles and read! We have to think about what we’ve read and then apply it to our lives. Sometimes that is the hardest part—applying it to our lives. What has God been doing in your life this week?  How do you see Him working? Share those answers with someone, with anyone. By telling others what God is doing in your life, you are sharing the good news! Are you letting your light shine?

Don’t let famine or stress keep you from God. “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” Romans 8:35.

Lord, thank you for providing food for us to eat and spiritual food upon which we can feast! Guide us and show us what you are doing in our lives

© 2012 by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved.