Each year around Christmas, I reread the Book of Ruth. To me, it is part of the Christmas story, even though it predates the birth of the Messiah by about 1000 years. It takes place in the time of the Judges, before there was a king in Israel.

How does a short, obscure story tucked away in scripture impact the fulfillment of prophecy regarding the birth of Jesus Christ? Well, without the events described in this short book, there would have been no fulfillment of prophecy. There would have been no Messiah. But Messiah was in fact born just as ordained by God, and the road to fulfillment of that prophecy was through normal people who loved Him and remained faithful to Him.

This is a story about a poor people of a small town, Bethlehem of Judea – the same town talked about in the gospels but 1000 years earlier. In the time of the Judges, idolatry was rampant in pagan nations around Israel. Spiritual forces of darkness were at work to destroy the purposes of God and His chosen people. But then, that has always been the case even to this day. Apparently, from the perspective of the enemy, it was working. Everything seemed well under his evil control – mayhem, war, idolatry, wickedness. The enemy must have been taking delight in his apparent success to derail God’s redemptive plan, but little did he know about what was going to happen through people from Bethlehem. In fact, key parts of God’s plan working through Naomi and Ruth would actually take place in the enemy’s own back yard – Moab.

You see, the enemy has his plans and is always against the Almighty and his people. Often, it seems he is winning, but the Lord has His own plans which always prevail. That’s what the book of Ruth is all about. Sometimes things seem lost, like there is no recovery. In those moments, trust God. He is at work sometimes below the radar and behind the scenes, but at work notwithstanding, to accomplish big, history changing things. Sometimes, you don’t get to know what he is doing. Your job is to trust Him.

We don’t know precisely where Israel was in the cycle of idolatry, but what we do know is that in Bethlehem, there was a small community of people who loved God and followed His ways, even in hard times. They remained faithful to the God of Israel. It is often during hard times that the faithfulness of a people to God is put to the test. And so it would be with a woman named Naomi, indeed, even of this entire community.

Naomi herself would endure not only hardship, but tragedy, mourning, and loss. But in the midst of all that, the Lord would set into motion the greatest of His purposes, a sequence of events that would fulfill long standing prophecies and change the course of the history of Israel and of all mankind.

Naomi’s Life in Moab

There was a famine in Judah. Famine is not explicitly indicated in the Book of Judges although when Israel was unfaithful, God’s judgement would come through pagan nations who would war against Israel and often would leave them with nothing. Soldiers would devastate crops in the fields as part of their campaign against Israel.

Things in Judah were hard. The people struggled to find food. It was during this time that a Hebrew man named Elimelech decided to leave Judah where food was scarce. So they said goodbye and began a journey that would take them to Moab. Interesting choice, since Moab was a pagan nation and worshipped terrible, false gods who required terrible things. But if you are hungry and you hear there is food in Moab, off to Moab you go.

And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah. And they came into the country of Moab, and continued there.

Ruth 1:2

But Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, dies soon after reaching Moab, leaving Naomi with her two sons. Her sons soon married Moabite women. The Moabite women who married Naomi’s sons were named Ruth and Orpah. They remained there in Moab for 10 years but then Naomi’s two sons, the husbands of Ruth and Orpah, died. We don’t know what happened to them but now Naomi, tragically, had lost her husband and her two sons. Orpah and Ruth lost their husbands.

This was a big deal for Naomi in her Hebrew culture because the lineage of her husband was cut off – the sons that would carry his name and inherit his property were now dead before they had any sons of their own. So Naomi finds herself in a foreign land with no husband or sons, with no future. She does have her daughters-in-law whom she has grown very close to. Ruth and Orpah, young Moabites were still of child bearing age. But not Naomi. She can no longer bear children because she is getting old. Her life is at a dead end.

But in her grief, in her sense of finality in the loss of her family – the sense of being cut off from any future, she has no idea what has been set into motion by the hand of the Lord.

Isn’t it like that sometimes in a walk of faith? Hardship, grief, loss – its like God is against us. “Lord, why did I lose my son or my daughter? I have no future, I’m on the street and I don’t even have any food. I haven’t seen my family for 10 years. I have prayed about all of these things! Why didn’t you intervene? Aren’t you all powerful? You could have stopped all this. Haven’t I been faithful? Where are you?”

Naomi lost her husband and her boys. She was hungry and in her mind had no future. There is nothing left for Naomi in Moab except her two daughters-in-law. She has no way to survive unless she would perhaps marry a local. But who would want her? She believes the hand of God is against her.

it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me.

Ruth 1:13

But was that true? Was the Lord against her? That appears to be her conclusion at the magnitude of her loss and her desperate situation in Moab.

Why was God allowing this suffering? Sometimes God is silent and circumstances are dire and so we conclude God is against us or perhaps there really is no god. God was not against Naomi, not even for a moment. Despite His silence, despite the hardship and affliction and desperation, He was working something amazing. Naomi would never know God’s purpose, but she would once again know joy. But not today.

Here is the thing about Naomi: in the midst of suffering and affliction and loss, even to the point where she thought the hand of the Lord was against her, she remained faithful to him. She never turned against him. In the next post, we’ll see the blessing of Naomi towards her daughters-in-law as she departs Moab and heads back to Judea.