Sometimes a single sentence tells us much more than a date. If someone began your story by saying, “This happened during the COVID pandemic of 2020,” you would immediately understand something about the circumstances. Fear, isolation, sickness, uncertainty, disrupted travel, and financial hardship would help explain the decisions and struggles that followed.
The book of Ruth begins with that kind of sentence. Before we follow this family's journey, we need to understand the world in which they lived.
In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. Ruth 1:1 (NIV)
Those opening words establish the time, the trouble, and the setting. Each helps us appreciate the story God was unfolding.
A Time of Repeated Rebellion
During the days of the judges, Israel had no king. God raised up judges to lead and deliver His people, but the nation repeatedly turned away from Him. The book of Judges gives us the national picture; the book of Ruth brings us into the life of one family within that troubled nation.
Again and again, Judges describes the Israelites doing evil in the eyes of the Lord. Rebellion had become a pattern. The people turned from God, suffered oppression, cried out for help, experienced deliverance, and enjoyed a period of rest. Then they returned to rebellion.
This was more than a cycle that kept bringing them back to the same place. It was a downward spiral.
But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways. Judges 2:19 (NIV)
Notice the words “even more corrupt” and “refused to give up.” The problem went beyond struggling with sin. The people were becoming comfortable with practices they would not surrender.
There is a difference between struggling against sin and accepting it as a settled part of our lives. Struggling means we recognize the problem and want to overcome it. Becoming comfortable with a repeated pattern means we stop resisting and begin accepting the behavior and the consequences it produces.
This invites an honest examination of our own lives. Are we bringing our struggles to God, or have we become comfortable with something He is calling us to give up? Repeated behavior can become familiar enough that we no longer question it. The story of Judges warns us against mistaking familiarity for faithfulness.
A God of Compassion
Israel's repeated rebellion reveals something about the people. God's repeated response reveals something about Him.
Whenever the LORD raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the LORD relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. Judges 2:18 (NIV)
God was present with the judge. He acted to save His people from their enemies. He responded to their suffering with compassion, even though their own choices had contributed to their distress.
The contrast runs throughout Judges: Israel repeatedly rebels, and God repeatedly responds with compassion. Their choices do not remove the consequences of rebellion, but neither do those choices erase God's character.
When the Israelites cried out, God raised up Othniel to deliver them (Judges 3:9). When they cried out again, He raised up Ehud (Judges 3:15). They cried out under Jabin's oppression (Judges 4:3) and under Midian's oppression (Judges 6:6). Later, Judges 10:16 describes God as being unable to bear Israel's misery any longer.
As we read these accounts, we can ask two questions: What does this teach us about Israel? What does this teach us about God? Keeping both questions before us helps us recognize the seriousness of rebellion and the persistence of God's compassion.
God does not pretend that sin does not matter. Yet He does not become indifferent to people who are suffering. His compassion gives us reason to turn toward Him in our distress and to take seriously the changes He calls us to make.
The God we encounter in Judges is the same God we will encounter in Ruth.
Faithfulness in Troubled Times
The final chapters of Judges describe spiritual confusion, idolatry, moral corruption, horrific treatment of women, tribal violence, and civil war. The book ends with a sentence that summarizes the condition of the nation:
In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit. Judges 21:25 (NIV)
If Judges were the only picture we had, we might conclude that everyone in Israel had abandoned God. We might expect the next story to bring more violence, more idolatry, or another cycle of rebellion and rescue.
But Ruth brings a different story into view. Within this troubled period, we will encounter people who honor God. The national picture does not tell us everything about every household or every heart.
This matters when we look at our own world. The larger culture may appear to be unraveling, but that does not mean God has stopped working. He can be quietly writing a story of redemption in the lives of ordinary people.
We should take the spiritual condition of our times seriously without assuming that darkness is the whole story. Ruth invites us to watch for God's work in places we might otherwise overlook.
When the House of Bread Is Empty
Ruth's opening verse moves from a national setting to a personal crisis: there was a famine in the land. For this family, the difficulties of their time became the immediate problem of finding food.
Bethlehem means “house of bread.” Yet there was no bread in the place whose name suggested provision. Ruth begins with dire need, and that need sets a family on a journey.
Have you experienced a season when the place where you expected provision seemed empty? Parenting may have brought hardships you did not anticipate. A job you expected to provide stability may have become uncertain. A financial plan may have been disrupted by a significant loss. Abilities you had always relied on may no longer have seemed sufficient. A dream or opportunity may not have unfolded as you hoped.
The famine in Bethlehem helps us recognize that kind of experience in this family's story. Their need was real, and the decisions ahead would be shaped by it.
The opening of Ruth does not rush past the hardship. It allows us to see the uncertainty facing the family before we see how God will work. We can acknowledge our own need honestly while remembering that the circumstances we face today do not reveal the whole story.
An Unlikely Destination
The famine led Elimelech to take his wife and two sons from Bethlehem in Judah to the country of Moab. To us, Moab might sound like another place on a map. To an Israelite, the name carried a difficult history.
Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and because they did this evil the LORD gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel. Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palms. The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years. Judges 3:12-14 (NIV)
Moab's king had oppressed Israel for eighteen years. This was foreign territory associated with an enemy and a painful chapter in the nation's history. It was an unlikely destination for an Israelite family seeking provision.
Yet this earlier account also records God's response to Israel's distress:
Again the Israelites cried out to the LORD, and he gave them a deliverer—Ehud… Judges 3:15 (NIV)
Ehud killed Eglon and escaped before the king's attendants discovered what had happened. He then led the Israelites against Moab.
“for the LORD has given Moab, your enemy, into your hands.”…That day Moab was made subject to Israel, and the land had peace for eighty years. Judges 3:28, 30 (NIV)
That history gives weight to Ruth's opening sentence. This family was leaving Bethlehem because of famine and heading toward a country associated with foreign oppression. The author names Moab because its identity matters to the story.
As Ruth unfolds, we need to keep watching that name. What will God do in connection with a place Israel knew as an enemy?
For Reflection
- What is the difference between struggling with sin and becoming comfortable with it?
- Where do you need to respond to God's compassion by changing a repeated pattern?
- Where has the place you expected provision seemed empty?
God Is Still at Work
We now know the time in which this family lived: the days of the judges. We know the trouble they faced: a famine in Bethlehem. We know where they were headed: from Judah toward Moab.
Those details prepare us to follow their story. They also remind us that difficult circumstances do not change God's character. The God who responded compassionately to Israel's distress was still at work during this family's uncertain journey.
Ruth begins against a dark national backdrop, but that darkness does not have the final word. God can be writing a story of redemption even when we cannot yet see where it is leading.
Why does the author specifically tell us that this family went to Moab? Keep that question before you as you read Ruth. Watch what happens to the name Moab, and watch what it reveals about the compassion of God.
