3. The Choice of Elimelech

The Choice of Elimelech

"Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem-Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons. 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 Bethlehemjudah. And they came into the country of Moab, and continued there. And Elimelech Naomi’s husband died; and she was left, and her two sons." (Ruth 1:1-3) The book of Ruth opens in much the same way: a man and his wife and their two sons leave the land of promise and blessing and make their way into the land of Moab. Now as godly people of Israel there was nothing for them in Moab, not a thing. Moab, as we saw, was an inveterate enemy of Israel, a constant opponent of God and His people, and in the land of Moab there were plenty of gods; so there was really nothing for Elimelech and Naomi and their two sons in the land of Moab, not a thing. The reason why they went was because there was a famine in the land, the evidence of God’s chastising hand on the nation because they were unfaithful.

If you take time to read the twenty eighth chapter of Deuteronomy and the twenty sixth chapter of Leviticus, you will see clearly there that God promised His people, ’If you are faithful and obedient, then the blessings will flow unhinderedly, there will be plenty for all, there will be an abundant blessing, if only you will obey’and then He said, ’If you will not obey, those blessings will not come, instead there will be trouble, there will be chastisement’. Now here we find the nation in this sad condition; obviously in a failing, disobedient condition, "there was a famine in the land" (Ruth 1:1).

They did not accept God’s chastising hand, at least Elimelech did not, nor Naomi, nor their sons; they tried to remedy matters themselves instead of humbly accepting God’s chastisement upon them, and waiting His time to remedy matters. Now while this is an Old Testament story, it has a great deal of instruction for us today. We are encouraged in the New Testament to look into the Old Testament. Paul reminds us of the encouragement of the Scriptures in Romans 10:17 (at that time the New Testament was not written as we know it today, so obviously the Old Testament Scriptures provided instruction and encouragement for the believers at the beginning of the Christian era). Also, in referring to the history of the nation of Israel, Paul reminds us that "all these things happened unto them for examples, and they are written for our admonition" (1 Corinthians 10:11). So we have no hesitation in referring to an Old Testament incident, or story, to encourage us today in this Christian dispensation. I believe the beginning of this book has great instruction for us. If there is weakness in us individually, or collectively, it can be traced to this one source - disobedience.

Now you can search from the beginning of the Bible right to the end and you will find that disobedience is the root cause of all the sorrow that comes upon the people of God, either individually or collectively. Indeed, the reason why Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden was because they disobeyed, and Paul reminds us that "by one man’s disobedience many were constituted sinners" (Romans 5:19), and we can go right through the divine narrative again, and again, and again, and we trace all the sorrow to this one source - disobedience. We know what is the right thing to do, but we take our own way, and of course, we reap the consequences.

Now this man Elimelech was untrue to his name. His name meant ’God is King’. Now a man with a name like that should have referred every matter to God. We know what it is to have a sovereign in this land, her will ought to be supreme, the laws that she passes ought to govern her subjects; unfortunately, it is not so, but that is the constitution of the land. If God is King, then obviously God ought to have the final say in every aspect of our lives, whether it be individually, or in our homes, or in the company of believers, God ought to be supreme. Here was a man in his home acting contrary to his name. Instead of staying in the land that God had given to His people sovereignly, he moved out of his own free will, or should I say, his own self will; because I do not believe there is any such thing as free will. We either do God’s will, or we act in self will.