October 21, 2020
Elimelech
Ruth 1:1-5
The events recorded in the book of Ruth seem to have taken place early in the days of the Judges, at a time when the Promised Land was at rest. God’s displeasure with His people was evident just the same, being expressed by means of natural phenomena, such as the famine mentioned in the book. They had not yet been sold into bondage to the surrounding focs.
The story revolves around four people: Elimelech. Naomi, Boaz, and Ruth. We begin with Elimelech and his family. First, we see them moving to Moab. It was a disastrous move.
In the Old Testament all God’s promises and blessings for His people were centered in a place; in the New Testament they are centered in a person. In the Old Testament one had to be in Canaan; in the New Testament one has to be in Christ. It was in the Promised Land that God met with His people. It was there He put His name. It was there He made good on His promises and centered His purposes. It was a disastrous decision, therefore, for Elimelech to move to Moab—even more so since Moab was a land under the curse of God (Deut. 23:3). To move to Moab meant leaving the fellowship of God’s people. It meant removing the family from every means of grace associated with the company and gathering of God’s people, feeble though they seemed to be.
Elimelech’s name means “My God is King.” That was all well and good, but he denied the sovereignty of God in his life when he decided to move to Moab. Doubtless, he had plenty of excuses. “There was a famine in the Promised Land,” he no doubt said. There were job opportunities in Moab. He did not intend to stay in Moab. He would be back when things improved. All the usual things people say to encourage themselves in pursuing a wrong path were likely said by Elimelech.
Next, we have a marriage in Moab, Instead of growing to manhood surrounded by young Hebrew women, Elimelech’s boys had only pagan girls from whom to choose a partner for life. Their in-laws were raw heathen, and their chief god was the diabolical and bloodthirsty, Chemosh, the devourer of little children. It was just as well that both of Elimelech sons were sickly and that they had no children of their own. Moses would have been against marriage with Moabites (Deut 7:3) or any other kind of marriage with unbelievers.
But then comes misery in Moab. Elimelech died. Then his two sickly boys died; and Naomi, now a bitter, old woman, was left (Ruth 1:5). That’s how the Holy Spirit puts it—left, stranded in a foreign country with a couple of unsaved, widowed daughters-in-law. The breadwinners were gone. Naomi was out of the will of God, far from the place where God met with His people, and she was surrounded by pagans in a heathen land. Such was the end of Elimelech’s backsliding, He lost his life in Moab, and he lost his family in Moab. The cost of backsliding is high. His good intentions of returning to the Promised Land never materialized.
Moab is an expensive place to raise a family. Those who leave the House of God and wander off into the world stand the risk of losing rom their children. Elimelech and his sons died in Moab far from the fellowship of the people of God. How solemn, and how sad! The New Testament makes it a doctrine: “Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God (2 Cor 6:14-16).