In the book of Judges we have seen the failure of Israel; in Ruth, during the same general period of time, we find God blessing a poor benighted Gentile of low origin. There was a famine in the land of Israel; there would not have been such a calamity had the people obeyed God; had they taken heed to the warnings of Moses written for them in the book of Deuteronomy. But to get away from this chastening, a certain man of Bethlehem-Judah went to sojourn to stay for a limited time—in the country of Moab, he, his wife and their two sons. They put the Jordan and the Dead Sea between themselves and the land God had put them into.
Elimelech never meant to settle down away from Bethlehem ("place of food"), but it is not easy to retrace wrong steps. God's people were to be a separated people, apart from the guilty world around them, yet Elimelech took his family into that world, and sadder still, he left them there. With such an example we do not wonder that the two sons married women of that land, settling down to make their homes
there. And now there were left only the three widows, the Israelite mother and her two Moabite daughters-in-law. The family had sadly reaped of their sowing for Scripture says (Galatians.:7), "De not deceived: God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall lie also reap."
The news had now reached Naomi that God had visited His people in giving them food, and she longed to return. She had found only bitterness in the way of her choice. Vet the daughters-in-law were a hindrance, for how could she, an Israelite. bring with her, people of a nation concerning which God had declared,
"An Ammonite or 'Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord for ever ... . Thou shalt not seek their peace nor their prosperity all thy days forever." Deuteronomy 2:33Ye have compassed this mountain long enough: turn you northward. (Deuteronomy 2:3).
To such. Naomi's sons had been married, and their widows were now disposed to go with her to Bethlehem. She felt therefore that they must be persuaded to stay in their own land; to. bring them with her to Bethlehem was unthinkable.
The years spent away from association with God's children, among the idolaters of Moab, had left their mark on Naomi, we judge from what she said to Orpah and Ruth; little thought seems there of the love and condescending kindness of God toward both herself and these idolaters. None will He turn away who seek Him while it is day.
Orpah at length consented to leave the elder widow, but Ruth was determined to go with Naomi. In the touching words of verses 16, and 17, we see one whose heart has been attracted to the desolate widow of Israel, and who proposes to link herself with that one as she returns to the place of God's appointment.
This is clearly a foreshadowing of the millennial day, when God will, in bringing His long set-aside people Israel back to Himself and to the land He once gave them, bless Gentiles through and with the returning remnant.
They came together to Bethlehem. and then was the city stirred to ask, "Is this Naomi?” Surprising, too, will be the return of Israel after the long centuries spent away from God, When that bright day for this earth dawns. It will be the beginning- of a great harvest of souls then, and the restoration of the remnant of Israel will he accomplished with much searching their hearts.