"Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was 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."
-Ruth 1:1
Before diving into a passage of Scripture, it is nice to know a few facts about what was happening when the passage was written. This is one small verse, but it gives us a lot of information.
"Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled,..."
Here we have the timeframe - the days when the judges ruled. Those days were not good days. This is after God has delivered the Israelites from the land of Egypt. A trip that should have taken the nation about 2 weeks to arrive at the Promise Land, took them 40 years due to their disobedience. Moses has died, Joshua has died, and the people off and on rejected God to serve false gods. They were in a vicious cycle
Serve God -> Forsake God -> Follow False gods -> Go into captivity -> Cry out to God for Deliverance -> God Raised a Judge -> He Delivered the People
and then they start ALL OVER AGAIN. They did this 13 times. 13 times God raised up a judge to deliver them from their stupidity.
And now, not only is it the dark days of the judges, but now there is a famine in the land. Times are tough. Instead of trusting God to provide and instead of turning to Him, our little family of the hour decides to move to Moab.
How often do we not rely on the Lord to provide for our needs? Is He not fully capable of providing for us? Of course He is!!! But how many times do we miss out on His blessings because we abandon ship? We MUST have stronger FAITH!
I grew up in church, and when I was in elementary school we had a children's choir. We did little plays all through the year. If you know what kind of little plays I am referring to, then you know that they ALWAYS have catchy songs. One of the songs that I can partially remember was called F-A-I-T-H. It was a cute little song, but has a powerful message. Some of the words were....
"F-A-I-T-H that's how the word is spelled, and each letter stands for a word of it's own FAITH! For All I Trust Him! FAITH! For All I Trust Him! That's the way my faith can be described."
TRUST HIM FOR EVERYTHING! Isn't He OMNIPOTENT?! Isn't He OMNISCIENT?! Isn't He OMNIPRESENT?!!? Of course He is!! Let's ask ourselves: "How can my faith be described?" If it isn't total reliance on God, we need to make a change! Let's make the commitment today to trust God in all circumstances!
