The House of Bread

So, it's missions conference week at Briarwood and our guest pastor read Monday from the book of Ruth. It is a wonderful story on so many levels of family, love, God's faithfulness and provision, and a picture of redemption.

Ruth 1:1,2 "In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there."

Keep that in mind. I want to talk about names and meanings for a minute here. I learned that the name Elimelech means "my God is king." I remembered from a while back that Bethlehem means "house of bread." I am going to attempt to make a few observations here and extrapolate a few things as well.

The book immediately preceding Ruth in the Bible is Judges and the last verse of that book reads," In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes."

Bearing all these things in mind, some new knowledge, some old, I have tried to work out some bigger meanings that God is trying to teach me. Elimelech was an Israelite, one of God's chosen people, living in Bethlehem during the time of the judges, when as I quoted earlier, where everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes. Naturally it stands to reason that if they were doing what seemed right to them, then they weren't following the ways of the Lord.

God had given the Israelites his standards, had made a physical manifestation of himself to them in the wilderness and led them into the promised land. God had provided a vast richness of land, had put his holy presence among them in the tabernacle, had provided a means of forgiveness and promised them that if they, Israel, would follow his ways, do what he had commanded them, that he would bless them and make them fruitful.

Now we come to this point in history where the people of Israel, Elimelech included, whose name means "my God is king", were doing what was right in their own eyes. So now, living in Bethlehem (remember, "house of bread"), Elimelech finds himself in the midst of a famine. The land is suffering physically, the people are suffering spiritually, and God has allowed them to reap what they have proverbially sown. The land is barren and they are starving. So they head to Moab, a land that is not part of the promise.

How many times have I found myself at a point personally where I am not following after God's ways? Where I have turned willfully from what I know is right and have instead turned to doing what is right in my own eyes? Too often. And when that happens where do I find myself, but in a barren wasteland of destruction, of hurt, of pain, and of humiliation. I turn to the land of Moab, to pop psychology, to Oprah, to food, to drink, to exercise, to... fill in the blank. We all do that, don't we? We look for things to numb us to the pain that we experience. We turn from the very place, person of blessing.

Go back to the story. Long and short, Naomi's husband dies. Her sons die. She is left with two Moabite daughters in law, foreign women. Women in that day didn't fare well without a provider, a husband, a son, a kinsman to provide. So, Naomi sets back out to go home to Judah, back to Bethlehem. Ruth, her daughter in law stays with her even though a foreigner, and makes a vow to her to stay with her even up to the point of death. "And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more." "So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter in law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest." Bread was going to return to the land struck by famine.

Here's what I think is beautiful about God, his word, and his forgiveness: When I am at the end of myself, in a famine of my own making, I will suffer lack. I will reap the consequences of my actions because that is what happens with sin. Sin always has consequences. BUT. BUT, God is faithful to provide when I turn.

Here's the other long and short of the story: Ruth becomes the wife of Boaz, a member of the clan of Elimelech, a kinsman. He redeems them. He as husband of Ruth, becomes son to Naomi and is able to provide for both of them. Ruth eventually had a son who was the grandfather of King David, from whose line, Jesus is eventually born.

Isn't that the gospel? God is giving us a way to be redeemed when we have turned from him. Sadly, even after becoming a Christian, we all have had times where we saw fit to walk in our own way instead of the way God would have us walk. We leave the house of bread, of provision, of fulfillment and seek other things. We find ourselves in the midst of a famine, and at the end of ourselves, often as a last resort, we turn back to God. He brings us back to the house of bread, back to himself "at the beginning of the barley harvest." Not after the harvest, when the work is already done and we can just waltz in and sit down to a loaf of bread and be filled.

That's the interesting thing to me about the story of Ruth as an analogy. Ruth had to work to gather the grain. There were times when she was given a generous portion by Boaz after she had worked, and so I think it is with us as well. When we turn from those things that don't satisfy, we still have to do some leg work. We still have to get into God's word and relearn, harvest from His word, the truth. We have to daily remind ourselves of what God's standards are and how there is ALWAYS blessing when we follow the ways of God. Certainly there are times when God allows us to live off the fat of the land, to sit under gifted teachers of the scripture, to be taught. But the Christian life, like a harvest, is one of continual planting and harvesting. To have a perpetual supply of food, one has to renew the garden every year.

If you have ever planted a garden, you know how this works. Every year you have to turn over the soil, gather up the rocks that appeared from somewhere (because they weren't there last year), plant the seeds, pull the weeds, water the garden, fertilize it, tend and nurture it. It is hard work to produce a harvest. But, man, when you get that first pull of corn, nothing tastes sweeter. It makes it all worthwhile. And true, too, on the years that the ground lies fallow, unplanted, you'll find that you still will have a shoot of corn or okra or peas or something else to come up. And you can harvest that even when you did no work to plant it. But if you relied upon that to nourish you for the rest of your life, would it sustain? Certainly not. A fallow year does allow some nutrients to be replenished, but you still have to get back out there and till, sow, water, weed, and harvest. So it is with the life of a Christian.

So here is my question, challenge to you: Where are you? Doing what is right in your own eyes, bound for famine? Are you looking in a foreign land for something to fill you? Are you looking for God and searching for him? Have you returned to God after a wandering and needing help with the replanting?

God is good. And he fills us from his table. Interestingly enough, Jesus, the only son of God, was born in Bethlehem. Jesus, our redeemer, from the house of bread, wants to fill us. Only he can satisfy. Only he can forgive. Only he is sufficient.

May your heart be filled today with the bread that only comes from God and his word.
Blessings to you, my friend.