This week we are in chapter 9 of The Story. If a video camera was rolling
through this chapter you would find many different expressions:
anticipation and joy, disillusionment and disappointment, anger and
bitterness. The story takes places during the period of the Judges, but
it’s not about a judge and really doesn’t appear to be about the nation of
Israel. On the surface it doesn’t seem to make much sense as a book in the
Bible it appears to be a story of a random family with a husband named
Elimelech and his wife named Naomi. It’s not long before a couple of sons
are born, and the story seems to be going as planned. But then a famine
strikes, and this family is forced to move to the land of Moab. Once they
arrive, the two sons marry two Moabite women Ruth and Orpah. But it’s not
long before Elimelech and his two sons die, leaving three widows.