It all must have made perfect sense to Elimelech. Yes, God had promised to bless His people in the land He had given them, but there just wasn’t enough rain in the land of Israel to support either crops or cattle. So, why shouldn’t he go across the Jordan River to the land of Moab? So what if the people there worshipped the false god Chemosh? At least they had something to eat, right? But it didn’t work out so well for Elimelech – he died before he could return to his family in Israel.

So, once he died, why shouldn’t his sons marry Moabite girls? After all, it was time for them to start families of their own, right? So what if God had told His people not to intermarry with the pagans around them? That’s what He said in Deuteronomy chapter 7:3-4: “You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods.”

Yes, that’s what God’s Word said, but Mahlon and Chilion followed their dad’s example instead. They did what felt good to them and what made sense to them. But like their dad, things didn’t work out the way they thought. They both ended up dying before they could have any children of their own.

We face all sorts of decisions every day, and it is easy for us to let ourselves be guided by our own reason or experience. But instead, shouldn’t we trust in God’s promises to care for us? Shouldn’t we try to do what God has told us to do in His Word? After all, as we can see from today’s passage, going our own way doesn’t always turn out the way we think it will. Wouldn’t it really make more sense to trust the One Who really does know best?

Ruth 1:1-5 (ESV)

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.
2 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.
3 But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons.
4 These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years,
5 and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.