SOJOURN OF DISASTER-1
Ruth 1:3 “And Elimelech Naomi’s husband died and she was left and her two sons.”

Ruth 1:4 “And they took them wives of the women of Moab; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth: and they dwelled there about ten years.”

Ruth 1:5 “And Mahlon and Chilion died also both of them; and the woman was left of her two sons and her husband.”

Earlier in Ruth 1:1 we saw that Elimelech went to sojourn in the land of Moab.

Ruth 1: 1 “…And a certain man of Bethlehemjudah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.”

The word sojourn according to the dictionary means to visit a place for a short stay. This means to leave with the intention to return after sometime. But we see from our focal scripture that the “short stay” turned to ten years or even more.

When you pick up a map to locate Moab relative to Jerusalem you’ll discover something interesting. According to Bible scholars, to get to Moab, Elimelech and his family had to travel through the now desolate Jericho, the Judean wilderness and across River Jordan before arriving Moab.

That tells us one thing, Elimelech departed from the Promised Land of Israel and returned to the wilderness from where God had delivered them, hundreds of years before. A dog returned to its vomit!

Elimelech travelled back towards Egypt and ended up at a cursed place. We saw earlier that one of the interpretation of his name means “God is king” but unfortunately he didn’t behave as such. He left God for lesser gods.

His sojourn ended in tragedy and disaster. His short stay became prolonged. He didn’t just die, his two sons died as well. To make matters worse, they left behind three childless widows. Naomi also found herself isolated without family and friends in a foreign land. It was compounded tragedy for this woman.

Friend, every sojourn away from God is a sojourn into disaster.

To be continued…

Love you BiG

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