I love it when God pulls things together in a visual way. I just started a new Bible study yesterday on the book of Ruth...and today our reading plan falls right in line. (I guess He knew I'd only have so much time when Bill's out of town.) My Bible study breaks things down piece by piece, and on day 2 we've only gotten to verse 7...but I am looking forward to learning more than I would by just reading through Ruth's four short chapters.
One thing that stood out from my book was about the famine. Verse 1 says "In the days when the Judges ruled, there was famine in the land..." Elimelech took his family from Bethlehem to live in Moab, which was outside of the promised land, because of the famine. According to my book "Bethlehem means 'House of Bread', and there hadn't been much of that.....So perhaps you're thinking, If God had given the Israelites a permanent place to live where He promised to take care of them, why the famine?"
The book then said to read Judges 2:11-19 to find the evidence for why there was a famine in the land. If you'd like to do the same, it is interesting to read. My book then brought up the question "Does God still work like this today?" It was a great question, and asked for Scripture to support your answer. My opinion is that I think sometimes it might feel like it, especially if our lives aren't going so easily. I found quite a few verses to go along with this. Wondering if you wanted to do this exercise as well and post your thoughts and any verses you find.
