Responding to Pain

Shattered dreams would make a great small group study. Here is an excerpt:

Elimelech had a choice. Pain came into his life in the form of famine. He has a choice as to how to respond. The same sun that bakes the clay melts the butter.

Elimelech left God’s house of bread and went to the country of Moab. Who were the Moabites?

The Moabites were descended from Lot, after a sordid incident with his own daughter (see Gen. 19:30–38). The relationship between Moab and Israel had never been good. It was Balak, king of Moab, who hired Balaam to curse the Israelites (Num. 22–24). The women of Moab then seduced the Israelite men to indulge in sexual immorality and to worship their gods, causing the Lord’s anger to burn against his people (Num. 25). It is no surprise, therefore, that as they entered the Promised Land, the people of Israel were commanded not to make a treaty of friendship with the Moabites (Deut. 23:3–6).

A good Jew would know better than to go and live in Moab. How could Elimelech do such a thing? One hint is in the word “sojourn.” It suggests that he only intended to stay a little while. He didn’t plan to live there a long time. He certainly didn’t plan to die there. He just planned to zip in, stay a bit, and zip out.

This is how Satan often tempts us to sin.

• We won’t have an affair. It is just lunch. (Affairs don’t start in the bedroom. They start with lunch.)
• We won’t rob the bank; but a few office supplies taken home won’t hurt.
• We won’t quit serving God; we will just take a break.
• We won’t rob God forever; we will just miss this month’s tithe.

Satan rarely tempts the faithful with big sins; he tempts with small sins that grow bigger over time. Elimelech didn’t plan to dwell in Moab; just sojourn there.

In verse 3, things changed. Elimelech did not just sojourn in Moab; he remained there. Elimelech means, “My God is king,” but he wasn’t acting like God was king. And the names that he gave to his children suggest his state of mind in Moab.

People in that day didn’t give names to their children because they like the sound of the names. Names were nearly always pregnant with meaning. The name Naomi means “pleasant.” Things seem to be going well when she is born. Look at the meaning of the names that Elimelech gave to his children:

• Mahlon. The name means, “Sickness.” “Puny” might be a good synonym. Can you imagine a dad naming his child “Puny”? I am trying to imagine how that would sound on a job interview, or when he asked a girl out on a date. “Hi, my name is Puny.”
• Chilion. The word means, “To come to an end.” One Hebrew dictionary says of a related word, “A masculine noun meaning destruction, failing. It refers to a weakening or blurring of one’s eyes.” In a word, this name could be translated, “Death.”

Elimelech did not use this opportunity to display his faith as his parents had. Why? Perhaps because he was no longer focused on the Lord, instead he was focused on his circumstances, and they were bad.