moab

Even though there is a famine in the land...DON'T GO TO MOAB!

That was one of the exhortations that I clearly remember from the Thrive conference. This land where we are living is going to experience a spiritual famine and it would be very easy for us to travel to a cursed land in an attempt to provide for ourselves. We could look to others who seem to have it well and want exactly what we have.

This is what happened in the beginning of the book of Ruth. There was a famine in the land of Bethlehem; the very name meaning "house of bread". So Elimelech traveled with his wife and two sons to the land of Moab where he planned to live an easier life, for a while.

Why not Moab? The Moabites have tragic beginnings. The very people are a people born out of an incestuous relationship between Lot and his older daughter; the Ammonites born from the same kind of relations between Lot and his younger daughter. (genesis 19:30-38) Moabites worshipped many gods, the principle one being Chemosh, to whom they offered child sacrifices.

What is interesting is that by the end of the book of Ruth, we come to understand that Jesus Christ was born of the lineage of Moab, for Ruth was a Moabitess.

For additional information, see:
StudyLight: Moab
Wikipedia