“In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and 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.”
This household ends up in Moab, a foreign place. They leave Bethlehem, their home, the familiar, a place that means ‘house of bread’. They go far away. They exchange the known for the unknown. In Moab they are literally ‘strangers’. They are displaced.
Do you ever feel misplaced? Forced into situations or places that seem beyond your control. The pandemic is pushing into unfamiliar and difficult times.
But there is good news. The Lord says in the Psalms, ‘Moab is my washbasin!’ (Ps 60:8). Even the far away and the unfamiliar are no match for God’s greatness, goodness and power. Thanks be to God in Jesus Christ.
rev. dr. greg davidson 