People say we live in desperate times. Economies are failing. Work is disappearing. The family is torn apart. Conflict is on the rise. What are we to do? What does this even mean? It can mean that in times of crisis people are willing to do whatever is necessary for survival. This can mean making choices that are not necessarily right.
Desperation can drive people to do things without thinking about the outcome. Comedian Woody Allen characterized our times when he said, "We stand at a crossroads. Down one road things look hopeless and depressing, and down the other is total destruction. Let us pray that we choose the right road." This kind of fear sometimes even can cause God's people to make poor choices.
Elimelech, the “man from Bethlehem in Judah” mentioned in Ruth 1:1, was facing a desperate situation. He needed to make some difficult choices. He was struggling to feed his family. A wife and two growing boys needed to eat, but a famine gripped the land. A famine is a food shortage or a food crisis where there is not enough food to go around. It is also a situation where the cost of feeding a family costs more than some families can afford.
Famines were often God's way of bringing His people to the point of submission. They were not simply to punish Israel, but to get them to turn from their sins. Yet without clear guidance from God, Elimelech chose to run away. Instead of facing the Lord's judgment on the land and trusting God to provide, he moved his family to a pagan land and raised his children in a society that did not know the God of Israel. He even broke God's law by allowing his sons to marry pagan wives.(Deuteronomy 7:3-4)
It is very tempting to look for the easy way out of our problems. But any choice that takes us away from God is, in the long run, the wrong way. Elimelech's choice ultimately brought death to himself and his two sons. No matter how desperate the situation, it is always better to face what God has allowed and trust Him than it is to run from our circumstances and go it alone.
If we are experiencing difficult times, we must make choices based on clear direction from God. Don't allow a feeling of desperation to steer us in the wrong direction. Stay focused on God and His perfect plan for each one of us.
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