I was God’s enemy too

Opening my Bible, the other morning, looking for a timely word from the Lord, I turned to that memorable verse, ‘No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the Assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation…’ (Deut. 23:3). I had actually opened to verse 1, but that was too inappropriate to quote in an en devotional!

Working your way through Deuteronomy becomes hard work when you get to the legal section. The next passage (v.9-14) is about uncleanness and making sure you go outside the camp if you want to relieve yourself – not quite the heart-warming devotional I was hoping for!

But for some reason the word ‘Moabite’ stayed with me, as I remembered that Ruth was a Moabitess. So, I quickly left the beauties of Deuteronomy 23, and turned to Ruth 1 to remind myself of the details. When famine hit Bethlehem, at an ugly time in Israel’s history, Elimelech had indeed taken his wife and family to Moab, the ancient enemy of Israel.

The prohibition in Deuteronomy reminds us that God did not have much time for the Moabites because they had not helped the Israelites or given them even the basics of bread and water as they were passing through hostile wilderness terrain. God’s original promise to Abraham was that He would bless those who bless Abraham and curse those who didn’t (Gen. 12:1-2).

The Moabites definitely fell under the ‘curse’ category, and rightly so. God’s judgment was stiff enough that no Moabite could enter a Jewish Assembly until the tenth generation. That was an emphatic exclusion, and no doubt flavoured the Jewish attitude to any Moabite or Moabitess they came across.

So, to read of Elimelech leaving what would become the much heralded ‘city of David’ to take up residence in Moab, makes you at least ask the question, ‘was he right to do that? To leave Israel, albeit in famine conditions, to enter such despised enemy territory?’ But there is no time to answer that question because Elimelech, and every other man in sight, dies in Ruth 1, leaving a group of destitute widows behind.

The one person to emerge with any credit from this bleak chapter is Ruth the Moabitess – public enemy number one, ten generations over! ‘Wherever you go, I will go, where you lodge, I will lodge, your people will be my people, and your God my God.’ Ruth no doubt knew about the chequered history between the Moabites and the Israelites. But that does not stop her astonishing faith and covenant love from shining through, as she promises devotion, not only to Naomi, but to Naomi’s people and God, as she makes her way to Israel.

All of which makes you realise, whether Elimelech went to Moab out of good or bad motives, the Sovereign Lord was at work, wanting to awaken this covenant love in Ruth and bring a sworn enemy into the very heart of his prized possession. I don’t know how many generations there were between the command in Deuteronomy 23, and Ruth entering Israel. Could it have been ten?

However long it was, Ruth was allowed not merely to enter an Assembly of Israel, which would have been radical enough. Through her Kinsman Redeemer, she was brought right into the family line of David, which would lead, many generations later, to the Messiah Himself. God took a sworn enemy, filled her heart with covenant love, and His grace brought her to an honoured place in the family line of the Son of God, so much so that she is named by Matthew, generations later, among the ancestors of Christ. Not only were the ten generations of curse wiped out in Ruth’s story, but her name has been honoured in Scripture for multiple generations ever since.

That is grace, and it has happened to all of us, whether we were shooting drugs down a dark alley when Christ found us, or whether we were children of missionaries learning memory verses for Sunday School every week. I was His enemy, He awakened faith and covenant love in my heart, brought me into His banqueting house, His banner over me is love, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever, reigning as His beloved son or daughter, in the eternal kingdom!

Even the ‘Deuteronomy 23s’ of God’s word are worth trudging through, as they open the doorway to celebrate God’s amazing grace!