SOJOURN in MOAB
Joyce Voysey

Sojourn – a temporary stay; to tarry, to visit.  This must be what Elimelech and Naomi had in mind when to set off for Moab.

So, we find that Elimelech and Naomi (with their sons Mahlon and Chilion) decided to avoid the famine and go stay temporarily in the fertile Moab.  Was the living so much easier in Moab that they decided to continue – to settle permanently – there?  This, even though as Hebrews they would not be allowed citizenship rights, or to worship Jehovah?  Was this living dangerously, to a certain extent?

Perhaps Naomi didn’t have much say in this matter of immigration. Or in the matter of her, perhaps weakling sons, marrying Moabitish women.  Dummelow says that Mahlon means “sickly”, and Chilion “wasting away”.  Mahlon and Chilion did indeed marry Moabitish women – Orpah and Ruth were their names.  We find that Naomi was quick to leave Moab and get back to her own country when all the men had died.

When one knows something of the story, one is inclined to get excited at this stage, for isn’t Ruth the great- grandmother of David?  How is God going to bring that to pass?  David has some Moab blood?  I wonder if there are any pure blood lines in Israel – then and now.  Surely the Israelis and the Palestinians of our day share a lot of the same ancestors.  All descended from Abraham perhaps?

Anyway, are we not all children of God, not of man?