Chapter 1

“Now it came to pass, in the days when the judges judged, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.” V. 1.

On the inner ways we will discover that the judges always judge in Judah. The light is the judgment, and the lights are the judges. There will never be a famine in Judah for as long as the judges are allowed to rule. But if you want to go your own way you will almost immediately experience a time of famine.

This man took his wife and his two sons and went from Bethlehem (the house of bread) to live as a foreigner in the land of Moab. Now he would be rid of the judgment of the judges; they could not judge him any more.

This is the case with each person that draws back from the light: he suffers a lack of everything, even in the house of bread. Such a person wants to travel far away, for the flesh cringes at having to be obedient. He arrives in the land of Moab (the Moabites were descendants of Moab, the son of Lot with his eldest daughter).

However, punishment awaits those who leave the judges and journey to the land of Moab, for the man Elimelech died in this foreign land, and soon afterwards his two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, died as well.

The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace.