Hello, we're Scott and Maureen Proctor and welcome to Meridian Magazine's Come Follow

Me podcast, where today we're going to talk about the Book of Ruth and 1st Samuel,

chapters 1 through 3. We have special thanks today to Diana Webb, who's the author of Biblical Lionesses, Protectors

of the Covenant, and Forgotten Women of God, who's provided notes and research to make

this podcast possible today. Thank you, Diana.

Now, Ruth is a happy interlude in these chapters.

It's not a story of a prophet, a war, or a dramatic intervention

by the Lord, but it's a family story, a private story in some ways, but it's the family story

of the family of the Savior. And we love it because we're seeing really good people who are

living the covenant at work. So this is a book

that brings us joy. We see at the outset something that people all through the scriptures

are faced with, and we are faced with it in our time as well, and that's battling the climate.

And this interaction with the Lord in receiving rain for the lands

that the people are in, this is critical for them to be able to survive. So in this story,

due to a famine, Alimelech sells his land and he leaves Bethlehem and he goes to Moab. Now, I think in order to understand this,

you have to understand the lands that are east of Judah, the lands that are on the other side of the

Dead Sea, the other side of the River Jordan. There are three lands in a row, and one of them on the

north is Ammon, and then in the middle is Moab, and at the south is

Edom. Now, the land of Amon is for the people who had descended from Ben Ami, who is the son of

Lot by his younger daughter. And then the land of Moab are the descendants of Moab, who is the son of Lot through his older daughter.

And Edom is the land of Esau, who is the twin brother of Jacob.

So that gives you a sense of those tribes.

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