Two Men in the House of Bread
January 30, 2000
Dear Friends:
A long time ago in the land of Israel, there were two men. Both men lived in Judah near the town of Bethlehem, the house of bread. Both of these men were very prosperous.
A famine came along which caused both men to make a decision on where they should live. What were they going to do? Stay in the house of bread where there was a noticeable lack of bread or move to where there was no famine. It was a tough decision. Stay in the land that was wracked with famine or move into the forbidden land of the idolatrous nations around them.
From the hills of Bethlehem, one can look out over Dead Sea and see the green hills of Moab on the other side. It must have seemed at the time like such a logical and compelling step to take to move the family on the other side of the Dead Sea. It really isn’t that far. When the famine over, move back.
In the end, one of the men decided that he was going to stay in Bethlehem. One of them decided he was going to move to Moab.
The man who decided to leave did not fare very well outside of the house of bread. His sons married idolatrous wives. The family lost their wealth. Finally, both the man and his sons died with no money or heirs leaving their widowed wives desolate.
What about the man who stayed in the land of famine? Unlike the man who left, the man who stayed in the famine-struck house of bread prospered in wealth, prominence and respect.
The point of the story seems to me to be that no matter how tough things get in the house of bread ( the ecclesia), no matter what a dearth there seems to be for the word of God, no matter how prosperous things appear to be in the land of idols, the true servant of God should stick it out. There is no true prosperity in the spiritual land of Moab – the world – only the illusion of prosperity. The faithful can prosper spiritually even in times of great distress and famine.
Sometimes we gaze across the great gulf that divides the ecclesia from the world and see how green the pastures of Moab are. Sometimes we look around us in what should be the house of bread and see little or no sustenance. In our moment of weakness, the temptation may be great to forsake the house of bread. But don’t be fooled for a minute. Death and ruin await. The death of which I speak won’t be financial, but spiritual.
“‘The days are coming,’ declares the Sovereign LORD, ‘when I will send a famine through the land– not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD. Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the LORD, but they will not find it. In that day the lovely young women and strong young men will faint because of thirst. They who swear by the shame of Samaria, or say, ‘As surely as your god lives, O Dan,’ or, ‘As surely as the god of Beersheba lives’– they will fall, never to rise again.’” (Amos 8:11-14 NIV)
By the way, the two men are Elimelech and Boaz as found in the book of Ruth.
Have a good week!
