Page 7 - BACK TO BETHLEHEM

PROLOGUE

The Book of Ruth begins with Naomi’s family who
started off in Bethlehem (Bethlehem is translated from the
Original Hebrew as “house of bread”), and because of a famine
they left the House of Bread in order to go to Moab to find
bread. They stayed in Moab ten years, and the record shows
that it was a very difficult ten years. Naomi loses her husband,
and she loses her two sons. Then, finally, in the land of Moab
she hears that there is blessing in the House of Bread. She heard
that the Lord had visited His people in Bethlehem. So when she
hears that, her heart is attracted and she begins her trek back to
Bethlehem.
When she came back after ten years, she said: “I went
out full, but the LORD has brought me back empty.” When she
left ten years earlier she did not say, “I am leaving full.” When
she left ten years earlier she said, “I am leaving empty.” I am
leaving because there is no bread in the House of Bread. There
is a famine here. But after ten years she discovered that she had
left full at the beginning.
You see, Bethlehem is a picture of Christ, the House of
Bread; the place of fullness. And sometimes, even though we
all start out in Bethlehem, when famine comes or things get a
little tough, we leave fullness (of course, we think it is
emptiness) to find fullness. When you leave fullness to find
fullness, you only find emptiness. God instructed this family
for ten years in that truth that there is only emptiness outside the
House of Bread. In the House of Bread, famine is fullness.
Outside the House of Bread, abundance is poverty.
There is no fullness outside the House of Bread.
Fullness is in Christ. It is not in Moab. It is not in Christian
service and it is not in Christian fellowship. Those things are
wonderful in their place, but they are not fullness. If you look
for fullness in Christian or spiritual gifts, you will only find
emptiness. If you look for fullness in scholarship and
5