I read the opening words to the book of Ruth and I find I’m chuckling to myself as I whisper, “Ya’ think?!?!”

In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land . . .

(Ruth 1:1a ESV)

In the days when the judges ruled . . .

You mean the days when God’s people “served the Baals” (Jud. 2:11), “abandoned the LORD” (Jud 2:12), and “whored after other gods” (Jud. 2:17a)? The days when, even though God’s anger was kindled, and He gave His people over to plunderers (Jud. 2:14), He also saved them out of the hands of their oppressors when His people cried out to Him for help? The days when, after God had raised up a judge and delivered His people, His people went lower than before, finding more despicable and deplorable ways to go after other gods, “serving them and bowing down to them” (Jud. 2:19)?

Just so I’m picking up what the author’s laying down . . . we’re talking about the days when the judges ruled, yeah?

These are the days when the LORD’s fighting men feared fighting for the LORD on foreign fields (Jud. 4), while the average guy at home was setting up altars to foreign gods in his own backyard (Jud. 6). The days when entire clans were slaughtered by those wanting to seize and secure power (Jud. 9), and a beloved daughter was sacrificed because of a rash, self-serving vow made by her dad (Jud. 11). The days when even one of the LORD’s raised up judges, one who had been dedicated to God since birth, played fast and loose with his morals and his man-bun (Jud. 13-16). The days when individuals freelanced their own worship, building their own idols, making their own gods, and hiring their own priesthood (Jud. 17). The days when, to spark outrage in a nation desensitized to sin, a Levite carves up the cadaver of his sexually-abused-to-death concubine and sends pieces of her throughout the land to rally a vigilante hoard to almost wipe out one of the twelve tribes of Israel (Jud. 19-20). Just to be clear, those are the days we’re talking about, right?

So, it was during the days when the judges ruled — the same time period when “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Jud. 17:6, 21:25) — that there was a famine in the land?

Ya’ think?!?!

No food? The least of their problems? What about no faith? No fidelity? No foundation for being the people they had been called to be? Throughout the land there was only the foolishness of the flesh, and the folly of worshiping inanimate objects.

Yet, it was in those days that God purposes to pen the story of Ruth. The story of a foreign woman who believes in the One True God and finds favor at the feet of a kinsmen-redeemer.

I can’t wait to read of the grace to come. Grace despite the days — days that aren’t a lot unlike our days — days when there is a famine in the land.

But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

(Romans 5:8 ESV)

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved.

(Ephesians 2:4-5 ESV)

Praise God for grace in the days of famine.

Amen?