They relied on God as the chief supplier of their needs, the one who fueled them to move forward. They were [literally] dying as part of the supply chain in God’s battle for truth. They saw this line about pastures as closely connected to the adjacent promise they would lack nothing. They were soldiers in the army of the King, not residents at his retreat center. Their life experiences provided a certain filter for the words of Psalm 23.

The book of Ruth begins in brokenness. The time of the Judges had seen people go from obedient and devoted followers of God to fickle and nameless wanderers who came to Him temporarily in their times of greatest distress. The first chapter records how one family even leaves God’s “Promised Land” to seek life elsewhere. The book of Ruth is short but deep. We see suffering, but we see restoration. The hope of the Gospel is very much alive even centuries before the arrival of the Messiah.

In Esther, God doesn’t save the heroine from many of her difficulties like He does in Daniel, but He is faithful to walk through them with her. It is a needed message for today’s church.