From Empty to Full - “An Eligible Bachelor; a Poor Widow, and the Sovereign God”

Look up the word “despair” in a dictionary and you’ll find something like this: “de·spair -- the complete loss or absence of hope.”

Such was the period of the Judges in the Old Testament. Sin was rampant. Sorrow seemed to visit every home. Despair and hopelessness abounded. And the reason? It is summed up by the last verse of the book: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” God was forgotten and instead of doing what was right in His eyes, everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

But though God’s people had forgotten God, God had not forgotten them. And in the midst of His righteous judgment upon their sin, God was still sovereignly, graciously, miraculously, creatively working out His plan for His people. In one of the most beautiful stories in the Bible, despair gives way to hope; the emptiness of sin is replaced by the fullness of joy because nothing can get in God’s way of accomplishing His redemptive plan for His people.