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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends, welcome to the weekend!
I have two questions for us to begin today:
Does God pay attention to the details in our lives?
What has your life journey taught you about the attributes of God, especially when you are facing difficult times?
In our “Walking with Jesus” journey together, this is our third day of looking deeply into the story of Naomi and Ruth, found in the Old Testament Bible book of Ruth. Yesterday these two widows left Moab, where Naomi had been living for over 10 years, and where she had lost her husband and both her adult sons. Naomi was a widow with no remaining family, living in a foreign land.
Her daughter-in-law Ruth has made a profound life commitment to journey with Naomi back to Naomi’s home, Bethlehem, but that meant leaving her home, her family, and resolving in her heart that she will likely live a destitute life, as a foreigner in Israel and a servant to Naomi. But something down deep inside Ruth had moved her to make this commitment “Where you go, I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried…” (Ruth 1:16,17)
As we pick up their story in verse 19 Naomi & Ruth are traveling alone, as far as we know, and on foot, over the mountain range which separates Israel from Moab, and finally they arrive back in Bethlehem. I’ve been on that route, and it’s a spectacular view over the Jordan river valley, and the Dead Sea. Today Jericho and other small villages in the valley below, can be seen from those mountain overlooks.
I imagine Naomi told Ruth the story of how Joshua led her ancestors up that valley and across the Jordan to conquer Jericho first, then on into the “promised land”. As they passed by, Jericho at that time would have been nothing but ruins, for this historic city was not rebuilt until the days of King Ahab, many years later. (1 Kings 16:34).
The road from Jericho up to Jerusalem, and then Bethlehem, a few miles to its south, is rugged terrain. This was later the road Jesus referred to in His story of the good Samaritan (Luke 10). Finally, the village of Bethlehem would rise up on the horizon and for Naomi it must have been with many mixed feelings and questions. Would she still have a few friends there who remembered her? Would any of her old neighbors still be there who would help her lay claim to the house that she and her family had abandoned more than a decade before, as they fled the famine? For Ruth the questions in her heart probably swirled around how she might be treated as a Moabite widow?
Look closely at the drama of verse 19 “So the two widow women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, ‘Can this be Naomi’? ‘Don’t call me Naomi,’ she told them. ‘Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The LORD has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”
The name Naomi meant “pleasant”. I imagine she was given that name because she brought great joy to her parents, but also because they hoped her life would be pleasant and as she married and had a family she would bring ‘pleasantness’ to her family and the community where she lived. Perhaps she had, and that was partly why Ruth chose to leave her family in Moab and serve Naomi, returning to Bethlehem with her. But hard times filled with great pain over many years caused ‘pleasant’ Naomi to say some hard things to the women of Bethlehem who were amazed to see her. I wonder if those women asked the question “Can this be Naomi” because she looked so different? Perhaps worn by the long journey on foot, but probably more the heaviness of a broken heart.
Naomi’s choice of the word “Mara” to be her new name, is very significant. Everyone in Bethlehem would understand it well. As their ancestors, the fleeing Hebrew slaves, ran out of Egypt with Moses, after the Red Sea miracle, they began the trek on the desert road. But after only three days they had run out of water, and they were desperately thirsty. With jubilation they came upon what appeared to be an oasis and quickly started gulping the water, only to spit it out… it was bitter, salty water, perhaps much like the water of the Dead Sea. (Exodus 15) They called that place ‘Mara’, not only because it was undrinkable water but because it was a profound disappointment in their desperate thirst. God had rescued them from slavery by His mighty power, but it appeared to them, on that day, God was going to let them die of thirst in the desert!
But you may recall God did not overlook their misery. He instructed Moses to throw a piece of wood into the water, and God transformed that salty, bitter water into wonderful, sweet, pure, clean drinking water! I’ve often wondered if that piece of wood might have been a branch of a tree in the shape of a cross, pointing forward to the day Jesus would hang on a tree to provide purification for our sins, turning bitter lives into God honoring lives?
I see no evidence Naomi was expecting such a miracle for her life. Her disappointment, her pain, her loss was too deep. I’m grateful our God is big enough, Sovereign enough, that He allows us to express our deepest emotions to Him, even if they are distortions of reality. Naomi blames God here. She holds Him personally responsible for the death of her husband and two sons, and the misery of her life in Moab.
However, do you notice, she has not rejected God, nor does she blaspheme or mock God? Naomi is acknowledging God’s Sovereignty over all things and therefore she acknowledges that for reasons she does not understand, Almighty, all-knowing God, has allowed great misery to descend upon her. Yet, He is still God and still she honors Him, by respectfully using His great names. “The Almighty” is the name El Shaddai by which God made Himself known to Abraham and Sarah when He assured them He had not forgotten His promise that they would have a miracle son in their old age. (Genesis 17:1)
But in our final verse for today, let’s look closely at verse 22 my friends. “So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth, the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.” Do you see two powerful truths here? Naomi was not alone! Discouraged, worn, feeling the burdens of having lost all her family, but not alone. Ruth was the tangible evidence of God’s love for Naomi!
Secondly, God had led them back right at harvest time! That’s really important. There was no grocery store for these two widows to run to their first day back in Bethlehem. Perhaps some old friends of Naomi welcomed her back to town with a meal, but they needed to find food and quickly. As we will see in the story tomorrow, Ruth was able to go out into those fields, the very next day, and start picking up some harvest to feed herself and Naomi. Do you see God’s sovereign attention to detail?
Now let’s take a moment or two to reflect on our life journey’s. How many times has timing been important in your life. How often have you used phrases like “just in time” or “at just the right time”, when describing some circumstances in your life? I urge us to take time right now to thank God for His Omniscience. He knows you and me better than we know ourselves, and He’s watching our life journey’s very carefully. (Consider Psalm 33:13-15 & Psalm 34:15.) Also, let’s thank God for His Omnipotence, He is all powerful, able to do anything at anytime in any situation, which will accomplish His purposes. Remember Gabriel’s words to Mary: “Nothing is impossible with God”! (Luke 1:37)
Oh Almighty God, thank you for this powerful story of Naomi and Ruth, and your attention to details in our lives, and your Sovereignty over all things at all times.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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