This week's Theme: I Remember Your Name
Day 1: Redeemer
In the night, Lord, I remember Your name... (Psalm 119:55)
Naomi whose name means pleasant, is forced to leave her home Bethlehem, (which ironically means “House of Bread”) because of severe famine. She and her husband Elimelech, whose name means “My God is King”, relocate to a foreign country, Moab, where they assimilate into the culture.
Their sons marry local wives, Orpah, whose name means “stubborn”, and Ruth, whose name means “friendship”. But Elimelech dies, and so do Mahlon (sick) and Chilion (pining), the sons. Bitterly, Naomi resolves to return home.
In ancient Middle Eastern Culture, a woman without a husband and/or sons, is, of course, destined for poverty and desolation. Naomi figures she might suffer a little less if she is least in her own country, especially since she has heard that the famine there is over.
But she does not see why her daughters-in-law have to be subject to the same hopeless future as she has to face. She encourages them to stay in Moab, in hopes of finding new husbands. The prospects are bleak, but bleaker yet should they go with her.
Orpah is finally convinced, but Ruth would not hear of it. She resolves to return to Bethlehem with Naomi regardless of how dismal the outlook is. “Your people shall be my people,” she says, “and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). Naomi finally agrees to take her back to Bethlehem, and so it is that the two women arrive in Bethlehem.
“Naomi’s home!” all the townspeople cry in excitement. They gather round her. “Is it really you, Naomi?” Then comes the embittered reply: “Don’t call me Naomi, call me Mara (Bitter) 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 (Pleasant)? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”
Many of us can identify with Naomi’s bitterness. Most of the time, we can handle a problem or two, here and there. But when disaster rains cats and dogs all around us, when we are caught in a deluge of misfortunes, a flood of bitterness and despair rises up in our soul. We feel that God has forsaken us; that He has given us more than our quota of suffering.
“Why?” we wonder. How come other people don’t have all the troubles we have? Surely, there are others who deserve “punishment” more than we do! And as we bump our way through the frightening storm, we are often bruised and scarred beyond recognition. We no longer feel like the same person. Every memory of “Pleasant” is submerged as “Bitter” emerges in her place.
For Naomi, as for us, is difficult to even imagine a time when “Pleasant” lived in the security of “God as King.” Not one vestige of her presence remains; Bitter has taken over the soul. Thank God, Naomi’s story does not end there, and neither does ours.
What happens next to Naomi and Ruth is a fascinating demonstration of God’s love and care, and of His sovereign presence in the midst of hopelessness and despair.
In Ruth Chapter 2 and following, we discover one of the most delightful love stories in the Bible. Boaz becomes the kinsman redeemer who marries Ruth, and redeems her and Naomi from a life of hopelessness and desperation. But the far greater love story is the one God uses Ruth and Naomi’s story to illustrate.
It is the story of a much more significant kinsman redeemer, Jesus Christ, who would become human in order to save the world from the hopelessness and despair of a godless existence. And in a most amazing series of events, God places Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz in the very plan for redemption their story symbolizes—He uses them to provide lineage for the Messiah that would be the ultimate kinsman redeemer! Here’ s how:
Our last picture of Naomi in the book of Ruth is a serene, contented “grandmother” cuddling baby Obed in her lap. This baby Obed, the son of Ruth and Boaz, grows up to become the father of Jesse, who was the father of King David.
Ruth was therefore the great grandmother of King David, from whose line Jesus the Messiah would eventually come. Eventually, Jesus would be born in this same city of Bethlehem, because Joseph, along with Mary would be forced to go back “to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David" (Matthew 2:4).
In their dire circumstances, Naomi and Ruth could never have imagined that not only would God provide comfort and security for their immediate future, but that he would also use them to provide for the future of all mankind! Do you suppose that if Naomi could have seen the end of everything, she would have accepted her pain without bitterness? Perhaps even embraced it?
What about us? Do we believe that our sovereign God can, and does see the end of our story? And that He does ask us to accept, even embrace the trials? Can we trust His instructions to rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance character; and character, hope? And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us. (Rom 5:3-5).
As we struggle to make sense of all the calamities that bombard us, let us not give in to despair and bitterness. Let us remember that we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have One who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin (Hebrews 4:15). Consequently, we can find relief by approaching the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and grace to help us in our time of need (vs.16).
I do not know, I cannot see,
What God’s kind hand prepares for me
Nor can my glance pierce through the haze
Which covers all my future ways;
But yet I know that o’er it all
Rules He who notes the sparrow’s fall
Author Unknown
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