Naomi is a broken woman. Can you imagine? She lost her community when they moved to Moab. She lost her husband soon afterward. Now Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. (Ruth 1:3) She saw her sons marry but within 10 years of being in Moab, both of her children passed away. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about 10 years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. (Ruth 1:4,5) She is truly grieving and alone. I am sure all of us can relate to her at some point or another in our lives. Maybe our loss is not as great in number, but life is where we walk it, and our grief is valid, nevertheless. What does she do? She decides to return to her people. After all, what else does she have?
Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the LORD show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me. May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.’ Then she kissed them and they wept aloud and said to her, ‘We will go back with you to your people.’ But Naomi said, ‘Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters. I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons—would you wait until they grew up? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the LORD’s hand has gone out against me.’ (Ruth 1:8-13) (see Deut. 25:5-10 for the background to this idea of a brother marrying the widow)
Naomi is not being mean. In a culture and time where women relied on men for their survival, for food and a roof over their head, Naomi is not being mean but practical—it will be hard for her as a widow; how much harder with three of them. She is also being weak of faith. She is not being the mother-in-law who is trying to lead her bereaved daughters-in-law to the Lord. In fact, she encourages them to return to their ‘home and their gods.’ Remember she has been living outside the land of her people and ran to Moab rather than trusting in God to provide during the famine. ‘Look,’ said Naomi, ‘Your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.’
Naomi hopes that both Orpah and Ruth can find rest in the homes of other husbands by returning to their culture; their mother’s home and their gods. She has forgotten that the only rest is found in Yahweh. Naomi is done; bitter; hopeless. On arriving back to her people, she asks them not to call her Naomi but to call her ‘bitter’ for the lot she has been portioned is a bitter one indeed.
“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, [which means ‘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? [which means ‘pleasant one’] The LORD has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.’
Today we see a broken woman. She is not judged for where she is at or how she feels. She takes those first few steps back to the people of her faith and God welcomes her home and blesses her. The ‘church’ of the day welcomes her back and despite her testimony of pain, grief and bitterness, the day is coming where they will rejoice with her. In fact, the church today rejoices with her for the blessing of God (a grandson—King David) who becomes one born into the line of the promised Messiah.
Pleasant one. A chosen people. A God who provides during the famine.
Bitter one. A broken woman. Living in the land of the forbidden idol worshippers of Chemosh the fish god.
Perspective. Naomi believes her lot in life has changed as she changes her name.
Perspective. God has a plan. She returns to Him and through her line, He brings the promised Messiah, Jesus.
The lesson for us today is clear—it is never too late, no matter how broken we are or how we have ‘messed up,’ to return to the LORD. In our perspective it is hopeless. In God’s perspective, it is hopeful. In God’s eyes it is never too late to be welcomed into His Kingdom as Ruth is, or back into His fellowship as we see with Naomi. God writes the end of the story, not us. He chooses us when we reach out and say, ‘Your God will be my God’ and He chooses us when we return after losing our way. In the land of the Moabites or the land of the Israelites, God is faithful and never far from each of us.
Acts 17:26-28 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.
Our song for today is Your Plans for Us by Eleventh Hour Worship.