God Will Show Himself Faithful

 "Don't call me Naomi (pleasantness)," she told them.  "Call me Mara (bitter), because the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me."  Ruth 1:20

The story of Naomi is found in the book of Ruth in the Bible.  When I first heard this story as a new Christian, I think the only thing I took away from it was that this poor young girl named Ruth finds favor with a rich man name Boaz, and he takes care of her and her mother-in-law Naomi.  I heard countless people share how Boaz was a "type of Christ" and a "kinsman redeemer" but no one ever really explained what that meant.  In all fairness, I was too embarrassed to ask and admit I didn't understand.  That experience taught me something valuable.  We have to be careful not to use Christian terminology without giving a clear explanation of its meaning.  You can't speak a foreign language to someone and expect them to understand.

Reading through the book of Ruth as an older adult, my perspective of this story was so much greater.  There's so much in this story that we can relate to.  Naomi and her husband have to take their children and leave their land because of a famine. How many of us have had to let go of all we had to start over?  After being in their new home her sons marry.  But then her husband dies and within time, so do her two sons.  We can see why she made that statement in Ruth 1:20. In her eyes, God had struck her life with bitterness not blessing.  Here you now have 3 women (widows) with no source of provision.  Naomi hears that there is now food in her homeland, so she sets out to return.  But only her daughters-in-la, Ruth, decided to go back with her.  

They arrived during a time when the harvest had begun which did not allow for them time to plant, so Ruth decides she is going to glean in the fields to pick up any leftover grain that fell on the ground while the workers were harvesting, as was the custom.  Ruth meets Boaz, the owner of the field, who tells her she can take all she wants and even gives her an abundance to take home to Naomi.  Naomi was amazed at all Ruth was able to glean and when Ruth told her whose field she gleaned from Naomi made a profound statement that at the time I don't believe she realized would be the result of her story.  She said, "May he be blessed of the LORD who has not ceased His kindness to the living and to the dead.” What Naomi was saying is that God is faithful to follow through with His promises even when a person is long gone.  We may not get to see the promise, but we can rest assured that God will see that it comes to pass.

Ruth and Boaz wind up getting married and they have a child named Obed. The Bible then states that Naomi "took the child in her arms and cared for him."  She became his nurse, caregiver, grandma.  What joy restored to this woman who felt like life was sucked from within her!  But... she didn't even get to see the half of it.  Remember she was bitter with God because she had to leave her hometown, went to a land where there was idol worship, her sons marry women from this land and culture, her husband dies and then so do her two sons.  She is now a widow left with two widows and no provision.  She thought her full joy was when God allowed their family kinsmen (Boaz) to rescue them and she gained a grandson from all this.  But that grandson Obed was the father of Jesse, Jesse the father of David from where comes the lineage of Christ.  

When you look at the lineage of Christ you see the names of two women Rahab and Ruth.  Rahab was a prostitute and Ruth was a Moabite.  God allowed Naomi to experience all these difficulties in life for a purpose she could not see.  God wants us to know that He loves all humanity, despite who you are or what you have done and every single one is welcome to be a part of His family.  Isaiah 55:8 says, “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine." God has a plan through the famine, through the heartaches, through the sicknesses, through the deaths, even when He seems silent.  When we accepted God's invitation of salvation in Christ Jesus we agreed to be instruments to be used for His glory.  But do we trust and believe what He is doing even when it doesn't make sense, even when we can't see the promise?