Ruth 1:20-21 NIV
20 “Don’t call me Naomi,[b]” she told them. “Call me Mara,[c] because the Almighty[d] has made my life very bitter.
21 I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The LORD has afflicted[e] me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”
I was reading the book of Ruth in the past few days re-reading it a couple of times, and God showed me something different this time. He showed me the character of Naomi who left from under God`s protection when she and her family (her husband and both of her sons) left her home country because of the famine and went to Moab.
1 In the days when the judges ruled,[a] there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there. (Ruth 1:1-2 NIV)
We can see clearly that the time period that`s listed here is already post conquest of the Promised land by the Israelites because it says that it was “when the judges ruled”, and we know that the Book of Judges in the Old Testament was written during the time when Promised land was in the process of being completely conquered by the Israelites.
This opening of the book of Ruth gives us the information that the family of Elimelek was not a God fearing family because if they would have been, they wouldn`t have left their home country, but they would have trusted that the Lord would have preserved them through the trials of famine and provided for them just like He always has done in the past.
Another important point to note here is during the time of Judges we know that Israelites started backsliding in their walk with the Lord because they disobeyed God and didn`t drive all the native nations from the Promised land, so most likely famine was the result of God`s judgment on their behavior attempting to bring them back to God.
What I find amazing when reading these chapters is that in all these trials neither Naomi nor anyone else in her family realized that the consequence of their running from the eyes of the Lord would not solve their problems. All it did was remove them from under His protection because they left the premises of the Promised land where it was God`s area of protecting Israelites from all of their enemies if only they continued to walk in His ways (Deuteronomy 28).
The following points I saw when reading the book of Ruth:
-Naomi and her family left the Homeland (their Promised land) in escape of God`s hand since the Israelites started to fall into idolatry by using the pagan gods from the locally residing nations (refer to the book of Judges in the Bible). Naomi`s family attempted solving the problem of famine on their own instead of coming to God for help and repenting in whatever they were doing wrong. What`s worse, they left to the pagan country where idolatry was even more prominent.
I thought it was a good reminder for me to look at Naomi and realize that every time I attempt to solve any kind of problems on my own instead of coming to God--nothing good comes out of it; only destruction. As a matter of fact, I am trying to get myself into a habit of asking the Lord and showing me if there is anything that`s hindering in my relationships with Him allowing me to know His will and direction. This is something that`s Naomi and her family didn`t do.
Sadly enough, we see how the whole family took all their possessions (which they probably had a good amount since in the verse 21 Naomi said that “she left full”) and took off on their own without seeking God`s guidance and direction. I don`t ever want to be like that because I`ve done it in the past, and I failed miserably.
- Naomi didn`t take heed in the consequences of the Israelites` backsliding, and her family didn`t repent, but they ran away from the hand of the Lord. They only brought more trouble on their heads by leaving their homeland—Naomi`s husband and both of her sons died in Moab.
God allows us to do whatever we want because we have free will, but He uses our own mistakes to bring us back. As we see in verse 21 Naomi said: “I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty”. All God cares about is our hearts; He doesn`t care about our possessions because He knows they are temporary. He makes all possible attempts to reach out to our hearts and to bring us back to Him, just like He`s done with Naomi.
- Naomi and her family didn`t trust God was capable to deliver them from famine, and they decided to solve that problem on their own by leaving into the "more abundant country".
I don`t ever want to get into the place where I don`t trust the Lord to handle my circumstances for me because the second I do that, I take myself from under His protection. I`ve tested His protection, and I wouldn`t want to miss on it in a millions years; His protection is all I got. I think it`s the nature of our lustful identity to see that the grass is always greener on the other side only to realize that it`s not once we tested it.
- This is another story where God is using all the circumstances to bring out His glory in the end and turn all things together for good. Through all these errors that Naomi and her family made, God brought Ruth into her family when she married one of her sons, and Ruth cleaved to God with all her hear.
16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. (Ruth 1:16 NIV)
God used Ruth`s heart, because he could get through to her, to bring Naomi back to her homeland and to lead Ruth to meet Boaz who was able to restore Naomi`s family name by marrying Ruth.
When I read this story of obedience that Ruth showed to God and to Naomi and see God`s character the way He rewards those who trust Him, I get encouraged that I need to continue to be obedient to Him and to honor His word. He would not let me down just like He`s proven His hand in all of my trials; just like He showed His faithfulness and goodness to Ruth.
Ruth was rewarded for her obedience by becoming a grand-grand-mother to David and is mentioned in Jesus` lineage (Matthew 1). This is the highest honor and reward she could ever get from God for guarding her heart and cleaving to God. I want to be like that too; I want to cleave to God, so He could use me just like He used Ruth- to bring glory to Him. It took a lot of sacrifice on her part to leave her homeland, her heritage, her family, and to go into unknown without any guarantee that she would ever be able to re-marry or be accepted by the Israelites. God rewarded her faith!
- Another point that I thought was interesting was Naomi`s exodus with abundance as escape from famine. Her family`s escape from God, is similar to the story of the Prodigal son (Luke 15) where the younger son left the father with all of his inheritance (abundance), but God allowed him to waste all of his inheritance and to squander it to the last penny only to bring him back home "empty".
I look at this story of Naomi as the way God uses whatever it takes to bring us back “home” to Him. We tend to make decisions that are unsuccessful because they are motivated either by selfishness, or ambition, or perhaps greed, and they are not according to God`s plan. As a result, we become blind by perishable things that drive us into the wrong direction bringing complete destruction and loss.
I`m looking into my circumstances, and I see how much I was motivated by my ambitions which made me deaf to God`s direction. I had to lose a lot in order to come to this place of complete surrender. It`s a shame to see that Naomi never realized the consequence of her actions and avoidance of God`s will.
-What`s more, Naomi didn`t use her trials, which turned out as a blessing in the end, to praise the Lord and to testify to others of His hand on her life. She could have changed her heart to realize that God`s hand was on her all along protecting her to the last moment; God loved her so much that he made sure he used Ruth to bring her back home and even reinstated her family`s name.
Instead Naomi called herself Mara (thinking of her life as “very bitter”).
13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 14 The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! 15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”(Ruth 4:13-15 NIV)
It is amazing that even the women in her town saw God`s hand on Naomi and the way He blessed her, but not Naomi herself. Instead of using her life as an example of God`s glory to testify of His goodness and faithfulness, she continued to grieve.
How common is it for us to be so self-absorbed and self-centered that we are incapable to see the bigger picture of the way God`s brining all pieces together for good. I tend to do the same: call myself “Mara” rather than concentrate on seeing God`s hand in the bigger picture. I continue to pray to God for direction, so I could make the right decisions and to testify of His glory by using this blog, but sometimes it`s too easy to fall into this state of self-pity.
I know that I don`t want to live this “promised land” where I abide in God and He abides in my heart because the second I leave that state, I bring troubles on my head.
-Lastly I thought of the way Naomi and her family didn`t have any personal relationships with God, and as a result it prompted them to act upon their flesh rather than being led by the Holy Spirit. I know that`s an Old Testament we`re talking about, and people didn`t have direct access to God like we have now through Jesus Christ, but I know God would have directed them to meet appropriate prophet or a priest assuring them of the right direction if only they hungered the Lord. It`s an example of how even now when we have that access through the blood of Jesus, we don`t always use it, but tend to act upon our flesh; we choose our own decisions rather than walk in Spirit.
I don`t want to accuse God of my mishaps; instead, I want to see His character and the way He protects me even when I don`t deserve it. I want to be under His protection because that`s the most secure place I could ever be. This story reminds me of being grateful to God for everything I have and to praise Him for all the work He never ceases to do in my heart.
20 “Don’t call me Naomi,[b]” she told them. “Call me Mara,[c] because the Almighty[d] has made my life very bitter.
21 I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The LORD has afflicted[e] me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”
I was reading the book of Ruth in the past few days re-reading it a couple of times, and God showed me something different this time. He showed me the character of Naomi who left from under God`s protection when she and her family (her husband and both of her sons) left her home country because of the famine and went to Moab.
1 In the days when the judges ruled,[a] there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there. (Ruth 1:1-2 NIV)
We can see clearly that the time period that`s listed here is already post conquest of the Promised land by the Israelites because it says that it was “when the judges ruled”, and we know that the Book of Judges in the Old Testament was written during the time when Promised land was in the process of being completely conquered by the Israelites.
This opening of the book of Ruth gives us the information that the family of Elimelek was not a God fearing family because if they would have been, they wouldn`t have left their home country, but they would have trusted that the Lord would have preserved them through the trials of famine and provided for them just like He always has done in the past.
Another important point to note here is during the time of Judges we know that Israelites started backsliding in their walk with the Lord because they disobeyed God and didn`t drive all the native nations from the Promised land, so most likely famine was the result of God`s judgment on their behavior attempting to bring them back to God.
What I find amazing when reading these chapters is that in all these trials neither Naomi nor anyone else in her family realized that the consequence of their running from the eyes of the Lord would not solve their problems. All it did was remove them from under His protection because they left the premises of the Promised land where it was God`s area of protecting Israelites from all of their enemies if only they continued to walk in His ways (Deuteronomy 28).
The following points I saw when reading the book of Ruth:
-Naomi and her family left the Homeland (their Promised land) in escape of God`s hand since the Israelites started to fall into idolatry by using the pagan gods from the locally residing nations (refer to the book of Judges in the Bible). Naomi`s family attempted solving the problem of famine on their own instead of coming to God for help and repenting in whatever they were doing wrong. What`s worse, they left to the pagan country where idolatry was even more prominent.
I thought it was a good reminder for me to look at Naomi and realize that every time I attempt to solve any kind of problems on my own instead of coming to God--nothing good comes out of it; only destruction. As a matter of fact, I am trying to get myself into a habit of asking the Lord and showing me if there is anything that`s hindering in my relationships with Him allowing me to know His will and direction. This is something that`s Naomi and her family didn`t do.
Sadly enough, we see how the whole family took all their possessions (which they probably had a good amount since in the verse 21 Naomi said that “she left full”) and took off on their own without seeking God`s guidance and direction. I don`t ever want to be like that because I`ve done it in the past, and I failed miserably.
- Naomi didn`t take heed in the consequences of the Israelites` backsliding, and her family didn`t repent, but they ran away from the hand of the Lord. They only brought more trouble on their heads by leaving their homeland—Naomi`s husband and both of her sons died in Moab.
God allows us to do whatever we want because we have free will, but He uses our own mistakes to bring us back. As we see in verse 21 Naomi said: “I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty”. All God cares about is our hearts; He doesn`t care about our possessions because He knows they are temporary. He makes all possible attempts to reach out to our hearts and to bring us back to Him, just like He`s done with Naomi.
- Naomi and her family didn`t trust God was capable to deliver them from famine, and they decided to solve that problem on their own by leaving into the "more abundant country".
I don`t ever want to get into the place where I don`t trust the Lord to handle my circumstances for me because the second I do that, I take myself from under His protection. I`ve tested His protection, and I wouldn`t want to miss on it in a millions years; His protection is all I got. I think it`s the nature of our lustful identity to see that the grass is always greener on the other side only to realize that it`s not once we tested it.
- This is another story where God is using all the circumstances to bring out His glory in the end and turn all things together for good. Through all these errors that Naomi and her family made, God brought Ruth into her family when she married one of her sons, and Ruth cleaved to God with all her hear.
16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. (Ruth 1:16 NIV)
God used Ruth`s heart, because he could get through to her, to bring Naomi back to her homeland and to lead Ruth to meet Boaz who was able to restore Naomi`s family name by marrying Ruth.
When I read this story of obedience that Ruth showed to God and to Naomi and see God`s character the way He rewards those who trust Him, I get encouraged that I need to continue to be obedient to Him and to honor His word. He would not let me down just like He`s proven His hand in all of my trials; just like He showed His faithfulness and goodness to Ruth.
Ruth was rewarded for her obedience by becoming a grand-grand-mother to David and is mentioned in Jesus` lineage (Matthew 1). This is the highest honor and reward she could ever get from God for guarding her heart and cleaving to God. I want to be like that too; I want to cleave to God, so He could use me just like He used Ruth- to bring glory to Him. It took a lot of sacrifice on her part to leave her homeland, her heritage, her family, and to go into unknown without any guarantee that she would ever be able to re-marry or be accepted by the Israelites. God rewarded her faith!
- Another point that I thought was interesting was Naomi`s exodus with abundance as escape from famine. Her family`s escape from God, is similar to the story of the Prodigal son (Luke 15) where the younger son left the father with all of his inheritance (abundance), but God allowed him to waste all of his inheritance and to squander it to the last penny only to bring him back home "empty".
I look at this story of Naomi as the way God uses whatever it takes to bring us back “home” to Him. We tend to make decisions that are unsuccessful because they are motivated either by selfishness, or ambition, or perhaps greed, and they are not according to God`s plan. As a result, we become blind by perishable things that drive us into the wrong direction bringing complete destruction and loss.
I`m looking into my circumstances, and I see how much I was motivated by my ambitions which made me deaf to God`s direction. I had to lose a lot in order to come to this place of complete surrender. It`s a shame to see that Naomi never realized the consequence of her actions and avoidance of God`s will.
-What`s more, Naomi didn`t use her trials, which turned out as a blessing in the end, to praise the Lord and to testify to others of His hand on her life. She could have changed her heart to realize that God`s hand was on her all along protecting her to the last moment; God loved her so much that he made sure he used Ruth to bring her back home and even reinstated her family`s name.
Instead Naomi called herself Mara (thinking of her life as “very bitter”).
13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 14 The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! 15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”(Ruth 4:13-15 NIV)
It is amazing that even the women in her town saw God`s hand on Naomi and the way He blessed her, but not Naomi herself. Instead of using her life as an example of God`s glory to testify of His goodness and faithfulness, she continued to grieve.
How common is it for us to be so self-absorbed and self-centered that we are incapable to see the bigger picture of the way God`s brining all pieces together for good. I tend to do the same: call myself “Mara” rather than concentrate on seeing God`s hand in the bigger picture. I continue to pray to God for direction, so I could make the right decisions and to testify of His glory by using this blog, but sometimes it`s too easy to fall into this state of self-pity.
I know that I don`t want to live this “promised land” where I abide in God and He abides in my heart because the second I leave that state, I bring troubles on my head.
-Lastly I thought of the way Naomi and her family didn`t have any personal relationships with God, and as a result it prompted them to act upon their flesh rather than being led by the Holy Spirit. I know that`s an Old Testament we`re talking about, and people didn`t have direct access to God like we have now through Jesus Christ, but I know God would have directed them to meet appropriate prophet or a priest assuring them of the right direction if only they hungered the Lord. It`s an example of how even now when we have that access through the blood of Jesus, we don`t always use it, but tend to act upon our flesh; we choose our own decisions rather than walk in Spirit.
I don`t want to accuse God of my mishaps; instead, I want to see His character and the way He protects me even when I don`t deserve it. I want to be under His protection because that`s the most secure place I could ever be. This story reminds me of being grateful to God for everything I have and to praise Him for all the work He never ceases to do in my heart.
No comments:
Post a Comment