Within the opening verses of Ruth, we learn in regards to the tragic triple bereavement of one of many e book’s central figures, Naomi: “Within the days when the judges dominated there was a famine within the land” (v. 1). And in that famine, each Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, and her two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, die.
Left with solely her two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, to consolation her, Naomi units out with them on a journey from Moab to Judah. Her motion units in movement the acquainted occasions of God’s unfolding goal: Ruth’s conversion; her subsequent marriage to Boaz and motherhood; the approaching of David, the king of Israel; and, finally, the delivery of Jesus Christ Himself.
However lengthy earlier than we attain that joyful end result, Naomi’s grief and the religion that she shows within the face of it confront and problem us.
Religion Can Endure Extreme Trials
The primary lesson we will study from Naomi’s religion is an easy one: She had it, even within the face of extreme trial. Anybody can espouse religion and champion belief in a sovereign God when the band is enjoying, the group is marching, the solar is shining, and all is properly. The true checks and challenges come when religion is pushed to its restrict by the pains we endure.
Naomi will need to have felt that her life’s story was falling aside. To lose her husband was to lose her supplier, the top of the household desk. The dying of her two sons compounded that loss. We would think about her as an alien in Moab—not the land of her nativity however the land of her sojourn—standing within the doorway of her house, trying down the road, with no prospect of the three males she beloved arising the highway.
But whereas Naomi’s religion was tried religion, it was nonetheless religion, not unbelief. She didn’t say, “I not consider in a God who’s sovereign over the affairs of life.” Nor did she say, “I disavow a God who would place me on this dreadful predicament.” As a substitute, she expressed religion—screaming religion, crying religion, challenged religion—in God’s sovereignty. When she hears “that the Lord had visited his individuals and given them meals,” she acts in religion, “set[ting] out from the place” (vv. 6–7), endeavor the return to Judah. And when she declares her intent to depart, she needs God’s blessing on her daughters-in-law, telling them, “Might the Lord deal kindly with you” (v. 8), and “The Lord grant that you could be discover relaxation, every of you in the home of her husband!” (v. 9). Regardless of her ache, she by no means doubted that Yahweh was in management. And that is a vital reminder for all who face darkish days.
Religion Can Wrestle to See God’s Provision
Although Naomi didn’t give in to unbelief, nevertheless, her religion had its limitations. We see, secondly, that her religion, although nonetheless religion, was nonetheless blind to God’s provision in her trial.
Naomi didn’t doubt that God might come to the help of His individuals in a generic method. (Once more, see verse 6.) However in her little world, it nonetheless felt like every part had collapsed. She nonetheless believed, however she was at risk of lacking the truth that the God who offers through the barley harvest is similar God who is aware of when the sparrow falls (Matt. 10:29; Luke 12:6), knew her fully, and knew precisely what she, as Naomi, required.
Because the biblical story unfolds, we uncover that Ruth was to be the technique of God’s provision for Naomi. In truth, in offering for Naomi personally, Ruth would bless all of Israel and, finally, the entire world via her descendent, Jesus. And but Naomi, on the highway from Moab, can’t see the supply. As a substitute, she truly insists a number of instances to Ruth and Orpah that they abandon their plans to accompany her to Bethlehem. Her motivation is splendidly selfless. However within the second, she misses that in entrance of her very eyes, God has given her the reply to her affliction.
The Bible teaches that alongside afflictions, God offers technique of consolation and solace (1 Cor. 10:13; 2 Cor. 1:4). He is not going to carry us into trial with out additionally offering His fatherly care. The nice hazard is that we resist His provision, if we don’t miss it altogether. Our minds and hearts might even perversely get pleasure from our predicament—the eye, the self-pity, the sense that no person is aware of hassle like we now have—greater than the hope of salvation from it.
Maybe Naomi was tempted in a type of instructions. And if we might not be likewise tempted, then we should do not forget that in each the immediacy of our circumstances and in all the journey of our lives, our imaginative and prescient solely extends up to now.
Religion Finds Hope in Small Indicators
Even when Naomi missed the massive image, although, we will see that she nonetheless discovered hope in small indicators of God’s windfall—as, certainly, ought to we.
Religion sees the supply of God in little issues: a house to return to, meals for the desk, companions for the journey. That Naomi, with Ruth, “went on till they got here to Bethlehem” (v. 19) exhibits that she noticed sufficient to greet her in every new day to press ahead. That she responded to Ruth’s request to glean within the fields with “Go, my daughter” (2:2) exhibits that she held out hope God would nonetheless present. Because the solar shone upon the barley, maybe there was the inkling of a brand new starting and a brand new day.
Quick-forward a number of chapters, and we discover that Naomi’s small hopes have turn out to be nice joys. Ruth gleans within the fields, meets Boaz, marries him, and bears a toddler. By 4:14, the Lord’s provision is so evident that the townswomen can’t assist however level it out to Naomi: “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this present day with no redeemer, and will his title be famend in Israel!” And as she takes the brand new child in her arms and lays him on her lap in v. 16, so nice is her pleasure that they are saying not “A son has been born to Ruth” (which might have been true!) however “A son has been born to Naomi” (v. 17). Right here, now, on this most abnormal, tranquil scene, she whose examined and tried religion continues to be religion is scarcely capable of grasp the importance of what God has executed.
Religion By no means Guesses What God Can Accomplish
This leads us to a ultimate statement: Naomi might by no means have guessed what God would accomplish via her trials—and neither can we. Because the opening of Matthew makes clear, this youngster, Obed, could be the daddy of Jesse, the grandfather of David, and finally the forebear of Jesus Christ Himself. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 2:9, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the guts of man, the issues which God hath ready for them that love him” (KJV).
After we bear the marvel of God’s provision in thoughts, in Naomi’s life and in our personal, it ought to change the best way we take into consideration religion within the face of arduous trials. There needs to be little doubt, for example, that Christians will probably be far simpler in talking to their mates and neighbors when they’re sincere about ache, struggling, disappointment, and disappointment—and the truth that our religion, although stretched to the boundaries, continues to be religion.
Triumphalistic ramblings grate on the ears of the tenderhearted and brokenhearted. As we face ache and uncertainty, the Bible provides us a God who got here within the particular person of His Son and skilled to the fullest all of the bitterness, wretchedness, animosity, and problem that life might throw at Him—all to make everlasting, saving provision for our sake. We must always ask ourselves: Are we lacking the supply of God proper earlier than our very eyes? Will we not bow our knees earlier than the one one who provides to us a peace that passes human understanding?
