Naomi – Repentance and Its Blessings (Ruth 1:6-22)
This sermon was preached on 29/7/2012
There are many ways of reading the account of the return of Naomi to Israel. We could look at it as describing one who longed to be in her own country, who no longer wanted to be a refugee in a foreign land. Or we could consider it as illustrating the importance of family connections – after all, Naomi had lost her husband and sons in Moab and all her remaining relatives were in Israel. Both these viewpoints have spiritual aspects, but I would suggest that the account illustrates and even profounder spiritual experience, that of repentance by one who had wandered away from God. Naomi’s situation depicts the consequences of backsliding and her return from Moab parallels her return to a vital walk with God. Several steps or stages are mentioned in the account.
1. The Goodness of God
The first feature that is mentioned by the author is that Naomi ‘heard in the fields of Moab that the LORD had visited his people and given them food’. In other words, she realised that he was now blessing his people. We are not told how long there was between him doing so and the news getting through to her. Eventually she heard about what he had done for his people and that information led her to reflect on where she currently was.
Paul reminds us in Romans 2:4 ‘that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance’. Other translations render it as ‘God’s goodness leads to repentance’. Naomi was aware that she was under God’s judgement, yet it was not that awareness that led her to have hope. If she focussed on his judgement she may have stayed in Moab with her daughters-in-law. If she had not heard about his goodness to his undeserving people she would not have had any encouragement to leave where she was. It was when she heard about his graciousness that she took heart and decided to return.
Basically, Naomi had heard that the Lord showed grace to his undeserving people. A decade or so before, they had so departed from him that he had decided to punish them for their sins. Now they were experiencing his mercy as he once again dealt kindly with them. Perhaps Naomi could picture in her mind many of her friends and acquaintances who now were tasting that the Lord is good. As she thought about what had happened to them, hope rose in her own heart.
The experience of God’s goodness to others is one very effective way of leading us to understand what God is like. We can easily how his deserved acts of judgement could cause one to have a view of God that would lead such a person to be afraid. But when we see other sinners being blessed by him, especially those whose stories we know, we say to ourselves, ‘Perhaps the Lord will be gracious to me.’ We should reflect upon such people, whether they are believers or otherwise.
Yet there is also another way by which we can get encouragement from the goodness of God and that way is to read accounts in his Word of individuals who discovered his mercy. This is the case whether we are thinking about backsliders or about those who are still unconverted. Those who are backsliders can think about the examples of David and Peter and those who are unconverted can think about such individuals as Matthew the tax-collector and Saul of Tarsus. We know how gracious the Lord was to each of them, how the knowledge of his kindness led David and Peter to return to him and led Matthew and Saul to serve him wholeheartedly. The lesson from this aspect of Naomi’s repentance is that we should think primarily of the goodness of God.
2. Returning people can be far from perfect
So Naomi and her two daughters-in-law decided to move to Israel. After they had travelled some of the way, Naomi suddenly advised them to go back to their own land. Even when they both initially refused to listen to her, she persisted and began to list various hindrances that she could think of. She was not right to make such suggestions, but the question we must ask is, ‘Why did she make them?’ I would suggest she made two mistakes.
First, Naomi focussed on her own weakness. She assessed correctly that she would be unable to have children, who according to the laws of Israel at that time could function as future husbands for Ruth and Orpah. It is inevitable that faith will be weakened if we take our eyes of God and start looking at ourselves. When we look closely within our hearts, we will see all kinds of reasons that will cause us to lose heart. That is what happens to people when they are returning to the Lord. Yet we should realise that the reason they are doing so is because they are sinful. Although they are repenting, they have not become perfect.
Indeed the process of repenting can lead to lack of faith if we take our eyes of the Lord and his goodness. We begin to see only our sins and when that happens we are liable to discourage rather than encourage others. For a time on her journey, Naomi forgets that the Lord is good and views her weaknesses on their own. It is not surprising then that she utters negative statements to Ruth and Orpah.
Naomi did something else as well. Instead of speaking about what God was doing in the present she began to focus on what he had done in the past. What she said was true, but it was not the whole truth. It was true to say ‘that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me’ (v. 13). But she should not have stopped there. In addition, she should have considered what he was currently doing. And because she did not do so, she began to have distorted views of what he could do for her. She began to view him only as a God of judgement and not also as a God of grace.
Many Christians can testify to having gone through something similar as they returned to God. It may be the case that often they are distracted from thinking about God’s goodness by the devil who much prefers them to think of the Lord as being a hard God. When they think in such a way, they make little progress and also hinder others on the same path, as Naomi did here with Ruth. If we are in situations in which repentance is called for, look at what we are saying about God and note whether or not we are focusing on only part of his actions.
While we are not to forget the judgements of God we are not to make them barriers to his mercy. We should not conclude from his chastisements that he will not restore us. Instead we should remind ourselves that the reason he chastised us is because he is a faithful God. In whatever way he will deal with us, we can rest assured that he will always act in a faithful way. And when his faithfulness leads him to show mercy, we should focus on it.
This is what the apostle John says to the readers of his first letter: ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’ (1 John 1:9). The focus of John is on the Lord’s faithfulness to himself as he pardons his penitent people. Too often we regard the Lord’s faithfulness as a threat, which it can be, but it can also be a source of great spiritual comfort.
3. Repentant people confess publicly their regret
Eventually Naomi and Ruth reach Bethlehem. Their arrival causes a stir in the community and the inhabitants were unsure whether it was Naomi or not. She has only been away for ten years, but it is not the passing of time by itself that changed her. Instead she has experienced the Lord’s chastisement, as she freely confesses.
Yet while her words may seem complaining, they are actually words of faith. In order to see this, look first at the titles she gives to God. She calls him by two important names – The LORD and the Almighty. She is not using them indifferently. Instead I would suggest that her use of two titles indicates affection for the Lord. The meaning of the name LORD tells us that he is the faithful God of the covenant and the meaning of the name Almighty (Shaddai) informs us that he is the all-sufficient God. Both these titles are expressions of hope. She has nothing in herself, yet she knows that the Lord is more than capable.
The name Shaddai is very comforting. George Lawson summarises what it means: ‘This name, which we render Almighty, is by many understood to signify, the all-sufficiency of God. He is able to do what he pleases, and there is an abundant and overflowing fullness with him to supply all our wants, and to satisfy all our desires; and therefore, when, by the strokes of his hand, we are deprived of the sweetest of our created enjoyments, it will be our wisdom, instead of fretting at our losses, to seek a compensation for them in the enjoyment of himself. Out of his riches in glory, by Christ Jesus, he can supply all our wants. In the enjoyment of his favour, which is better than life, we may find abundant satisfaction when all things look black and dark around us. Have we lost father, mother, children, friends? He is a thousand times better than they all, to those who choose him for their portion (Hab. 3:17, 18).’
One of the clearest signs of repentance is a willingness to focus on the names of God, whether we are thinking of the Father or of Jesus or of the Holy Spirit. Thinking about them is a sign that we are not entirely focussed on ourselves, but on him. Even in the middle of our confusion and our lack of resources, we show that our hope is in the Lord. So returning Naomi has words of affection for God.
Further, Naomi indicates an acceptance of the Lord’s dealings with her. She states in minute terms that he has been working in her life throughout all the successive stages of the previous decade. He has brought her to the stage where she has nothing but God to rely on. It was obviously the Lord’s purpose to bring her back empty. Why did he do this? Because it is emptied people who will trust in the Lord.
Naomi’s sad providences depict for us an essential spiritual reality found in true repentance and that is a penitent person has no confidence in himself. There is a sense in which we could look at Naomi and say that the Lord removed from her the men on whom she depended. First, there was Elimelech and then her two sons. There is no doubt that Naomi would have depended on them. But she eventually found herself without them and her only option was to trust in the Lord.
George Lawson reminds us: ‘Naomi dwells upon the consideration that all her calamities came from almighty God. If it is God that smites us, then let us not slight our troubles, or overlook any part of the operations of God’s hand ; for none of his works are unfruitful works of darkness. But let us not faint when we are rebuked of him. “It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good.” He who afflicts you, believers, is your God, and your Father.’
Thankfully divine providence does not usually make the same demands of us. Yet it is still the Lord’s aim to empty us of self-confidence and dependence on other people or things. The fact is, we have to trust someone or something. If the Lord is working in our hearts, he will work to bring us away from depending on what or whom cannot deliver us. He knows that we need to depend on him alone and he works to bring that about. It is an important question to ask ourselves: ‘Has the Lord brought us to confess that without him we are empty?’
The third detail of her words that express Naomi’s faith is her determination that she should not be regarded as the same person as she was before. She insists that the people call her by a name (Marah) that describes what the Lord had done to her and for her – life has become bitter for her. It is true that at that moment she is without visible signs of the Lord’s blessing as far as the people from Bethlehem are concerned. Yet her insistence that she is now a different person is a very vivid lesson for us to note. In her demand, she is a challenge to us as to how different we have become. Things were hard for her, and she did not know what lay ahead. But she knew she was a different person.
4. The timing of it all (v. 22)
As we come to the end of our meditation, we can observe some other details briefly. Naomi is not only a different person whom the Lord can use, she is now also in the right place. Her desire to return has brought her to the place of blessing. And that is what repentance does for us – it brings us to the right place of being reconciled with God.
Naomi was not only in the right place, but she was also with the right people. She was with the Israelites whom the Lord had blessed again and she was with Ruth whom the Lord was also blessing. What a remarkable group, together unexpectedly because Ruth was an outsider. Yet what brought them together was repentance. The people of Bethlehem had repented of their departure from God, Naomi had repented for her journey into Moab, and Ruth had repented of the sins that she had committed during her life there. Here they were together about to discover what the Lord had in store for them. Repentance is like a door that opens up for people the future that God has planned for them.
Not only was Naomi in the right place and with the right people, she also had come to Bethlehem at the right time – the beginning of barley harvest. None of them then knew it was the right time. But because repentance marked them, they were about to know the hand of God at work, a sure sign that they had come there at the right time. The moment had come for God to show the great things that he could do for them!