Brought Back by God (Ruth 1:19-22)

One of the complaints of contemporary life is a failure of people to express realism. When asked how things are going, most people will say fine, but they may be at that moment going somewhere for help. When we look at the news, we are informed that many people are facing huge problems at different levels of life.

The same may be true in the spiritual life of believers in Jesus. Imagine returning to the place where we had worshipped God previously after about a decade of being away. What would we say if someone asked us how we were? Would we tell it as it is, or would we think it best to be positive and not admit that aspects of life have been hard? In a sense, this is the question that was asked of Naomi when she and Ruth reached Bethlehem.

While one cannot be precise how long Naomi was away for, she had been in Moab for at least ten years. Their arrival in Bethlehem caused quite a stir in the community. The women of Bethlehem do not seem to have been certain that it was her when they observed her. Their confusion may have been caused by her looking older, because ten years is a long time. Or perhaps they were puzzled by the absence of her husband and sons, or maybe they could not imagine that a Moabitess would have been in her company, indeed her sole company. People have their assumptions about others, as we know. No doubt, we have had ideas about what has happened to someone, only to find that our opinion is wide of the mark.

It is a common Christian practice for believers to give their testimony. We would not be surprised if Christians returning from being away were asked to relate what God had done in their lives during the time they were gone. Here comes Naomi, back from her sojourn, which had been longer than expected. But still she is back, and she is about to answer the question posed by the women of Bethlehem. So what does she have to say?

Watch what you call me

Her initial response is rather surprising because she wants to be addressed by a new name. Her name Naomi means pleasant, but she does not think it appropriate to call her by that name because her experience in Moab has taught her that life was no longer pleasant. We have already noticed that her husband Elimelech did not live up to the meaning of his name when he disobeyed God by leaving the promised land and moving to Moab. His name pointed to God being his king, but his behaviour was inconsistent with that claim. Naomi, too, found that there was a contradiction between her name and her experience. We don’t know if he ever acknowledged his dilemma, but we can see that Naomi did.

The name she suggested she should be called was Mara, which means bitter. Perhaps we recall the incident that happened to the children of Israel shortly after they departed from the Red Sea: ‘Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; therefore it was named Marah’ (Exod. 15:22-23). On that occasion, the Lord performed a miracle and sweetened the water.

Naomi had gone through bitter experiences that had affected her. The text does not say that she was bitter against God, though she may have been, but she does say that he had dealt bitterly with her. Bitter tears were written over the years spent in Moab. She had admitted that was the case when attempting to persuade Orpah and Ruth to leave her, as recorded earlier in the chapter (1:13). And she now announced it to her old neighbours in Bethlehem as well.

Having a bitter experience is not unique to Naomi as far as the Bible is concerned. It has been observed that she has a comparable feeling to Job even although their cases are not the same. But Job had a similar complaint to make: ‘As God lives, who has taken away my right, and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter…’ (Job 27:2). His friends were informing him that his troubles had come because of personal sin. He knew that was not the case, but he also believed in divine providence and that somehow God was involved in it all. He revealed his faith when he said about his trial, ‘When he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.’ Does Naomi reveal faith in God here?

Signs of faith

A sign of her faith is revealed in the names that she uses for God. She includes two in her response – Almighty and Yahweh. The name Almighty is Shaddai, and scholars debate what it means. At least three suggestions are made based on which word is the root of the name. One is the familiar one of power, that the Lord can do as he wishes. A second suggestion is that the name points to God as the nourisher and supplier of our needs (this suggestion is based on the possibility that the name is linked to the word for breast). A third suggestion is that the name is connected to the word for mountain, which would emphasise his strength and immovability, the fact that he is always there. Maybe we are expected to see each aspect in this name, because each suggestion is true of God.

What about Naomi’s experience? She admits that she has not experienced his help, nor has she experienced him meeting her needs. Instead of filling her, he has brought her back empty. We might imagine that she is saying that he failed her, but she is not. Her words do not deny that he is Shaddai. She still confesses that he is that kind of God. But she is realistic. The One who is powerful and who is full of resources is the only One who can help her. But he has not done so thus far. Was there a deep longing in her words that she would experience his grace?

The other name she mentions is Yahweh, the special name by which God revealed himself to Israel. This name points to him as unchanging, and was important for Israel in the sense that he was in a covenant relationship with them. This covenant included promises of blessing and warnings of judgement. Again, she is not denying that he is who he is. Instead, she says that what he has done is right, even although it was exceedingly difficult for her. Perhaps the fact that he acts consistently will enable her to know his blessing yet. But for the present, she says it as it is.

In addition to mentioning the Lord’s names, she also mentions the Lord’s correction. He has testified against her, which seems to point to her recognising that her current emptiness is connected to previous wrongdoing on her part. The most likely explanation for this wrongdoing is the choice she and her husband had made when going to Moab for refuge during the period of famine. Instead of remaining in Bethlehem with the people of Israel, they had gone to Moab, a pagan people, for provision and security. And she admits that they had done wrong in God’s sight.

There is a third detail from Naomi’s words that point to her statement being one of faith in God rather than a complaint about God. Why had she come back to Bethlehem? She gave the credit to the Lord who has brought her back even although she is empty, having lost all that would have given her security at that time. Even although she was empty, she was still being led. She was a poor sheep guided by the Shepherd of her soul to a place where she would find plenty, although she did not yet know that plenty was about to be given to her. But whatever the future held for her she knew that she was being led by the Lord into it.

Thinking about the promises

Having considered Naomi’s realism, we can ask some questions about our own. One of the Bible verses that first spoke to me in the sense of causing curiosity about the Lord was John 10:10 where Jesus says that he came in order that sinners would have abundant life. It is possible to explain what is meant by abundant life. As the title of a famous book tells us, it is the life of God in the soul of man. The Saviour however does not suggest that this experience is only for super Christians. Rather it is for all of them. What would we say if someone asked us if we had it?

Or we can think of another promise that Jesus gave, this time about the Holy Spirit. He announced that when the Spirit would come his followers would have this amazing experience: ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ​‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38). What if someone asked us if this was happening?

One passage of the Bible that we like to read is Ephesians 1:3-14. It is a treasure trove of biblical doctrine as Paul explores the range of incredible blessings that belong to God’s people such as redemption and adoption and the presence of the Spirit. The one feature that we may not spot is Paul’s desire to praise such a great God for giving such wonderful blessings to sinners. His words reveal that he has a spring in the steps of his soul as he skips along the spiritual heights to which God has called him. But do we skip along with him?

Naomi the teacher

Naomi did not realise when she made her statement to the women in Bethlehem that she would become a teacher of the people of God, not in a formal manner, but through the fact that her words would be recorded in the Bible for their learning. What does she instruct us about?

The obvious detail of her response is that she had a God-centred understanding of life. No doubt, there were many secondary reasons for what had happened to her in Moab. Perhaps her husband and sons had died of a disease, or maybe they had been injured in an accident that had caused their deaths. But she stated her conviction that ultimately she believed that God was in charge of all that had taken place. One author points out that ‘if we attend only to secondary causes, we will never be at peace in our souls’ (Lavater).

Naomi also teaches us to be honest about spiritual experiences. Given that Bethlehem was now experiencing the practical blessings of restoration seen in the expected harvest, Naomi may have been the only person in Bethlehem who felt empty. Probably as she looked round, she observed the happy faces of a community living under the smile of God. Yet, so far, she had not realised the happy provision that the Lord had given her in Ruth, her devoted daughter-in-law. But she has learned the importance of honesty and truth in her speaking. She felt empty, and said so.

A third lesson that Naomi teaches us is that we should not let providence change our understanding of who God is. In the midst of the uncertainty and the sense of poverty that she felt, she referred to God by the way in which he had revealed himself to his people – his names. What she learned through providence had been hard for her to bear, but she mentioned what she knew from divine revelation in his Word about the character of her God. In times of darkness, we should stress the love and faithfulness of God as well as the sovereignty of God.

I recall a sermon on the divine promise of restoration found in Joel 2:25: ‘I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.’ Often this verse is used in a manner that suggests something has taken away our past blessings. In contrast, to that suggestion, the preacher pointed out that the years that the locusts ate were not the years that had passed but the years that were ahead because those insects destroyed current and future harvests. In other words, the prophet had said that the Lord was promising a great future for his restored people. Our God can do great things for us yet.

God’s timing and great surprize

At the end of verse 22, the author mentions the time when Naomi and Ruth arrived in Bethlehem: ‘And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.’ That harvest took place in April, but that is not the point that the author is making. Rather he is highlighting that they reached Bethlehem when the signs of divine restoration were all around the community. Since the windows of heaven had been opened, Naomi could expect to experience it as well.

Yet God did more than provide for their short-term benefit. His eye was on the coming of the Saviour. Beside the woman who had suffered divine chastisement was the woman who would become an ancestor of Jesus. It was a great blessing for the community of Bethlehem that Naomi returned, but it was a blessing for the world that Ruth came with her. Naomi did not realise it, and the people of Bethlehem did not realise it, yet the God of salvation was at work in ensuring that the Saviour would yet be born, and that when the people of the future would read their New Testaments, they would read her name on its first page.