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The book of Ruth chronicles the experience of a family who had reason to be upset with God, yet God met them in that bitterness, and He helped them to look forward to the future. It is important that we do not rush past the pain of the past too quickly. If we do not acknowledge before God some of the ways that we have been disappointed, then bitterness can easily take root in our hearts.

The good news is that God can take our bitterness. Make no mistake, God is not intimidated by our bitterness, He wants us to bring it to Him. He can work with our bitterness, and through it, to bring us to a healthier place.

As we turn the pages of this magnificent, brutally honest book, I want to draw your attention to verse one; it says: “In the days when the judges ruled” (Ruth 1:1a). It would be really easy for us to read that verse and miss the significance of what the author is trying to explain.

The whole book of Judges follows the same basic pattern; the people of God grow disobedient to Him. So, God sends upon them a judgement, some outside oppressive army comes against Israel. They take over the people, the people cry out to God, God rescues them by sending a judge, the judge defeats the enemy, and the people again are free. They praise God for their freedom; they repent of their old ways. They are obedient for a time, then often, what happens, like today, they become complacent. They forget God, and they grow into a season of disobedience.

With all that being the backdrop, the book of Ruth begins by saying: “The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there.” (vs.2)

There are some theological implications to this, and the author is trying to draw these out for us. Bethlehem is the setting for our story. The word Bethlehem means in Hebrew the “House of Bread.”  So, the “House of Bread” has no bread. There is irony there. Elimelech is the patriarch of this family; and his name means in Hebrew “My God is King.” As we read, the author lets us know that Elimelech died and his wife and sons are starving. So, in five verses, what began as a story about a family from Bethlehem, becomes a story of a childless widow living in a strange country.

From that position of pain and loss, Naomi must figure out what her next step is. Same thing is true for us when tragedy strikes in our life, we must figure out what that next step is going to be. You may feel stuck; you may be trying to pick up your pieces. We learn that Naomi plans how to deal with all of this and deal with her disappointment in verse six. The verse starts with a new part of the story. It also introduces the key theme in Ruth and that is “return.” In Ruth chapter 1 alone, the word “return” appears eleven times. On one hand it strikes a chord of hopefulness. Because Naomi considers going back home? Perhaps things are getting better? At the same time, it also signifies Naomi’s dilemma because she has heard that God has brought an end to the famine in Israel, but she must wonder if she can bring her herself to return to the God who took her husband and sons away? Can He really be trusted after what she has gone through?

 You can catch part of this when Naomi tells her friends in Bethlehem to stop calling her Naomi, instead call her Mara. The reason behind this is that the name Naomi means “the Pleasant One.” Now she tells her friends do not call me “the Pleasant One” anymore, call me “Mara” which means “Bitter.” She is telling her friends she is not the same person she was when she left ten years ago. I left pleasant, I left full, the Lord has brought me back empty.

 Maybe this is how you are feeling right now? Where is the hope? Hope is found in Naomi’s own words in verse twenty. Naomi uses the name of God the Almighty as El Shaddi. The first time this name appears in the Bible is Gen. 17, it is the moment that God promises Abraham the Promised Land. Bethlehem was a part of that. It was the same moment that God promised Abraham that he would have more descendants than the sand of the seashore, more than the stars in the sky. Think about what Naomi has suffered. She suffered the loss of her home in Canaan, the Promise Land. She suffered the loss of her sons, her descendants. Everything that the Almighty promised Abraham, Naomi has lost. Even though all this has happened, God is still El Shaddi.

 There is this faulty belief that the Christian life should be a smooth road. Any signs of turbulence that would come, we need to be able to explain away. I would try to correct that by saying there are certainly great promises in God’s Word. Many of them we have already seen come true; you and I are the beneficiaries of those promises. Some of those promises we still wait upon. The one thing missing in God’s Word is any indication that simply because we believe in Jesus, we should expect this life to be simple. That is a misunderstanding of the Gospel. 

 I think it is significant as I bring this blog to a close that there is a sense that Naomi even in her bitterness and frustration, has left a door open for God. Her exterior is kind of hard, and it has grown callous, but something inside still trusts because she decides to return to her roots. Return to the home she had left. Return to the place she had learned about God’s love for her; she is going back to that place. What is important for you and me to see is that Naomi realized that it is okay to be frustrated with God but at the same time lean into Him and return to Him.  You can be unsure where God is leading you, but you can still press in closer. Naomi makes her decision; the text gives us the slightest bit of optimism. Naomi and Ruth return home with bitterness. But as the chapter comes to a close, we find that it is the barley harvest. What does that mean? The famine has ended! The House of Bread now has bread again. There’s food in Bethlehem for the first time in a long time. Like Naomi, you may see some potential light at the end of the tunnel. It’s a reminder that God is still King. That is what I want to leave you with: whatever pain lay in the past, whatever loss, whatever heartache or bitterness, God isn’t done yet.

 Until Next Week When We Meet at the P.E.W.

Pastor Joel