“7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.”
Naomi is going home. It’s been a journey. But she’s returning to Judah.
She’s going home.
But things won’t be the way they were. Her life has changed. Her world has changed.
In all the vicissitudes of life. In all our journeys from Judah to Moab and back. With all the treasures and wounds we’ve acquired along the way. What is home. What does it mean to long for return.
Remember that as Christians, we step lightly here. Our true home is the hope of heaven. Paul writes, “20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).
“6 When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-lawprepared to return home from there.”
This is the first mention of the Lord in Ruth. And the first mention of the Lord is about God’s help.
Naomi hears that the Lord has ‘considered’ his people. Or ‘attended’ to his people. Its a core affirmation in Scripture. The Lord hears, considers, attends, helps, protects, guides.
He is our all in all. In Hebrew the first ends in three Hebrews words, all starting with the same letter. “latet, lahem, lahem” – “giving, to them, bread”. A soothing sound.
And what’s more, it is help from the Lord in the most dire situation for Naomi.
Be encouraged. The Lord is the giver of bread. The provider. Our help and maker. Jesus said, “I AM the bread of life”! (John 6:35).
“3 Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.”
At the beginning of this story, Naomi can’t see the big picture. She can’t see how one day God will take her brokenness and pain, and transform it.
Naomi’s story will end in God’s wonderful provision, worked out in ways Naomi can’t imagine now.
What about you? Do you tend to see your present situation as final? How often to look at our lives and turn the future over to God?
Some one pointed out to me that as Christians what we have is to move forward and trust God. Leave the big picture to his providence and grace.
“5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own insight.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3: 5-6
“3 Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.”
We think what we’re going through is bad. As this section ends, things couldn’t be worse for Naomi. Husband and son have died. She is now a widow – and in a foreign land. This is a double whammy against her.
Faced with declining years, no one to care for her and without status in a land and culture not her own, things look grim. No light at the end of the tunnel.
And that is how the Book of Ruth opens. Naomi in the darkest valley (Psalm 23:4).
We can find ourselves there too. Like the rug is pulled out from under us and life is turned upside down.
Take heart if that’s you. Take heart. Jesus, having been there too (Matthew 27:46), is more than able to help.
Its a measure of his incredible faithfulness that we’ll see in the rest of this story!
Jesus said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
“3 Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.”
Naomi experiences a double loss. A double bereavement. Her husband dies, then both her sons die. Naomi is left without them.
Sometimes we gloss over suffering. We offer platitudes. Or people offer them to us. Here, death, suffering, pain, tragedy are not hidden, scuttled away for more respectable conversation. Its a story in Scripture where suffering is front and centre.
And we meet a God who brings redemption through it.
In Walking with God through pain, Tim Keller reminds us, “The only love that won’t disappoint you is one that can’t change, that can’t be lost, that is not based on the ups and downs of life or of how well you live. It is something that not even death can take away from you. God’s love is the only thing like that.”
“In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons. 2 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.”
This household ends up in Moab, a foreign place. They leave Bethlehem, their home, the familiar, a place that means ‘house of bread’. They go far away. They exchange the known for the unknown. In Moab they are literally ‘strangers’. They are displaced.
Do you ever feel misplaced? Forced into situations or places that seem beyond your control. The pandemic is pushing into unfamiliar and difficult times.
But there is good news. The Lord says in the Psalms, ‘Moab is my washbasin!’ (Ps 60:8). Even the far away and the unfamiliar are no match for God’s greatness, goodness and power. Thanks be to God in Jesus Christ.
“In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons. 2 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.”
The names of the parents in this family matter. First is Elimelech, which means ‘God is my King’. Next, is his wife Naomi, which means ‘good, pleasant, beautiful’.
There is a famine. The family is in dire straights. They are forced to move from their home to Moab. Yet, in the middle are two parents, ‘God is my King’ and ‘Good and Pleasant’. Their presence points us to the person of Jesus Christ today.
He is our King, who is able and willing to help us. What is more, he is Good. He is Pleasant. He is Kind. Trust him today.
“In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons. 2 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.”
Here we meet a family of four in the middle of a great famine and natural disaster. The father’s name, Elimelech, means ‘God is King’; the mother’s name, Naomi, means ‘pleasant, beautiful’.
The family unit and the parents’ names stand in contrast to their surroundings, which are scattered and uncertain.
As Christians, we are part of a family – the body of Christ. A unit whose head is Jesus himself, whose name means ‘he who saves’. Paul describes life as a Christian in the body of Christ, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.” (2 Corinthians 4: 8-10)
Take heart that in everything going around us, we are far from alone.
rev. dr. greg davidson 