After bouts of tragedy after
tragedy, Naomi has decided to return to her homeland in Judah. She
only has her two daughters-in-law with her at this time, and since
she has heard of the Lord's blessing upon her homeland with bread,
she was going home. As she is leaving she said something to her
daughters-in-law that will make a wonderful addition to our lives. It
is recorded for us in the book of Ruth in chapter one and verse eight
where it says:
And Naomi said unto her
two daughters in law, Go, return each to her mother's house: the LORD
deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead, and with me.
Normally
a family would stay together even when death occurs, and Naomi knew
this. But her daughters-in-law were from a strange country. They had
different beliefs, culture, food and ways, and to have them travel
with her and leave their homeland so to speak would not be something
Naomi desired. So she said, “Go, return each to her mother's
house”. Familiarity is a blessing when troubles occur, and it
would have been quite natural for each of these women to simply
return to their homes.
Naomi
then says something that is so beautiful even though she has endured
tragedy. She told the girls, “the LORD deal kindly with you, as
you have dealt with the dead, and with me.” What an incredible
blessing this is! To desire that the LORD deal kindly with someone is
one of the greatest desires that one could wish upon another. This is
God, the LORD, Jehovah, Creator God, and the desire is that He would
deal kindly with these daughters-in-law. The kindness of God cannot
be exceeded, and there is no one so kind as He. The Psalmist wrote in
Psalm 117:1,2:
O praise the LORD, all
ye nations: praise him, all ye people. For his merciful kindness is
great toward us: and the truth of the LORD endures for ever. Praise
ye the LORD.
Naomi
gave the reasons that she desired the Lord's kindness upon these
girls, “as you have dealt with the dead, and with me.”
Naomi as a mother-in-law recognized how Orpah and Ruth her
daughters-in-law had been with her two sons and with her. Although it
was Naomi's sons Mahlon and Chileon who had died, it was also Orpah
and Ruth's husbands. They could have abandoned Naomi after the death
of these two boys, but they didn't. They could have left her one by
one as the sons died, but they didn't. No, Orpah and Ruth dealt
kindly with Naomi, and Naomi took knowledge of it. There was not a
greater blessing that Naomi could have shared with Orpah and Ruth
than that the LORD deal kindly with them.
Do we
bless others with the kindness of the Lord? Do we consider their
kindnesses toward us? Do we take the time to stop in our own
directions and purpose simply to acknowledge the effort that others
make on our behalf? Perhaps as we meditate upon the tragedy of Naomi
we will also think about the way she acknowledged other's efforts
toward her at this trying time. When we discover the kindness of
others, perhaps we may bless them with this saying, “The Lord deal
kindly with you, and you have been with me.”
Next
time we will continue our story with a continued blessing and
reaction of Naomi as she readies to leave, so read ahead, and we
shall join together then.
Until
tomorrow...there is more...
Look
for the new devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From
Generation to Generation” in all major bookstore sites,
www.amazon.com
; www.barnesandnobles.com
; download
to e-books, and find it locally at www.mrzlc.com/bookstore
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