Their entry was with great
reception as Naomi and Ruth entered Bethlehem. After over ten years
Naomi was returning to her homeland. Although she left out of Judah
with her husband and two sons because of a famine in the land, she
was now returning as a motherless widow with only a widowed
daughter-in-law as a companion. The entire city welcomed her return
and asked if this was Naomi, and today we study Naomi's response to
their question in chapter one and verse twenty where we read:
And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the
Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
As we shared in an earlier
study, “Naomi” means “pleasant” or “pleasantness”.
However, when the people of the city asked, “Is this Naomi?”
Naomi answered, “Call me not Naomi” or pleasantness, but
rather “call me Mara” which means “bitter” or
“bitterness”. Naomi had known nothing but sorrow as she faced
tragedy after tragedy in the last ten years. As we recall, first she
had to move with her family to a new land because of a fast in Judah.
Then while she is there, she loses her husband to death. Her two
sons, “Sickly” and “Pining” marry, but soon they also died.
Although Naomi had two daughter-in-law, only one of them has stayed
close to her side to return to her homeland. Naomi has no family, no
provision, no protection and nothing in sight to hope for as she
surveys her life. She has made an appraisal that her life is no
longer “pleasant” but “bitter.”
Next we see that Naomi has
determined in her own mind why she has a bitter life, “for the
Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.” Naomi believes the
reason for her bitter life is because God caused it. She has endured
many tragedies as many people do, and she now associates the idea
that God is to blame so to speak or else her life would not be this
way. Rather than seeing God as a God of blessing, she sees that He
has determined curse upon her. She may have started out as a pleasant
person, however her circumstances have altered her entire view of
herself and her life which she now deems bitter.
Why do some people seem to
face tragedy after tragedy in their lives? For some it seems that
they go from one troubling event to the next. We can only imagine the
grief that Naomi had as she lost her husband and both sons, and when
she has to return to her homeland with little hope in her life, we
may understand the way she feels about things. However, we must
consider that Naomi cannot see the entire story. Naomi doesn't
realize that her steps are being guided by the Almighty, and she is
less than a chapter away from a total change in her life. Sometimes
we may make assessments about our situations and decide that God is
against us as well. When we have our focus upon the situations
directly in front of us, we are apt to come to the same conclusion as
Naomi. When we face these times, we must keep in mind that we do not
have the entire story before us. God is writing a script in our lives
to which we are not privy, and before we make rash decisions such as
blaming god or even changing our names and attitudes because of our
circumstances, we should consider that God has a plan. Though we do
not realize what that plan is yet, He still is working it out.
In other words, we have a
choice. We can become “bitter” or “better” when we are faced
with difficult situations in our lives, and if those situations are
tragedy after tragedy, we have an even greater challenge to continue
to hope and trust in a Heavenly Father who quite possibly has change
awaiting us less than a chapter away.
Next time we will continue
to study Naomi's further response to the people who greeted her, 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
No comments:
Post a Comment