Perspective is Everything, Understanding God Matters
In the book of Ruth, Naomi had experienced several hardships. First, she and her husband and two sons had to leave their homeland due to the famine there. While in a foreign land, her two sons married Moabite women. Initially, she could not have looked upon them favorably, possibly even resenting that her sons would not have the benefit of marrying from their own faith and lineage. To top it off, the famine follows them into the foreign land, and across a ten year period, her husband and two sons all die leaving her in Moab with her sons’ wives, who at that point were not of any good any longer for the continuation of the family line but were instead just two more mouths to feed.
Naomi’s cry, needless to say, was embittered toward God. She even changed her name from Naomi to Marah meaning, bitter.
“I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.” Ruth 1:21 NIV
In her time away from home, in the time surrounded by darkness, Naomi had forgotten God’s goodness, and His covenant promises. We often lose sight of God when surrounded by darkness. It is vital to saturate yourself in His Word, meditating on it day and night, that you are not deceived as to God’s character, purposes, and plans. His Word sustains and keeps us as we travel through shadowlands.
For, God never intended us to live in the dark. He, Himself, devised for us the most elaborate rescue mission by sending His son to be our Light.
From the beginning, we see this story play out — to what is full of darkness and chaos, God brings to it Life, Light, and order.
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. Genesis 1:2 NIV
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was Life, and that Life was the Light of all mankind. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:1-5 NIV
For this is what the Lord says— he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; He did not create it to be Empty but formed it to be Inhabited— he says: “I am the Lord , and there is no other. Isaiah 45:18 NIV
Now, returning to the story of Naomi, Naomi found herself Empty in a darkened land. Worse yet she was empty of the remembrance of God’s love and mercy, and unable to remember that He does not intend for His created things to be empty. Thankfully she had enough wherewithal to return to her homeland. She had intended to leave the daughters-in-law behind, believing they had more of a hope and a future with their own people and gods then her own, but apparently, one, Ruth had learned something of God’s hesed, His mercy/loving kindness, and therefore Ruth, insisted on staying with Naomi, even if it meant a life of poverty and barrenness.
Ruth’s act of courage here was a great kindness to Naomi, and it did not go unnoticed by Naomi’s kinspeople. In fact, a close male relative of Naomi, named Boaz, recognized Ruth’s kindness to Naomi.
“…bowing to the ground, and Ruth said to him, Why have I found favor in your eyes that you should notice me, when I am a foreigner? And Boaz said to her, I have been made fully aware of all you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father and mother and the land of your birth and have come to a people unknown to you before. The Lord recompense you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under Whose wings you have come to take refuge!”
Boaz was inspired by Ruth’s loving kindness to Naomi, and he followed suit by showing loving kindness to Ruth.
And at mealtime Boaz said to her, Come here and eat of the Bread and dip your morsel in the sour wine [mixed with oil]. And she sat beside the reapers; and he passed her some parched grain, and she ate until she was satisfied and she had some left [for Naomi]. And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, Blessed be he of the Lord who has not ceased his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi said to her, The man is a near relative of ours, one who has the right to redeem us. [Lev. 25:25.] Ruth 2:10-12, 14, 20 AMPC
The story of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz foreshadow Jesus’ arrival on scene to redeem us as Boaz redeemed Ruth and Naomi, as a Kinsman-Redeemer, not leaving them Empty as Naomi had feared. This was God’s plan all along for it was thru Boaz that King David was born and henceforth Jesus, the ultimate Kinsman-Redeemer.
A kinsman-redeemer avenges wrong, redeems from slavery and debt, and provides family continuity for widows. Jesus became our kinsman-redeemer by becoming our brother and paying our sin debt for us with His blood. Jesus announced His arrival as the Kinsman-Redeemer to His own towns people by stating,
Today this Scripture has been fulfilled while you are present and hearing. Luke 4:21 AMPC
The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon Me, because He has anointed Me [the Anointed One, the Messiah] to preach the good news (the Gospel) to the poor; He has sent Me to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed [who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity], To proclaim the accepted and acceptable year of the Lord [the day when salvation and the free favors of God profusely abound]. [Isa. 61:1, 2.] Luke 4:18-19 AMPC
It is God who made and makes a Way through the wilderness, thru the darkness.
I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs. Isaiah 41:18 NIV
It is God that redeems what has been corrupted.
I… set the empty pot on the coals till it becomes hot and its copper glows, so that its impurities may be melted and its deposit burned away. Ezekiel 24:11 NIV
Don’t be decieved, remember Christ the Lord and all His tender mercies.
Satan is the one who comes to steal, kill and destroy, using men to unleash all manner of disease, violence, corruption, greed, hatred, and cruelty. Not God.
For fools speak folly, their hearts are bent on evil: They practice ungodliness and spread error concerning the Lord ; the hungry they leave Empty and from the thirsty they withhold water. Isaiah 32:6 NIV
As for us, we are not orphans that we should worry,
So,
in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:6 NIV
This man Jesus,
… made mud and smeared it on my eyes and said to me, Go to Siloam (Sent) and wash. So I went and washed, and I obtained my sight! John 9:10-11 AMPC
He will do this for all that worship Him in Spirit and Truth.
By and thru His cleansing, do we, can we
…. go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Matthew 28:19 NIV
Love the Lord, all his faithful people! The Lord preserves those who are true to him, but the proud he pays back in full. Psalms 31:23 NIV