Naomi

The story of Naomi in the Book of Ruth, happens when the Judges were ruling over Israel. There was a lot of unrest in the land. People had forgotten the living God and strayed away to worship idols. As the book describes, it was a time when they did whatever they felt like doing. 

 Naomi’s family left Canaan with the hope to find a better life in Moab. From one angle it was an act of abandonment of God and His people. They were driven by their need to find food and shelter because of a famine. They had heard that Moab was a rich nation. Moving away from Canaan shows a lack of faith in God’s promise to His people that was their land flowing with milk and honey. Their sons marriage to Moabite women shows a dilution of the faith of the family with other idol worshippers. 

Naomi suffered with sores in her heart and mind. She went through similar sufferings as Job went through. In the middle of her tragic life she allowed the emptiness to fester into a bitterness that was slowly destroying her. She said she left Canaan with her whole family. But when her husband and two sons died in Moab, she is bitter, empty and hopeless. Why has this catastrophe happened to her? 

Naomi’s turning point comes when she humbles herself before God and her two daughter-in-laws Ruth and Orpah. She begs them to leave her and return to their homes in Moab. But one of them, Ruth stays on with her and is a source of great strength for her through out her life. 

“But Ruth replied, 

“Don’t ask me to leave you and turn back. 

Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. 

Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.”

‭‭Ruth‬ ‭1:16‬ ‭

Her return to Canaan was an act of returning home to her promised land and her people. In a way can it be viewed as the return of a prodigal daughter, relying on the grace of God and her people to provide for her needs? Here was Naomi so discouraged with life yet she comes to a point in her life where she decides to endure through and remains faithful to God. Would she have ever envisioned Ruth’s descendent would be King David and then even further down to our Savior of the world, Jesus?

 When we go through experiences that leaves us hopeless and helpless how do we react? Are we confident that God will work it out for us if we pray? Do we find peace with God? Jesus told his disciples at the Last Supper (John 16:23), “In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." We realize that even when Christ was on earth He went through many trials but overcame them by the power of God the Father who was within Him. When confronted with the most difficult of circumstances I find confidence through reading the Word and the love of God the Father and His son Jesus Christ. I find strength in the Holy Spirit who helps me to pray and find fellowship with other believers. 

Jesus loves me this I know 

For the Bible tells me so 

Where ever I may go 

Jesus loves me so 

 Jesus loves me this I know 

For the Christians tell me so 

Even when I am poor and low 

Jesus loves me so