Awaiting Grace
Two: The testimony: the Lord is against me
Ruth 1:6-13 When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of her people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 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. Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, 'Go back each of you to your mother's home. May the Lord show you kindness as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and me. May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.' Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept out loud and said to her, 'We will go back with you to your people.' But Naomi said, 'Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have more sons who would become your husbands? Return home, my daughters. I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me-even if I had a husband tonight and gave birth to sons-would you wait until they were grown? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord's hand has turned against me.'
Somehow word reaches Naomi that the famine has broken in Judah and there is provision again. So in deep grief and weariness of spirit she decides to return to her home and people. When she tells her daughters-in-law, they tell her they want to go with her. However, how does Naomi respond? 1:8 Go back to your mothers home. May the Lord show you kindness as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and me.
What is Naomi saying here? She is saying, God is good, He has just turned His goodness away from me. What I have done is unpardonable and He has every reason to afflict me. Yet you deserve His goodness and may find His goodness because you have been so very kind to me and my sons. If you go back to your home, God may very well reward you for your kindness. You still have a future there, so go home.
Yet, they still say to Naomi, We are going with you.
Naomi's heart is broken because she feels she has absolutely nothing to offer them. So what does she do? Everything she can to discourage them. She paints the bleakest picture possible to dissuade them.
I am too old to have another husband. Even if I had a husband tonight and gave birth to sons, would you wait until they were grown? No, my daughters.
And then came her final argument: It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord's hand has turned against me. In other words, the only future you have with me is the judgment of God. Why should you suffer for what I have done? Why should you have no future because of my sin. Go home.
Do you see what Naomi just did? She did everything she possibly could to discourage them and to get them to return to their own people. She let them know with certainty, You have no future with me. All you will have for the rest of your lives is widowhood and shame.
Orpah is finally persuaded. I believe her leaving doesn't make her a traitor like I have heard other preachers preach. I think she genuinely loved Naomi, but Naomi has persuaded her that if she is going to have any kind of future she had to return home.
But then we have the famous declaration that Ruth made to Naomi:
Vs. 16, 17 Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you: for wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts me and you.
This shows the amazing love and commitment that Ruth had for Naomi. Ruth will not be dissuaded from binding herself to Naomi. Understand what just happened here: Naomi has painted for Ruth the bleakest future possible, but Ruth took Naomi's hand and was willing to walk with her through the grim darkness of it all. When Ruth spoke those words to Naomi, Ruth was saying, "As dark as the future is, we will walk through it together."
At this point what does Ruth represent in Naomi's life? A variety of things, but here is one of my favorites: in your most desolate times God leaves you one thing that speaks of His kindness.
If Ruth would have joined Orpah and went back to Moab, leaving Naomi all alone, I can understand why Naomi would have felt completely abandoned by the Lord. However, God gave her 'a Ruth.'
Beloved, in your desolate places where you are tempted to feel deserted by the Lord, if you will look carefully, you will see God has left you 'a Ruth.' He has given you something that shows His kindness is still with you.
So chapter one looks like it is going to end with two wretched women with no hope. It looks like it is going to end with two destitute women trudging wearily into Bethlehem. However, the Lord does not let the chapter end this way. The very last verse of chapter one says, So Naomi returned, and Ruth, the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. Now they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.
Oh how I love this picture! Imagine it in your minds: these two weary, grieving women entering Bethlehem, and all around them is wheat growing in the fields.
Vs. 22 is a very sweet verse. You see, the door to Naomi's entire future is in these barley fields.
Grace is waiting in these barley fields. The revelation of God's precious grace is waiting in these barley fields. If only Naomi had eyes to see, she would see that these are not fields of grain, but fields of God's wonderful grace.
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