“Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty
has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the LORD has brought me
back empty.”
Ruth 1:20-21
In the days when the judges ruled, there was a
famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife
and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab (Ruth 1:1). Seems like a fairly noble thing for a
man to provide for his family during a famine. After all, food in neighboring
Moab was plentiful. And the sons of Elimelech and Naomi surely were in need, if
names bore any significance: Mahlon meant sickly and Kilion meant puny. So off
they went from the Promised Land, this little family of four, to live for a
while.
Problem was, while
there Elimelech died (1:3) leaving Naomi and her two sons alone. Well, not
quite alone. The boys married Moabite
women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth (1:4). Possibly, just possibly, Elimelech
consulted God before taking his family to Moab. However, we know the Lord
didn’t think much of Moab: Moab’s a scrub
bucket. I mop the floor with Moab (Psalm 60:8 MSG). Certainly He did not
take kindly to His people marrying foreigners (Deuteronomy 7:3).
The little while
stretched into ten years, and the two boys also passed away (1:5). In those
days it was difficult to be widowed. To lose one’s sons, the remaining source
of support, was devastating. Naomi was empty, empty, empty.
Think about it, the spiral
from fullness to emptiness strikes all of us just that innocently at one time
or other in our lives. A little worldliness here, too full of ourselves there,
and lo and behold, we’ve crossed the border into the greener pastures of any
old place. Oh we’re not far away from God, yet far enough to miss His voice. Or
perhaps you’ve always lived in Moab, never knowing His loving kindness.
Not an auspicious
beginning for a love story, but God is faithful. While Naomi may have thought
herself at the end of her rope, in the silence of grief she was able to hear that the LORD had come to the aid of his
people by providing food for them (1:6). It took her no time at all to set
out for home.
If you’re out wandering
ladies, running on empty like Naomi, hurry on home. God’s got a surprise
waiting for you.
Nancy P
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