Ruth 1:19-21: Naomi And Ruth Return To Bethlehem
“So they two went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi? And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the LORD hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me? So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter in law, with her, which returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest.”
- Ruth 1:19-21 (KJV)
It was a long walk from Moab to Bethlehem, and the trip was mostly uphill. We can imagine along the way, Ruth asking her mother-in-law Naomi all about the God of Israel and the land of Israel.
“All the city was moved about them:” Bethlehem was just a large village; everyone in the village would have known everyone else, and remembered those who had left years ago.
“Call me not Naomi, call me Mara:” The name Naomi means "pleasant"; the name Mara means "bitter." Naomi used this to tell the people of Bethlehem that her time away from Israel, her time away from the God of Israel, had not been pleasant, it was bitter.
Naomi wasn't a phony. She wasn't going to go home, pretend everything was fine, and be "pleasant." She was going to be honest, and say "Here I am and my life has been bitter."
“The Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the LORD hath testified against me.” Naomi was not afraid to see the hand of God in all her calamity.
Naomi knew that the tragedy that came into her life was not because of fate, chance, or blind fortune. She felt the tragedies were an example of God's affliction because she could not see the end of His plan. But she knew there was a sovereign God of heaven, and didn't think she had just run into a string of "bad luck."
In the midst of all these bitter circumstances, Naomi was not bitter against the Lord. We can imagine one of the villagers asking, "Naomi, if God has dealt very bitterly with you, if the Lord has brought you home empty, if the Lord has testified against you, then why have you come back?" And she would have said, "Because I want to get right with Him again. Things have been terrible, and the answer isn't in going further from God, but in drawing closer to Him."
Not every reacts to trials the way Naomi did.
Christian brothers and sisters, how do you react to the trials in your life? There is always a reason why you are being tried, and more important a way out of your misery:
“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
- 1 Corinthians 10:13 (KJV)
God bless!
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