Feel Deserted? God Never Forsakes You!

Barb and I returned home to Stanzel Tuesday evening after Barb spent the better part of ten days in Mayo Clinic's Methodest Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota, fighting pneumonia. She was very sick with fluid gathering in her lungs and abdomen, and around her heart. It is all cleared up now, and she is doing much better. She is stronger and walking without a walker or cane again. Thank you all for your prayers. Keep praying for her continued improvement. God bless all of you richly. Now to today's Bible Insight.

We saw in Ruth 1:1-5, how Naomi learned a great lesson about the God she loved and trusted so much. That lesson was that, no matter how bad things seemed to get in your life, God is there. When you are at the end of your rope, God is there!

The turning point for Naomi comes with a direct intervention by the Lord. He corrects the situation that indirectly led to her problems. God comes to the aid of His people by providing food: "Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had visited His people by giving them bread" (Ruth 1:6). The situation having changed, Naomi decides to go back empty to Bethlehem, meaning the House of Bread, where she really belongs. Though a common-sense response to outward circumstances, spiritually it is a move toward the Lord, not away from Him.

God is putting the pieces together for Naomi, although at this stage she isn’t aware of that. She merely does what seems right. As David Jackman says in The Preacher’s Commentary, "This is an interesting feature of the theology of this book. There is not the faintest hint that the total control being exercised by the Lord in any way limits the freedom of activity of the people involved. But as the book proceeds, we see the detailed and delicate way in which God in fact works all their actions together into His plan." (The Preacher's Commentary: Judges, Ruth, Vol. 7 [Thomas Nelsonn Publishers, Nashville, 1991 by Word, Inc.)

The more the story seems to hide the hand of God, the more it actually affirms His total sovereignty. This story shows that God does not act on occasion, but continuously. Though He may appear to step into the scene at given key moments, He is actually actively there every moment, although hidden. That reality sees Naomi through the midst of life’s bitterness and keeps her trusting the Lord, even when she cannot see where He is leading her.

Professor Ronald M. Hals in The Theology of the Book of Ruth writes: "While in the Book of Judges the Lord is described as periodically stepping in to punish or deliver his people, here he remains on the scene every moment, but hidden. While in the Book of Judges he acts through charismatic agents and in holy wars, here he acts in the needs and hopes of ordinary people... So deeply has the author hidden God’s directing of history that the thread of God’s plan disappears completely into the tapestry of everyday events." (Ibid)

That is the point of Scripture. It is written to reveal God’s view of the uncertainties of this life. Only when we, like Naomi, learn to see God’s hand in every moment of life can we truly begin to understand His sovereignty and omnipotence. Yet in everything, we only understand what God has chosen to reveal. As Moses said, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law" (Deut. 29:29). God reveals His work in our lives through Scripture so that we might do all His words. To recognize that is to realize why Paul said, "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17).

Look at the evidence of Naomi’s faith, in spite of all she was enduring. First, Naomi prays for her two daughters-in-law. She instructs them to return to their people in Moab and she asks the Lord to be with them and deal kindly with them there (Ruth 1:8). She prayed for rest and a new husband to provide for each of them (v. 9). Then, in verse 10 when they, through their fears, state that they want to go with her, she reminds them of the consequences (vs. 11-13). She can no longer bear them any husbands, so they need to return and trust the Lord to provide for them in their hometowns.

The key statement in verses 6–13 is found in verse 13b where Naomi openly recognizes God’s hand in her circumstances: "It grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me!" These words demonstrate how she met her bitter experience with acceptance and trust. There is pain and anger in this verse, but there is also honesty and faith, for Naomi knows that her life is in God’s hands.

These things have not happened by chance. God rules. How else can we comfort one another when we are facing life’s tragedies? If we deny God’s sovereignty, we have to say, in effect, that God’s back was turned, which means that either He didn’t know or didn’t care. What sort of a God is that? No, we have to admit that we cannot know why a particular tragedy has happened, but then that is not what would help us most, anyway. We want to come to the point, with Job, where we can say amid all the tears and pain and anger, "though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" (Job 13:15). That is not submitting blindly, but actively cooperating with the God of all power, all wisdom, and all love, who is working all things together for the good of those whom He loves, as the Book of Ruth will go on to prove.

But first lets take a close look at the end of this chapter, which speaks clearly of the bitter life Naomi had lived thus far. Having returned to Bethlehem, everyone was excited to see her again, though somewhat startled by what they saw: "Is this Naomi?" (Ruth 1:19). Then we see even more clearly Naomi’s almost relentless trust in God: "But she said to them, 'Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?'" (vs. 20–21).

The contrast observed by her friends must have been startling to them (v. 19). But the fact that she calls herself "Mara" does not mean that she was bitter against God in her own heart, but rather that her experience had been bitter, and, for some reason which she could not understand, God had dealt harshly with her.

We need to be reminded that the Lord does sometimes empty us, but only in order to fill us with His goodness. The name by which Naomi refers to “the Almighty” is El Shaddai. No one is exactly sure of its meaning, though it is common to relate it to the idea of mountain-like stability, or to God’s attribute of unchanging faithfulness and dependability. She knowingly makes a conscious decision to place all her pain, bitter experiences, and hopelessness within the structure of God’s sovereignty, and she leaves the explanation and responsibility with Him. She realizes that God never forsakes us.

That is a great lesson for us. No matter what is happening in life, God is there, actively at work in your life. He cares for you and watches over you at every moment. He never forsakes you. So trust Him with all your heart and look to Him in all things, for He cares for you and He will take care of you and meet all your needs. Amen.