Lessons From the Life of Naomi

DESTITUTE AND  DEPRESSED

Life was good until the famine hit. Elimelech moved the small family to Moab where there was still plenty of food.  Moab and Israel shared a long mixed history of conflict and peace.  After they settled in their new place the husband Elimelech soon died.  Both sons had married Moabite women but life quickly became depressing when one died after the other.  Any woman without a husband or male relative to protect and provide for you was in a desparate situation.

These three women were now totally destitute. Naomi heard the famine was over in Israel and told her daughters-in-law to return home to their families who would take care of them. Naomi planned to return to Israel where she hoped distant relatives might take pity on her. There were no laws to protect foreign widows in Moab. Orpah tearfully returned home which seemed her only hope for a future.  Ruth refused to leave Naomi alone and traveled to Israel with her.

They finally returned to the village of Bethlehem and people recognized her even after ten years. Naomi (means sweet or pleasant) was so depressed she asked them to call her “Mara” which means bitter. She said, ” I left with hope but God brought great misfortune upon me and I have nothing.”  Mosaic law provided for the poor so at least they wouldn’t go hungry. Naomi taught Ruth about the customs and sent her to gather some grain for bread.

Leviticus 19:9–10    “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest.  And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God.”

 

 

Ruth went to the local fields and began gleaning the barley left behind by the harvesters.  Small villages like Bethlehem didn’t get much news but when they did the word passed quickly and the boss noticed a new woman working in the field. After he heard her story he told Ruth to pick grain alongside his female workers and he ordered the men not to harrass her.

 

A GLIMPSE OF HOPE

Ruth came home at the end of the day with more than an apron full and told Naomi how the owner, Boaz, had blessed her. Naomi realized this man was a relative of her husband.  If he was willing, he could marry Ruth and purchase the family land.

Another law of Moses was the kinsman – redeemer, a man who was legally able to redeem (or purchase) his close male relative’s wife ( and property) in order to bring up sons for the deceased’s lineage.  

The harvest was at its end so Naomi created a plan to secure a husband for Ruth. The narrative seems very strange to us but this was actually an innocent way for Ruth to let Boaz know she was available and willing to marry him to continue her deceased husbands family. Apparently Boaz had been too busy growing his business to get married and was pleasantly surprised.  He told Ruth that their was actually another closer blood relative and he would settle the business with the elders.

 

BLESSINGS OVERFLOW

Boaz did marry Ruth and they had a baby boy.

Ruth 4:14–15   Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel!  He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.”

We know the story didn’t end there.  The baby was named Obed and became the grandfather of David and an ancestor of our Lord Jesus.

LESSONS FROM NAOMI

Many would call Naomi the most depressed woman recorded in the Bible but I think she gets left with a bad rap. Naomi must have been an excellent mother in law because we read that the women clung to her and cried.  They loved her.  Was she kind and wise? Maybe she taught them stories about the God of the Israelites because Ruth decides to follow Him as well as Naomi.  Naomi was a woman of resillience. She returned home to Bethlehem and her people.  Although she had lost everything she thought was important, she did not lose her faith. Their story is about hope, love, loyalty and redemption.  God created a great legacy from great loss.

REMEMBER:

God gives hope when we have lost ours.  He can make a way when we cannot see one.  God will exchange our sadness for joy.

Nothing is impossible with God.