A Love Story
“Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.
Ruth 1:16 NIV
Your people will be my people and your God my God.”
“Within Ruth’s story we catch a glimpse of an amazing story yet to come….”
The Story
Last week we looked at the book of Judges as an example of God’s love and forgiveness. The next book of the Bible is also a love story, a very specific story about the love and faithfulness of a woman named Ruth and a man named Boaz. But once again, it points us to a larger story about the love and faithfulness of God.
Our plan for 2023 is to journey through The NeverEnding Story of the Bible and discover how we fit into it along the way. Our plan for this year is loosely based on The Story, an abridged chronological version of the Bible, and the accompanying study guide The Heart of the Story by Randy Frazee.
Here is where we are in The Story:
MOVEMENT TWO: The Story of Israel (Genesis 12-Malachi)
Chapter 9 – The Faith of a Foreign Woman
This chapter in The Story includes the book of Ruth. Rather than trying to summarize it myself, I have included a video below created by the BibleProject — a nonprofit, crowdfunded organization that produces videos and other Bible resources — which gives an excellent overview of this story. Here is how the book of Ruth begins:
Ruth 1:1-2 NIV“In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi….”
“Don’t call me Naomi; call me Bitter. The Strong One has dealt me a bitter blow. I left here full of life, and God has brought me back with nothing but the clothes on my back. Why would you call me Naomi? God certainly doesn’t. The Strong One ruined me.”
Ruth 1:20-21 MSG
While Ruth and Boaz are the two people we tend to focus on in the story, in this post I want to talk about Naomi. I hadn’t really planned to do this. In fact, the book of Ruth has always been special to me because of how God has spoken to me through the stories of the two main characters: More than once He’s brought the phrase “Ruth married Boaz” to my mind out of the blue as a reminder to choose faith in His promises and to have hope about the future. So, I have been understandably drawn to these two, and I looked forward to what God would reveal this time.
Well, He did indeed speak to me again, but not about Ruth or Boaz. This time, He spoke to me about Naomi. More specifically, He used the meaning of her name to do so. In most versions of the Bible, the meaning of Naomi’s name is given as “pleasant.” But when I read the Amplified Bible, it gave another translation:
“Do not call me Naomi (sweetness); call me Mara (bitter), for the Almighty has caused me great grief and bitterness.”
Ruth 1:20 AMP
The name “sweetness” is what jumped out and smacked me in the face! Here’s why: I had a dream once in which something stood out to me so much that I recorded it in my Spirit Journal the next morning as a message I felt like God was speaking directly to me. The line I recorded was, Sweetness, I will give you what you want.
I interpreted it as a message of hope and a reminder to be patient and trust that God is faithful. That was a few years ago. At the time, it lifted me up out of my melancholy and made me feel loved and cared for by my heavenly Father. But as time has worn on, and life is still hard, I find myself sinking back into my old gloomy habits. And I realized that as much as I long to be like Ruth, I’m actually more like Naomi.
Naomi is so disheartened and crushed by her circumstances that she wants to change her name from Naomi (sweetness) to Mara (bitter). And I think what God is trying to tell me now is that I have done the same. God has literally called me “Sweetness,” but I seem to persist in calling myself “Bitter.” Why do I do this? I wish I knew. God has been faithful to me time and time again, but the second something doesn’t go exactly the way I hoped, I begin to get down. I start to expect the worst. I begin to feel broken and downtrodden. Before long, I become depressed and hopeless… and bitter.
Maybe you can relate. If so, don’t give up. What happens next in Naomi’s story is a beacon of hope for all of us.
“From a Lower Story perspective, Elimelek and Naomi are just trying to make a decision to provide for their two boys. When everything falls apart, Naomi assumes that God has turned against her. Instead, God is using their choices to write his Upper Story of love and redemption. God is still in the business of taking our Lower Story decisions that put us in special places at special times and using them to tell an even greater story. Look for it. Expect it. Be amazed by it.”
Randy Frazee, The Heart of the Story
“Even as [Naomi] complains, God’s blessings are on their way, and every detail of timing and placement is orchestrated for her good.”
Tara-Leigh Cobble, The Bible Recap
Everything that transpires in Naomi’s life “just so happens” to lead her to the perfect time and place to receive a blessing she never could have imagined. God worked through the faithfulness of Ruth and Boaz to provide Ruth with a grandchild — a baby boy named Obed, who grew up to become the grandfather of King David and, therefore, an ancestor of another baby boy born in Bethlehem:
“This is the family history of Jesus Christ. He came from the family of David…”
Matthew 1:1 NCV
God not only restored Naomi’s family, He made her a part of the family line of His Son, Jesus Christ. Wow! I hope Naomi decided to take back her original name, because what ending could be sweeter than that? The joy and birth we see at the end of Naomi’s Lower Story foreshadows the joy and birth we will see in God’s Upper Story.
As the video above reminds us, “God is involved in the day-to-day joys and hardships of our lives” and “God weaves together the faithful obedience of His people to bring about His redemptive purposes in the world.” God’s providence is at work behind the scenes in Naomi’s story, and it’s at work behind the scenes in ours as well. Naomi thinks God has turned against her when, in fact, God is working to bless her in ways she can’t even imagine.
He is doing the same for us right now. When we’re walking the road of suffering, caught between the happiness we’ve lost and the joy that awaits us, let’s remember that God is faithful. He’s got a plan, and we can trust in His promises. Let’s be faithfully obedient to Him and then wait and see Him work in amazing ways.
“You know, right now your story may seem a little hopeless and bitter to the taste…. Just remember, though, if we love God and align our lives to his purposes, then, just as we are reminded in Romans 8:28, God is working out everything for our good. Since we know how the story ultimately ends, we can wait patiently for God to unfold his good plan for us!”
Randy Frazee, The Heart of the Story
This week’s Scripture passages remind us that the book of Ruth is more than just a human love story. It’s a story about God and his love for us. As He did for Ruth and Naomi, God has turned tragedy into joy and death into life by sending us a Redeemer — His own Son. So no matter how much we may be struggling right now, we can have hope that our Upper Story happy ending is coming: If we are followers of Christ, then our final destination in heaven with Him is guaranteed. But the book of Ruth also shows us that God is always working in our Lower Stories as well, so let’s not give up on finding a happy ending in this lifetime…
Let’s look for it. Let’s expect it. Let’s be amazed by it!
“Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer.”
Ruth 4:14 NIV
References:
- BibleProject, https://bibleproject.com.
- “Book of Ruth Summary: A Complete Animated Overview.” YouTube, uploaded by BibleProject, 15 October 2015, https://youtu.be/0h1eoBeR4Jk.
- Cobble, Tara-Leigh. The Bible Recap: A One-Year Guide to Reading and Understanding the Entire Bible. Bethany House, 2020.
- Frazee, Randy. The Heart of the Story: Discover Your Life Within the Grand Epic of God’s Story. Zondervan, 2017.
- The Story: Read the Bible as One Seamless Story from Beginning to End. Rev. ed., Zondervan, 2008.
Images:
- All images taken from “Book of Ruth Summary: A Complete Animated Overview.” YouTube, uploaded by BibleProject, 15 October 2015, https://youtu.be/0h1eoBeR4Jk.
About The Author
Christa
My vision for Wondertakings was to create a devotional blog for "nerdy" Christians like me. I do believe, as Socrates said, that wisdom begins in wonder. So I love to read or watch anything that inspires wonder and figure out what I can learn from it. I view it all through a Christian lens. I believe that God can and does speak through many sources in many ways, even if those speaking are not aware of it. I am not an expert in theology or religious studies. My goal with this blog is simply to share what I've learned as a fellow student and sinner in the Christian walk. My hope and my prayer is that by doing so I may be able to help someone else. In Deuteronomy 5:33 (NLT), we are told: "Stay on the path that the Lord your God has commanded you to follow. Then you will live long and prosperous lives. . . ." So in the words of Moses (and Spock), live long and prosper, my friends!