1. A Woman Bereft (v.5b)
Imagine you're hearing this story for the first time. You may have been surprised to hear that they had gone to Moab and were wondering what would happen next. What happens is deep tragedy.
First, Elimelech dies and Naomi is widowed. Her life then goes from bad to worse. Her boys grow up and marry Moabite girls. And then they too both die and she is left alone.
Verse 5 is very graphic in the original: her name is not used; she is simply “the woman”. Having lost both her husband and her 2 sons she has in effect lost her identity.
When Stephen Saunders, a British military attaché, was murdered in Athens, his wife Heather said this: "Stephen was my life and our lives were so deeply entwined that today I stand before you half the person I was yesterday morning...Not only have they killed my husband, they have destroyed me and my family". The same kind of desolating bitterness had visited Naomi in the fields of Moab.
Knowing how things ultimately turn out, we must make the effort to sit where Naomi is and share something of her pain. I have only seen widowhood from the sidelines; I know that some of you know it from the inside – you know the tears, the deep pain and the silent anguish and despair. That’s where we find Naomi; bereft of her family and also away from people and, maybe, from her God.
Whether we have experienced such loss ourselves or not, we can perhaps readily imagine the questions that must have run through Naomi’s tortured mind: where is God in all this? Is this punishment for coming to Moab? Is it the end of my faith?
This life can be desperately hard. Being a Christian is no safeguard against that. What matters most is how we react to such times. The rest of this book will explore that and will show us that the Lord is still there. Its answers are not slick but they are real. They show us that, not only is he there, he is active despite all indications to the contrary and he works his purposes of grace out, in and through his people.
2. A Crucial Decision
This is perhaps the most crucial time in the whole of Naomi's life. What she does next will determine the road that she takes for the rest of her days. Will she throw in her lot with the Moabites and turn her back on the one true God?
Verse 6 tells us that she made the momentous decision to go back home to Judah. The NIV translates the verse back to front; it begins by telling us that she and her daughters in law got up to return “from the fields of Moab”.
“Fields of Moab” is a way of saying the ‘country’ or ‘region’ of Moab but it is a very evocative phrase. They came to the fields of Moab because they were full and now this family is empty.
But now, in that very place of deep tragedy, the decision has been made to return. That is never an easy decision to reach. Going back is not a guaranteed option nor is it going to be without its own difficulties.
The past can be a place of hurt and failure; it has memories that are too strong to ignore and too painful to face up to. I once saw an advert for a telephone company that asked: 'What's the difference between the past and the future? You can't change the past'. The implication was that you can change the future. Don't we often feel that way, that we are shackled to our past and cannot escape it?
Yet here we see Naomi starting out to go back. Back, perhaps, to recriminations and blame. Back to very painful memories of her husband and children. Back to poverty and hardship. So what is it that is taking her back?
3. The Visit of the God of Grace
Verse 6 tells us that the people of Bethlehem, along with the rest of Judah, now have food. The town has started to live up to its name again! So is this a case of Naomi 'changing lanes' and going with the flow? Is she being guided simply by pragmatism?
This verse tells us why the land of Judah now has food and why Naomi is on her way back there: God has visited his people and has given then food.
We aren't told how it was they heard in Moab what was going on in Judah. Someone has suggested that she had kept the lines of communication open; that may be crucial to going back. But we're not told that was the case.
What we are told is that she interpreted the reality of food as a divine blessing upon the people. It was this she was responding to. The phrase translated as “had come to the aid of his people” is a very evocative phrase. It literally reads, “the LORD had visited his people”.
In the OT such visits could lead either to judgement or to blessing. In those days of chaos there was much for God to judge. But as we read the book of Judges, and here too, we see that the Lord who judges his people is also the God who blesses them with his grace by giving them food (nb: alliteration in original strikes a joyous note). He does both because he is faithful to his covenant.
Interestingly, this is the first report in the book of the Lord's direct action. The only other such report is in 4:13 referring to Ruth having conceived. Both are actions of grace and they frame this story for us. Naomi's life was framed by the grace of God and ours are too.
This giving of food marked the end of the famine; it also marks the beginning of the end of Naomi's long, bitter exile. In hearing the news, she gets ready to go back. That would seem to show that she hasn't given up on the Lord because she knows he doesn't give up on his people. There is still some faith beating in her soul.
As the God of the covenant, YHWH has promised to supply all our needs. Just how he will do so for Naomi (and Ruth) we are yet to see but it's a truth for us to take to heart. All our needs, both physical and spiritual, are provided for in the Lord Jesus.
4. On the Way
So Naomi and her two daughters-in-law set out for Bethlehem. Verse 7 makes it plain that they were only just beginning the journey; there was still a long way to go. Naomi appears to have lost 3 and gained 2 but that's an issue the journey will unfold for us.
They started out. Who knows what the future will hold and what thoughts, fears and concerns are in their minds as they left Moab? The key thing, though, is that they got up and started out. They started out because God is gracious and faithful to his covenant. And he does not change.
This morning, going back may seem impossible to you but what is impossible with man is possible with God. We may not be able to turn back the clock on some events; Naomi wasn't going to get her husband and sons back. But the advert I saw was wrong: it’s true that we can't change the past but, with God, we're not shackled to it.
It is possible to come back to God, to a living walk with him, to a life of faith and trust. It is possible to ask him to take your hand and lead you home. And it’s possible because of Jesus’ death for our sins and because the Lord is unchangeable in his holiness, justice, wisdom and love.
So why not start the journey right now?
