I am so grateful that God does not reward me entirely according to my love for Him, because it is so grossly inadequate and imperfect. There are many, many times, (most of the time, I'm sure) that He deals with me in mercy, in spite of my errant heart.
Given that truth, there is still a scriptural principle that God does bless us in part according to our faith and trust in Him. Conversely, He does not bless unbelief nor direct disobedience. And, that is what we see having happened in the life of Naomi, now that she is headed back to Judea.
Ruth 1:6-13 reveals Naomi's heart-status as she began to return. Her "heart was not in it", not fully. Verse 6 states that she was going back because she had heard there was once again "bread" in the Promised Land. She was returning because she had scant support system in Moab, and she knew that, according to The Law, she would find care and sustenance within the family obligations of the Israelites in her home country.
The latter verses of this passage reveal that her heart is still bitter, however. She even considers changing her name, we see later on (1:20-21), to Mara, which means "bitter". She blamed God for her excruciating losses, as opposed to acknowledging the human choices that brought them about (her husband's and {or not?} hers as well).
As Christians we have no immunity from pain. We have a Savior who helps us bear it, because He carries us through it. But, He does not always keep us from it. Sometimes, horrific pain comes, not from our sinful choices; rather, it comes for reasons we cannot possibly understand, either at that time or even years later.
Naomi's response to pain was very different from Ruth's.
I have had times when I felt I was living in a parallel universe, one being the world of personal pain in my soul and the other being the everyday world in which I lived and moved. Fortunately, over time, my Savior dealt with my broken heart, which gives me hope that, when such brokenness again comes, He will again help me. It seems incompatible with the Christian life. If we believe that, though, we are not looking squarely at scriptures which testify to the contrary.
"Surely, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows...."
Isaiah 53:4 (KJV)
And, all of 1 Peter, actually, but this especially - - -
"And, after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you."
1 Peter 5:10 (NET)
By her bitter attitude, Naomi had removed herself from a place of blessing by God. She had essentially, deliberately made herself "unblessable". How did she do this?
1. She began her return with a broken heart, but not with the brokenness that leads to repentance.
2. In an attempt to hide her family's sin and failures, she attempted to send two family members back to paganism.
3. She placed the blame for her circumstances on God.
If we want to receive His blessing on our lives we must place ourselves in obedience, whether we like it or not. Many times, I do not like being obedient, I'll just confess. Yesterday, I read a translation of Isaiah 53:5, where the word "transgressions" was translated "rebellion". It hit me right between the eyes. "Transgressions" paints a picture of "making honest mistakes", like running off the road a little bit. Rebellion is all about purposefully driving off the road at 100 mph. Rebellion is the opposite of obedience. Rebellion is bound up in our hearts from the moment we are conceived, and only the pure gospel salvation of Jesus Christ and His sanctifying Holy Spirit can drive it from us.
Obedience is a Holy Spirit-enabled choice we make. When we choose to trust and obey, we then put ourselves in a place of blessing.
Now then, look at Ruth's response to her horrendous circumstances.
Deuteronomy 23:3 (ESV) says this:
“No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the LORD. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the LORD forever,"
What?!?!
Yes, this was The Law. So, yeah, I know you are smart...and so you are wondering...what happened? How was it that Ruth was accepted?
Grace and mercy happened.
This is a misconception of the Old Testament. God has always made provision for "pagans" who turn from their worship of false gods to worship the Lord God Jehovah (Yahweh). In the genealogy of Jesus we find two such women (Rahab, the Gentile harlot from Jericho, and Ruth, the Moabitess, from the people group that worshipped Chemosh). There are others from scripture as well, although for the sake of brevity I'll stop with those two examples.
Ruth was accepted by God because she embraced Him as her God. In His mercy and grace, He accepted her...and so did the Israelites. Mercy and Grace trumped The Law. In this, Ruth foreshadows the beautiful grafting in of the Gentiles to the Kingdom of God, wholesale, through the beautiful, finished work of Jesus Christ.
Ruth yielded her heart, turned her back on her rebellion and obediently worshipped the God of Israel. She put herself in a place not only of earthly blessing, not only a place of honor (the family tree of Jesus Christ), but also in a place of eternal salvation.
And, we are going to see in the next chapter that Ruth did what she did without seeing a bright future.
She trusted God pre-emptively, not because she could be assured her future would be bright. In fact, on the way back to Bethlehem, I imagine she really had no idea what was going to become of her.
Oh, dear God, please give me such faith!
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