WHAT NAOMI DID NOT SEE

“Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?” Ruth 1:20-21

I have seen many going through great suffering the past few months including myself. The Book of Ruth is a book that can bring great comfort, perspective, and faith when prolonged suffering or sudden calamity sets upon us. I have found great comfort here as I have silently contemplated this story. What especially has been helpful for me, is reading stories in the Bible that so resonate with my own experience.

Naomi lived during the time of the Judges in Israel and suffered greatly. First, a severe famine came over the land. Naomi knew that God was the one who sent the famine. She said, “The Almighty has brought calamity upon me” (1:21).

The her husband dies after the family moves to Moab. So when Naomi’s husband dies (Ruth 1:3), what could she feel but that the judgment of God had followed her and added grief to famine? “The hand of the Lord has gone out against me” (1:13).

Then her two sons take Moabite wives, one named Orpah, the other named Ruth (1:4). And again the hand of God falls. Verse 5 sums up Naomi’s tragedy after ten years of childless marriages: “Both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.” A famine, a move to pagan Moab, the death of her husband, the marriage of her sons to foreign wives, ten years of apparent childlessness for both of her daughters-in-law, and the death of her sons—the pain, suffering, and trials are relentless.

In verse 6, Naomi gets word that “the Lord had visited his people and given them food.” So she decides to return. to Judah. Her two daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah, go with her, partway it seems, but then in verses 8–13 she tries to persuade them to go back home. In verse 11 Naomi says, ‘Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands?’” In other words, Naomi has nothing to offer them. Her condition is worse than theirs. If they try to be faithful to her and to the name of their husbands, they will find nothing but pain. So she concludes at the end of verse 13, “No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.” In other words, Don’t come with me because God is against me. Your life may become as bitter as mine.

But little does Naomi know what God has in store for her beyond all of this pain and suffering. It was God who broke the famine and opened the way home (1:6). It will be God who preserved a kinsman named Boaz to continue Naomi’s line (2:20). And it will be God who will constrain Ruth to stay with Naomi. But Naomi is so broken, devastated, and grief stricken by God’s hard providence that she does not see His mercy at work in her life.

So Ruth and Naomi return together to Bethlehem in Judah. “And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, ‘Is this Naomi?’” (1:19). That is a painful question not only because they see that she is older and with no husband and no sons, but also because the name Naomi means “pleasant” or “sweet.” So she responds,

Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me? (Ruth 1:20–21)

Naomi is unshaken and sure about three things: God exists, God is sovereign, and God has afflicted her. What Naomi does not see is that God is working even the most bitter providences for His good and glory (Romans 8:28; Genesis 50:20). She needed to open her eyes—the eyes of her heart—to the signs of his merciful purposes.

Day by day, and with each passing moment,Strength I find, to meet my trials here;
Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment, I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.He whose heart is kind beyond all measure,Gives unto each day what He deems best—Lovingly,its part of pain and pleasure,Mingling toil with peace and rest. Karolina W. Sandell-Berg, “Day by Day”

Naomi saw a glimmer of light that it was God who took away the famine and opened a way home. Naomi “had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food” (1:6). Just as surely as God brought the famine, God took it away. Naomi could see that. But she could not see all that God was doing. Later she will be able to look back, in the same way we can often look back in God's workings in our own lives and see the pointers of hope for our present.

I look back in my own life back in April and thought I might be homeless by June. I was frightened, depressed, stressed, anxious and saw nothing but darkness ahead for my future. Now here I am writing at the end of September and God,through incredible acts of providence, has wonderfully taken care of me, comforted and sustained me, and graced me to be on a Sabbatical after 33 years of ministry! Who knew?

I have written before that there are millions of micro-reasons for God doing what He does that He has chosen not to reveal to us (Deuteronomy 29:29). Most of the time we have not a clue. That is why we must ground ourselves with an iron hold onto the things He has revealed to us in His Word, His macro-reasons.

Oh that when we see only bitter providence's in our lives like Naomi, that we would ask God to give us sight, light that would rise us to see beyond the darkness a wonderful, loving, kind, merciful, purposeful, sovereign God who works 24/7 (Psalm 121).

Naomi says in verse 21, “The Lord has brought me back empty.” She may have emotionally felt that but this is not true! What would Naomi say if she could see only a fraction of the thousands of things God was doing in the bitter providence's of her life? What would we say? Listen to what a poet well acquainted with emotional pain, despair, and suffering named William Cowper wrote:

God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs,
And works his sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence,
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan his work in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.
William Cowper

Do we believe that God "moves in mysterious ways"? What if I knew back in April what God would do over the next five months in my life? What if Naomi knew that God was choosing an “unclean” outsider, a Moabitess—just like he chose Rahab the prostitute (Matthew 1:5; Joshua 2:1) and Tamar who played the prostitute (Matthew 1:3; Genesis 38:15)—as the kind of person he wanted in the bloodline of his Son? What if she knew that part of what God was doing was shaping a genealogy for the Messiah that would humble the world?

What if Naomi could see that in Ruth she would gain a man-child, and that this man-child would be the grandfather of the greatest king of Israel, and that this king of Israel would be the ancestor of the King of kings, Jesus Christ, the Lord of the universe? If she had trusted God that such things were in the offing, she may have said like the poet William Cowper wrote,

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face

Looking at that smiling face beyond my gloom,

Pastor Bill

ENJOYING THE CREATOR AND HIS CREATION

"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,for his steadfast love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of gods,for his steadfast love endures forever.Give thanks to the Lord of lords,for his steadfast love endures forever;to him who alone does great wonders,for his steadfast love endures forever;to him who by understanding made the heavens,for his steadfast love endures forever;to him who spread out the earth above the waters,for his steadfast love endures forever;to him who made the great lights, for his steadfast love endures forever; the sun to rule over the day,for his steadfast love endures forever; the moon and stars to rule over the night,for his steadfast love endures forever" Psalm 136:1-4

"It is he who made the earth by his power,who established the world by his wisdom,and by his understanding stretched out the heavens." Jeremiah 10:12

I have just returned from a few weeks of hiking in the Sierra's, Yosemite National Park, Lassen Volcanic National Park, and the Redwoods National Park. I climbed in the Sierra's to over 10,500 feet at Mammoth Crest and saw myself rising above the tree lines and entering into alpine tundra. There I was able to see all the lakes of Mammoth Lakes from my viewpoint as well as the Minarets of the Sierra's across the way. In Tuolomne Meadows in Yosemite I hiked to the Cathedral Pass and from one vantage point I could see Half Dome and the Yosemite Valley while looking back and able to see Cathedral Mountain and Lake. I also climbed the Lambert Dome and from there could see all of Tuolomne Meadows and Yosemite in its glorious splendor. At Lassen I climbed Mount Lassen and could see the entire panorama of the park from all sides. Down below I hiked to see the boiling pools, fissures of steam, and sulfur streams at Bumpass Hell. Then I hiked to the Chaos Jumbles to sit at the belly of a volcanic crater and look up at the majestic walls of the crater towering above me. What a contrast it was for me to leave the moonscape of Chaos Jumbles and walk leisurely along the pastoral tranquility of Manzanita Lake. Then there was the Redwoods. When I entered into the towering Redwood forests I felt I had entered a world of enchantment. The height of the trees seeming to reach toward heaven and the lushness of the green forest was captivating to the eyes.

In all of these places there came to my soul a sense of the glory and majesty of God that was inexpressible to me. I found myself unable to bridge the gap between the beauty that I saw and my ability to express all the feeling and emotion that was inside of me. All I could say most of the time were expressions like "wow!","awesome!", "amazing", "praise God!", "incredible", and "it is so beautiful!" Most of the time I just looked around with inexpressible wonder, amazement, and joy in beholding the immense beauty I was observing.

I thought often on how God made things for His own pleasure and glory and for our enjoyment. When He made all things He said, "It is good." Oh, how He delights in His handiwork! I mused about how many places there are that no one sees or rarely sees that are full of incomparable beauty that God delights in each and every moment.They are always there radiating beauty and God delights in each and every place He created even if no one is privileged to ever see them. Sometimes I would be all alone in one of those places and I would think as I was enjoying it how much the Father delighted in my enjoyment of His creating work. I thought about His infinite perfection, brilliance,genius, excellency, creativity, purity, love, and wisdom in all that He has made. What kind of mind could create a mountain, a forest, a lake, ferns, streams, lakes, igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks, glaciers, valleys, colors,shapes,such diversity, yet such order.

God has made all things as a physical display of His beauty and the greatness of his works for all to see. God, the most beautiful being in the universe created a world where His beautiful perfections could shine. Jonathan Edwards say of God's creating beauty,

"The Lord is an infinite fountain of holiness, moral excellence, and beauty, and the earth is the basin by which his beauty is poured."

Paul writes,
"For of Him and through him, and to Him are all things" (Romans 11:36).
"For by him all things were created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible, and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, principalities or powers, all things were created by Him and for Him"(Colossians 1:16)

When God made creation, His ultimate end was for us to see His glory. That is why it is both sad and blasphemous when I meet people who appreciate nature but do not believe, love, nor honor the maker of the beauty of the nature they so cherish. The beauty of the Sierra's, Yosemite, Lassen, and the Redwoods pale compared to the beauty of the one whose glory is displayed in all of His creation. As a matter of fact, his creation is like a towering neon sign displayed for all to see and enjoy, planted by God to display His infinite beauty and glory. All beauty is a pale reflection, an echo, a pointer, to the one who made and designed it and "made all things for Himself".

Creation is a love song from its creator to us! Walk in the Redwoods and you will hear the sweet chords of divine music. Hike in the Sierra's and God's sweet song of love will ring in your ears. Are you listening to the music or have your ears become so accustomed to the discordant cacophonies of technology, media, and entertainment that you have lost the ability to appreciate the beautiful things of life in their simplest forms. Oh how many of us have become so spiritually thin that we have lost our connection with nature. I would encourage you my dear readers to make a return to nature and enjoy it. Go for a walk on the beach; go to the park, enjoy your yards,go to the woods, go to the mountains, go to the desert and sing praises, laugh, contemplate the delights of all the little and big things that God has made, and commune with Him in the very realm that was made by Him to testify of Him.

But never forget that the ultimate enjoyment is not in creation but in the beautiful creator himself.

"The enjoyment of [God] is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied…. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends are but shadows, but enjoyment of God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams, but God is the fountain. These are but drops, but God is the ocean. " Jonathan Edwards

Loving the creator of His creation which I so enjoy,
Pastor Bill

THE MIRACLE OF PRAYER

"Hear my voice when I call, O LORD; be merciful to me and answer me"
Psalm 27:7

Recently I read something by Paul Tripp that really encouraged me. I hope it does for you as well.

I never get used to the moment-by-moment miracle of prayer. It’s an amazing thing that God would ever even once listen to me, let alone answer! In little moments and big, again and again, I choose my own kingdom over his. I often run to him for help for messes that in my foolishness and rebellion I’ve made. I’ve no righteousness to present as an argument that he should hear me. I’ve no autonomous wisdom that I can present as a reason for his
attention. I’ve no independent track record of good deeds that would get his attention.I’ve often been more fickle than loyal. I often justify my sin rather than seek his forgiveness. I struggle more with being attracted to the temporary pleasures of this physical world than I am committed to godly living. The desires of my heart wander again and again. I forget my identity
as his child, and in my amnesia I seek identity where it was never meant to be found. Again and again I contradict the theology that I say I believe with the way that I live. I sadly have to ask for his forgiveness for the same things over and over again. Undeserving is the way I always stand before him.

This is precisely why David appeals to God’s mercy as he prays in Psalm 27:7. He can’t look to himself for any reason that God would listen and respond. Yet, the miracle of his existence and ours is that he doesn’t have to fear God’s rejection or fall into thinking that prayer is an exercise in spiritual futility. Why? Because God is his own reason for answering. Prayer finds its hope not in the qualifications of the one praying, but in the character and
plan of the God who is hearing. He answers because of who he is. He answers because of what he is doing. He answers because he loves to see us come, and he loves to provide just the grace for that moment.

But why exactly would God respond to me?” Here are five reasons:

1) His love. He’s the ultimate wise, patient, kind, gentle, and forgiving father. He delights in his children. Because of his great love, his eyes look out for us and his ears are always attentive to our cries. Because of his love, he invites us to bring our cares to him, and he assures us that he really does care for us. He is never too busy or distracted or too tired to hear and answer. He doesn’t refuse to answer because of our weakness and failure. He doesn’t get impatient because we have to come again and again. He is love, and he loves to exercise his power and glory to meet the needs of his struggling children.

2) His grace. Grace provides the whole structure and standing of our relationship with him. If it weren’t for the grandeur of his forgiving grace, we would have no relationship with him at all. Because of his grace, he is unwilling to rest until the work of transformation is complete.
In grace he looks on us and knows that this work isn’t done. We’ve not yet been completely formed into the likeness of his Son. Although the power of sin has been broken, he knows that the presence of sin still remains. He hears our prayers because, when we pray, we confess that we still need the grace of forgiveness and deliverance, and in so doing we place ourselves in
the center of what he has committed himself to complete—his work of redemption.

3) His faithfulness. He doesn’t change his mind. He doesn’t ride the roller-coaster of the rise and fall of emotions. His heart isn’t a battle zone of conflicting motivations. He doesn’t get bored, exhausted, or distracted. He won’t quit what he has begun. He won’t forsake those upon
whom he has placed his love. He won’t harden his heart, shut down his mind, and turn his back. He won’t take a break or go to sleep. He will never tell you that you have asked too much or that you have come to him too often. You never have to work to figure him out. You never have to wonder if his response to you will change. He is absolutely faithful to every promise he
has made and every provision he has offered. Your hope in prayer is rooted in his faithfulness, not yours.

4) His kingdom. As I come to him in the patterns laid out by Christ and pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” I pray words that bring him delight. He loves the exercise of his will. He finds joy in the success of his kingdom. The spiritual growth and prosperity of his children means the growth and prosperity of his kingdom. He is King,
and he delights in his children’s recognizing his lordship and submitting to his rule. Every good thing he does for his children is done to rescue them from their self-focused kingdom of one and to welcome them into the expansiveness of his kingdom of glory and grace. And his ears will continue to be attentive and his hands will be active until his kingdom has been
fully and completely established forever.

5) His glory. The thing that God is most committed to is his own glory. But here’s what you need to understand. His commitment to his His own glory is your only hope. Because he is committed to his own glory, he has committed to draw to himself a multitude of people who forsake their own glory and do the one thing that they were created to do: live for his. So his commitment to his glory causes him to listen and respond, listen and respond until all
of his children no longer look to the shadow glories of creation for their satisfaction but, rather, look to him. Because he is committed to his glory, I can go to him in prayer, knowing that he will hear and answer.

So even though you have nothing to bring to the Lord that would commend you to him, you can approach him with confidence. He really does delight in hearing and answering his children. Your hope in prayer is never found in you; it is always found in him.

Praying with freedom to a merciful prayer hearing and answering God,
Pastor Bill