Ruth 1:20 And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me
I hope you have had a nice day. Maybe you have had a wonderful day. Maybe it has been a bad day. Whatever it is, it is a fairly short period of time. A younger person might say, “It has been a good year.” If you are older, you might say, “It has been a good era.” What about a good life? A lot of times the way we view our life depends on our reference point. That becomes our center of gravity. We may compare this day to our best day or our worst day and that becomes our center of gravity. How do you look at your life? Is it a good day, a good era, a good life?
In the story of Ruth you find a couple of things that obviously could govern one’s view of life. One is happenstance. Ruth married into a family from Israel. They had moved to Moab because of famine, and that is where they met Ruth. The story of Ruth begins with famine, then death, and then moving when her husband, brother-in-law, and father-in-law all died. She moved to Israel with her mother-in-law Naomi.
What you find in chapter 2 is one happenstance. One of the ways God provided for people who were poor was for them to reap after the gleaners in the fields of harvest. Whatever was left over they could keep and it would sustain them. Ruth 2:3 says that she “gleaned in the field after the reapers: and her hap [happenstance or dumb luck] was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech.” Some people look at life as sheer dumb luck. It is just happenstance. It just happens. That is the source of happiness.
Other people say, “Fate is not going to determine my life. I am going to live by purpose.” Ruth 2:16 says that Boaz, the man who owned the field, left food behind in the field on purpose. He intended it. So, some people think their life is a result of happenstance, happenings cradle their happiness, while others think life is about purpose, a life driven by their own purpose to do what they can and live the best life.
Others see providence. When it came to Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law, she did see the providence of God. In Ruth 1 there are numerous references to God. He is the one who brought bread back to the land of Israel. Now if you had been there, you would have just seen rain, but the narrator says “the LORD had visited his people in giving them bread.” Naomi says in verse 13, “The hand of the LORD is gone out against me.” She was saying, “There is a God. There is providence,” but that did not make her feel better because she felt God was against her.
In Ruth 1:21 Naomi says, “I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi [meaning lovely or pleasant], seeing the LORD hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?” She realized there was an Almighty, that God was able, but she recognized that her life was bitter, which meant that God was either not able or not good. So, Naomi didn’t think of life has just happenstance. She didn’t see life merely as what she could make happen as a widow lady at that time in that culture. She couldn’t make things happen. Naomi saw God’s hand, His providence, but missed the long view. That is what is really important.
In Ruth 1:20 people said when Naomi came back to Israel, “Is this Naomi? Is this Miss Lovely and Pleasant?” Naomi told them, “Call me not Naomi, call me Mara [meaning bitter]: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.” She thought, “He was Almighty. He has the power. He dealt bitterly. I wonder if He is actually good?”
The bottom line is that if you go to the very end of the story of Ruth and Naomi in Ruth 4:14, after Ruth had married Boaz, the kinsman redeemer, after she had a child and things were going well, the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the LORD, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel.” More importantly, as far as long view, verse 22 says that the child begat Jesse and Jesse beget David. So, King David came from the line that is talked about here. Ultimately, Jesus Christ the Messiah is the son of David.
So, Naomi had a choice. She could either be bitter or lovely. I don’t blame Naomi for saying what she said or feeling how she felt. She felt like life was against her, as if an Almighty God who could help did not help because He was bitter; so she was bitter. But what you see here is that lovely people enjoy the long view.
There is the short view. The short view was famine, uncertainty, and death, moving to Moab, all the men dying, and moving back to Israel. The middle view might be survival. They met Boaz. Boaz married Ruth. Boaz treats both Ruth and Naomi very well. You might call that the middle view. Things are getting better.
The problem is in any life there is up and down. You ask Naomi, “Are you having a nice day?” She answers, “There is famine in Israel.” At the next stage you ask, “Are you having a nice day?” She replies, “I’m in Moab and there is food.” Go to the next thing and say, “Are you having a nice day?” She replies, “My son has married a lovely girl named Ruth.” At the next thing you ask, “Are you having a nice day?” She answers, “Everyone has died.”
Every day is different. There is the short view of famine, the middle view of survival, and then there is the long view. The long view is one only God can see. So, I would say you should let God lead. He is the one with the long view. Whether my day is pleasant or unpleasant, nice or not nice, good or bad, there is only one who has the long view; so let Him lead.
To acknowledge providence is to adopt the long view. Naomi’s name meant lovely, yet she lived in bitterness. But the story ends by Naomi living up to her name in the sense that she was living a lovely life. That doesn’t mean no problems, heartaches, or toil. It just means there is a view longer than just today.
The long view is going beyond here and now in this life. It has to. This is not being Pollyanna and just thinking in a positive way. It is acknowledging providence, God’s ability to provide, to be almighty and good. There are days when I can see that and days when I cannot. So, it is not merely making the choice of providence among three: happenstance, purpose, and providence. It is a matter of realizing that there is a short view or providence, the middle view or providence, and the long view with providence. Only God has the long view. Faith is relying on the one who sees the very beginning from the very end.
I don’t know what your life is like. Are you having a nice day? Maybe you are or maybe you are not. Things will change many times before this life ends, but this life is not all there is and there is more joy in this life because I know there is more than this life. To acknowledge providence is to adopt the long view. God is the only one with the long view. Let Him lead because lovely people enjoy the long view.