Ruth 1:20 And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara; for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.
Perhaps you’ve heard the story of Frank “Lucks” Tower. The story goes that Frank was a stoker on the Titanic, which, of course, sank. Frank escaped miraculously. Not long after that he was on a ship called The Empress of Ireland, which also sank, and he again survived. Finally, on May 7, 1915 Frank was the stoker on the Lusitania when German subs torpedoed and sunk her within just in fifteen minutes time. The legend goes that when the torpedo struck his ship, Frank was heard to say, “Now what?!”
Maybe that is where you are in your life. You think, “Now what? I’ve put all my eggs in one basket on this ship and it sunk. I survived, and tried another ship. It sunk, too. Now it’s the third time, and I just don’t see things getting better.” Maybe you throw your hands up to Heaven and say, “Now what?!”
The story of Naomi in the book of Ruth is a story where Naomi may very easily have thought to herself, “Now what?!” Verse 1 says, “Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled.” These were very chaotic days. It was the dark ages of Israel’s history. It continues, “There was a famine in the land.” Naomi’s sights are being narrowed. She went from chaos but food to chaos and famine!
The verse continues, “And a certain man of Bethlehem-judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab.” This was Naomi’s husband. There is already chaos, then there is famine, and now they are going to a land where they probably should not have gone. It’s a foreign land with a foreign culture, a foreign language, and where they did not know God Jehovah. This is where Naomi’s husband went with his wife and two sons.
Finally, the Bible says in verse 3 that her husband died, and in verse 5 her two sons died. She must have thought to herself, “Now what?!” Maybe that is where you are in your story today. This is a classic plot in the sense that there is a crisis, a complication, and then there is resolution. Now Naomi had never read her script, her story. We know the story of Naomi is the story of God’s providence. We can throw that light back onto the first chapter, but in the first chapter you don’t know that.
Maybe you haven’t read your own story. You don’t know the beginning or the end. Where are you in the story? Maybe you are in the crisis right now. Maybe you are in some sort of resolution or in a loop going back to a new problem. The more important question is, “Where is God?” Providence is God’s “provide-ance.” Providence means “seeing ahead of time.” God is able to look ahead and provide ahead. Little details in the story seem insignificant. Then you come to the end of the story and see that it was God’s providing ahead of time. You don’t know the details and significance of all the things that happen in your life, but there is a God in Heaven. At the risk of sounding trite, you can allow your issues today to make you bitter or to make you better.
Later, speaking to her bereaved daughters-in-law, Naomi says, “It grieveth me much for your sakes that the LORD is gone out against me.” In verse 20 Naomi says, “Call me not Naomi, call me Mara; for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.” She had a bitter lot, and she felt it bitterly. In verse 21 she says, “I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the LORD hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?”
As you read the rest of the story, you realize that God had something planned. He was in control and turned even the calamities that shook Naomi’s world toward the good. God is not the author of evil and God will not be defeated by evil.
The bottom line is don’t write God out of your story. You haven’t read your story. You may not even know the big picture of the big problem, and sometimes when we try to make our problems better we make them worse because we don’t consult God. So, take heart. There is a God in Heaven Who loves you and will provide. Do not write God out of your story today.