Whining

This week, I’ve been reading the book of Ruth.  I keep seeing myself in the first chapter in the person of Naomi.  Now don’t think she doesn’t have reason to whine.  She had been moved from her homeland of Israel to the pagan land of Moab.  She had lost her husband, her two sons were weak.  In fact her sons were named Mahlon – which means “sickly,” and Chilion, “pining.”

In Hebrew, many times the name of the individual describes a characteristic.  This is true with Sickly and Pining.

After the family’s arrival in Moab, Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, died.  Naomi then told Sickly and Pining to find wives which they did.  Then the sons died.  Now we have three widows stuck in a very patriarchal society with no means of support.

Life for widows without family ties was horrible.  Israelite widows were, by law, invited to just a few public feasts each year and could glean the fields during harvest.  Other than charity, that was their meager means of support. Gleaning is the process by which the poorer in the Israelite society could gather enough grain from the left overs after the harvest to live.  The Mosaic Law required the harvesters to leave the borders of the fields unharvested for just this purpose, a workfare arrangement.

So, Naomi heard things are better back in Israel and heads home.  The two daughters in-law follow, but Naomi sees no way for them to prosper in their current situation and tells them to return to the Moabites.  They all share their sorrows and weep over their common misfortune, then separate.  Pining’s wife goes home to Moab, but Sickly’s wife, Ruth, loved Naomi and expressed this in her the famous quote: For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. ¹⁷ Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”  (Ruth 1:16b, 17)

So, the two poverty stricken widows head to the other side of the Dead Sea back toward Israel.

Naomi, by this time, is feeling pretty darned sorry for herself, and there is good reason.  When she gets back to Israel to the small village of Bethlehem, everyone is wondering about her.  “Is this Naomi?” they ask.  “Naomi” means “delight,” by the way, so depressed and saddened Naomi tells the town to stop calling her “delight” but to call her Mara, “bitter,” because God, she thought, had dealt very bitterly with her.

Over the following three chapters, we see God’s hand in all that happened.  God used Naomi and the death of the family’s men to bring Ruth to Israel where He had plans for her to marry Boaz.  Ruth would be the mother of Obed.  Obed was the father of Jesse, the father of David the King, the ancestor of Jesus, the Messiah and King of Kings. Ruth is even mentioned in Jesus’ genealogy in Matthew 1:5. What an honor to be used.

Why is this important?

When I was a kid, we used to have a song that started “Nobody loves me, everybody hates me, I’m going to eat some worms.”  Sometimes that attitude creeps into our hearts still, doesn’t it?  We look around at our current situation and think, “Boy, God is angry with me for some reason,” but what is really happening is God is moving a few things into position to accomplish His will.

God never promised us happiness.  He promised us Joy.  Joy is the conscious understanding God is in charge no matter what’s going on in our lives.  Naomi forgot that.  Don’t be like Naomi.