By Pastor William Y. K. Brown Ph.D
(Resident Pastor)
Seventh-day Adventist Church
Osu-Bethel.
Tel: 0244165628/0243310773.
wykbrown@gmail.com
WEDNESDAY
THEME: NAOMI OR MARA: DOES GOD CARE?
SCRIPTURE: Jeremiah 29:11
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
REFLECTIONS
What is your witness about God? Considering your circumstances, would you declare He is a faithful, trustworthy, compassionate, ever-present, and abiding God? Deep inside you, how do you feel about God? Has He disappointed you? Do you think God has not been fair to you? Are you sure you understand God and His ways? Are you, for any reason, bitter? No matter how you feel about God, there is one fact: He does not change. Therefore, there is hope at the end of the bitter experience. When you are tempted to give up on God or doubt Him, meditate on Malachi 3:6 – “For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.” The attributes of God – love, mercy, kindness, help, and care remain intact.
Naomi returns home to Bethlehem from a foreign country and receives a rapturous welcome. She must have been a highly respected and prominent woman before she journeyed to Moab over a decade earlier. The excitement of her return was electrifying as we read from Ruth 1:19 – “Now the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem. And it happened, when they had come to Bethlehem, that all the city was excited because of them, and the women said, “Is this Naomi?” The reception alone was heartwarming, but it was not so with Naomi – she was still brooding over her misfortunes and could hardly see any reason for hope. Therefore, she responded: “Do not call me Naomi,” which means “pleasant”. There was nothing to be pleased about in her life of suffering and wretchedness. She asked that they call her “Mara”, which means “bitter”, to represent her bitter experience in Moab.
Who was the cause of her bitterness? Find out! Ruth 1:20-21 states, “[20]But she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. [21]I went out full, and the Lord has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?” God is always in trouble for any bad thing that happens in our world and space, yet the real culprit of our suffering lurks around, not condemned or rebuked. Probably, we should learn to sympathise or, better still, empathise with God. He does no evil, yet He is blamed for our trials. The truth is, the Lord did not testify against her, and the Almighty did not afflict her. Her experience, like ours, is a result of sin, which God forewarned – His word must come true, or else He has lied to us.
God is so caring that even when we experience the “bitter” and unpleasant, He brings the “pleasant.” In her complaint and grief, she never envisaged the great gift God had given her in the person of Ruth. God brought Ruth into Naomi’s life to keep Naomi – “pleasant”. Naomi’s later prominence and restoration of joy resulted from the bitter experience that brought Ruth to Israel’s God. She was bitter but forgot that she won a soul, Ruth, for God through her suffering. Her experience was a precursor to the Savior who, through His suffering, would save humankind and bring it back to God. In Bethlehem, God blessed Naomi. Obed, David’s grandfather, was born to her. Read Ruth 4:14-16 –“[14]Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a close relative; and may his name be famous in Israel! [15]And may he be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him.” [16]Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her bosom, and became a nurse to him.”
Beloved, if you are bitter in life, I plead with you to meditate and pray on these texts: James 1:17; Romans 11:29; Lamentations 3:22, and Numbers 23:19. May the Lord bring you out of bitterness to pleasantness.
MY SONG OF COMMITMENT
“I Know Who Holds Tomorrow – Bill and Gloria Gaither
LET US PRAY
– Praise and thank God for being present always; thank God for taking you through your bitter experiences with His presence; pray to trust Him and wait for Him to unveil His plans for you;
– Pray for all widows and widowers, women who have no children of their own, men and women who feel bitter about their lives, and people who do not see the value of living;
– Pray for all who are enduring suffering and deprivation; pray for elderly and lonely men and women; pray for displaced people to overcome their bitter experiences;
– Pray for hope for the despaired; pray for hope for our nation; pray for God’s grace upon our families, friends, church members, neighbours, acquaintances, and our fellow citizens.
