Study 3 – The Lord chastises

Read Ruth 1.12-22

As you read Ruth, keep in mind the book is about the love of God for his people and his commitment to his covenant promises, all under his over-arching providence.

V13          …the hand of the Lord has gone out against me! This is an interesting expression. We find a similar phrase at Judges 2.15. It is in the context of God’s people having turned away from worshipping and serving him alone and had mixed in the worship of the Baals and the Ashtoreths (vv11-13). The Lord had clearly told his people – and us – in the Ten Commandments, “You shall have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20.3. The Lord our God is a jealous God and will not put up with the slightest hint of his worship and service being given to any other thing or person – real or imaginary.

Was Naomi guilty of worshipping and serving the Baals and Ashtoreths? Surely not! Yet she had ten years in Moab, the land east of the Jordan, and the gods of the Moabites were the very same (Judges 10.6,7). Was Naomi tarred with the brush of pagan worship? Was that was why the Lord’s hand had gone out against her, bringing about suffering by the loss of her husband and two sons? Perhaps, during that decade in Moab (1.4) the family had imbibed something of the pagan culture and worship.

Consider: do you think Naomi’s situation was caused by her forsaking the true worship of Yahweh?

Maybe, maybe not. True, she and her husband neglected the place of their divine appointment when they migrated. Others had stayed in Bethlehem and saw through the famine. They did not. In truth, we have to say we do not know why the Lord so afflicted Naomi as to deprive her of her husband and sons. Perhaps it was for the same reason the Lord allowed Satan to afflict Job which was to demonstrate that he was truly a man of faith in the Lord. What we do know is that the Judge of all the earth will do right (Genesis 18.25). He cannot make a mistake, even when the most severe tragedies should strike. We might think he has got it wrong but he has not!

The hand of God is an expression of his power. It my denote favour (Ezra 7.6,28; Isaiah 1.25; Luke 1.66 etc.) or punishment (Exodus 9.3; Judges 2.15 ; Acts 13:11 etc.). It would seem, in Naomi’s situation, it was a hand of chastisement and yet contained the seed of blessing. This is always true. Whenever you are reading in your Bible something of God’s judgment look also for the tokens of his grace.

Vv20-21                  Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me…the Lord has afflicted me. This is evidence of the Lord’s chastisement. We can understand why Naomi – meaning ‘the lovable’ or ’my delight’ – wanted to be called Mara – meaning ‘bitter’. Moffatt, in his translation of the Bible, puts it this way: “Call me Mara, for the Almighty has cruelly marred me.” Baptist minister and commentator, John Gill wrote, “She seemed therefore to be humbled under a sense of sin, and to consider afflictions as coming from the Lord on account of it, and submitted to his sovereign will.”

Consider: the words of Hosea 6.1,2 and James 1.2,3

Chastisement from the hand of the Lord must not be seen in a negative way (Hebrews 12.5-11). Hosea continues in v3, Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.

Pray: Heavenly Father, you are the only true God so I promise never to have an idol before you – nothing which has greater devotion that what I owe to you. Please help me never to stray from your ways and if I should fail help me to see your loving correction in my life. I ask these things for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Michael S. Bostock, October 2020.