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Hello again! This post is set to publish the day after Memorial Day 2024 in the United States. As I’m studying about Naomi, a widow whose two sons also died, I’m thinking about the families whose members paid the ultimate price for their loyalty to America. I pray God will give them courage and strength in their mourning, and that we never forget freedom doesn’t come easily or cheaply. God bless our fallen heroes and their families. And God bless America.

Last Week’s Work

MY PERSONAL TREASURE
Of the five items the Holy Spirit “flagged” for me last week, one HUH? continues to draw my attention: Naomi’s statement about bitterness (v13) and instructions to the women in Bethlehem to call her Mara, for the Almighty had dealt very bitterly with her (v20).

I’m hoping to learn as much as I can about biblical bitterness in the rest of this study. I know the Spirit will help me see what God wants me to discover here.

Now, let’s look at what the Spirit showed me about characters, locations, and timeframes.

WHO (CHARACTERS)
Though the passage mentions several more characters, I feel led to focus on these in particular:

• Naomi, who spoke both statements: it is exceedingly bitter to me for your [her daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth] sake… (v13), and call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me (v20).
• God, Lord, Almighty: Naomi laments, the hand of the Lord has gone out against me (v13).
  Narrator indicates Naomi found out the Lord had visited his people and given them food (v6).
  Naomi prays that the Lord deal kindly with her daughters-in-law and grant them rest in the house of [new] husbands (vv8-9).
  Ruth claims [Naomi’s] people will be her people and [Naomi’s] God will be her God (v16), and swears her faithfulness to Naomi by the Lord (v17).
  Naomi says the Almighty dealt bitterly with her and brought calamity upon her (vv20, 21).
  Naomi indicates the Lord brought her back empty and testified against her (v21).
• The women of Bethlehem, whose reactive question, “Is this Naomi?” in v19 led to Naomi’s command to call her Mara, not Naomi.

I’m familiar with name changes in the Bible—like Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel, Simon to Peter, etc.—but I still think it’s curious Naomi asked the women to call her something else and used two different names to refer to God, though I acknowledge the latter might just be the author (or translators) not wanting to overuse the Lord. That’ll be easy to determine when I look at original language in a few weeks.

WHERE (LOCATIONS)

I noticed specifically three locations:

•  Bethlehem in Judah, where Naomi, Elimelech, Mahlon, and Chilion were from (v1),
• Moab, where Naomi’s family sojourned after fleeing the famine in Bethlehem (v2), and
• Fields of Moab, where Naomi learned the Lord had visited his people and given them food (v6).

These timeframes caught my eye:

• Days when the judges ruled—when the famine happened (v1) that caused Naomi’s initial migration with her men to Moab (v1),
• About ten years—the length of time Naomi and her sons lived in Moab before they both died (vv4-5),
• Then (after the sons died) Naomi set out to return to Judah with her daughters-in-law (v7),
• Naomi stopped telling Ruth to turn back when Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her (v18),
• When Naomi and Ruth came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred(v19). How would you react if a woman you knew left town with her husband and two sons, and then came back with a strange woman? That would definitely generate questions in my mind!
• Naomi and Ruth arrived at the beginning of the barley harvest (v22), which to me indicates the famine was over.

Dig-In Challenges

Whew! So much to dig into from just a few lines of Scripture—but isn’t that the way it always is when we work with the Spirit to really see and understand this amazing book?

I hope you’ve discovered some interesting gems here, too, and it spurs you to work through more of this process. Here’s what I’ll be doing this week:

1. PRAY each time I start to study using my prayer from last week.
2. MINE: Look for repeated concepts in this passage and, if I find any, consider how that repetition might be relevant to the bitterness Naomi mentions in vv13 & 20;
3. MINE: Locate any special statements (blessings, commands, curses, prayers, promises, requests, and/or warnings) connected to that treasure; and
4. MINE: See if I can find any lists (3 or more similar items mentioned in the text) and their relevance to bitterness.

See you next week!

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