AND SHE SAID TO THEM "DO NOT
CALL ME NAOMI. CALL ME MARA": (A Bitter Attitude,
A Tree Of Healing for a Bitter Spirit,
Purge out the Poison)
Naomi means “pleasant”
(my joy, my delight, my bliss, my pleasantness, the loveable,
agreeable, ISBE has "Sweetie or the like"!) but her life in Moab was
unpleasant rather than joyful. And so on her return to Bethlehem, she
sharply corrects her old-time acquaintances for calling her "Pleasant",
renaming herself Mara (“Bitter”), claiming that Shaddai had treated
her bitterly. It is interesting that the Israelites just having been
freed from slavery in Egypt, chose Mara as the name of their first
camp after crossing the Red Sea. (Ex
15:23) They interpreted the testing allowed by the LORD Who
had just set them free as "Bitter". They forgot the crucial
truth that God often uses bitter experiences to make us better. You
may be experiencing a difficult trial like Naomi, but keep in mind
that God uses strong trials to build strong faith, or as Malloch puts
in in poem...
Good timber
does not grow in ease;
The stronger wind, the tougher trees;
By sun and cold, by rain and snows,
In tree or man, good timber grows.
Call me Mara
- Call me "Bitter"! But she had not yet read Ruth 4, where she
would learn that the lesson that the difficulties of her life were
intended to make her better, not bitter. It all depends on how one
responds, for indeed lessons in life make some people better and
others bitter.
Spurgeon
comments that...
God can soon change our sweets into
bitters, therefore let us be humble; but he can with equal ease
transform our bitters into sweets, therefore let us be hopeful. It is
very usual for Naomi and Mara, sweet and bitter, to meet in the same
person. He who was called Benjamin, or "the son of his father's right
hand," was first called Benoni, or "the son of sorrow." The comforts
of God's grace are all the sweeter when they follow the troubles of
life. (The Interpreter)
Spurgeon
adds...
I understand drinking bitter
medicine, if it is to make me well; but who would drink wormwood and
gall with no good result to follow? I can understand toiling if a wage
is in prospect, but I cannot see the sense of toiling when there is no
reward for it. Now, you who love not God, your lives are not all
flowers and sunshine. It is not all music and dancing with you now. I
know you have your cares and troubles, you have your thorns in the
flesh, and perhaps a great many of them; but you have no Saviour to
run to. You are like a ship in a storm, and there is no harbour for
you; you are as birds driven before the wind, and you have no nests in
which to shelter, but must be driven for ever before the blast of
Jehovah's wrath. Consider this, I pray you, meditate upon your
condition and prospects, and when you have so done, may your heart cry
out, "I would fain have God to be my friend." - Flashes of
Thought.
.><>><>><>
Heir of heaven, your present trials
are yours in the sense of medicine. You need that your soul, like your
body, should be dealt with by the beloved Physician. A thousand
diseases have sown their seeds within you; one evil will often bring
on another, and the cure of one too frequently engenders another. You
need, therefore, oftentimes to gather the produce of the garden of
herbs which is included in your inheritance—a garden which God will be
sure to keep well stocked with wormwood and with rue. From these
bitter herbs a potion shall be brewed, as precious as it is
pungent, as curative as it is distasteful. Would you root up that herb
garden, would you lay those healing beds all waste? Ah, then, when
next disease attacked you, how could you expect help? I know the good
Physician can heal without the lancet if he will, and restore us
without the balm, but for all that, he does not choose to do so, but
will use the means of affliction, for by these things men live,
and in all these is the life of their spirit. - Flashes of Thought
.><>><>><>
Just as the fever must be held in
check by the bitter draught of quinine, so must the bitter cup of
affliction rebuke our rising pride and worldliness. We should
exalt ourselves above measure, and provoke the Lord to jealousy
against us, were it not that trouble lays us low. None of us shall
know until we read our biography in the light of heaven, from what
inbred sins, foul corruptions, damnable uncleanliness, and detestable
lusts we have been delivered, by being driven again and again along
the fiery road of affliction. Adversities are the sharp knives with
which God doth cut from us the deadly ulcers of our sins; these are
the two-edged swords with which he slays our enemies and his own which
lurk within us. - Flashes of Thought.
><>><>><>
Severe trouble in a true believer
has the effect of loosening the roots of his soul earthward, and
tightening the anchor-hold of his heart heavenward. How can he love
the world which has become so drear to him? Why should he seek lifter
grapes so bitter to his taste? Should he not now ask for the wings of
a dove that he may fly away to his own dear country, and be at rest
for ever? Every mariner on the sea of life knows that when the soft
zephyrs blow men tempt the open sea with outspread sails, but when the
black tempest comes howling from its den they hurry with all speed to
the haven. Afflictions clip our wings with regard to earthly things,
so that we cannot fly away from our dear Master's hand, but sit there
and sing to him; but the same afflictions make our wings grow with
regard to heavenly things: we are feathered like eagles, we catch the
soaring spirit, a thorn is in our nest, and we spread our pinions
towards the sun. -- Flashes of Thought.
Scottish author
George MacDonald told this story of a woman who had experienced a
great tragedy in her life:
"The heartache was so crushing and her sorrow so bitter that the one
in distress exclaimed, 'I wish I'd never been made.' With spiritual
discernment, her friend answered, 'My dear, you are not fully made
yet; you're only being made, and this is the Maker's process!'"
MacDonald wisely
concluded,
"We can let God take our troubles and make out of them a garment of
Christian fortitude which will not only warm our souls but also serve
to inspire others."
It has been said
that God may have to break us in order to make us. Naomi could not
sing in this chapter but by the end of the book, I think she would
agree with the words of the poem below...
For all the
heartaches and the tears,
For gloomy days and fruitless years
I do give thanks, for now I know
These were the things that helped me grow.
--Anonymous
><> ><> ><>
Naomi was
"Spiritually Barren"- Barrenness, whether physical or
spiritual, can lead to bitterness in some of God's people. It can
develop in the heart of a disappointed couple who cannot have a child.
It can also occur when people serve God and see no results.
A missionary couple who served diligently for many years with no
visible fruit asked in frustration, "Have we wasted our lives?" A
young pastor and his wife labored 5 years for a thankless,
unresponsive congregation, pouring out their lives for their people.
"Do they even care?" the woman asked.
Zacharias and Elizabeth, mentioned in Luke 1, are a model for anyone
who is facing physical or spiritual barrenness. The aged couple had an
impeccable reputation, having faithfully and obediently served the
Lord for many years (v.6). They had prayed for children, but none
came. Yet instead of becoming bitter, they kept serving and obeying
the Lord. In His time, God honored Zacharias and Elizabeth with a son
named John, the one who would prepare the way for the Messiah
(vv.13-17).
To avoid developing a bitter spirit in your life, faithfully serve and
obey the Lord in the place where He has called you. Trust God to bless
you in His time, in His way, and according to His plan. —David C.
Egner
Lord, keep me from being bitter
When things don't go my way,
And grant me Your grace and wisdom
To do Your will today. —Fitzhugh
Be faithful—and leave the results with God
><> ><> ><>
Are
You Full?
a devotional from
Our Daily Bread...As a boy, I laughed and cried
as I read The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. I
gave little thought to the author of these books, though, until
I saw a dramatized version of Mark Twain's life. Twain had his
share of tragedy. He blamed himself for his younger brother's
death in a steamboat accident at age 20, and for the death of
his only son, who died from diphtheria at 19 months. He grieved
bitterly over the deaths of two of his daughters—one from
meningitis at age 23 and one from a heart attack at age 29. But
instead of turning to God, Twain became bitter and pessimistic.
When he died at 74, he was desperately lonely, unhappy, and
hopeless.
Mark Twain had an emptiness that could not be satisfied with
money and fame. His success as a writer only increased his
misery and sense of loss. His life illustrates the folly of
living without God, which is described in Ecclesiastes 6:7-12.
If only he had trusted Christ for salvation and looked to Him
for comfort and fulfillment!
Have life's hardships left you feeling empty and bitter, or have
they strengthened your relationship with God and made you
better? Turn in faith to Christ, and "the God of hope [will]
fill you with all joy and peace" (see note
Romans 15:13).
—H V Lugt (Our
Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved)
The sun
that hardens clay to brick
Can soften wax to shape and mold;
So too life's trials will harden some,
While others purify as gold—Sper
Life's trials should make us better—not bitter
><> ><> ><>
A Bitter Attitude -
Great emphasis is being placed on
living longer and better. Advances in medical science are making it
possible for more and more people. Yet in spite of this, none of us
can avoid growing old. One day aging will overtake all of us, and our
bodies will shut down.
What is preventable, however, is an attitude of bitterness and regret
as we grow older. Look at the life of Moses. When he was 120 years
old, he stood with the Israelites before they crossed the Jordan River
and entered the Promised Land. He could not go with them because he
had disobeyed the Lord when in anger he struck the rock in the
wilderness (Numbers 20:12,24).
How easily Moses could have slipped into a self-pitying and resentful
frame of mind! Had he not borne the burden of a stubborn and
stiff-necked people for 40 years? Had he not interceded for them time
after time? Yet at the end of his life he praised the Lord and urged a
new generation of Israelites to obey Him (Deuteronomy 32:1-4,45-47).
As we grow older, we can dwell on the failures and hardships of our
past, or we can remember God’s faithfulness, accept His discipline,
and keep looking to the future in faith. It’s the only way to avoid a
bitter attitude.—Dennis J. De Haan (Our
Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved)
Though wrinkles and weakness come
with age
And life with its stress takes its toll,
Yet beauty and vigor can still be seen
When Jesus gives peace to our soul. —D. De Haan
We cannot avoid growing old; but we can avoid growing cold.
><> ><> ><>
What's Your "Attitude"? -
One definition of the word attitude
is "the angle of approach" that an aircraft takes when landing. Author
Chris Spicer writes: "Attitudes are to life as the angle of approach
is to flying." He adds, "Attitude is the way we choose to think about
things; attitudes will cause us to react and behave in a certain way."
He also says that attitudes are not inborn or accidental. They are
learned and absorbed reactions; therefore they can be changed.
During my thirties, the Lord began convicting me of my wrong thinking
toward myself, others, and life—negative, self-pitying, and bitter
thinking. With the help of God's Word, I recognized my need for change
in three main areas: my attitudes, actions, and reactions. But I
feared I couldn't change. One day I read in Jeremiah 18 how the potter
refashioned some marred clay (which is what I felt like) into a
different vessel, as it pleased the potter. What I couldn't do, my
great Potter could! I only needed to be cooperative clay.
Today this vessel is far from finished. But as I put myself in the
Potter's hands, He keeps working on me and shaping my attitudes and
actions. I call them Christ-attitudes, Christ-actions, and
Christ-reactions.
The great Potter can do the same for you. —Joanie Yoder (Our
Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved)
Have Thine own way, Lord! Have
Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay;
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still. —Pollard
© 1935 Hope Publishing Co.
A change in the heart brings a change in behavior.
><> ><> ><>
FOR THE ALMIGHTY HAS DEALT
VERY BITTERLY WITH ME: (Ge 17:1;
43:14;
Job 5:17;
11:7;
Rev 1:8;
21:22)
(Job
6:4;
19:6;
Ps 73:14;
88:15;
Isa 38:13;
Lam 3:1-20;
Heb 12:11)
"for Shaddai has marred me bitterly" (JB)
"for the Almighty has cruelly marred me" (Moffatt)
"for Almighty God has dealt me bitter blows." (TLB)
"because Almighty God has made my life bitter" (TEV)
"because the Sovereign One has treated me very harshly" (NET)
"for the Ruler of all has given me a bitter fate." (BBE)
"God All-Powerful has made my life very sad" (ICB)
"for Shaddai has made my lot bitter" (NJB)
Almighty
is
Shaddai (see study of El Shaddai),
(see study on
the Names of God) the Name first used by God as
He confirmed His covenant with Abram, encouraging him
I am God
Almighty (El
Shaddai).
Walk
(command - based on Who God is and Abram's availability more than his
"ability" - Hithpael imperative = "you yourself walk") before Me, and be blameless
(complete, whole, sound, completely in accord with truth). (Genesis 17:1)
In Ruth
1:20-21 Shaddai is translated (in both verses) in the
Septuagint (LXX)
by the Greek phrase
"ho hikanos", hikanos meaning sizeable, considerable, competent,
ample, adequate, enough, large enough or sufficient.
Now take
those meanings and "plug them into" this Name of God.
Naomi is saying
in essence my God is
"the
Sufficient (One)"
"the (One Who is large) Enough"
"the Adequate One"
It is as if by
using
Shaddai - Almighty
(seldom used outside of Genesis and Job), Naomi
is expressing trust in Him even in the midst of her pain. God's
various names always speak of His amazing attributes and in this
context speaks of the One is fully capable to complete the good work
He had begun (in both Naomi and Ruth). Would it be
that we could all see God as ample, adequate, competent, large enough,
sufficient, etc when we are experiencing adversity.
Open our eyes LORD to see Thee as
Who Thou truly art -- "Large Enough" for any and every trial and
affliction we will ever encounter.
Elsewhere the
Septuagint usually translates Shaddai with the Greek
pantokrator
(see word study)
(pas = all + kratos = strength,
dominion) meaning Ruler over all, Omnipotent or Almighty. One
explanation of the derivation of Shaddai is that the term
means "one of the mountain" a picture that might convey the picture of
safety and sufficiency. Rabbinic analysis (Babylonian Talmud) holds
that Shaddai is composed of the she ="Who" + day
="enough" and so literally "she-day" means the "One Who is
Sufficient", which would be consistent with how the Septuagint
translates "Shaddai" in the Ruth 1:20-21.
It is not
surprising that the majority of OT uses of Shaddai are in Job
(31/48 uses)! One observation from Job and Ruth 1:20-21
is that Suffering and Shaddai are seen together. Perhaps
when we are in the darkness then we can see clearly His Sufficiency
and His Adequacy, for all our other earthly resources have come to
naught. It is certainly true that when we come to the "end of our rope
in Moab" and find that Jesus is all we have, we find that Jesus is all
we have ever needed and that He is Enough. Eliphaz attempting to
comfort for Job, reminded him of "how happy (blessed) is the man whom
God reproves (corrects, disciplines). So do not despise the discipline
of the Almighty (Shaddai)." (Job 5:17)
The storms of our life prove the strength of our anchor.
Naomi's use of
Shaddai (only in Ruth 1:20-21) is not by accident, for to
know a specific Name of God is to know His character and His
attributes inherent in that Name. And so surely Naomi knows Shaddai
as the God with Whom we have to do, Who allows suffering, but Who is
also a God Who is "enough". He is "enough" in Himself. He is
self-sufficient. He has everything and He needs nothing. He is
"enough" to us if we are in covenant with Him for then we have all in
Him, and we have enough in Him, enough to satisfy our deepest desires,
enough to supply the defect of everything else in our life and enough
to secure to us happiness for our immortal souls. This is the God with
Whom Naomi was intimate.
Do you know
God intimately as Shaddai?
Have you come to the point in your personal relationship with God that
He is enough? Is He sufficient to meet all your needs?
Can Shaddai be trusted to fulfill the promises of His Word?
What in your life looks impossible?
Have you surrendered it fully to the Lord?
Are you willing to wait upon Him to fulfill His promises?
As we grow
older, we can dwell on the failures and hardships of our past, or we
can remember God's faithfulness, accept His discipline, and keep
looking to the future in faith. It's the only way to avoid a bitter
attitude.
Though wrinkles
and weakness come with age
And life with its stress takes its toll,
Yet beauty and vigor can still be seen
When Jesus gives peace to our soul. —D. De Haan
We cannot avoid growing old;
but we can avoid growing cold.
Dealt...bitterly - This is the Hebrew verb marar meaning to
be bitter and is in the perfect mood signifying "completeness". The
Septuagint (LXX)
translates it with the verb pikraino (see study of related word
pikría = bitterness) meaning to cause
to become bitter (sharp as to the taste).
Ruth 1:13 for
them do ye wait till that they grow up? for them do ye shut yourselves
up, not to be to a husband? nay, my daughters, for more bitter to me
than to you, for the hand of Jehovah hath gone out against me.'
Dealt...bitterly is the same word translated "grieveth" in Ruth
1:13 when earlier Naomi said to Orpah and Ruth in KJV "It grieveth
(marar) me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord is gone out
against me." So it seems that bitterness had already begun to set in
when Naomi was still in Moab. In returning to Bethlehem, Naomi went to
the place where bitterness could be removed and as McGee writes "there
was a blessing awaiting her...in Bethlehem that would...[make] the
name Mara as unsuitable for her as she now supposed Naomi to be".
J. Gerald
Janzen in an article entitled Job’s Oath in Review and Expositor (vol
99) writes that...
Bitterness has to do with
taste---to begin with, the taste of what one eats, and ultimately,
one’s sense of life. Its binary opposite is sweetness. But bitterness
and sweetness do not exist in parity. One is prior to the other.
Sweetness marks the primal experience of the infant nursing at its
mother’s breast... When Naomi (“Sweetie”) laments, “call me Mara, for
the Almighty (šadday, hereafter “Shadday”) has dealt very bitterly
with me,” this soul-mate of Job voices the deepest of traumas, the
loss of all that gave life its sweetness: “I went away full, and the
Lord has brought me back empty” (Ruth 1:20-21).
Very
(me'od) speaks of might, force, abundance and in context means
exceedingly.
Blessings are
often poured out in bitter cups.
As Naomi's life will show.
><> ><> ><>
Devotional from F B Meyer on Ruth
1:20 - Call me not Naomi, all me Mara. --
So she spoke, as many have spoken since, not knowing that God’s ways
are ways of pleasantness and all his paths peace, when they are not
isolated from the plan of our life, but considered as parts of the
whole. We cannot pronounce on any part of God’s dealing with us until
the entire plan has been allowed to work itself out. How grieved God’s
Spirit must be, who is lovingly doing his best, when He hears these
words of murmuring and complaint! Let us lift the veil, and notice the
pleasant things in Naomi’s life.
True, her husband and sons were
dead; but their deaths in a foreign land had left her free to come
back to her people an
d her God; to nestle again under the wings of
Jehovah; and to share the advantages of the Tabernacle.
True, Orpah had gone back. Mahlon
and Chilion were both buried in Moab; but she had Ruth, who was better
to her than seven sons.
True, she had no male child to
perpetuate her name; but the little Obed would, within a few months,
be nestling in her aged arms, and laughing into her withered face.
True, she was very poor; but it was
through her poverty that Ruth was brought first into contact with that
good man, Boaz; and, besides, there was yet a little patrimony which
pertained to her.
Yes, Naomi, like thousands more,
thou must take back thy words. Thou didst deal bitterly with thine own
happiness in leaving the Land
of Promise for Moab; but God dealt
pleasantly with thee in thy return and latter end. “Behold, the eye of
the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in his
mercy.” (Meyer, F. B.
Our Daily Homily)
><> ><> ><>
Samuel Ridout
(Gleanings from the Book of Ruth) has some interesting thoughts (with
which you may or may not agree - Be Bereans!
Acts 17:11)...
There are several features to note
in connection with the return. When they reach Bethlehem, the whole
place is moved, “Is this Naomi?” What havoc her departure had wrought,
and she is forced to confess the sad truth herself. How her few words
tell the story, her heart not yet fully restored. “Call me not Naomi
(pleasant), call me Mara (bitter): for the Almighty hath dealt very
bitterly with me.” She calls Him by that dread name which emphasizes
His power rather than His love and care. As she thinks of her once
happy home, forgetting her own responsibility for the change, she
seems to charge the Almighty with it all. But the next words confess
the truth, “I went out full.” It was voluntary; she had not been
compelled to go, and she was full when she went. “The Lord (Jehovah)
hath brought me home again empty.” Self-will took her away: grace
brought her home (ah, it was home still). Is this not the confession
of every restored soul? We may have made many excuses for our
departure from God; circumstances were against us, friends became
cold, we were misunderstood—ah multiply them as we will, the one
reason for departure from God is expressed in that one brief sentence,
“I went out full.”
But in that confession the soul
reaches God, for true confession can only be in His presence. So the
next word is the covenant name, “Jehovah hath brought me home again.”
We would never come back ourselves. It is only the power of unchanging
grace that restores the wanderer; but for that we would still remain
in the land of Moab. Nor could we be brought back in any other
condition than empty. There must be the brokenness suggested by that,
to make the soul willing to yield to God’s love.
But her condition is a witness of what an evil and bitter thing it is
to depart from the Lord—a warning to all against the folly of turning
away from the house of plenty.
Dear brethren, look at that poor desolate widow, crushed with
apparently hopeless sorrow, her brightness all behind her—and see a
picture of the soul that wanders from God. Ah! how many blighted
lives, filled with bitter, unavailing regrets are there among the
saints of God.
“It might have been,” says the aged man, looking back upon a lifetime
of wasted energy and time. Who can measure the loss suffered by those
who spend the life in gathering the “wood, hay, and stubble” of this
world? Nor is such departure necessarily a moral declension. The world
can be very upright, but it makes widows of God’s people who yield to
its seductions.
It is always the time of harvest when the wanderer returns. Ah, let
the proud, stubborn will be broken, let there be the words of
confession, and how soon will the poor wanderer find the ripened
harvest with all its abundance and its joy.
><> ><> ><>
If
God Gave Us No Thorn
(John
MacDuff, "The
Leper-warrior" 1873)
God's dealings with His people are
often incomprehensible. His name to them is that which He gave
to Manoah, "Wonderful," "Secret," "Mysterious."
That wearing sickness,
that wasting heritage of pain,
these long tossings on a fevered, sleepless pillow,
—where is God's love or mercy here?
But the silence and loneliness of
the sickbed is the figurative "wilderness," where He "allures"
that He may "speak comfortably unto them, and give them
their vineyards from thence" (Hosea 2:14, 15), rousing them from
the contemptible dream of earthly happiness, from the sordid and
the secular, from busy care and debasing solicitude—to the
divine and the heavenly!
Or, that unexpected affliction of poverty—the crash of earthly
fortune—the forfeiture of earthly gain—the stripping of cherished
treasure, and sending those 'nursed in the lap of luxury' penniless on
the world —where is God's mercy or love here?
But it is through this beneficial,
