One of the first things you’re taught as a counsellor if you aren’t already aware is that the phrase "I know exactly how you feel" isn’t only untrue but dangerous and unhelpful. It's clearly untrue for anyone to claim that they fully understand someone else’s problem because no two situations are the same and no two people react identically. It's dangerous to categorize someone e1se’s problems according to your own past experiences because it will mean you won't really be listening to their unique hurt, but simply remembering your own. And such a comment is unhelpful, since the one who hears it will quickly see through the pretense and write off the speaker as someone who would rather talk about themselves that really listen to someone else

And boy I can imagine Naomi the woman of our text, really losing her cool with someone who were to offer her such a glib remark, “You understand do you! You know what it’s like to be forced from one’s homeland by a terrible famine. You know what it’s like to leave a starving family and friends, many of whom you know you’ll never see again. You understand arriving in a strange country and then have your husband die leaving you to bring up two young sons. You know what it means to a Jew like myself to see your sons marry foreign girls. You know about seeing both your sons also die after only two happy years - die without children to carry on the family name. You really understand just what a terrible catastrophe that is for a Jew. And you understand what it’s like for widows to try to survive in a male dominated society, without social security or even the salvation army.

If you claim to understand all that, then perhaps you’ll be able to tell me why I blindly started to walk for home. Why it was only on the road I suddenly remembered that my two daughters-in-law were still with me and how silly it was for me to expect them to come away from their homeland. How can you understand exactly how I felt, when I don’t even understand.

I have no doubt that Naomi would have reacted along these lines because the Bible tells us what she said to her friends who watched amazed as she trudged back into her old village. In the verses just after our text, we first hear them exclaim, "Can this be Naomi?" And Naomi snaps back. "Don't call me Naomi (that name means 'pleasant' you see), Call me Mara (meaning ‘bitter’), because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me: the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.

She even sounds bitter when she dismisses her daughters-in-law on the road. “You think you’ve been hard done by. Remember you've only lost your husbands, I’ve lost everything. You’ll remarry. But I can't even supply you with brothers-in-law who can care for you. I'm totally alone with no future. Go on, go home. “It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord's hand has gone out against me!"

Surely none of us would ever come close or be game enough to say, “I understand exactly how you feel.” But I’m pretty sure most of us would be able to recall a time when we’ve become similarly bitter towards all those around us. Maybe we've even felt similar anger towards God for some reason, even if we’ve been hesitant to expose it to anyone, especially ourselves. We know good Christians shouldn’t say things like that about God.

And what's all this bitterness and anger doing in the OT anyway. What are we reading it in church for? Aren’t we here to thank and praise God? And of course all you daughters-in-law are saying, “And, what about Ruth's beautiful comment to Naomi?” I agree this is the only bright point in the text and it's the only glimmer of hope Naomi has. I'd even say that without it Naomi would have really gone to pieces. We can praise God for Ruth's concern and her unselfish, loving action. But surely this book has been included in the OT for better reasons than to confirm all the nasty mother-in-law stories and lead us to praise the loyalty of one daughter-in-law.

No indeed, as with the rest of the Bible this book points us to our God and his miraculous loving action toward us. Maybe that sounds like a pretty far fetched thing to say about a chapter in which God say nothing at all. But in fact, that's part of the miracle that brings thanksgiving and praise to our lips. Listen again to Naomi’s cry to God “I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.... The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me."

In response to such a cry we’d expect the mighty perfect God to gasp back, “O, so it’s all my fault now is it? You want to blame me for the terrible situation you sinners bring on yourselves. I made everything perfect, remember. You mucked it up, not me. Well if that’s the way you want be to behave then I hope you’re ready, cause, believe me, you ain’ seen nothing yet. We can really praise and thank God because he doesn’t respond like that.

But this little book shows us that we can be utterly honest with God. We don't need to pretend. In fact, it's clear that 'pretense' is one thing our God can’t stand. He wants to, forgive, not ignore cover over. He isn't looking for us to be nice and say things like, “Well if you claim that you can heal my son, of course I believe you. I have no doubts in the world you can do such a seemingly impossible thing. Sure anything, just try. No,, he wants. us to be honest as we cry, “Lord, I believe, help[ my unbelief.” (Mark 9:24) He tells us that he's not impressed when we stand and proclaim, "God I thank thee that I am not like other people". (Luke 18: 11) but he praises those who are honest and humble enough to look to the floor with the honest confession, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” After all when it comes to God., if we're not completely honest, it simply means that we're trying to fool ourselves. He knows us better than we ourselves. He is the only one who does understand exactly how we feel.

But if we were to read the whole of this little book, we'd find that we wouldn't just be thanking God for showing his great love by not reacting to our grizzles. We'd learn that in fact he's already acting in this first chapter, even though nothing is said. But he’s there working for the good of Naomi, and answering her bitter cry, even before she utters it.

The full story is that Ruth is to play an important part in the plan of God. Not only is he working for these women's good, but for the good of the whole world. Ruth is to be the great-grandmother of King David. This foreigner is to be part of the genealogy of Jesus, the Saviour of the world. It's not just luck that Ruth turned out to be a very, very loyal daughter- in-law. It's God who gives this real friend (that's the meaning of Ruth) to Naomi when she's feeling so low. Through Ruth, God is caring for Naomi even while she’s hurling her abuse. And he’s caring for you and me as well.

While Naomi is complaining that the family name has come to an end, God's plan is for her very family to become part of the most important family line ever, the line of the Son of God who is to be born in her own town of Bethlehem.

Where Naomi sees only an ending, God makes a real beginning. Where she finds affliction, God acts in love and care. Where she feels emptiness, God will fill with loyal, royal, love.

What an amazing God we have! Naomi finally understood that. Ruth no doubt knew it. And the village saw it when finally Ruth bears a son and they sing, "Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth."

May we also learn with St. Paul that our God always deserves all our thank and praise, for he only has our good at heart. He is understanding enough and loving enough to listen to, our bitter complaints: Complaints that Paul sums up as “trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword.... but he also goes on to proclaim ... “...in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:35f)

© Copyright Rev. K.W. Stiller.