The Village Church
The Trial That Lags Behind: Grief & Divine Intervention - Audio
Jesus. Jesus led me all the way. Beautiful, beautiful words. If you have your Bible, please open it to Ruth chapter one, Ruth chapter one. Some women of Bethlehem said to Naomi, "But let's be the Lord who has not left you this day without a redeemer. May he be renowned in all Israel. He shall be to you a restore of life, a nourisher of your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him. The Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap, laid him on her lap and became his nurse. And the women of the neighborhood gave him the name, saying, "A son has been born to Naomi. They named him Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David." As we saw last week, these words represented Naomi's present situation, one of joy, one of life, redemption, nourishment, peace, field. And if Ruth 4 was the only chapter of this book that you read, you can get the misconception that Naomi showed her the easy life, easy life, easy going life. However, that was far from the case. You have to realize and keep in mind that Naomi had a trail that lagged behind her life. Things went on before we got to Ruth 4. In last week, we started our journey, we started our little walk along her trail. And what did we see last week? We saw she had troubles in her life. We saw she had bad decisions in her life. And this morning, as we continue our walk, we're going to see something else on her path, on her trail. So let's look at verse three. We're going to look at verses three through six and also 19 through 22. Here is God's Word. Well, Melalec, the husband of Naomi died. And she was left with her two sons. These two took more by wives. The name of one was Oprah and the name of the other Ruth. And they lived there about 10 years. And both Mylon and Chilion died. And so the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. Verse 19, "To the two of them went unto that came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town stared because of them. And the women said, "Is this Naomi?" She said to them, "Do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara. For the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away for the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? When the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought tragedy into my life. So Naomi returned and Ruth and Ruth the Moab by her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab that came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest." This is God's Word. Please pray with me. Father, as we come to Your truth, we need Your Spirit to move. We need Him to move. The Spirit is what it gives life. The flesh is no help. So we need Him to come and take what is preached, the plaques in my heart and the plaques in everyone's heart that's here. You know the hearts of everyone in here. I do not. Can you figure out my own heart? So Spirit, do what you do best. Who was to Christ more and more? Christ in my prayer. Amen. We talked about the troubles and the bad decisions that held down a spot on Naomi's life. Today we're going to move to a third one in this grief. Grief. Grief held down a huge spot on a trail of Naomi's life. In the cause of her grief, this grief is seen in verses three through five. You see last week we saw Naomi and her family leave their homeland. They left the house of bread Bethlehem and they moved to Moab. They left the familiar for the unfamiliar, but over time the unfamiliar became familiar because they found comfort in Moab. They were not returning to Bethlehem. They settled there in their new life, but over time tragedy came. Again, the word says, but in Melac, the husband on Naomi died and she was left with her two sons. Now the author doesn't give us the reasons and the circumstances surrounding his death. I wish he would have, but he does it. He just tells us a result. The wife and the two sons were left without a father and a husband. They were in bereavement from the loss. The family of four down down to a family of three. The father and husband has moved on away from the land of their living. You see even though the author does not tell us why the husband died, we still know what losing the loved one does to a person, don't we? A spouse who loses a spouse goes through something, goes through something. A parent who loses a child goes through something. A child who loses a parent goes through something. What does it do to you? It pierces you to the core. There's restless, sleepless nights, loneliness, and for some even depression. In other words, death causes grief. It does. It causes grief. Jeremiah 8, 18 says, "My joy is gone. Grief is upon me. My heart is sick within me." That's deep. My heart is sick within me. Many of you personally know what it's like to have your heart sit within you if you don't one day you will. Because one day death comes knocking at everybody's door. One day you will know if you don't already know. And Naomi knows or she knew because it's in the past because she's no different than anyone of us who lost a loved one, a spouse. Grief was upon her. I'm sure her heart was sick within her. You see, I love preaching from the Old Testament. You know why? Because this is real life. This is just not a Disney book or a Disney story that's going to be on the Disney Channel next week. This is real life. This happened. Real situations, real loss, real people, humanity. She was empty and hurting. And worst of all, things are going to get worse when they are on me. It doesn't get easier. It's going to get worse, much worse. Because 10 years out of the death of her husband, tragedy came again. Now before that tragedy in verse 4, we know that her songs took more bite wives. And last week, I say I believe that was a bad decision because the law of God prohibited his people for intermarrying with those other religions. Meaning Christians don't marry non-Christians. That's basically the point. Yet the author tells us nothing about Naomi's objection to these marriages. She doesn't say don't do it. And one Christian said something that I really think shows why. He says, in my view, Naomi probably welcomed the wedding as a sweet medicine for her bitter grief. Moab food restored life to a failing family. And now through these marriages, the family line may continue. The sons marrying these women was a guarantee that the family line will continue. Because whatever mother wants when the kids get married, they want grandkids. At least that's what my mom told me when the grandkids are coming. But after 10 years of marriage, there were no grandkids. And you know what? They never were going to be any grandkids. Because he read in verse 5, the two sons died as well. Two sons died as well. So Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. She was once again thrown in the oven of grief and and Dev struck once again for the third, for the second and third time. Her heart was pierced once more. Total loss. And to be honest, unless this has happened to you, there's no way you can fully grasp the love of her pain and grief. Unless you have lost a spouse and all your kids, there's no way you can understand what she went through. There's no way. You can sympathize with her, her and others and who lost a loved one. She was a widow, childless, grandchildless. And one of my professors says when he talked when he talked about Naomi, he says, she lacks now the protection of her husband. Remarriage was improbable because she was of old age beyond childbearing. And she was a widow without kids, the worst fate for Israelite women. No kids in old age, the worst situation being. Her provider was gone. Her protector was gone. And with the death of her sons, her family line was pretty much cut off. That was it. And realize that for this, for this culture, the continuation of the family is very, very important. With her, it was it. For the passing of her two sons, there were going to be no more of her family. That was it. She had nothing left. She was empty. She was sinking in grief. Many of you know that my family has experienced a lot of death since past months. And sadly, we have spent another one. You know, my in-laws lost a real close friend this week. And this was a third funeral for them in three months. Third, two close relatives are now a good friend that my mother-in-law grew up with. And my Alzheimer's been through grief. And my mother-in-law, she, my father-in-law said my mother-in-law broke down this Saturday night because Friday night, I think, about this death because she's in grief. Well, this is what death does to you. And some of our family's still going through it because it takes time to come out of it. A friend of mine who, who's a chaplain, says, "You cannot sermonize a person out of their grief. You can tell in them God is so confused and cruel of this situation. Isn't going to magically take away the pain. It is not. It's a journey. It's a process. A grieving person needs room to grieve. They don't need a lesson in theology when they're in their grief or let them grieve. Let them grieve. It's healthy to grieve the loss of a loved one. It's unhealthy not to because you keep that stuff locked inside eventually it's going to come out. Don't hide it. Don't pretend like it's okay if you need to break down, break down. Grieving is part of healing. And in verses 19 through 20, we see Naomi grieving. We hear in her own words when she went through it. Verses 19 through 21 shows us what happened when Naomi returned to Bethlehem. They show us her response to her grief. You see, when she arrived in Bethlehem, some women thought they recognized her. It was like, "That's a familiar face, man. Is that Naomi?" In her grieving spirit, what did she say? "Don't call me Naomi. Don't call me Naomi. Call me ma'am. For the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full. The Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? Why? When the Lord has testified against me, the Almighty has brought suffering upon me." What do you make of these words? From Naomi. She was angry. That's her response. Anger. She tells these women, "Don't call me pleasant and lovely." That's Naomi means pleasant and lovely. She says, "Do not call me pleasant and lovely. Call me bitter." That's what marriage means. I mean, you're talking about, "Wow, don't call me by my name. You just call me bitter because that's what I am right now." We talk about being honest. Imagine if you've met someone who hasn't seen it in a long time and say, "Don't call me so-and-so. Just call me bitter because I'm bitter and I'm angry." We need that kind of honesty about what we're going for. She was upfront with hers. She did not pretend her life was okay when it wasn't. She didn't fake it. This is what I'm going for. I'm bitter. Why? Why? Don't call me pleasant and lovely. Why? Because at this moment, my life is not lovely and pleasant. That's why. Is it been lovely and pleasant in a long time? I went away from Bethlehem for happy. My family with me and now the Lord has brought me back empty. My family's gone. My husband's gone. My sons are gone. I have nothing but pain, hurt, and sorrow. And the Lord did it. She says, "He testified against me. The Almighty has brought tragedy upon me. Her anger is directed toward the Lord. She sounds like Job. She felt she had been put on trial and the Lord had found her guilty. He testified against me. She blamed God for her loss. She felt abandoned by God. She felt punished by God. And you know what? Her response is no different than the one you will have if you lost your whole family too. You will be like this too. You will be angry. And that anger will be directed toward God. You can set Him be all spiritual, but I'm telling you, when you end, if you lose your family, you will be pissed off with God about that. Does this be real? I would. Is that right or is that being rational? No, but I'm in a lot of pain and He's the only one I can latch out to on this sound. Just keeping it real. We humans, right? Let's just be honest about our tendencies. You will do the same. You'll be angry with Him. You'll blame Him for the laws. You'll feel abandoned by Him. And you will probably feel like the widest guy punished. You see, it's hard to say that Naomi was experiencing this stuff due to some sin in her life because the author doesn't say that. But what these words teach us is that troubles and bad decisions and grief are unavoidable in life. And these five verses and truths, this is what they teach us. Eventually, you're going to make bad decisions. Eventually, you're going to have trouble and eventually, you're going to go through grief. That's part of everybody's journey. I don't care who you are. I don't care where you live. I don't care how much you try to protect your life and parents. You can't shelter your kids from that. I don't care what you do. Eventually, they're going to have trouble. Eventually, they're going to make bad decisions. And eventually, they're going to go through grief. What you've got to do is teach them how to respond. Shifting your kids from the fall, that ain't real life because eventually, they go to college. Eventually, they go to college. And so, our responsibility is to teach them how to live in the fall and broken world because when we send them out, they're better prepared that way. Trouble, bad decisions and grief comes knocking at all of our doors at some point. I had lunch this week with a friend. He does a lot of grief counseling. So, he was definitely someone I wanted to talk to as I was writing this sermon. And I asked him to send me some material on grief that he did. But actually, the email he wrote me was even better than the stuff he sent me. And this is what he told me in this email. He says, "The normal grief reaction is anger." That's a normal reaction to grief. And this anger that the individual feel is expressed at God. It's misplaced on God, I should add. But I normally don't say as much. I just help them to process that they're feeling anger. Later down the road, they'll be able to name their feelings more accurately. But that's always later. Most people tell you that their anger at God are really not angry at him. They are really telling you they are hurting beyond what they have ever experienced. And they are groaning their faith to trust a God who will allow such a loss to occur without intervening. That's the weird question we're asking. Why didn't he intervene? And I lost him, I loved him. And there are many versions to this type of response, he says. All that to say that not all that spreads anger is what it appears. It's not what it appears. This anger in Naomi is not what it appears. She was hurting beyond what she has ever experienced. She said to herself, I want to wait for but I came back in her own words. She was struggling to trust a God who will allow this situation to happen without intervening, without intervening to do something. But he did intervene. The anger was by accident that Naomi returned to Jerusalem. He did intervene in her grief. She's something happened that prompted her move to Bethlehem. Verse 6 says, "The Naomi arose with her daughter-in-law to return from the country Moab, but she heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and had given them food." That's not chance or fate. It was the Lord at work. Because even in the fields of Moab, she heard Yahweh have visited his people, given them food. He visited them with grace and blessings. The authors are provided in details of how she heard this, but some contact between Bethlehem and Moab existed. And when she heard a good news, she heard that Yahweh has graciously visited his family, providing them food. She responded to that. He didn't visit them in judgment. He visited them with blessings. He gave them food, and it was a gift. And this good news motivated her to rise up even as she was grieving to go back to Moab. You see, even though she was wounded, angry, grieving, she still responded to Yahweh's intervention. Now, I'm pretty sure she didn't know all of that yet. We can see that because we're looking back into her life. This was the Lord intervening in her grief, and she didn't see it. One hymn says, "O joy that sakes me through pain, I cannot close my heart to thee. I trace the rain, both through the rain. I feel the promise is not vain. Thy mourn should tell this be." This was the Lord seeking Naomi through her pain. This little thing, this little good news that the Lord had visited his people and given him food was him seeking her in the midst of her grief. And later on, we're going to see that verse 6 was actually the turning point for her, the path of her coming out of her william. Because we always got to know that there are other things in our life that play other than what we go through, and that's the faithfulness of a holy God. That he doesn't shelter us from the sufferings, but he showed to move us through them moving forward in the power of our God. And so if you're in the wilderness right now, you either in the wilderness or coming out of the wilderness, one or the other. Know that the Father Yahweh will intervene on your behalf. You've got a whole side of that. You've got to believe that, even in the midst of the pain, that you are not alone. Not alone. Oh, he seeks you in your pain. Do not close your heart to him. None of his promises to you are in vain. He does what he says. He's going to do for you. Let us pray. Father God, thank you that the promises to your people are never in vain. And it's hard to hold firm to those promises when you're in the middle of grief or some trial or suffering. But Lord, your word always is a good reminder to us, medicine to our souls that you are not silent. You are not just up in the heavens, partying and partying and uninviting and not personally engaged. You are always engaged. There's nothing we go through in which you do not see. We are in striving the palms of your hands for crying out loud. We're never out of view of you. You are always watching us. And I pray for each of us, Lord, who are in the midst of something right now that the real spirit will remind us of that truth. Not just now, but even when we get ready to go into something, we either going in or coming out of something, help us to hold firm to your promises when we're in the valley or when we're on the mountain top. That our God is good all the time. Amen. Let us stand as we close out our service.