Let us turn again to the portion
we were considering earlier in the first chapter of the book
of Ruth. Ruth chapter 1, and I'll read the last paragraph
from verse 19. So they too, that is Naomi, and Ruth, so they too went until
they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass, when they
were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about
them. And they said, Is this Naomi? And she said unto them,
Call me not Naomi, call me Mara. For the Almighty hath dealt very
bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord
hath brought me home again empty. Why then call ye me Naomi, seeing
the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted
me? So Naomi returned, and Ruth and
Moabites, her daughter-in-law with her, which returned out
of the country of Moab, and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning
of barley harvest. having last week considered something
of Ruth's great confession those remarkable words that we find
previously in verses 16 and 17 we started to look this morning
at the word the confession of Naomi here in verses 20 and 21
as she addresses the inhabitants the citizens of Bethlehem how
they were moved when they saw her, there was something surprising
in what they beheld, is this Naomi? and then she answers in
the words that we started to look at earlier, call me not
Naomi, call me Mara, call me not pleasant, in other words
Call me bitter, for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with
me. I went out full, and the Lord
hath brought me home again empty. Why then call ye me Naomi, seeing
the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted
me?" Now, earlier, in looking at these words, we observed two
things, how she is brought to acknowledge what sin is. And she speaks very much here
of the bitterness of sin. And therefore, her name was not
really apt. She was no Naomi. There was nothing
pleasant. Her name should be Mara, or the
bitter thing that sin is. And she is writing bitter things
against herself. We see something of the same
spirit in the book of Job. I think I referred to it this
morning there in Job 13, 26. Thou writest bitter things against
me, he says, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my
youth. That's how Job addresses the
Lord God himself really. Thou writest bitter things against
me. And he's thinking of his youth
and surely here Naomi is very much mindful of all that she's
experienced since she had left all those many years previously. It was 10 years ago, of course.
She was there in Moab, we're told, for 10 years, in verse
4. She'd gone out with her husband
and her two sons, but all had gone. They'd all died there in
the land of Moab. And how bitter the very thought
of those experiences must have been to her. But there's something
deeper here. Surely here there is also some
recognition of what sin brings. Sin brings bitterness into the
soul of the sinner. It is a terrible thing to realize
that we're sinners before a holy God. The hymn writer says, how
sore a plague is sin to those by whom it is false. And so she is feeling something
now, some bitter thing. But as I said, she is surely
a gracious woman and we see something of that at the end of the book
in the words that we were reading just now, that portion that we
read in chapter 4. as she was so fervent when she
takes that child, lays it in her bosom, becomes a nurse unto
it. As she was one who was truly
blessed now of the Lord. But sin, she says, is a bitter
thing. And so we thought of the bitterness
this morning, but also she goes on to speak about sin brings
nothing but emptiness. It is a vain, it's a futile thing. We observe those words in verse
21, I went out full and the Lord has brought me home again empty. Well, she had gone off. We wonder
what prayer, what exercise there was with Elimelech and with Naomi
in the opening verse when they decided to leave Bethlehem because
there was famine and they go into the country of the Moabites. they're taking themselves off
and she can say I went out but we observed as she couldn't bring
herself back the Lord she says the Lord hath brought me home
but she felt that she'd been brought home empty and yet it's
strange because the place where the Lord has brought her is once
more to Bethlehem Bethlehem we know is the house
of bread. It's the house of bread. There
will be provision. And we observed again something
of the kindness of Boaz in the second chapter. The way in which
he deals so graciously with Ruth. Well he says to her in verse
12 of chapter 2, the Lord recompense thy work and the full reward
be given thee of the Lord God of Israel under whose wings thou
art come to trust. And then she responds in verse
13, let me find favor in thy sight my Lord for thou hast comforted
me, for thou hast spoken friendly unto thine handmaid though I
be not like unto one of thine handmaidens. And Boaz, we say,
is a remarkable type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And now he ministers
to her. Oh, she had been told quite clearly
that she could go to the place where his reapers took their
refreshments. She could go and partake of that
water that the young men had drawn for the reapers in verse
9. And then here in verse 14 of chapter 2, He says to her
at mealtime, Come thou hither and eat of the bread and dip
thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers. Or she was just a gleaner. That
provision was made in the law, of course, for those who were
poor who had nothing to go into the fields when the harvest was
being gathered in and they were allowed to glean. those bits and pieces that had
been left behind by the Reapers. But here she sat beside the Reapers,
it says, and Boaz reached her parched corn and she did eat
and was sufficed and left. A wonderful type of the Lord
Jesus who so graciously feeds his own people and feeds them
with himself, feeds them with his person, feeds them with his
work, that flesh that is meat indeed and that blood that is
drink indeed. That blessed union, that vital
union that the believer knows. She said she came home empty
and yet she comes to the house of bread and that provision.
Well, we were looking then this morning at the first part of
her confession. And I want us now to turn to
the remainder of what she has to say here in verse 21. She
says, Why then call ye me Naomi? seeing the Lord hath testified
against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me." Why then
call you me Naomi? Seeing the Lord hath testified
against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me. Two things
I want us to observe. First of all, the acknowledgement
that she is making here in the words, and then secondly, to
say something with regards to her affliction. Firstly, then
we come to Naomi's acknowledgement. And what does she say? The Lord
hath testified against me. That's her acknowledgement. She seems to discern God's hand
is in these things that she not said previously in verse 13. At the end of that verse, the
hand of the Lord is gone out against me. Those words, remember in verse
21, the Lord, told the Lord, the Lord hath brought me home
again empty. But believers so often mistake
the Lord's dealings with them. Did Ruth here misjudge God? As I said this morning, she really
came back full, because she comes back with Ruth. And what a blessing
it is that she has this daughter-in-law who is cleaving to her, who is
so steadfastly minded to go with her, it says. What a blessing
to have this particular woman and of course we see it so clearly
there at the end and we referred to it this morning but I draw
your attention to it again when Ruth becomes the wife of Boaz
And she conceives and bears a son, and the women say to Naomi, Blessed
be the Lord which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman,
that his name may be famous in Israel, and he shall be unto
thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old
age, referring to Boaz and that child. But then she says, Thy
daughter-in-law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee
than seven sons, hath borne him. What a testimony is that! Better to thee than seven sons. That's Ruth. She did not come
back empty really. There is, you see, that mistaking
of the Lord's. A mistaking of the ways of the
Lord. But it's interesting also, isn't it, when we when we look
at these things more closely to see how she refers to the
Lord who she says has gone out against her because in verse
21 it's the Lord that brings her home empty she says it's
the Lord that testified against her and then back in verse 13
again She says it's the hand of the Lord that has gone out
against her. And in each of those statements
you will observe that Lord in her authorized version spelled
with capital letters indicating that it is the covenant name. It's a covenant name. All these things are in God's
covenantal dealings with her. And what is that covenant? It's
the covenant of grace. It's the covenant of grace. God's
dealings with her are not an indication of his
displeasure or his wrath, we might say. They're not penal. God is not punishing her in any
penal way. we know that that cannot be if
she's a child of God God never deals with any of his children
in that fashion because the Lord Jesus Christ himself is the one
who was born the judicial punishment of all their sins and so in that
sense wrath is not in God towards any of his people it is the Lord
Jesus Christ who was born in his own person that curse of
their sins and their transgressions. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them,
we are told. Oh, there is a terrible curse
upon the sinner in that sense because the wages of sin is death.
But, what says the scripture, Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the Lord being made a curse for us for it is written
cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree in his dying the Lord Jesus Christ
suffered the just penalty of all the sins of his people and
we often Refer to those lines in the hymn of Toplady, If thou
hast my discharge procured, And freely in my room endured The
whole of wrath divine, Payment God cannot twice demand. First hath my bleeding short
his hand, And then again of mine. That's not possible because God
is a just God. And it would be most unjust if
a double payment of the sins was required of a just God. No,
the Lord Jesus Christ is that one who was born the penalty. God's wrath has gone out against
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, in some way she is mistaken
here. because what she is experiencing
or what she has experienced of any of the Lord's dealings is
that chastening that God visits upon his people in the Covenant. And so as I say these three times
in verse 13 at the end of that verse and then twice here in
verse 21 we observe the Covenant name. It's a Covenant name. It's not It's not penal punishment. It's God's chastenings. It's
God's chastenings. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth,
and scourgeth every son whom he received. But He doesn't cast
off His people. I am the Lord, He says, I change
not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. God's not going to consume a
with His wrath. Oh, that's impossible. In the
covenant, that's an impossibility. Look at the language of the prophet
there in Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 37, Thou said to the LORD, If heaven
above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched
out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for
all that they have done saith the Lord. Now the implication
in what God is saying here is that God will not cast off Israel.
Who can measure the heaven above? Who can measure the vastness
of the universe? The infinity of space? Who can
even search the foundations of the earth? And it's only if these things
could ever be done that God would cast off His people. The Lord
will not cast off His people, neither will He forsake His inheritance. So how she is really misjudging
God when she says that He has gone out against me in verse
13 and when she says He has brought me home empty And when she says
that he has testified against her, the Lord God is not against
her. The Lord God is in no way against
her. Oh, in wrath God drives the sinner
away from himself. Oh, that sinner who is dead in
his trespasses and in his sins, that sinner who knows not the
Lord Jesus Christ, when the Lord comes again and time is no more and we enter
into a never ending eternity and the great day of judgment
has come and the books are open. What does the Lord God say to
those who know Him not? Depart from me ye cursed into
everlasting fire reserved for Satan and his angels. Depart! He cast them off. In wrath God
will deal with the sinner. There's no sense in which we
can in any way explain that away in Holy Scripture. Solemn truth
that it is. But it's true, as it's written
here in God's Word, that God who cannot lie. But in love,
what does God do? He chases, He chastises His people. And He chastises them not to
drive them away from Him. but He chastises them to restore
them, to bring them back to Himself. Oh, He comes and He deals with
us. When we are judged, we're told we're chastened of the Lord,
that we should not be condemned with the world. We're not to confuse God's chastenings
with condemnation. It's restorative. as I've said
whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourget every son whom he
receiveth if ye endure chastening God dealeth with you as with
sons what son is he whom the father chasteneth not there's
no escaping these things and so here she makes this acknowledgement why then call you me Naomi seeing
the Lord hath testified against me. But is she really rightly
understanding God's dealings with her? He is not testifying
against her, God is for her. And God is going to restore her. And better will be her end than
her beginning. We see then her acknowledgement
and yet in a sense that proneness and it's in all of us to misunderstand,
to misinterpret, to misjudge the Lord and the ways of the
Lord with us. But then also she goes on to
speak of affliction. The Almighty hath afflicted me,
she says. The Almighty hath afflicted me
and He had afflicted her. He had afflicted her. And what
does David say with regards to his afflictions? The Lord afflicted
David. And he speaks of these things
in the 119th Psalm, verse 67. Before I was afflicted, he says,
I went astray. Before I was afflicted. So afflictions
are really akin to chastenings. The Lord had to afflict him because
he was going astray and the Lord had to bring him back and restore
him. And so what does he say again
in Psalm 119 and verse 71? It is good for me that I have
been afflicted, that I might learn thy commandments. He acknowledges
the good that is done by God's afflictions. And so when we see
her here at the end of this 21st verse acknowledging the Almighty
hath afflicted her, is not that an indication of God's good hand,
God's restoring hand, God's blessed hand to be upon her? What afflictions
make us see, what else would escape our sight? How very foul
and dim are we in God, how pure and bright. Afflictions are good. When God comes and deals with
us and causes us to see something of the heinous nature of our
sin and the folly of our sins, Why does He do it? Why does He
show us these things? In order that we might turn from
them and turn to Himself. And where do we see the real
nature of sin? We see it certainly in the Lord
of God, that is the ministration of the Lord, to show us what
we are, when God brings his law into our souls when he works
conviction in our hearts by the law we're told is the knowledge
of sin the law of sin that comes short of
the glory of God but we really see the most awful nature of
sin in the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ And doesn't
the Lord God do that with his people? Yes, he brings that initial
conviction, that sense of our sinnership, that we're the transgressors,
that we have no righteousnesses of our own, all but when he shows
us the sufferings of Christ. The hymn writer says, Lord and
tellers do but harden all the while they work alone, but a
sense of blood-bought pardon soon dissolves the heart of stone. Isn't that the thing that softens
our hard hearts when we see Christ, that holy innocent man dying
in the room instead of sinners? All his sufferings, where he
bears that terrible penal punishment of the sins of his people. If
we have a right view of that, a right understanding of that,
we will hate sin and abhor it and turn from it. As I said,
his sufferings are so different to the sufferings of his people
because they are truly penal. He is bearing the wrath of God. He is answering the justice of
God. It was a judicial punishment
that he had to endure there upon the cross. That's why there has
to be a trial and all the rigmarole of that trial was
such a farce really it was not in any sense a just trial because
Pilate declares that he's an innocent man, there was no fault
in him and yet he hands him over to the Jews for crucifixion but
it was all judicial His sufferings then are different
sufferings and yet when we come to scripture we see how those
sufferings of the Lord Jesus are on occasions also spoken
of as afflictions and as chastenings. There's a difference between
the way in which the Lord deals with his people in correcting
them, chastising them and the way in which the Lord Jesus was
dealt with as that one who is the great surety bearing the
punishment of the sins of his people. And yet, the same language
that is spoken of his dealings with his people is also used
in reference to Christ's sufferings. We see it there in Isaiah 53,
verse 5. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, it says. with his stripes we are healed
the chastisement of our peace upon the Lord Jesus and then
again in verse 7 he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened
not his mouth and he is led as a lamb to the slaughter oppressed
and afflicted the same language you see here we have Naomi speaking
of her afflictions, the Almighty hath afflicted me, or the Almighty
afflicted the Lord Jesus Christ in his death upon the cross.
Now, if there is that important distinction and difference to
be made between the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ, judicial
sufferings, and the sufferings that his people have to endure,
and the suffering that Naomi is acknowledging here we ask
the question why is the same language used if they are so
different, why use the same terminology? well the same language indicates
to us that there is a oneness here it reminds us of that blessed
union between the Lord Jesus Christ and his people because
He is the head, of course, and the church that He suffers for
is His body. There's a union. They are elect
and they are chosen in Him, chosen in Him before the foundation
of the world. They are the children that God
has given to Him. He is the Good Shepherd and they
are the sheep of His fold. We have these various terms used
throughout Scripture indicating to us that there is a blessed
union between the Lord Jesus Christ and His people. And that's
no theoretical doctrine, but it is a blessed experimental
truth. What does it say there in Isaiah
63.9 in all their affliction. He was afflicted
in all their affliction. Now the Lord Jesus Christ is
so bound up with His people. There's a blessed oneness between
the Lord and His people and He feels for them in the midst of
all their chastenings, all their afflictions, all their trials,
all their troubles. This is their portion. This is
what is involved in being one with him. This comes with their
saving faith. Or how Paul understood it, what
was Paul's great desire, it was that he might enter more and
more fully into all the blessings of this union, that I may know
him, he says. Oh, that's the one thing that
he desires above everything else, that knowledge, that I may know
him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings
being made conformable unto his death. And he writes those words
there addressing the Philippians. And he reminds them previously,
of course. what their lot was if they had
that true faith it was something that came but did not come alone
at the end of the first chapter of Philippians unto you it is
given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him he
says but also to suffer for his sake and then he speaks of himself
having the same conflict which he saw in me and now here to
be in me And so we can go on later in chapter 3 to speak of
his desire. They'll understand the language.
"...or the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable
to his death." And so how are we to understand and interpret
what Naomi's acknowledging here? She says, "...why call ye me
Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty
hath afflicted me?" But these things that she's speaking of
are really indicative that she is the Lord and the Lord has
not left her to herself and to her own devices but the Lord
is dealing with her. And what are these things? What
is this affliction? The Almighty hath afflicted me. Now again think of the language
of Paul. He speaks of our light affliction. And it is light, of course, in
comparison to all that the Lord Jesus Christ had to suffer. His
was the penal punishment of sin. He had to taste all that bitterness
of what sin really is. He had to endure that awful dereliction
in his soul, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, as
if he was driven away from God. or what is our affliction? Paul
said it's light, our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh
for us an eternal weight of glory because then we're brought to
recognize that the things that are seen are but temporal things
and the unseen things are the eternal things it's the Lord
dealing with her and besides being brought to recognize the
blessings of this union that there is a oneness between Christ
and his church and Christ and every individual believer and
Naomi amongst them. Besides the blessing of that
union there is also here the necessity of prayer. The necessity of prayer. Look
at the language that we have in Psalm 22. Psalm 22, I've already
referred, of course, to the opening words of that psalm, My God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It's clearly a psalm that
is messianic. It speaks of the Messiah, it
speaks of Christ. It's a great prophetic psalm,
it's full of the Lord Jesus Christ. David might in some measure be
speaking out of the fullness of his own experience, but it's
not really David's experience. It's the experience of Christ
in that psalm. And what do we read there in
verse 24? Psalm 22, 24 it says, He hath
not despised, nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted,
neither hath he hid his face from him, but when he cried unto
him he heard. Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ did
not pray in vain. When he cried unto his Father
there in the midst of all his afflictions, when he cried out
that dreadful cry in the opening words of that psalm, he did not
cry out in vain. God does not despise, does not
abhor the affliction of the afflicted. Oh, but when the Lord cries,
He hears, He hears, He answers. And what is true in the Lord
is true in the experience of all those who are united to Him. in all our affliction he is afflicted and so there's our blessed communion
he fills for us in our afflictions but are we like Paul those who
desire that we might know something of the fellowship of his sufferings
and that conformity to his death This confession that Naomi is
making, and we've sought to say something with regards to it
today, quite different, isn't it, to the language that we have
in the words that Ruth spoke previously there in verses 16
and 17. As I said this morning, these
women are very different in many ways. Ruth was a Moabitess. She was of that people who were
cut off from the congregation of the Lord for 10 generations
even forever as we read there in Deuteronomy 23. Whereas Naomi
was a Jew, she belonged to God's
ancient covenant people. Their experiences were very different
Ruth had been one that had been brought back out of Moab. Oh, the grace of God overcomes
that curse of the law, that curse that was on the Moabites. The
grace of God overcomes all of that. She is one who is now brought
into God's covenant people. But Naomi's experience was different. And so words are very different. What we're considering today
is so different to what we considered last time. And it's all really
put in very negative terms. Call me not Naomi. Call me Mara. For the Almighty hath done very
bitterly with me. I went out full. And the Lord
hath brought me home again empty. Why then call ye me Naomi? seeing
the Lord hath testified against me and the Almighty hath afflicted
me and yet there are positive lessons
here surely there are positive lessons because she is brought
back oh she's brought back so Naomi returned and Ruth the mother
by Tessa daughter-in-law with her which returned out of the
country of Moab and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning
of barley harvest. And what good things God has
in store because Naomi has this kinsman of her husband, this
mighty man of wealth of the family of Elimelech, whose name was
Boaz. And as I said just now, it's
not till we come to the end of the book, is it? that we see
God's gracious purpose being fulfilled the end of the thing
the end of the thing is better than the beginning thereof says
the wise man in Ecclesiastes and so it was, so it was oh this
woman how she was granted such a blessed
restoration and it was through Boaz the type of the Lord Jesus
Christ The women say to her there in verse 14 of chapter 4 Blessed be the Lord that hath
not left thee this day without a kinsman that his name may be
famous in Israel and he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy
life and a nourisher of thine old age. Blessings in Boaz, blessings
also in her daughter-in-law which loveth thee which is better to
thee than seven sons. And Naomi takes the child and
lays it in a bosom and becomes a nurse unto that child. What blessings abound up with
that little child and that child in the genealogy of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh the Lord then be pleased to
bless these truths to us for his name's sake. Amen.