Looking into a Broken Heart #1

Welcome to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, Founding Pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello, I'm Bill Wright. Thanks for joining us as we continue teaching God's people God's Word. Don begins a new message today, so without further delay, let's join him right now in the Truth Pulpit. We're glad you're with us tonight as we return to the study of the book of Ruth with a message tonight that I've titled, Looking Into a Broken Heart. And that's what we want to consider as we look into Naomi's broken heart as she enters into Bethlehem. And I think that by the time we're done this evening that you're going to have some clear concepts and some clear principles to help you think through some of the difficulties in your own life. And one of the wonderful things about biblical principles are that they're not specific to particular circumstances.

I don't need to give you, well here's what you do if you're having troubles at work or if you're having troubles in your marriage or if you're having troubles with your shins or whatever. We don't need to think in such microscopic terms. Biblical principles transcend our circumstances and give us guidance that the Holy Spirit can take and apply to each of your lives and in each of your hearts.

Even though your circumstances are all very much different. And so that's one of the wonderful things about teaching the Bible without a desire, without a conscious intent to try to target a particular audience or a particular need. God is so powerful, his scriptures are so rich and profound and the Holy Spirit is so wise and effective in his work in our lives that we can teach scripture and know that God will use it in each of your lives without our even trying.

One of the things that I often hear and heard from someone in Colorado, if you're watching Bob this is about you in Colorado. I get comments from time to time where people say that message was just for me as if it didn't matter to anyone else. Well what's funny is that you hear that three or four times about the same message and I don't have the heart to tell people it wasn't just for you. But what that shows you is simply the way the Spirit of God takes his preached word and uses it in the lives of his people. So every time that we come together I have the expectation that God will use his word in your life. And every time that we come together you should come with a sense of expectation and anticipation that God has something for you in whatever text we turn to. Because God uses his word to bless his people and that's why we teach God's people God's word here at Truth Community Church.

We believe in the power of the word and it's a delight to turn to it. Well last week here on Tuesday night we saw Naomi and Ruth on the road to Bethlehem as it were and it ended up with them arriving in Bethlehem. And we saw that Ruth turned from the only people and gods that she had ever known to follow the one true God. Look at verse 16 with me just by way of reminder you see such a beacon of light in Ruth's testimony and her expression of faith. Her expression of repentance although she was a foreign woman she said to Naomi don't urge me to leave you or turn back from following you. For where you go I will go and where you lodge I will lodge your people will be my people and your God my God.

Where you die I will die and there I will be buried thus may the Lord do to me and worse if anything but death parts you and me. And so Ruth what we saw last time these are words expressing her faith and her repentance. The object of her faith was not Naomi but the God of Israel, Yahweh.

She says that God will be my God and she identifies with the covenant name Yahweh there in verse 17. And so we see a preview of Gentiles being brought into the people of God with Ruth coming to saving faith in this manner through the testimony of Naomi. Now humanly speaking disaster had fallen on Naomi and yet as we saw last time far beyond the realm of human comprehension, far beyond the realm of anything that was manifested in her lifetime even, God had not abandoned Naomi. His purpose was glorious and he used this encounter with Ruth in order to further the line which would ultimately lead to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in human flesh.

We understand all of that in hindsight. At the time they're on the road to Bethlehem they didn't realize the significance of what was happening. But Ruth had grown up in the darkness of idolatry and as the Lord would have it she became an ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's just incalculably glorious what God does when his providence is at work and so we thank him for that. But we understand it all in hindsight but for tonight what we need to be mindful of is this, is that Naomi didn't see any of that. She didn't have the benefit of the light that we now have as scripture unfolds what happened in subsequent days as a result of her encounter with Ruth. But Naomi didn't have the benefit of any of that when she turned to Bethlehem and you can see in the passage that I read earlier that she was pretty discouraged. In fact she uses the word bitter to describe her then present experience.

Look at verses 19 and 20 with me. Scripture says that they both went until they came to Bethlehem and when they had come to Bethlehem all the city was stirred because of them because of Ruth and Naomi. And the women said is this Naomi? She said to them don't call me Naomi call me Mara for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. Well here you're seeing the expression of a broken and a bitter heart really by her own words by her own testimony.

What I want to do this evening is just to take a little bit of time to kind of probe into Naomi's heart and what she's saying here. And at the end of that time as we just go through the narrative to look at three principles that would help us respond well to sorrow. And whether you're in sorrow now whether you've been in sorrow in the past or whether sorrow is still ahead for you, sorrow is inevitable even in the Christian life. It's just inevitable that we're going to face times of sorrow and that doesn't need to scare us or intimidate us or to do anything to make us shrink back from pursuing the Christian life. We just take an advantage of an opportunity like this to prepare ourselves in advance so we know what to do when the time comes. Or if you're here with a heavy heart tonight to give you some things that you can latch on to very practical in nature that will give you a sense of how to respond.

And so I'm delighted that you're here with us tonight to be able to enjoy this time together. Let's just look at the narrative very quickly here in verse 19. They came to Bethlehem and when they had come to Bethlehem they enter into the city. It says all the city there verse 19 was stirred because of them and the women said is this Naomi? Well you know when you think about what that's saying and picture the scene there as it's playing out it tells you something about Naomi's prior life. You know years before they ever went into Moab somehow Naomi was someone who was known in the city. And after the 10 or more years had passed she was still remembered. And so it gives us a sense that when Naomi and Elimelech left Bethlehem in some manner they were prominent people. Prominent enough to be known, prominent enough to be remembered 10 years later when she shows up and they say Naomi's back. And people respond to that. The city was stirred. The women were buzzing with excitement. There was a hum about their return and yet there was some kind of hesitation over what they saw.

Is this Naomi? Perhaps, perhaps the hardship of the intervening years had aged her in a way that you and I can understand. You know when people go through really hard times and you can just see that they're aged. Whatever you think about politics it's very common as you observe the youthful pictures of men who enter into the office of US president. By the end of their term their grade and and you put the picture side by side the weight of their responsibility has taken a physical toll on them. It has weighed on their countenance. I was with a man who's gone through some very great hardship over the past 18 months or so.

And I saw him for the first time and he walked into the room and and it looked like he had aged 15 years in 15 months. Well you know what that's like and it's possible that this is what they were saying. Is this Naomi? Oh she doesn't look too good. She doesn't look too good. Perhaps that's what they're saying when they say is this Naomi. Perhaps it's something completely different.

Perhaps it's an expression of disbelieving joy. After all these years Naomi is back. It's so good to see her. I never thought we would see her again.

Is it really Naomi? I need to pinch myself. Scripture doesn't explain exactly what they meant, what was motivating them. But we see that they were surprised to see her. Something about it surprised them.

And they couldn't quite believe what they were seeing. And for our purposes here tonight it's just enough to recognize that they knew her in the past. They remembered her years later. It says something about the imprint of Naomi's life on them beforehand. They knew her and in some manner welcomed her back to the city after being gone for so many years.

The text notes the buzz but it doesn't explain what's behind it. Now what's interesting as you read on is that that Naomi was in no mood for a celebration. She wasn't looking for confetti and a ticker tape parade to welcome her back. She was in no mood for frivolity at all.

Look at verse 20. She said to them, do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. Now she's saying call me by another name. Now in our culture that sounds kind of strange and why would you do that? You know, why would you change your name? We don't go and change our name. I don't show up and ask you to call me Fred and you don't show up and ask me to call you Susan. Unless your name is Susan but I don't think there's any Susans in here but that has nothing to do with the text.

So let's move on. But in that culture names were sometimes changed in order to reflect changed circumstances. And you know this even if you haven't really never really paid particular attention to it in Scripture to think about it this way.

But you know abundant examples of this from your reading of Scripture. In Genesis God changed Abram's name to Abraham. He changed Jacob's name to Israel.

Daniel to Belteshazzar when that wasn't at God's instigation that was at the king's instigation when they were in Babylon. But you see this pattern of names being changed. This was common in that ancient culture. And what Naomi is saying is I want to be called by a different name. And she's referring to the fact that the name Naomi expresses the idea of pleasantness. Something you know there's a there's a there's a joyful satisfying aspect to her name in terms of the way that that name was understood back then.

Mara is a Hebrew name by contrast that expresses bitterness. And so Naomi as she's being somewhat welcomed here there's a welcoming committee for her. She shows up and she deflates the party. She takes the oxygen out of the room and says don't call me Naomi. Call me bitter because the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me.

Look at it there in verse 20 with me again. She said to them don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.

She shows up and she's making a declaration. My circumstances have changed. I am sad. My circumstances are bitter to me.

This is the life that God has given to me. And understand that I'm coming a different woman and it's kind of sad as I show up here tonight or today whenever they showed up. Now what is she saying here?

You know this sounds kind of this sounds kind of brash doesn't it to our ears. You know she says call me by a different name for because verse 20 the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. And notice what she's doing here.

We want to pay particularly close attention here because we're going to come back to this later at the end of the message. She uses the name Shaddai to refer to God and it's an expression of his might. It's an expression of his power. And what she is saying is is that my circumstances have changed and God is the author of my changed circumstances. God has assigned a portion to me that is sad and bitter in my life. Now I don't believe that she's accusing God of injustice here.

She's not making an accusation of moral evil against God. Rather she's simply acknowledging his sovereign control over her life and saying my circumstances reflect what God has done and what God has appointed for me. And it's bitter and I'm sad and it weighs on me heavily.

My heart my friends is broken. My heart is heavy as I come back to Bethlehem tonight. And she says look at verse 21 she goes out and she she gives some further explanation to exactly what she's referring to and why her heart is bitter. She says I went out full referring back to when they left Bethlehem to go to Moab. And when she says I went out full she's not saying that we went out rich in material prosperity. They left because there was a famine.

They left because they felt like they needed to find sustenance in another land. And so she's not saying that I went out as a rich and prosperous woman in a material sense. All she's saying is I went out with a husband and with two sons. I had my family and I had my man and I had my sons with me and I went out and everything that makes a mother's life rich. Everything that makes a woman who's committed to her family meaningful. She says I went out with that and I come back without it.

The men are buried their bones are back in Moab. And so she simply means that that when they when these ladies in Bethlehem last saw her she had a husband and two sons. Now she comes back empty handed.

Those men are gone. She comes back. She's saying here in this verse again note this for later discussion. She's saying I'm coming back alone.

I'm empty. And it's as though from Naomi's perspective it's as though she is being punished. She says there in verse 21, why do you call me Naomi?

Why do you refer to me by a name that means pleasant? Since the Lord has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me. She says it's like I'm being punished. It's like God himself took the witness stand against me in a court of law, testified against me and then in his role as judge declared the penalty against me as well. She says the Lord has witnessed against me.

The Almighty has afflicted me. And she is attributing the fullness of her circumstances to the hand of God. It's very sobering. It's very it's kind of depressing isn't it?

I'm sure the buzz of the ladies kind of died out and said this isn't much fun. But you know this echoes what Naomi had said earlier. Look at verse 13. When she was talking with her daughters you get some insight into her her theology here. When she says when she was bidding Orpah and Ruth to leave she said would you refrain from marrying?

Would you wait until my sons were grown? No my daughters it's harder for me than for you. For the hand of the Lord has gone forth against me. And so she she sees her circumstances coming from God. They're difficult and and she interprets that as God being somehow opposed to her in this time of her life.

Now it's interesting with how dark Naomi paints the picture. Again look back at verse 21 there just keep this fresh in your mind. You know or verse 20 the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. The Lord has brought me back empty.

He's witnessed against me. The Almighty has afflicted me. There are actually some commentators who interpret Naomi as expressing hope in this part of the story. What they say is is that you know she's referring to God's sovereignty. She's referring to his might and power. And so so she's actually expressing the fact that God's in control here and that maybe it'll get better in the future. Is the way that they try to interpret it. Well let me say this. I will not break fellowship with anyone who holds that view.

This is not so important that we need to attach a whole lot of significance to it. And I am sympathetic. I am sympathetic to any impulse by anyone to cast a biblical character in the best light possible if the evidence is somehow ambiguous. I don't like Bible teachers who come and and consistently are critical of biblical characters and saying they should have done this or they should have done that. And just taking a negative view of the people that God worked through and recorded his history through them. I don't like that. I don't think that's a healthy manner of interpretation for us to stand in judgment of biblical characters if the record is at best ambiguous. We need to be very careful about that.

These were the people that God worked his purposes and his redemptive history through. But here with Naomi, I have to part with that sympathetic view of what she's saying here. Whatever else we say when we read these verses, when you read this passage, you don't read this passage and get the idea that she's filled with hope, do you? That she's optimistic. She's not presenting an optimistic view here. She's not filled with hope looking forward. She's talking about her present circumstances. She sees it as from the hand of God and she's not even, she's not talking about tomorrow. She's saying what I've got right now is bad and this is what the Lord has given to me and it hurts and I'm bitter about it. Call me bitter, she says. That is not a triumphant perspective and so I have to differ with those commentators who try to put a positive spin on what she's saying here.

But what can we say about it? She is recognizing divine sovereignty, so we'll give that, we'll put that mark in her favorable column. She recognizes God's sovereignty and so there's at least some element of truth to what she's saying. But the truth has not comforted her heart.

The truth has actually turned her into someone who is discouraged. And here's the thing, beloved, and this gets really personal really quick, actually. Because I've heard over the years people say, well, you know, God is sovereign in this and, you know, and there's this sense of not of hope that an appeal to sovereignty brings, but rather one of resignation of spirit that says God is sovereign and therefore I can't do anything about it.

I just have to carry on and be in the weight of this circumstance, but God is in control here even though I don't understand and it's really actually making me a pretty bitter person in my life. That seems to be what we're seeing here with Naomi. And notice this, mark this, beloved, this is really, really important. What we're talking about here goes to the very spinal cord of your spiritual life. I mean we're going right to the nerve center that makes every spiritual muscle move which forces your heart to beat. Everything is wrapped up into what we're talking about right here.

It's that important. Whatever we say about Naomi's view of divine sovereignty, notice that it did not comfort her with prospects of a brighter future. It simply tortured her over her existing circumstances. One of the commentators that I appreciate on the book of Ruth said this, and I quote, and listen carefully to what he says. He says, Naomi may have come back home in faith, but hers is a flawed faith.

Unable to see human causation in Israel's famine and in her own trials, the woman the neighbors greet is a bitter old woman. She does indeed ascribe sovereignty to God, but watch this, but this is a sovereignty without grace, an omnipotent power without compassion, a judicial will without mercy, end quote. That's a mouthful, but basically what he's saying is that Naomi is viewing God's sovereignty in isolation from his other attributes. She just attributes the control of God, and it's not really much different from simply saying that this is what fate has assigned me to.

Fate being an irrational non-existent force that is blind in its application and just forces circumstances into a particular way without regard to the person whom it affects. And that, Naomi, her view of divine sovereignty has led her to a point of bitterness. Listen, beloved, if your view of divine sovereignty leads you into a spirit of resignation, of discouragement, and giving up, then you haven't begun to understand the wonder and the glory of divine sovereignty.

You're not thinking about it rightly at all, as we will see in just a few moments. But Naomi here, while she's anchored in divine sovereignty, she's missing an awfully lot about the character of the God that she says that she knows. Well, verse 22 here, the chapter closes with a summary statement that kind of wraps up the first chapter for us and brings the circle back into focus here. Naomi is not just at the gates of Bethlehem as this closes, she's now in Bethlehem, and this is what the final verse of chapter 1 emphasizes for us. So, Naomi returned. In this manner, I've completed my description of the return of Naomi to Bethlehem here. So she returned in thus manner, verse 22, and with her, Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, who returned from the land of Moab, and then he adds this final sentence, and they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest. And that's going to become important and kind of sets the stage for a transition into chapter 2, which we will look at in days to come.

And so there's this summary in verse 22, it provides an additional fact about the barley harvest, which places this time, roughly in our calendar year around April, maybe early May, and prepares us for what is to come later in the book. And so, our story has been advanced, we see what happens in their arrival at Bethlehem, they're greeted, Naomi's remembered, and we see something about what's going on inside Naomi's grieving and broken heart. Now, as we've done in our earlier exposition of this book so far, I want to ask a question, and it's this. What can we say about this portion of Ruth in terms of what it means for our lives? And we're going to work on the assumption that Naomi's faith was real, but it was flawed, it was immature, it wasn't complete, it wasn't yet perfected. You know, we could say that Naomi's faith, really at heart it was just like yours and mine, that our faith isn't perfect, that our faith is also flawed, perhaps in different ways. But what can we say about a living faith that was real but flawed in Naomi's life? And how can we assess what's going on with the benefit of hindsight and further revelation that Naomi did not have available to her? What can you and I look at in Naomi's lives, and what can we take away in terms of how we respond to our own sorrow and our own broken hearts, and our own difficulties? You know, sometimes it's acute difficulties in that they're sudden, and they're pressing, and they're right now.

Sometimes it's chronic, and it just lasts over time, and there's just the grind of it. It's not that there's one particular crisis, but just the grind of a particularly difficult situation that has no end date insight. How can we, wherever we're at on that, how can we respond?

And let me just say this by way of perspective. I just want to acknowledge and put out a measure of bias that I know that I have whenever I discuss these topics, and dealing with people who are discouraged. There are some whose bent is to try to rebuke the one who is discouraged. You need to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, or don't you remember who God is, and you know, and it becomes a matter of chastisement and scolding them for being discouraged.

I don't like that approach. I don't think that's a good way to deal with people who have a broken heart. I'm very sympathetic having gone through my own dark nights in years gone by. I'm very sympathetic to how difficult it is, and the weight that it brings to bear on a mind, and it's just hard to find any place to get a foothold to stand.

And you're struggling, and it's discouraging, and you don't want to be like this, but just day after day it's really hard. I get that. And I understand that, and I'm sympathetic to it, and so I view Naomi with sympathy even though we say her faith was flawed at the time. And so here we're not looking to pick at Naomi and say, look, she should have seen this, this, and this. Rather, we just want to take, having looked into her broken heart, we want to say, what can we see that would help us going forward? That's our goal here tonight. And what we're about to say, we say with sympathy to those of you that are struggling, and yet we believe that this is what God would have you to hear, and that can shift and leverage your perspective into something that is more positive and fruitful and encouraging for you.

There's really no doubt about that. So I just want to give you three things that we see from Naomi here, perhaps certainly things that she failed in that can give us the grounds to succeed in our own lives going forward. And if you would like to join in the support of our ministry, you can do that so easily by going to thetruthpulpit.com.

That's thetruthpulpit.com. You'll see the link to give, and you can add your support to the others who make this possible for us. Thank you for whatever you do, and whether you give or you don't give, know that our love and prayers are with you. Thank you for joining us. We'll see you next time as we continue to study God's Word together here on The Truth Pulpit. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you so much for listening to The Truth Pulpit. Join us next time for more as we continue teaching God's people God's Word.