The Bottom of the Barrell: Finding Hope in Darkness | Part 2
In this episode we further explore the story of Naomi, who, despite being blinded by bitterness from her past, learns the importance of looking back at God’s faithfulness and recognizing the grace surrounding her. You'll be encouraged to embrace honesty about where you are in life, just like Naomi did when she returned to Bethlehem—empty but ready to acknowledge God’s sovereignty.
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Transcript
Welcome to the Fortifying youg Family podcast.
Speaker A:It can be daunting to navigate through an anti marriage and family culture.
Speaker A:Our teacher will expound biblical principles to help fortify our families and keep these sacred institutions strong.
Speaker A:And now, here's this week's teaching from Sam Wood.
Speaker B:I'm reminded of the words of Corrie ten Boone, the great saint of God in World War II, who said this.
Speaker B:When I look at the world, I get distressed.
Speaker B:When I look at myself, I get depressed.
Speaker B:But when I look at Jesus, I am at rest.
Speaker B:And folks, that's what we need to do.
Speaker B:That's what Naomi needed to do.
Speaker B:She needed to look back at the whole story of what happened in Exodus, chapter 15.
Speaker B:And that tree was put in the water and the sweetness was brought to the water.
Speaker B:How that God turned all the suffering of Joseph around and did it for his good and the good of the people.
Speaker B:God is faithful, folk.
Speaker B:Great is his faithfulness.
Speaker B:Great is his faithfulness.
Speaker B:But Naomi was so blinded by her bitterness that she cannot remember and will not remember at this time, God's faithfulness.
Speaker B:So her heart continues to echo.
Speaker B:Listen, folks, a heart continues to echo her mouth and through her mouth the distress of her soul.
Speaker B:Look at verse 21.
Speaker B:I went out full, she says.
Speaker B:Well, I went out full and the Lord hath brought me home again empty.
Speaker B:I went out full, Naomi says.
Speaker B:What stands out to me as I read this is Naomi is being very honest.
Speaker B:Listen to me, folks, in counseling, we've learned, and I tell people when they come in for counseling, if you're not transparent and you're not honest with me, I cannot help you.
Speaker B:If you're not honest, I can't help you.
Speaker B:But Naomi is being very, very honest.
Speaker B:She says, first, I went out, she says, I went out.
Speaker B:She isn't blaming Elimelech, her husband.
Speaker B:She isn't blaming her circumstances.
Speaker B:She isn't pointing her finger at anywhere else but who.
Speaker B:But right here, she says, I'm the one who went out.
Speaker B:I went out.
Speaker B:That's a true sign of repentance.
Speaker B:God, I have sinned against you.
Speaker B:It's my sin.
Speaker B:God.
Speaker B:I own up to that sin.
Speaker B:God, I thought my way was better than your way.
Speaker B:That's exactly what happened to David.
Speaker B:Psalm 51.
Speaker B:David said, against you and against you only have I sinned.
Speaker B:You say, how could King David say that?
Speaker B:Didn't he sin against Uriah when he killed him?
Speaker B:Didn't he sin against Bathsheba?
Speaker B:Certainly he did.
Speaker B:But really he sinned, he said, against God.
Speaker B:I thought my plans for my Life thought my way to go over and have Bathsheba, even though you commanded me not to do that.
Speaker B:I thought my plan was better than your plan.
Speaker B:And, folks, let me say here today, anytime that we think that our plan is better than God's plan, we're in trouble.
Speaker B:So many young people think, oh, I think my plan's better.
Speaker B:I can have premarital sex.
Speaker B:I can do whatever I want to.
Speaker B:I can rebel against my parents.
Speaker B:But let me just tell you here today, your plan is not the best plan.
Speaker B:God's plan is, we must do what is right, not in our own eyes.
Speaker B:We must do what is right in God's eyes.
Speaker B:So Naomi admits.
Speaker B:She confesses she agrees with God that she's been living a lifestyle that's alienated against a holy God.
Speaker B:But look at how she says she went out.
Speaker B:She said, I went out full.
Speaker B:She is saying, 10 years ago, when we left, I thought I needed something else over here.
Speaker B:But now I know that I had everything that I needed.
Speaker B:I had God's presence.
Speaker B:I was in Bethlehem.
Speaker B:Judah, listen.
Speaker B:I was in the house of bread in the place of praise.
Speaker B:I had my husband then.
Speaker B:I had my two sons then.
Speaker B:Sure, there was a famine, but I now understand that all I really needed in the midst of that family was God.
Speaker B:I just needed God.
Speaker B:She says, I went out full.
Speaker B:But then she recognizes God's sovereignty when she says, and the Lord hath brought me home.
Speaker B:I love that.
Speaker B:You know what she's saying here?
Speaker B:She's saying, what a beautiful word this is.
Speaker B:Home.
Speaker B:Say it with me.
Speaker B:Church.
Speaker B:Home.
Speaker B:How many of you like home?
Speaker B:Like home?
Speaker B:And she says, the Lord hath brought me home.
Speaker B:God has brought me back.
Speaker B:God has brought me home.
Speaker B:You see, she had lived in Moab 10 years, and she is saying, I never was at home in Moab.
Speaker B:And folks, listen to me this morning.
Speaker B:If you're truly a child of God, you'll never ever be at home in Moab.
Speaker B:You'll never be at home in a place away from God if you're truly a child of God.
Speaker B:She said, I realize now that the only place I can call home is where God is.
Speaker B:The only place I can call home is in the land, not in the far country, but in the land where the presence of God dwells.
Speaker B:Listen.
Speaker B:A prodigal goes out on his own, but only the goodness of God's loving grace brings them back home.
Speaker B:A prodigal may go out on their own, but only the goodness of God's grace and God's love will draw them back to the presence of God and will draw them back to the place, the land, the presence of God in chapter one.
Speaker B:Early in that chapter, Naomi says, I heard that there was food back in the land.
Speaker B:I heard that God had showed back up.
Speaker B:God brought her back.
Speaker B:And listen, when you do return home to the father, he is delighted to feel that void in your heart that's there, the void that you created in your heart by leaving him to pursue some idol in the far country.
Speaker B:God is delighted to fill that void in your heart.
Speaker B:Naomi believed in the sovereignty of God.
Speaker B:Therefore she obeyed God's call to return back home.
Speaker B:Even though she was hurting, even though she was depressed, even though she was bitter, even though she was in pain, she obeyed the call of God to return and come back.
Speaker B:C.S.
Speaker B:lewis's book Screwtape Letters, which I would highly recommend.
Speaker B:A senior devil by the name of Screwtape warns a junior devil by the name of Wormwood of the danger of a child of God that has this kind of obedience that I'm talking about here today.
Speaker B:And Screwtape says these words to Wormwood.
Speaker B:He says, do not be deceived, Wormwood, our cause or the devil's cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending to do our enemy's will or God's will, looks around upon a universe from which every trace of God or him seems to have vanished and asks why he has been forsaken and still obeys.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:When that child of God looks around him and he feels forsaken, he can't see a trace of God, maybe in his life, but he still obeys.
Speaker B:Says Wormwood, look out for that child of God.
Speaker B:Oh, Naomi is hurt.
Speaker B:Naomi is depressed.
Speaker B:Naomi is bitter, but she still obeys God's call to come back and return home.
Speaker B:But she further adds this.
Speaker B:The Lord hath brought me home.
Speaker B:How?
Speaker B:Church Empty.
Speaker B:Lord hath brought me home empty.
Speaker B:She admits now that she is empty.
Speaker B:That's again, honesty.
Speaker B:That's humility.
Speaker B:She's not putting up some front.
Speaker B:She's not trying to pretend that she's something that she's not.
Speaker B:We do that a lot in church, don't we?
Speaker B:How are you doing today?
Speaker B:Oh, man, I'm doing great.
Speaker B:I'm doing awesome.
Speaker B:And in your heart you're hurting and you feel like you want to crawl in a hole somewhere.
Speaker B:But we're not transparent with each other.
Speaker B:We're not honest with each other.
Speaker B:So nobody can wrap their arms around you, nobody can hug you, nobody can love you, nobody can pray for you, because you're not transparent.
Speaker B:You're not honest.
Speaker B:I love the honesty of Naomi.
Speaker B:She says, I went away full.
Speaker B:But now I've come back and I'm empty.
Speaker B:I'm empty.
Speaker B:And listen, folks, again, we cannot be helped.
Speaker B:When we wear masks of pride and pretense before people.
Speaker B:Only the truth will set us free.
Speaker B:I remind you the words in First John, chapter one and verse six.
Speaker B:We say that we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness.
Speaker B:We lie and do not practice the truth.
Speaker B:But listen to verse seven.
Speaker B:But.
Speaker B:But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.
Speaker B:And the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sins.
Speaker B:We need to walk in the light and the truth.
Speaker B:Naomi sang, oh, I went away full, but I came back empty.
Speaker B:We continue to see her transparency.
Speaker B:We continue to see her honesty, as she says in the end of verse 21, why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against me.
Speaker B:And the Almighty has afflicted me.
Speaker B:But even as she speaks these words of brokenness, we see God's love.
Speaker B:And we see God's grace displayed to her in two wonderful ways.
Speaker B:And I want to share these with you as I close today.
Speaker B:I believe the first way that we see God's loving grace being displayed to this hurting woman is through a young Moabite widow by the name of Ruth.
Speaker B:When Naomi said, I went away full and I came back empty, who is standing right beside her?
Speaker B:Ruth was.
Speaker B:Ruth was standing right beside her when she said those words.
Speaker B:And Ruth could have been easily insulted by that.
Speaker B:She could have been offended and thought to herself, what am I?
Speaker B:Am I nothing?
Speaker B:Have you forgotten that I'm with you?
Speaker B:You went away full, but you came back empty.
Speaker B:Don't you know I'm here beside you?
Speaker B:Ruth had given up her life.
Speaker B:She'd given up her home.
Speaker B:She'd given up her family.
Speaker B:She converted to Naomi as God, the one and true living God, to go back with her and sacrificially love her.
Speaker B:But this bitter woman who was blinded, as I said a while ago, by her bitterness, could not see the grace and mercy of God and the precious gift of this young woman by the name of Ruth that was standing right beside her.
Speaker B:Folks, sometimes we can look around and we don't see it.
Speaker B:We don't see it.
Speaker B:But God's grace is right there beside you.
Speaker B:Standing right next to you, real close beside you.
Speaker B:And because of the blindness of your pain and your hurt, you don't see it.
Speaker B:But it's there.
Speaker B:It's there.
Speaker B:Ruth was living out what Paul is describing in 2nd Corinthians 4:11 when he says, for we which live are always being delivered unto death for Jesus sake.
Speaker B:That the life I love this.
Speaker B:That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
Speaker B:She was a living example of this verse.
Speaker B:For we which live are always being delivered unto death for Jesus sake.
Speaker B:Or we have to die to ourselves for the sake and the cause of Christ.
Speaker B:That Christ might be seen through our flesh to them.
Speaker B:Often when you love someone this way, they're so empty.
Speaker B:You try to give this sacrificial love to someone who's this empty.
Speaker B:Often they don't give any love back.
Speaker B:They don't know how to give any love back.
Speaker B:At that point, they're empty.
Speaker B:They don't feel full.
Speaker B:They don't feel like there's anything for them to give.
Speaker B:Paul Miller says has said love.
Speaker B:The love that's being exercised by Ruth doesn't pretend everything is rosy.
Speaker B:In fact, because it knows things aren't rosy.
Speaker B:It sets its will to love regardless of the response of the one who's being loved.
Speaker B:I love that it sets its will to love regardless of the response of the one that's being loved.
Speaker B:Or if we could take that into our marriages and we could love our spouse even when maybe they're not so lovely sometimes.
Speaker B:And all of us have those times in our life when we're not so lovely.
Speaker B:We're not easy to be loved, but yet we love that person in spite of that.
Speaker B:Because they're in that hurt, because they're in that pain.
Speaker B:Because they're in that time of blindness in their life because of that hurt and pain and that bitterness that we still give that kind of love.
Speaker B:You say, how was Ruth able to minister to Naomi's bitter, depressed state of mind?
Speaker B:How was she able to minister to her mother in law this way?
Speaker B:Folks, listen.
Speaker B:Her fascination and her obsession with God and God's love compels her to overflow with his love to Naomi, but not just to Naomi, but to everybody around her.
Speaker B:She has just gotten saved.
Speaker B:She has just been converted to God.
Speaker B:She is full.
Speaker B:She's fascinated with God.
Speaker B:She's fascinated with who God is and the love and grace of God toward her.
Speaker B:To genuinely minister to someone who's depressed, confused and rebellious, we must have a well within us that is continually flowing out with living water.
Speaker B:Living water that's flowing from us to them.
Speaker B:In a time when she might have easily felt abandoned by Naomi and felt all Alone in a strange land.
Speaker B:God is the source of her joy.
Speaker B:God is the source of her strength.
Speaker B:Ruth's greatest son, the Lord Jesus Christ, will take a similar walk, utterly alone in an act of supreme love to atone for your sins and mine.
Speaker B:Ruth is an incredible treasure that God has placed in Naomi's life.
Speaker B:But Naomi is so consumed with her hurt, so consumed with her pain, that she doesn't see her as a gift from God.
Speaker B:But not only did God display His grace to Naomi through the gift of Ruth, but God also displayed, let me say, lastly, God also displayed his providence in that they arrived in Bethlehem at exactly the right time.
Speaker B:They arrived back at exactly the right time.
Speaker B:Look at verse 22.
Speaker B:So Naomi returned and Ruth, the Moabites, her daughter in law with her, which returned out of the country of Moab.
Speaker B:And they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of the barley harvest.
Speaker B:In verse 22, we see a word that pops up twice in this verse that we've seen pop up 12 times.
Speaker B:Chapter one, you say, Preacher, what word are you talking about?
Speaker B:I'm talking about the word returned.
Speaker B:And since God has put this word in this chapter so much, God is continually reminding every one of his prodigals.
Speaker B:He's reminding you today, if you're in a place far away from God, to return back home, to repent, turn from your sin and come back home.
Speaker B:Come back to God.
Speaker B:Come back to Bethlehem, Judah.
Speaker B:Paul Miller says, repentance involves a returning to the box, to the world of limits that my Father has given me.
Speaker B:I stop creating my own story and submit to the story that God is weaving in my life.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:Naomi is now submitting to the story that God is weaving in her life.
Speaker B:I'm reminded of the passage in Isaiah chapter 30 and verse 15 where it says, in returning and rest, ye shall be saved.
Speaker B:In returning and rest, ye shall be saved.
Speaker B:And we see this truth manifested in verse 22.
Speaker B:As they returned to Bethlehem at a very specific and ordained time in God's calendar, it was a beginning, a barley harvest.
Speaker B:These are exciting times in Bethlehem.
Speaker B:It's harvest time.
Speaker B:The last time that Naomi had seen Bethlehem, Judah, it was nothing there to see.
Speaker B:It was barren, it was blistered, it was empty.
Speaker B:The land was desolate.
Speaker B:But this time when she returns, the first thing that Ruth sees, the first time she had been to Bethlehem, she hears singing.
Speaker B:She sees those who are excited about God because His presence has come back to the land.
Speaker B:There's revival in the land.
Speaker B:There are crops that are getting ready to be harvested.
Speaker B:The barley harvest is starting seven weeks now of harvest.
Speaker B:Can you imagine what a time of encouragement this was to Ruth and Naomi, folks?
Speaker B:When I think about that, I think when people come to church and we who know the Lord have a relationship with Jesus Christ, I hope when people come into our church, they can see that the presence of God is in this place, that there's a celebration because of what God has done for us in saving us and that we're here to worship God.
Speaker B:We're here to worship the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords.
Speaker B:They can come back and be encouraged by walking in the doors of this church.
Speaker B:Oh, it's a great time of celebration, a great time of encouragement.
Speaker B:But let me also add this.
Speaker B:When the prodigal does return to the people in the house of God, we need to fan that flame of hope that's in their heart and we need to open our arms up with love and acceptance to them.
Speaker B:They need love and they need hugs rather than get a grip.
Speaker B:Messages.
Speaker B:The Father ran out to meet the prodigal son.
Speaker B:When the son came home, the father ran out to meet him.
Speaker B:There was a smile on his face.
Speaker B:There was arms wide open as he grabbed that son and wrapped his arms around that prodigal son and lavished love all over that boy and let him know how much he loved him.
Speaker B:There was no interrogation.
Speaker B:There was no down the road.
Speaker B:There was nothing but love and acceptance to that son.
Speaker B:Listen, Never, never would there have been a more favorable time for these Jews to receive a pagan Moabite girl.
Speaker B:Someone from who's racially and ethnically different than they were.
Speaker B:Someone whom they did not like.
Speaker B:This was a cursed people to the Jewish people.
Speaker B:Never was there a better time for this Moabite girl named Ruth to come back and be accepted by the Jewish people than at the beginning a barley harvest.
Speaker B:And folks in the background of the Book of Ruth.
Speaker B:A clock is ticking.
Speaker B:It's ticking.
Speaker B:Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.
Speaker B:It's a redemptive clock of God and God is doing something behind the scenes.
Speaker B:God in his providence has arranged things just the way they need it to be for them to receive this gentile outsider.
Speaker B:When Naomi and Ruth arrived back in Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest, they came home at the time of the feast of the Passover, when the grain harvest began.
Speaker B:It was the beginning of the year in the Jewish calendar, the fitting time for a fresh start.
Speaker B:By God's grace.
Speaker B:It was time when the poor could go out in the fields and they could glean for seven weeks and they could survive because they had nothing to eat.
Speaker B:Did it just happen by chance that they came back to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest?
Speaker B:No.
Speaker B:This was in God's timing.
Speaker B:This was in God's plan.
Speaker B:If.
Speaker B:And folks, I'll say here today.
Speaker B:It's not by chance that you're in this building this morning.
Speaker B:It's not an accident that you're sitting on a pew here this morning.
Speaker B:It's a divine appointment by God that you're in this building.
Speaker B:And God, whatever you experience in whatever hurt, whatever pain that you're going through, God has got his arms open wide and he's saying, come to me.
Speaker B:There's forgiveness at the cross.
Speaker B:I am a God full of mercy.
Speaker B:I'm a God full of grace.
Speaker B:I am a God full of forgiveness.
Speaker B:O prodigal, come home.
Speaker B:O sinner, repent and come to Jesus Christ.
Speaker B:O saint who's depressed and discouraged.
Speaker B:I'm right here.
Speaker B:I'm right here beside you.
Speaker B:I've not abandoned you.
Speaker B:My grace is beside you.
Speaker B:Just like Ruth was beside Naomi.
Speaker B:My grace is beside you.
Speaker B:Just like they came at exactly the right time.
Speaker B:You're here today at exactly the right time.
Speaker A:Thank you for joining the Fortifying youg Family podcast.
Speaker A:And if you feel encouraged by today's teaching, give us a follow so we can invite you back and share us on your socials so more marriages and families can be strengthened and fortified through this.
Speaker A:The truths of God's Word.
Speaker A:Remember, fortifying your family starts with a strong belief in God's Word.
