The ‘wilderness’ can mean more than an arid, deserted place. It can also be a place within where the hand of God wrestles with us to examine ourselves in the face of His holiness, justice and righteousness.
Naomi had moved from Bethlehem in Judah to a foreign land with her husband and two sons. While there her two sons married wives from the country of Moab. Her future for grandchildren was bright and filled with hope.
When her husband, Elimelech, passed away she still harbored hope that her two sons and their wives would provide and care for her. They continued to live there for the next ten years; but, still no children to carry on the family name. However, when both of her sons died, Naomi found herself alone in a foreign country with two widows of her sons and no hope for deliverance.
Naomi left for home, encouraging her two daughters-in-law to return to their people and try to start over. Orpah left but Ruth would not go. She insisted upon going with Naomi to her people because of her love for her mother-in-law.
When Naomi and Ruth returned to Israel she was greeted by friends who called her by her name which meant ‘pleasant.’ Instead, from now on, she insisted, “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me” (Ruth 1:20, NIV). The hope for a family was gone and she was coming home to live off of the charity of others.
One of the things that happens when we are in the wilderness of suffering, sorrow or despair is that we are afraid to hope because we don’t want to be disappointed again. But, it is during that waiting time that God does His greatest work in our hearts because we let go of the things we have trusted in the past and reach out in trust to Him. It is that expectation that He will deliver us that opens the door for Him to finally fulfill his plan through our willing spirits.
When Naomi heard the experiences of Ruth in the care of a man named Boaz, she dared to hope that God was at work to bring about something great…and He was. When Boaz and Ruth finally marry they give birth to a son and the story leaves us with a wonderful picture of Naomi with her grandson laying in her lap, allowing her to dream again about what God would bring about through this newborn son.
When Naomi saw the hand of God, she moved quickly to help Ruth walk through the door of His providence when it began to open. This key is so important to our struggle in the wilderness. Sometimes the loneliness and depression can blind us to the moving of God’s hand. Even when we see His intervention our own pain can lead us to distrust our senses and steal defeat from the jaws of victory. The key: when you see Him bringing about a good work, move quickly with certainty, trusting in Him to guide you through.
Little did Naomi know that her embers of hope would fan into flame as she rocked the grandfather of king David in her lap, adding one more critical link to the genealogy of Christ Himself.
It is that hungering for God that sustains us in the midst of the wilderness as we learn to release those things that compete for our affections. It is that longing for His appearing that causes us to notice His activity in the smallest details of life. It is that joy that we realize when we see His plans unfold before us and we see the ways He has used our waiting to lead us to His revelation.
Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
Isaiah 40:28 (NIV)
I owe these insights and so much more to the writings of Larry Crabb in his book Shattered Dreams (2002), referred to me by Tim Woodroof during a very difficult time in my own wilderness. Thanks. <>< steve