Naomi Loses Hope

When we left Naomi last time, it seemed that all was going well in the new home in Moab. Elimelech took his family and left their newly settled homeland of Israel because of a famine. Remember, the Children of Israel returning from Egypt had not been in their new homeland very long. We can sometimes forget, because it’s an entirely different book in the Bible, that the time frame between Exodus and Judges and Ruth is not really that long. In fact, in my novel, Naomi was a child during the time of the Exodus.

We know that Elimelech took his wife and sons to Moab, where the sons grew up and were married to Moabite girls. But he died there, and “when they had lived there for about ten years, both Mahlon and Chilion also died, so that the woman was left without her two sons or her husband.” (Ruth 1:4-5)

Naomi is now a widow in a foreign land. There is no man to provide protection or financial security. She is in a precarious position. Her daughters-in-law could return to their families, but Naomi really had very few options.

Tragedy and grief can cause you to doubt God’s love and goodness. When you are confronted with the pain of loss, it can be easy to blame God. If you feel that there is no hope, you can easily despair. In the times when it looks like all doors are closed and there is nothing good, you can become angry.

Have you ever had a time when you were angry at God because life seemed to have taken a turn for the worse and you couldn’t see how it could be made right again? Maybe it was grief, or perhaps it was losing a job, maybe you felt like you had lost your identity along with your job.

That is what happened to me when I was asked to step down from the Director of Religious Education position. My identity had been wrapped up in being a ‘super’ Sunday School leader, and I found myself both at loose ends and rather angry with God. I felt like God had pulled the rug out from under my feet; or at least had allowed it to be jerked away.

There is a current Christian song Thy Will by Hillary Scott which states my thoughts during that time in my life. She sings “I'm so confused I know I heard you loud and clear. So, I followed through Somehow I ended up here. I don't wanna think I may never understand That my broken heart is a part of your plan. When I try to pray All I've got is hurt and these four words: Thy will be done…Just trying to make sense Of all your promises Sometimes I gotta stop Remember that you're God And I am not..” 

Eventually I was able, like Scott to say, “I know you see me I know you hear me, Lord Your plans are for me Goodness you have in store…Good news you have in store So, thy will be done…”

Sometimes it can take a long time to come to terms with the death of dreams, or the death of a beloved husband and sons like Naomi. In my book, Naomi’s Joy we see her turn even against God as she loses hope.

My heart was empty of anything except hatred for the God who stole all I cared for. Even grief did not touch me…Bit by bit the dowry I was so proud of as a girl vanished. The necklace Elimelech brought me from Ai was first to go. It turned into flour and cheap barley beer and cheese. Even though we practiced great economy the coins disappeared gradually.

[One] night I walked out of our house. My footsteps took me in the direction of the graves of Elimelech and my sons.

“What am I to do?” I asked the barren ground. With my teeth gritted I looked up at the starry sky. “God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob have I not been chastised enough? I obey all your commands, even in this foreign land. You take from me all that I love and now you make me abandon those I love as daughters. In order to spare them death from poverty, I must leave so they will look for new husbands to care for them. Do you offer no hope?”

There was only silence in the night. Far away a dog barked. My heart was empty. I did not have the courage to walk away from my home into the barren desert even to spare Ruth and Orpah. With plodding steps I turned from the graves. At the edge of town I paused. A trader’s camp was set up ready for the morning business.

A tiny hope flickered in me. “I will do it.”

For the rest of the night I sat outside our small house. My jaw was set. There were no tears, only a cold resolve fueled by anger at the God who abandoned me. My course was set.

We may think that situations like Naomi’s have no place in the ‘modern’ world where women have rights and are not dependent on husbands for security. We may think this is true in America. However, there are families and children who go to school hungry, who sleep in cars, who struggle from day to day.

Around the world, the situation is even graver in some places due to war, drought, famine, and insensitivity. There are women and children at risk and dependent on the hospitality of others for life itself. Our God calls us to look around and respond in ‘loving our neighbor as ourselves’. 

What can just one person do? There are organizations like Heifer Project and Episcopal Relief and Development, Unicef and Bread for the World, to name just a few who work to make these situations less dire. Communities have food banks and organizations, too.

Each of these is an opportunity to give hope to someone who has lost it. Each is a chance to be the hand and feet of God, and perhaps restore someone’s faith. Is there something you can do right now to offer hope?

Out of Control-When your Rope is Fraying

Last time we shared a conversation between Leah and Moses who both learned that only when they really let go of their agendas was God able to work. Like them we try and try to make ‘our way’ work out. But then we discover we are hanging by a fraying rope and hoping that it doesn’t break, rather like this story:

There was a monastery high on a cliff. The only access was by way of riding in a basket which several monks hauled up to the top. Obviously the ride over the rocky jagged terrain was steep, and in a wicker basket it was terrifying to all but the naively fearless. One visitor, however, got exceedingly nervous. Roughly halfway up he saw that the rope by which he was being hauled was rather frayed and splitting. Shaking in his boots but unable to move, he frantically asked the monk who was seated next to him how often they changed the rope. Thinking for a moment, the monk answered, "whenever it breaks."

Miriam in the Old Testament and the Samaritan Woman in the New are two women who know a bit about frayed ropes and what happens when they break.

Miriam, as Moses’ sister was important to the Children of Israel during the Exodus. You may recall she led the victory dance after the Red Sea crossing (Exodus 15:20-21). However, when she tried to prove who was a better leader and more in control, she found herself exiled outside the camp with leprosy. (Numbers 12:1-15)

The Samaritan Woman (John 4:7-30) had clearly been trying to get her life in order and be in control of it for a long time. Jesus tells her “You have had 5 husbands and the one you have now is not your husband.” She has had extremely bad luck with husbands, for whatever reason. In a world where a woman was dependent on the man in her life, this was not a good thing. In fact, she is reduced to living with a man she isn’t married to in order to get that protection.

Miriam and the Samaritan Woman were looking for power and security in the wrong place. Miriam was angry because Moses seemed to have all the power, and she felt he misused it because he “married a Cushite woman.” She forgot that it was God who was really in control of the Exodus until she and Aaron are confronted by the Lord. “Come out, you 3, to the tent of meeting,” God says. He then reminds them that “with [Moses] I speak face to face…and he beholds the form of the Lord.”

Miriam is reminded that God is in control “when the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow.” This dread disease was feared in the ancient world and anyone with it was an outcast. So, she is “shut up outside the camp 7 days…and the people did not set out on the march till Miriam was brought in again.” During that time, she learned to trust God a bit more and to control her pride.

The Samaritan Woman, too, is an outcast in the community. She comes to draw water at the sixth hour rather than in the early morning like the other women of Sychar. Being considered perhaps a pariah (or at least gossiped about as immoral) because of her lifestyle gave her the opportunity to meet Jesus and engage in a theological conversation with him.

First he asks her for a drink, much to her amazement. “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” That a man and a Jewish man, at that, spoke to her at all was cause to be astonished!

Jesus responds by saying he can give ‘living water.’ To her mind living water is running water (like a spring or well) rather than well water and she knows there is not a spring nearby. The woman is confused even more when he announces, “whoever drinks of the water that I shall give will never thirst; the water that I shall give will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” She desires this, even though she really doesn’t understand. Jesus goes on to tell her that “true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the such the Father seeks to worship him.”

Both Miriam and the Samaritan Woman encounter God when the frayed rope of ‘being in control’ snapped and they found themselves outcast from their community. I’ll bet there are times you have felt like an outcast, too.

God comes to each of us when we feel that we’ve reach a point of no return-be it a job loss, or health crisis, or faith challenge. Look around-God is right there waiting to give you living water and heal the leprosy. Just today I read a blog post that puts it all in perspective:

“So go get the milk and take out the trash and throw in the laundry and wave giddy to the neighbors because there is a plan and there is a purpose and there is a God in heaven who didn’t just ink you onto the palm of His hands but etched your name right into Himself with nails and He’s hasn’t just got your number, He’s got your heart. He sees you, hidden in Him, and you aren’t ever forgotten because God can’t forget those right in Him. You’ve never missed the boat when you’re holding onto the Cross.
So really — you’ve got to believe it for your 16 year-old-self and 56 year-old-self and for yourself right now: really, it’s all working out okay.
Because God’s writing your story and He never leaves you alone in your story, and His perfect love absorbs all your fear and His perfect grace carries all your burdens, and your story is a happily ever after because Christ bought your happily ever after so you always know how this story ends:
You’re going to be okay.”

(you can read the rest here) 

Next time we'll look at what can happen when you really let God be in control. For one thing you don't have to worry about the loose ends of fraying ropes that leave us feeling frightened and out of control! 

Transformation when God seems Absent

Transformation is about acknowledging our scars and wrestling with God in order to draw near to God’s grace and truth. So why does it sometimes feel like God is pulling away or absent? The road stretches out empty in front of you and there doesn't seem to be an oasis anywhere in sight.

It happened to the Chosen People-the Israelites-throughout the Bible. Sometimes they turned from God to serve idols of the tribes around them, sometimes it just seemed that God wasn’t there when they needed help. In Exodus, we learn “the people of Israel groaned under their bondage and cried out for help.” (Exodus 2:23) God seemed far away and the people thought that they were forgotten. After all, for 400 years Pharaoh “made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field.” (Exodus 1:14) We know that they were not really forgotten, because we know the rest of the story-we know how God "brought them us out of Egypt with a mighty hand." (Deuteronony 26:8)

In Isaiah God says, “For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you.” (Isaiah 54:7) The disciples felt abandoned after the Crucifixion, but Jesus comes and gathers them back with reassurance. While they still doubt and do not understand what has happened, He meets them where they are. Jesus comes to them in locked rooms, on the road to Emmaus, and on the seashore where he has fixed them breakfast. In each case, Jesus reassures the men and women that he will be with them.

Taylor* uses the analogy of a parent who leaves the children with an older sibling as babysitter. We (as Christians) are like that responsible sibling. We may feel like we’ve been orphaned because we cannot see or hear God. However, Jesus promises, “I will not leave you desolate…We will come and make our home with you [us].” (John 14:23) Taylor says this “is very good news for babysitters…there is someone else at home, in us and in those for whom we care, which means we do not have to be God-sized for them. We can be human-sized instead, with room within us for God to dwell and heal all our hearts from the inside out.” Instead of having to be in charge, we can be children together and hold each other's hands.

Edward Hays’ Dragon* tells George “The desert is not always a pleasant place. Our littleness and our inabilities usually come to the surface when we are left alone.” Then the Dragon tells a story that can point the way to finding God when it feels like there is only silence or emptiness.

“This is a story about the Our Father…Secure and comfortable, the Our Father was at peace with his spiritual life…then…a sense of hollowness and a lack of meaning became a shadow that followed him each time he went to pray…he read articles and attended conferences…sought out an Indian guru…his prayer life remained as barren as the Sahara. So in frustration, like so many others, he completely abandoned praying and became involved in social reform. [Even after living for a year in the Rocky Mountains as a hermit he was aware that his problem was still with him. He finds an old man in a cabin on his way down the mountain and shares his story of frustration with the old man, who told him] “You are a special and sacred word of God made flesh. To pronounce your own unique word is to pray the most beautiful and holiest of prayers…God doesn’t create things; God only creates prayers…To learn how to pray is to learn to pronounce your own sacred word-to speak yourself!...You must see yourself as you are. Everything about the original you is perfect. God does not have bad ideas…Speak your own word clearly and with dignity. That is what it means to submit to the will of God…when you are true to your special word, what Jesus said will be true in your life-he and the Father will come and make their dwelling place with you, always!”


Being transformed is about acknowledging that we have scars that need to glow, about wrestling with God to find the Truth that God speaks in and through us. Transformation is also about trusting that God is present even when it feels like God is absent. The disciples didn’t recognize Jesus immediately after his Resurrection. Sometimes we don’t realize God is with us, esp. in the dark and painful times of life. God met the Israelites in their bondage in Egypt, Jesus met the disciples in their despair and lonliness, God will meet us when we think that there is no where to go.

Taylor notes that “when we too are marooned on the sea in the middle of night, afraid that we have come to the end of something without any idea how to begin again…it is probably a good idea to pay attention to [strangers] since Jesus has a whole closet full of disguises…How does any of us know [‘it is the Lord’]?...by watching…by listening…by living in great expectation and refusing to believe that our nets will stay empty…for those with ears to hear, there is a voice that can turn all our dead ends into new beginnings.”
Where are you in being transformed by God? Hurting from your scars? Wrestling with God? Wondering where God is? Listen and you may just hear a messenger offering hope. See you next week when we’ll explore some of the messengers God uses.

Ordinary Time Excursion-Miriam

This week we meet Miriam, sister of Moses. She has only 4 citations in the Bible. However, she is a courageous woman who continues to inspire us thousands of years later. She spent a long time in the wilderness, and even at the end didn't get to enter the Promised Land, but she learned to trust that God's way is the best way.

We meet her as a child approaching Pharaoh’s daughter to offer her mother as nursemaid for her brother. “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women…?” (Exodus 2:7) Many years later we hear her song of triumph after the Israelites cross the sea. “Then Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and dancing. And Miriam sang to them: ‘Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.’” (Exodus 15:20-21). Miriam saw God's actions clearly and proclaimed them to all the people.

Of course she is best known for her rebellion against Moses in Numbers 12. “Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses…behold, Miriam was leprous….the people did not set out on the march till Miriam was brought in again.” Not unlike many of us, she decided that she knew better than God or Moses how things should be done. Lastly, we hear of her death before the people enter the Promised Land. “The people of Israel…came into the wilderness of Zin…and Miriam died there and was buried there.” (Numbers 20:1)

In these few glimpses of her life against the backdrop of the grand story of the Exodus, we see a brave, faithful woman, who is not afraid to speak up. Even as a child, she boldly addresses Pharaoh’s daughter. As an adult, she is known as a prophetess and leads the women in celebration. Although quiet during much of the Exodus, she is not afraid to confront Moses when she thinks he is wrong for his marriage to “a Cushite woman.” (Numbers 12:1) It appears that God is angry with Miriam and Aaron for asking “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” (Numbers 12:2). For their pride, God reminds them that “my servant Moses…is entrusted with all my house…and he beholds the form of the Lord.” (Numbers 12:7-8) Then Miriam is left leprous. Perhaps because he immediately repents Aaron is spared the same fate as Moses intercedes for his sister. She is left outcast for 7 days as “If her father had but spit in her face…let her be shut up outside the camp…” (Numbers 12:14)

In many cultures, to be spat upon is considered a curse. God has symbolically spit upon Miriam and made her unclean through the leprosy because her actions have belittled Moses (as a woman to speak against the leader). However, she is not “cast out” forever, just for a week.

Miriam and the children of Israel are being prepared to enter the Promised Land. Like us, they need to learn that God is the one who will lead them safely. Sadly, the next several chapters of Numbers recite the doubts of the people and the spies. The Lord announces, “No one [of you] shall come into the land…but your little ones…I will bring in.” (Numbers 14:30-31) So, because of their continued doubts and dependence on their own strength, the people do not obtain immediately the promise.

What can we learn from Miriam? Even though she is oppressed with leprosy for her mutiny and “shut outside the camp for seven days,” (Numbers 12:15) God does not abandon her. Despite their doubts and fears, God continues to provide for the people until they do finally enter the Promised Land (but that’s another story).

Even though neither Miriam nor Moses set foot in the Promised Land, they both knew that God would bring the people in. “I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there,” God tells Moses on Mt. Nebo. (Deuteronomy 34:4) Miriam too is close to the Promised Land when she dies at Kadesh. After a life spent following God, she knew that Psalm 37 is correct, “Our steps are made firm by the LORD, when he delights in our way; though we stumble, we shall not fall headlong, for the LORD holds us by the hand.” (Ps. 37:24-25)

In my novel, Miriam’s Healing,* she affirms this belief at the end of the book:

“The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the one who throughout our bondage and our wanderings has been the true deliverer. Even though I hoped to liberate my family, I AM used a shepherd’s staff in the hands of my brother to redeem all the children of Israel. God always has a greater plan than we can see.”


“My sister, your words are true,” the voice of Moses, Deliverer of Israel, was heard.


He joined the group beside his sister.


“It is the Lord who will bring the victory. The people are ready to enter the Promised Land,” Miriam stated with conviction.


“Yes, they have learned the ways of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as they listen to your words,” a smile of affirmation was for the Prophet’s sister. “By the recitation of the manifold acts of the Living God, the people have been healed of their doubt. They are now a faithful nation ready and able to follow the laws set out by I AM. With your help, my sister, the Word of God has been given to these chosen ones.”

When we become too prideful and forget who is really in charge, God does not abandon us, either. The natural consequences of our actions can cause us pain when our plans come crashing down around us, but God is still right there. We may feel that the rug has been pulled out from under us. Only looking back do we see that God was preparing us for something better than we might have expected. Once upon a time I thought I was meant to be a Sunday School teacher for the rest of my life…but God had other plans and led me through a dark time to become an author.

Next week we will meet Abigail, a woman who learned that God’s ways are infinitely more surprising than any plans we can make.

*Miriam’s Healing, ISBN: 978-0-557-00943-5, available online through Amazon.com and my website (CynthiaDavisAuthor.com).