When It Feels Like God Is Against You - Naomi’s Loss and Legacy

Have you ever had a time in your life when it felt like your prayers hit the ceiling? Like God didn’t hear you? Like maybe he was even against you? 

Honestly, I have a hard time believing that anyone hasn’t felt that way at some point. I know I have. At those times, an old church saying usually comes to mind. You know, the one where if you feel distant from God, it’s not because he was the one who moved. Which stirs up even more feelings of frustration and shame, making me feel even worse and more likely to shy away. 

I know that these feelings don’t come from our loving God, but I think they’re very normal. Many biblical characters demonstrated this dynamic, whether or not they had actually sinned. Adam and Eve. Peter. Isaiah. Even people listed in the roles of faithful saints. You know who else felt like that at one time? A woman named Naomi. And she was great-great-grandmother of King David. We read her lament in Ruth 1:13, when she tells her daughters-in-law to leave her and return to their parents: 

It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!

Let’s back up a bit. Naomi was from the Israelite tribe of Judah. However, she and her family left their homeland for Moab during a severe famine. Her two sons, Mahlon and Kilion, married Moabite women during the ten years they lived there. Toward the end of the decade, Naomi’s husband Elimelek passed away. Her sons died not long after.  

Naomi apparently took this series of tragedies as evidence that God was angry with her family for leaving Israel. In that culture, hidden sin was often suspected as the root of personal misfortune. Some commentators connect Elimelek’s decision to abandon the Promised Land to his untimely death, even though Scripture is silent on the matter. Regardless, at that time, women didn’t have much of a voice in family affairs. Her opinion on the move may have never even been heard. 

It’s possible that distance legitimately may have grown between Naomi and God, but it doesn’t seem like she completely walked away from the Lord. Her character and way of life made such an impression on her daughters-in-law that they both considered leaving their families, homelands, and chances to remarry. Ruth apparently knew enough about the customs and worship in Naomi’s homeland to pledge that her mother-in-law’s people would become her people, and that her God would become her God. 

But whether or not God was raining down tragedy on Naomi, she took it that way. And it wasn’t a one-time thing. Back in Judah, in her grief, she told her neighbors to stop calling her “Naomi,” which means “pleasant” or “lovely,” and instead call her “Mara”, which comes from the Hebrew word for “bitter.” This wasn’t just Naomi being dramatic, but followed a common Near East custom reflected elsewhere in scripture in which individuals sometimes changed their name to reflect a reversal in circumstances. She left Israel with a husband, sons, and resources. She returned widowed, childless, and poor. Some scholars say Naomi used terminology describing herself as a legal defendant, because she clearly believed God’s verdict on her life was in. 

Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me. (Ruth 1:21)

It’s hard to blame Naomi for concluding that God was against her. He did nothing to prevent her husband and sons from dying. Remember, Israelites tended to see tragedy as evidence of hidden sin - consider in John 9. when the disciples asked Jesus whether the sin of a blind man or his parents was responsible for his disability. And we tend to do the same today. But we don’t have to continue this faulty way of thinking. Nothing in the biblical text indicates that God was punishing Naomi. Famine, migration, and death are among the challenges man faces in a fallen world, unfortunately. So why did she have to walk through such a devastating season? 

Could the answer be the same one Jesus gave to his disciples - that the tragedy was not a result of sin, but instead an opportunity for God to show his glory?

Naomi’s last days in Moab were heartbreaking. However, her circumstances seem to turn around relatively quickly once she returns to Israel. Unbeknownst to Naomi, she and Ruth return at the beginning of the barley harvest, when they could procure food by gleaning. Ruth just happened to find herself in the field of Boaz, a close relative of Naomi and a possible kinsman-redeemer. Boaz sent Ruth back to Naomi with an abundance of grain, meeting their physical need.  Ruth and Boaz would eventually marry and provide Naomi with a grandson, whom Scripture tells us she took care of. That grandson was Obed, the grandfather of King David, and one of the ancestors in the line of Jesus.

But of course, we know there is no such thing as a change of luck or coincidence when God is watching out for his children. If Naomi had never gone to Moab, it’s unlikely that Ruth would have married her son. Or learned about the true God. And if Mahlon hadn’t died, Ruth wouldn’t have been free to remarry one of David’s progenitors - or have had such a devout mother-in-law having a hand in the raising of her son.    

I don’t mean to diminish Naomi’s grief. The amount of loss she suffered in such a short time is unimaginable, and unlike Job, not everything is restored. There is no indication that God brought Naomi a new husband, and Boaz could never replace her biological sons. But the joy of seeing the daughter-in-law she loved married to an upstanding Israelite, and the opportunity to care for her grandson is hardly a blessing God gives to someone he is punishing.

Are you currently walking through a difficult season? If so, are you blaming yourself for some of the circumstances you’re currently facing? Now, if you know for sure that you’re doing something that God said not to do, or have stepped off his path for your life, repent, go and sin no more. But if you find yourself in a dark place, maybe it’s not because of something you did. Maybe it’s because of someone God sent you there to bring to him. While it may not erase what you’ve experienced, God can use it for his glory. 

~Kristin Yarbrough, Worthy Content Creator

1. Has God ever used someone else to help you out of a dark place?

2. When someone is going through a rough time, do you tend to wonder whether they did something to deserve it? What about when you are suffering? 

3. Are you in a difficult place now? Is there anyone around you God might be using you to reach?