Living Hope

Philip Miller: The name Naomi uh in Hebrew means pleasant, pleasant. But there's nothing pleasant in these words. It's all bitter despair you see that. The hand of the Lord is gone out against me. I've been hopelessly cursed by God. That's what she's saying.

Larry McCarthy: Welcome to Living Hope with Pastor Philip Miller. I'm Pastor Larry McCarthy and we're so glad you've joined us for this series on identity traps. Pastor Philip, what would lead someone like Naomi to say she is cursed by God?

Philip Miller: Mm. Yeah, that's a pretty despairing statement, isn't it? And uh of course, we're in the book of Ruth in the Old Testament. Naomi is Ruth's mother-in-law and uh we meet her at the opening of this book. In many ways, this story is actually Naomi's story. It's uh it begins with her and her husband as they uh give up on God and they they flee to a a foreign land in order to try to build a life apart from God and then everything goes from bad to worse. You know, her husband dies, her boys um end up dying eventually.

She ends up stuck with these two uh daughters-in-law, these Moabite women uh and she's trying to figure out what to do and and uh as we begin the story, it begins with all these compounding tragedies and Naomi, whose name means pleasant, ends up very bitter and grieving. And in her grief, she she really has come to despair. She she wonders if God can ever help her, if God would ever be for her. She actually feels like God is her enemy and is not someone she can trust. And um I think I think a lot of us can understand some of that and that's a real human feeling.

And in the kindness and grace of God, God doesn't leave her there. And um this series is called identity traps and we're talking about uh some of the ways our orphan hearts can try to build identity apart from God. And in Naomi's case, we'll see this today, uh she's really looking for satisfaction through power as she tries to control everything, control her emotions, control everything. She's closing off and caving inward and saying I'm not going to trust anyone. I'm going to take this under my own management. And uh and God's going to undo that identity trap through the journey of this book and the story and it's quite beautiful.

Larry McCarthy: Stay tuned, beloved, after the message because Pastor Philip and I, we're going to discuss how often that grasp for power is often it's subtle rather than a blatant power play. But now, let's go to the pulpit of the Moody Church for part one of the sermon Naomi, seeking satisfaction through power.

Philip Miller: Well, welcome back to identity traps. We're looking at nine ways we lose ourselves in the one way that Jesus makes us whole. Uh we all want to know who we are, don't we? We wake up in this world and we wonder who on earth am I? Who am I really? And we have these deep identity aches for significance, to be valued and to matter for security. We want to be safe and okay in the universe. We we want satisfaction. We want to be happy and fulfilled and all of these deep longings in our hearts are like they're like homing beacons that are pointing us back to the to the beginning because in the beginning, God made us in his own image, in his likeness.

And we were made to know God as our good father and to know ourselves as his beloved children. But because of sin, we wake up estranged in this universe, separated from God. And so we find ourselves orphans in the universe. And those deep identity needs that were meant for God don't go away. They stay around and so we look for them to be met in all the wrong places. We look primarily to people, power, and possessions in order to meet those deep soul needs. So we have these three deep identity needs for significance, security, and satisfaction.

And then we go to try to get those needs met in three different ways, people, power, or possessions, which gives us a total of nine different identity traps, nine ways we can lose ourselves. And the answer to all of them is to center into the identity, the true identity that we have in Jesus Christ by grace through faith in Christ, that we are children of God. Now today, we're going to look at Naomi's identity trap. Naomi uh was looking for satisfaction through power, satisfaction through power. And we meet Naomi in the Old Testament book of Ruth.

Ruth is actually Naomi's daughter-in-law. And usually when we look at this book or this story, we we focus in on this wonderful uh beautiful love story that takes place between Ruth and Boaz. Um and Naomi sort of gets a little bit forgotten, I think. She's sort of like a marginal character off on the sidelines, sort of a supporting actress. Uh but actually, you could argue it's actually the other way around that Naomi is in fact the main character of the story and that Ruth and Boaz are the supporting act because after all, the story begins with Naomi and it ends with Naomi.

And the marriage between Ruth and Boaz is really a subplot in the greater story of God's loving kindness in Naomi's life. And so this really is the story of how an orphan-hearted widow learns to live as a beloved child of God. That's what this story really is. So so come back with me. Let's go back 3,000 years to Iron Age 1. This is 1,100 BC give or take. We are after Moses, after Joshua, but before the days of the king. Uh this is the time of the judges. You remember Gideon was in this uh era as well a little earlier.

Um and Judges 21:25 famously says in those days, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. And so this is that time period. So grab your Bibles. We're going to be in the book of Ruth this morning. We're going to look at the entirety of the book. We're going to pay particular attention to Naomi's character development, the story arc of her character this morning. Um and we're so we're going to see Naomi bitter, Naomi bent, and Naomi blessed. Okay? Bitter, bent, and blessed. That's our plan for this morning.

Would you bow your heads? Let's uh let's seek the Lord's face as we begin. Father, this world is full full of hard things, tragedies and pain and sorrow and heartache, things we wish could we could go back and undo. And when the bad things happen in life, we need to know that that you are king over even these things, that in all the tears and all the hardship, you are working a a beautiful redemptive story, that we can trust you in our pain, that you know how we feel and you care enough to bring redemption and satisfaction to our stories.

So Father, we bring our aching hearts to you and ask that you would be our father today. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): Amen.

Philip Miller: Amen. All right, Naomi bitter, Naomi bitter. Ruth chapter 1 verse 1. In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land and a man of Bethlehem in Judea went to sojourn in the country of Moab. He and his wife and his two sons, the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah and they went to the country of Moab and remained there. Pause for a second. This story begins with a famine, a famine which is more than just an agricultural remark of what's going on.

It's a theological statement. What do I mean? Well, in the covenant that God had given with his people Israel in Deuteronomy 28, Leviticus 26 for example, it was very clear that if Israel was faithful to God, if they were obedient to him and worshiped him alone, they would have rain and their crops would flourish and the harvest would be plentiful. But if they disobeyed, if they were disloyal to God, they would find there was a drought or pestilence or an invasion or a famine would take place. In other words, this famine is supposed to act like a warning light on the dashboard of Israel's you know vehicle.

Like it's supposed to flash up and they're supposed to go oh no, there's a famine. We must have been disobeying God. We must have we must return to him, repent, come home that we might be forgiven and the days of refreshing would come. So this is the arrangement. Uh but is that what Elimelech and Naomi and his and the two boys do? Do they repent and turn home to God? No, no, no. What do they do? They high tail it off to Moab. Now Moab is the land of Chemosh, uh the horned destroyer God that there was that was worshiped by the Moabites uh who were at this time the on again off again oppressors of Israel.

And Elimelech's name means my God is king, but tragically he has no confidence in the forgiveness, mercy, and loving kindness of God. And he decides he's better off for him and his family to go fend for themselves in another land. Now they may have intended to only have a brief journey in Moab, but so journeying you can see becomes remaining. And remaining became dwelling and dwelling became residing. And in the end, they were there for over a decade. And it is there that tragedy strikes this family. Verse 3. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi died and she was left with her two sons.

And these took Moabite wives and the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about 10 years and both Mahlon and Chilion died so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband. Now in this agrarian, patriarchal, ancient Near Eastern world, this is utterly devastating. That Naomi has no life insurance. There's no social security. There 's no legal recourse for her uh because she has no male heir. There is no inheritance rights to the family anymore. She's there's no social social safety net. And without a husband, without a son, without any male heir, her world is utterly falling apart.

She's about to fall through the cracks of the ancient world. Verse 6. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. So figuring that this experiment in Moab has utterly failed, Naomi hears that the Lord is providing for other people back home. And she figures maybe she can get some scraps uh from the table to survive. But as she heads out, she decides uh she starts to think better of bringing her Moabite daughters-in-law with her uh back to Israel because they're young enough to remarry and they could have their own families and hope and maybe they can sort of rescue themselves if they stay in Moab.

And so Naomi figures she's only a liability to them uh and their future happiness. Look at verse 13. No, my daughters, Naomi said, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me. The name Naomi uh in Hebrew means pleasant, pleasant. But there 's nothing pleasant in these words. It 's all bitter despair you see that. The hand of the Lord is gone out against me. I've been hopelessly cursed by God. That's what she's saying. Orpah and Ruth, if you you deserve happiness in life and if you want to be happy, get as far away from me as you can.

I'm only going to bring bitterness and ruin to you. You see Naomi is just collapsing into the depths of despair here. She's she's isolating. You see that? She's pushing people away. She's shutting down emotionally. She's closing off relationships and she's giving up spiritually. Orpah, Ruth, I if I can't trust God with my own life, how can I ask you to trust him with yours? So Orpah heads back home. But Ruth clings to Naomi. Verse 15. And Naomi said, see your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law. But Ruth said, and this is one of the most beautiful statements in all the Bible, do not urge me to leave you or return from following you for where you go, I will go.

And where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God my God. And where you die, I will die and there I will be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you. And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more. Do you realize what Ruth is doing here? She's refusing to let Naomi isolate, isn't she? She's saying, look, your life may be full of bitterness and sorrow, but I'm not giving up on you.

I'm going with you. I 'll be with you to the very end. And Ruth is also throwing herself on the mercies of God, isn't she? Somehow in spite of all of this family's disobedience, Ruth has come to trust in the Lord God of Israel. And Ruth hopes in the Lord when no when Naomi can't. You see that? Verse 19. So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them and the women said, is this Naomi? And she said to them, do not call me Naomi.

Call me Mara. Mara means bitter in Hebrew. Call me bitter for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me? Her bitterness bursts like a boil. Don't you dare call me Naomi. Call me Mara. I went away full and came back empty. Do you do you see the language of satisfaction there? Do you see it? And this bitter old woman is done trusting other people. I love my husband and he left me all alone.

I cherish my sons and now they're gone. I thought I could count on God, but he betrayed me. He showed up like a witness for the opposing side and brought calamity in the court case upon my life. From now on, I'm trusting nobody but myself. Naomi is desperate for satisfaction, you see. But her as her broken heart now gives up on people, including God, and turns instead to power. She's bitter and burnt. Everyone who's ever she's ever trusted has let her down and from now on, she's determined I'm going to trust nobody but myself. I'll take care of making sure I'm happy from now on.

My own happiness will be in my own hands and this way I'll never get hurt again. She's just collapsing.

Larry McCarthy: This is Living Hope with Pastor Philip Miller. I'm Pastor Larry McCarthy and you know, beloved, I just want to say right from the outset that it's faithful partners like you that really make this program possible each day. And as our way of saying thanks for your gift today, we have a resource we'd be thrilled to send you. Simply go to livinghopeoffer.com or call us 1-800-215-5001. Pastor Philip, Naomi, I mean it seems to me that her losses are really are what they're defining her. They're controlling her emotions. It's like the sum of her losses now become the person that that she is.

And I don't think that's just isolated to Naomi. No. Yeah and it's so easy for us to go here. I Naomi's situation is very it's very sad and it's very like it's very it's it pulls a lot of empathy out of us. I think to just just watch this this situation, right? So she she's been so disappointed. She's disappointed by God. Um her husband didn't lead her and the family well when he took them to Moab. That was not a good move. Um and then he bears the consequence that he actually ends up dying there.

Um and so now she's abandoned. She's widowed. She's alone. There's no one watching over her. She's feeling you know like like unsafe and and scared and and then she thinks well at least I've got my boys, you know, they'll they'll take care of me in my old age and they'll they'll watch and then they're they're gone. And then um and then she's she's just left to pick up these pieces and she she doesn't know who to trust. Her soul just caves in. And And so in a sense, if we look at as we think about identity traps, in a sense, I think she started out finding her satisfaction in people.

These all these relationships, but then they're so disappointing to her that she pivots and she starts saying okay, if I can't trust people, if people are going to let me down, if they're undependable, if they're they're they're frail, they're fragile, I can't build my life around all these relationships, then what I'm going to do is I'm I'm going to switch to power and I'm going to I'm going to think if I can just control myself. I I don't have any control about my circumstances or my future, but I can control myself. I can control my heart.

I can control this situation. I'm going to power up and I'm going to internalize everything and I'm going to I'll build a wall and I'm not going to get hurt again and I'm not going to let anybody in and I'm not going to be vulnerable and I'm not going to trust anyone, but I will take care of me from now on. It's an orphan-hearted response to trauma is what it is. And um and but again, it is walling off from the only God who could redeem, who can rescue, who can provide grace and healing, the God who has promised to be in covenant relationship with his people.

So So Naomi's coming back into the land, but she's not really trusting in God yet. And um and so we see this this control impulse, this powering response to uh circumstances like this. And uh it's not health, but it's real and it's understandable where she's at. Um and God in his grace and mercy is going to love her in that space, which is really beautiful. In As bitter as she is, God's going to keep pursuing her.

Philip Miller: You make a really good point here though when we talk about using power and that trap of using power for significance and for our identity. And And what I'm really fascinated with and what you've just shared is that there's an intentionality here. It's deliberate, but it's subtle and it's manipulative.

Larry McCarthy: Mm.

Philip Miller: And I again, I don't think Naomi is by herself. And what do you have for us today as we try to identify this?

Larry McCarthy: Yeah. Well, sometimes we can think of power as an external thing. I I got to have power over my environment, power over other people, power outside in the world. And that is one way that power can express itself. Um but power can also be more inwardly focused, power over my body, power over what I eat, power over how I respond, power over my own heart, that self-protective walling off, hardening, caving inward, taking control, trust no one, take care of myself. That That's a very It's still power, but it's more of an inwardly focused expression of that power.

Um we're also going to see Naomi's going to try to manipulate her circumstances as well. That's coming. Um so that power is going to be both inward and outward in in her case. But I think it is important for us to realize it can be a lot more subtle than we realize, this grasping for control and power in order to to to pursue our own happiness in the world. It can actually show up on the inside as well.

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That's livinghopeoffer.com 1-800-215-5001. You can also write to us at Moody Church Media, 1635 North LaSalle Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Friends, we have to face it. Grasping for control can never give us the security we long for. Next time, we'll talk about the failure of seeking satisfaction through power. Thanks for joining us for Living Hope where you'll always find gospel truth for the journey of a lifetime. Living Hope is a production of Moody Church Media and is sponsored by the Moody Church.