Call me Mara

Ruth 1:17-22

Yesterday, Ruth replied to Naomi about not leaving her, and I said something like she was all in and yet I left out verse 17, “Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried.  May Yahweh punish me, and do so severely if anything but death separates you and me.”  Yes, she was all in and more, she asked the LORD to hold her to this commitment in a way most of us would never choose.

Curt, rude, or abrupt, it matters not the word we use but my New English version states Naomi quit talking to her once she saw it was not going to do any good.  What about a name? That is a great question, I’ve always believed words have meaning and yet we see culture trying and sometimes changing the definition of a word, let me share two examples; first the word “lie” to deliberately say something untrue or to be deceptive.  But the media prefers to call it spin to shape public opinion, but a lie is still a lie.  A few, calling it fake news are using a new title, but it’s still a lie.  The other one is the word “love” have you noticed how often we use that word, and we love everything, cars, dresses, food, cats, people and God, that leaves the word without much value.  What is love, it’s action and the Bible states God is love?  And Love took action in that HE sent His only Son to die for you and me.  And yet many a Christian will say I love an object, and in the next breath say I love you, or I love God.

Now I ask what is in a name, Naomi’s name meant pleasant, and when she and Ruth entered Bethlehem, remember she had been gone for ten years, the women of the town exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”  In verse 20 we have Naomi’s reply to them, “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara,” she answered, “for the Almighty has made me very bitter. I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has pronounced judgment on me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”

If you have experienced someone that is bitter, that is the meaning of the word Mara, it’s not fun to hang out with a person like that and yet Ruth knew this and signed up.  She lived with a pleasant lady and went through the heartache of her loss of a husband, and sons, and saw the transformation from pleasant to bitter, and yet Ruth did not get bitter and her love for Naomi seemed to be centered on an action, to provide and protect, and to honor Naomi’s God.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice