Mara

This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.

Psalm 119:50 (ESV)

Before beginning this devotion, I’d like for you to consider this:

“I have found that Your love, Lord,

is more breathtaking

than my pain is excruciating.”

Have you ever experienced such deep sorrow, fear, illness or pain that it was hard to hold onto your faith?

Did it leave you still believing that God is good?

Did it leave you believing that God is still good?

Do you see the difference between those two questions? The first one means that you may have changed your mind. The second one may accuse God of having changed.

If you are a believer and have lived a while, you have probably faced that dilemma.

After all, Jesus told us Himself, “…in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”.

John 16:33 (ESV)

Our story today is from the Book of Ruth, but it isn’t about Ruth. It’s about her mother-in-law, Naomi.

The name Naomi means sweet, and pleasant. It can also mean having a beautiful character. The grief of living may have threatened to rob Naomi of this spiritual gift that God gave her.

Naomi was a soul that endured so much loss and sorrow. Even though she grieved we will read in the text how she knew that God guided her steps, and He was not unaware of her suffering. She remained faithful because of God’s grace and because He had a plan she could not see.

Sweet Naomi’s story is recorded for eternity in God’s book.

Let’s take a look at how Naomi became bitter Mara and then found a beautiful transformation by God’s own hand.

Uprooted-Widowed-Childless-Homesick

In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to …Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The … man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the …two sons were Mahlon and Chilion.

They were…from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. 

But Elimelech…died, and Naomi was left with her two sons.  

These took Moabite wives; … Orpah and … Ruth.

They lived there about ten years, and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.

Then she…heard…that the Lord had visited his people (in Bethlehem) and given them food.  So, she set out…to return to the land of Judah.

Ruth 1:1-7 (ESV)

Naomi was homesick, widowed and now her only children were dead.

Naomi begins to feel the bitter sting of all that she has suffered. When she heard that the famine was over, she set out for home. But look at her kind words to Orpah and Ruth, her daughters-in-law.

But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” 

Ruth 1:8-10 (ESV)

Do you see how we know that God helped Naomi keep her kind heart? She treated Ruth and Orpah with love, not like pagan cast offs. While none of us chooses a sinless nature, loving God helps our character develop to resemble His.

Even in her suffering and in the mysterious way that only God can work, His plan for the coming Savior continued to unfold in unsuspecting lives.

But Naomi still had a way to go before she saw God’s plan for her life. Listen for the anguish in her heart-

Naomi and Ruth Return

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?” 

She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, 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?”

Naomi wasn’t blaming God; she felt humbled by Him. Her circumstances could stem from the fallen world, her and her husband’s sins, or simply life itself. What mattered was that God was present through it all. Naomi understood that God was never responsible for evil; she just hurt.

A Joyful End!

(Be sure to click the link at the end or you will miss so much.)

Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. …the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel! He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” 

Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse. And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Ruth 4:13-17 (ESV)

Now I want to leave you with a link to see the miracle that brought the bitterness of Mara back to the joy and peace of Naomi. The Story of Jesus in the book of Ruth

Go and share the Gospel in your world!

English Standard Version (ESV)

The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025.