NAOMI

Ruth 1:20-21 _ 20 "Don't call me Naomi," she told them. "Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made
my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi?
The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me."

Naomi’s life was ironic. Her name means “pleasant”, but her new reality was the very opposite. She and
her family tried to escape a famine only to see the men she loved, her husband and her two sons, die.
When she came back to Bethlehem, the women wondered if she was the Naomi they used to know. In
response, she said, don’t call me Naomi, call me Mara. “Mara” means “bitter”, an appropriate name for
her new life reality.

Who is to blame for her bitter reality? It was the Almighty. It was Him who made her life empty. It was
him who afflicted her and brought misfortune upon her.

Well, we’re all too familiar with Don Moen’s well-loved adlib, “God is good, all the time, and all the time,
God is good” and our Filipino version, “God is good, grabe, and all the time, siyempre” (kinna corny, but
still loved by many). So if God is so good, how can he make someone’s life so miserable? How can he
make a poor woman’s life so bitter?

To blame God for the misfortune of someone is very disconcerting, to say the least. It’s a lot easier to
dump all the blame on Satan for all the bad things that happen to someone’s life. After all, he is the
antagonist, he is the bad guy.

But we have to understand the Old Testament doesn’t have a developed concept of bad things
happening because of Satan. People understand that whatever happened to anyone, whether good or
bad, it’s all the doing of God. And Naomi was simply reflecting this understanding. It isn’t like she was
bitter against God; she wasn’t expressing a grudge or resentment against God. She wasn’t complaining;
she was simply making a statement of fact. God made her life bitter.

Just so you won’t hate me so much for blabbering such an “unbiblical teaching”, let’s fast forward a bit
into Naomi’s story. A wealthy relative of her husband fell in love with Ruth, her daughter in law, and he
married her. And they had a son whom they named Obed. And the women of Bethlehem call him
Naomi’s son (Ruth 4:16), for some legal reason we don’t have space to explain here. And Naomi’s life
wasn’t so bitter anymore. Obed would have a son by the name Jesse, and Jesse would have a son by the
name David. David would become the greatest king of Israel.

Does God really make someone’s life bitter? Perhaps. Even I feel uncomfortable with the idea. But if he
does, it’s only for a time, and only so he can accomplish some grand purpose in that person’s life.

Again, is God the one making people’s lives “bitter”, and is using corona virus as a means? For most of
us, it’s easier to blame it on Satan. But maybe we should leave the poor guy alone and not blame him for
this. Of course, it still very disconcerting to say it’s all God’s doing. But if it is, we can take comfort in the
truth that it’s only for a time, and he is working some grand things for us in the future. We may be
“bitter” for some while, but things will become more “pleasant”, sooner or later. We pray to God it’s
sooner.