God Redeems Our Pain

[Walter and Deborah]

Friday 11-4-22 6th. Day Of The Weekly Cycle, Cheshvan 8, 5783 44th. Fall Day

Read: Ruth 2:20–22; 4:13–17 | Bible in a Year: Jeremiah 32–33; Hebrews 1

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The Lord bless him! . . . That man is our close relative. Ruth 2:20

Olive watched her friend loading her dental equipment into his car. A fellow dentist, he’d bought the brand-new supplies from her. Having her own practice had been Olive’s dream for years, but when her son Kyle was born with cerebral palsy, she realized she had to stop working to care for him.
“If I had a million lifetimes, I’d make the same choice,” my friend told me. “But giving up dentistry was difficult. It was the death of a dream.”
We often go through difficulties we can’t understand. For Olive, it was the heartache of her child’s unexpected medical condition and relinquishing her own ambitions. For Naomi, it was the heartache of losing her entire family. In Ruth 1:21 she lamented, “The Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”

But there was more to Naomi’s story than what she could see. God didn’t abandon her; He brought restoration by providing her with a grandson, Obed (Ruth 4:17). Obed would not only carry on the name of Naomi’s husband and son, but through him, she would be a relative of an ancestor (Boaz) of Jesus Himself (Matthew 1:5, 16).
God redeemed Naomi’s pain. He also redeemed Olive’s pain by helping her begin a ministry for children with neurological conditions. We may experience seasons of heartache, but we can trust that as we obey and follow God, He can redeem our pain. In His love and wisdom, He can make good come out of it.
How has God redeemed your trials in the past? How is He encouraging you in your present difficulties?
Dear God, thank You that You’re redeeming the painful stories of my life.

Insight

Naomi described Boaz as a “close relative; . . . one of our guardian-redeemers” (Ruth 2:20). The newborn son of Ruth and Boaz is also referred to as a “guardian-redeemer” (4:14). The “guardian-redeemer” is the central focus of the book of Ruth (see also 3:9, 12; 4:1, 3, 6, 8). The Hebrew word go’el can also be translated “family redeemer,” “kinsman-redeemer,” or “family protector” and refers to the nearest relative with the responsibility of rescuing the family in trouble (see Leviticus 25:23–55; Deuteronomy 25:5–10). Boaz, though not the nearest relative (Ruth 4:2–4), willingly assumed guardian-redeemer obligations; he bought back Elimelek’s land (vv. 3–4) and married the childless widow (Ruth) of a deceased relative (Mahlon) to carry on his family line (v. 5).
By Karen Huang |November 4th, 2022

Trust In God Ruth Two: 20-22; Ruth Four:15-17

20 And Naomi said unto her daughter in law, Blessed be he of the Lord, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi said unto her, The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen.

21 And Ruth the Moabitess said, He said unto me also, Thou shalt keep fast by my young men, until they have ended all my harvest.

22 And Naomi said unto Ruth her daughter in law, It is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens, that they meet thee not in any other field.

Ruth 4

15 And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age: for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him.

16 And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse unto it.

17 And the women her neighbours gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi; and they called his name Obed: he is the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Love, Walter and Debbie