For our sermon text, we're going to re-read a couple of short passages from the book of Ruth. First, Ruth chapter 1, verses 19 through 21. And afterward, Ruth chapter 4, verses 14 through 17. So, Ruth chapter 1, starting in verse 19. So they too went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them. And they said, is this Naomi? And she said unto them, call me not Naomi. Call me Mara. For the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty. Why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?" And then chapter 4, verses 14 through 17, And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the Lord, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman. that his name might be famous in Israel, 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 borne him.' And Naomi took the child and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse unto it. And the women, her neighbors, 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." We saw in the first service today how Naomi left Bethlehem in time of famine with a husband and two sons. The way she herself describes her condition when she went out from Israel, she said, I went out full. A time of famine, but in reflecting back to it, she says, I went out full. I had my husband and I had my sons. A time of chastening. And she and her husband Elimelech don't submit to the chastening hand of God, but flee it and seek satisfaction in a foreign land, a land of sin and idolatry, even in Moab." We know that they sinned grievously in Moab because they married their sons to Moabite women. The Lord pursued them in His chastisement into Moab. You cannot escape the chastisement of God. The chastening hand of God will follow you. The only thing to do under God's chastening hand is to submit to it. But God's chastening hand followed them to Moab. Elimelech died. Her two sons died. young, we don't know just how old they are, we aren't told, but they didn't have any children yet. Naomi, well we read the story earlier of how Naomi and her daughters-in-law were discussing what to do and in the end Orpah left her at Naomi's bidding and Ruth clung to her. And so now she returns back to Israel bereft of her husband and her two sons as a woman rebuked of God and feeling the rebuke of God. So they, too, went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass when they were come to Bethlehem that all the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi? Is this Naomi coming back without a Limelech, without Without Killian, is this the woman who was seeking better fortunes in the land of Moab coming back unto us, desolate? And we may, we would do well to think of Job's friends, in Job 2 verse 12, when they lifted up their eyes afar off and knew him not, they lifted up their voice and wept. And they rent everyone his mantle and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. Is this Job? Is this Naomi? And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara. The word Naomi means pleasant. It can even mean beautiful. Pleasant. The name Mara means bitter. Call me not pleasant, call me bitter. For the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full. and the Lord hath brought me home again empty. Why then call ye me Naomi? Seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me. We'll have two basic sections to our sermon this afternoon. The first is, Naomi, a woman reproved. And the second, Naomi, a woman redeemed. The Almighty, she says, hath dealt very bitterly with me. And upon a cursory reading, you may think that Ruth is well doing the thing that it says Job didn't do, which was charge God foolishly. That she's murmuring and complaining against God. But I don't think that's the case at all. Would you not say that the Lord had brought her to a place of bitterness, to be bereft of her husband and her sons? One of the main reasons I don't think that she is complaining against God or charging God foolishly is because she justifies God. vindicates God's good name in it saying, verse 21, the Lord hath testified against me. The Lord has brought this bitterness upon me for my sins. He's brought this upon me to bring my sins in remembrance and to testify against me. We read something similar in Lamentations chapter 3. In Lamentations chapter 3, Jeremiah meditates at length upon the bitterness and severity of the chastening of God toward him. Lamentations chapter 3, I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He hath led me and brought me into darkness, but not into light. Surely against me as he turned, he turneth his hand against me all the day. My flesh and my skin hath he made old. He hath broken my bones. He hath builded against me, encompassed me with gall and travail. He hath set me in dark places as they that be dead of old. He hath hedged me about that I cannot get out. He hath made my chain heavy. Also, when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer. He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone. He hath made my paths crooked. He was unto me as a bear lying in wait and as a lion in secret places. He hath turned aside my ways. and pulled me in pieces. He hath made me desolate. He hath bent his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. I was a derision to all my people and their song all the day. He hath filled me with bitterness." Same word. He hath filled me with bitterness. He hath made me drunken with wormwood. Jeremiah, in this chapter, is allowing the smarting hand of God and the bitterness of the afflictions which God has pressed upon him to teach him a lesson. He's allowing it to sink in and reach his heart. And that's what we have Naomi doing. When she says, call me not Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. The Almighty hath afflicted me. He's testified against me and brought my sins up before him. When God brings us into times of chastisement, how are we to respond to it? Well, we can do no better than taking our direction from Hebrews 12, a brief statement, despise not the chastening of the Lord. neither faint when thou art rebuked of him." And so we'll take those two things as an outline of this section. First of all, despise not the chastening of the Lord. To despise something, oftentimes in our culture today, the word despise used to mean hate. That's not the traditional definition of that word. It's not the definition of it when you read the word despise in your Bible. To despise is to think lightly of something. Despise not the chastening of the Lord. Don't despise, don't think lightly of it when God brings His chastening hand upon you. Indeed, don't think lightly of it when God threatens to bring His chastening hand upon you. We despise God's chastening in several different ways, the first of which, we despise God's chastening when we fail to realize that we're being chastened. when we fail to even realize that we're being chastened, when our hearts are so dull and our minds are so darkened under the chastening hand of God that we see our afflictions and we don't consider what the providence of God may be doing through those afflictions. So instead, we simply live in dullness and stupidity under the chastening hand of God. We harden our hearts. We may complain. but we don't look about and consider what God is doing in our lives. We've all seen people who, through their own sinful choices, are living lives that you would never wish on anybody, right? were living lives through their own sinful choices that were lives of destitution, lives of destruction, destroying themselves, destroying those around them. And they just go on in it and act like the difficult things about their lives are just, well, they're just chance. It's just something that's happened to me. I don't know why my life's this way. That is to fail to realize the cause. And indeed, when we fail to realize that we're being chastened by the hand of God, we live in just such spiritual stupidity. We despise God's chastening when we explain it away. We despise God's chastening when we fail to improve it, meaning we fail to make good use of it. We'll talk about that a little later. We despise God's chastening also when we harden ourselves against God and harden ourselves against His chastening, murmuring against God and and not considering our own sins, not searching out our own ways. Despise not God's chastening. What should we do rather than despising God's chastening? We should own it. We should own it. Own the severity of it. That's what Ruth does when she says, The Almighty hath dealt bitterly with me. The Almighty hath afflicted me. So own the severity of it and own that it is indeed chastening. The Lord hath testified against me. You'll never benefit from chastening if you refuse to take to heart the severity of it, and if you refuse to take to heart the fact that it is indeed chastening. Concerning the severity of it, a simple illustration occurs to my mind. Many of us here are parents. Sometimes if a child does something particularly bad, you might, in spanking them, give them a few extra licks to drive home to them the severity of their offense. And so when we're under the chastening hand of God, we ought to consider the severity of it, because God measures out the severity of it in order to teach us, just like the parent measures out the severity of the spanking to teach the child. So despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither faint when you are rebuked by him." So if despising the chastening of the Lord is thinking too little of it and not considering it and not taking it to heart, to faint under God's chastening is to despair of God's goodness in chastening. You see, these are two opposite errors on either side of the road, right? Don't give in to despair under chastening. And I have some reasons not to faint. What are some reasons not to faint? Well first, and we'll draw again from Lamentations 3 for these things, largely from Lamentations 3. So we saw earlier in what we read from Lamentations 3, we saw Jeremiah taking to heart the severity of the chastening, right? But here, from verse 21 and forward, we see Jeremiah not fainting under the chastening, but hoping under the chastening. So why not, reasons not to faint. What are some reasons not to faint? First, chastening is a mercy. Chastening is a mercy. Lamentations 3, verse 27, he said, it is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. It's a mercy. Indeed, Hebrews 12 that we read earlier talks about it as one of the privileges of our adoption. God chastens every son whom he receives. If you're not chastened, then you're bastards and not sons. Chastening is one of our privileges. You pity the child who doesn't have anyone to chasten him when he does wrong. A chastening of God toward his children is one of the privileges of their adoption. This is a reason not to faint. This is a reason for us to have our hearts lifted up toward God under chastening. Second reason not to faint. Chastening, no chastening is an end in itself. God doesn't chasten His children just to chasten His children. He's not an abusive Father. In verse 33 of Lamentations 3 it says, For he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. What's that mean, he doth not afflict willingly? Well, the meaning is, God's goal is not afflicting his child. His goal is accomplishing something through afflicting his child. God doesn't set out to torment his people. but to shepherd them and to lead them. He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men." And indeed we read in Hebrews 12, the chastening yieldeth fruit, it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness, of holiness to those who are exercised by it. So chastening is not an end in itself. God is working good things for you if you are under His chastening hand. This is a reason not to faint. This is a reason to be encouraged even as we humble ourselves low. We ought not to faint under God's chastening hand because God measures His chastisements. In verse 22 of Lamentations 3, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because His compassions fail not. God doesn't let out the floodgates on us. God measures His chastening and it's of His mercies we're not consumed under His chastening. In Psalm 118, verse 18, the Lord hath me chastised and sore, but not to death given over. The Lord measures his chastisements. He's not, well, we read in Hebrews 12 about the father, the earthly father who chastens his child for his own pleasure, right? Who just takes out all the stops and just gives himself up to afflicting his child. But that's not how the Lord our God is in his chastening hand toward us. He measures them out. to just what we need for our benefit. And then finally, we ought not to faint because the Lord will not cast off forever, verse 31. We were seeing this in Psalm 30 earlier, that weeping Well, that his anger endureth for a moment. His anger endureth for a moment, right? Weeping endures for a night, but joy comes with the morning. So the Lord will not cast off forever. And these are reasons to be encouraged, even under God's chastening hand. So what about for Naomi? She was brought to the place of bitterness. She was brought to feel her bitterness. But what was the Lord working for her? Chapter 4. She went out full and she came back empty, right? No sons, no husband. Ruth chapter 4, verse, let's see here, verse 15. For thy daughter-in-law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath borne him. Naomi's lost two sons, yes, Naomi's lost two sons, but she's gained a daughter-in-law who truly is better to her than seven sons. And the Lord was merciful to her throughout it all, right? He provided for her through Ruth and through Boaz jointly, right? So Naomi as a woman redeemed, what about when the Lord turned again her captivity. This is the way that it's put in the book of Job. At the end of Job, after God has afflicted Job with tremendous bitterness, right? Taken away his family, taken away all of his possessions. It says that, then the Lord turned his captivity. And indeed here at the end of the book of Ruth, the Lord turns Naomi's captivity. And It's a bit, it might be a bit unexpected the way that some of these things are said about Naomi that you might have expected them to say about Ruth at the end of the book, right? The women said unto Naomi, blessed be the Lord, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman. And then in verse 17, there is a son born to Naomi. Did Naomi have a son at the end of the book? Well, not her own son. She had a grandson. But the way it worked in redeeming Ruth, Boaz was redeeming both Naomi and Ruth, right? So the land which had belonged not just to Ruth's husband, but the land that had belonged to both Naomi's husband would be the inheritance of the child. So the child was actually legally reckoned Naomi's child. Naomi's child. And the Lord has turned her captivity at the end of this. He's restored to her the years that the locusts have eaten away. Right? He has given her beauty for ashes. He has given her pleasantness for her bitterness. He has turned her captivity. Now it's difficult in reading this to make direct applications from the Lord's mercy to Naomi and the way that He turned her captivity to us under our chastening. Because I can't say how the Lord will pour out His blessing to you. if you yield to his chastening hand. He has his own special blessings that he pours out on each of his children in the way that he blesses them. We have it, again, we have it in Job, right? The ways that the Lord poured out his blessing upon Job at the end of the book. We have this for Naomi. However, we can bear up under our afflictions, be encouraged, even as we're yielding ourselves to the chastening of God, owning His chastening, owning the severity of it, owning it as chastening, we can have hope all through it, right? What's our... Let's see here. Back in Lamentations. hope in the midst of chastening. Starting in verse 28, he sitteth alone and keepeth silence. This is talking about the man who is bearing the yoke in his youth, the man who is under the chastening hand of God. This is how he improves his chastening. This is how he makes a good use of his chastening. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope. So sitting alone and keeping silence. Solitude and silence. This is meditating upon the judgments of God. This is meditating upon the chastening of God. He giveth this cheek to him that smiteth him. He's filled full with reproach. He owns it. I'm Mara. I am not Naomi. I am Mara, filled full with reproach. Four, the Lord will not cast off forever, but though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. So we can humble ourselves all the way down to the depths of the bitterness of what the Lord has put on us with hope in our hearts that as we humble ourselves low that he will raise us again because he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. Though he cause grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. And we have this again and again in the scriptures when the Lord lays upon someone His chastening and lays upon them afflictions and so forth. And once they're exercised by them and once they've been taught the lesson by them, Once they've humbled themselves under God's affliction, when God turns their captivity, again, as it says in Job, it's abundantly better for them in the end than it was at the beginning. There's a wonderful chapter in the book of Isaiah, passage in Isaiah 54, that I think is It's just, it beautifully, it's about God turning the captivity of Israel after the Babylonian exile. But I think as I read it here, you will hear how closely it parallels the Lord's dealings with Naomi herself. Chapter 54, verses 1 through 8 of Isaiah. Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear. Break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child. For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations. Spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes, for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left, thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed, neither shalt thou be confounded, for thou shalt not be put to shame. For thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. For thy Maker is thy husband, the Lord of hosts is his name, and thy Redeemer, same word, thy Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. The God of the whole earth shall he be called. For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, And a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God, for a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. Naomi, a woman redeemed. Let us seek the face of our God in prayer. Our Lord and our God, we look to Thee Lord, fill us. Though these be but a few thoughts and simple, few loaves and a few fishes, Lord God, fill us and help us to go on the strength of this meat many days that we're able to multiply unto us, bread from heaven. So be gracious unto us. We look to thee. Redeem thou us. We ask it in Jesus' name.