Returning Home Empty-Handed
I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty. Ruth 1:21
Read Ruth 1:19-21
It was not too late for Naomi to leave the heathen land of Moab and return to Israel. While in Moab, the Lord revealed that He had graciously visited His people and removed the famine. He drew Naomi back to Israel, so we see her enter Bethlehem. Her daughter-in-law, who could not be deterred from continuing with her, accompanied her. God had laid the desire in Ruth’s heart to belong to the people of God.
When they came to Bethlehem, the inhabitants ask is incredulous, “Is this Naomi?” To this she replied, “Call me not Naomi,” (meaning pleasantness), “call me Mara,” (bitterness), for “I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty.” In the original Hebrew, this sentence is written with emphasis. Naomi confessed the sinfulness of her choice. Left to herself, she never would have returned. It was all because of the Lord’s grace that she was brought back.
Thought: It is not too late to return to where God’s people gather together, the Lord is still the same today.
Psalter 254:3, 4 (based on Psalm 95) O come and let us worship now, Before our Maker let us bow; We are His sheep and He our God, He feeds our souls in pastures broad; He safely leads us in the way; O come and heed His voice today. Take heed and harden not your heart As did your fathers, nor depart, From God to follow in their ways; For with complaints instead of praise, With doubt instead of faith confessed, They put His mercy to the test.