Blockade of Bitterness

A blockade is an effort to cut off communication, resources, or war material or from a particular area.

Where we meet Naomi.

The deaths of all the men in the immediate family men presented significant challenges for the women. They were cut off, so to speak, from the resources and community of their people and their faith.

Patriarchal society.

No men = no provision, no status.

No offspring = no line of prosperity.

No retirement plan. Death of family influence and the family name.

CRAZY: The very thing Elimelech sought to avoid for his family, ended up happening.

Naomi then becomes, as Paul described in the New Testament, desolate.

Which makes sense, because that’s the land they moved to.

Moved from Bethlehem (“house of bread”) to Moab, which means means “waste, nothingness.”

It’s in this transition that we see the development of Naomi’s bitterness.

How do we get bitter?

We get bitter when we lose something that we feel we are owed or entitled to, based on an identity we have created for ourselves.

In other words, when we get treated unfairly, or what we perceive as unfair treatment. When wrong is done. When something is taken.

Because, in our minds, we have believed that we deserve certain things.

Privilege check: do you get frustrated when things don’t go your way?

Further check: do you get frustrated when people don’t treat you a certain way?

When someone challenges you, or holds you accountable, do you find it easy to block their influence in your life?

In other words, are you setting up a blockade of bitterness?

This causes bitterness.

When we don’t receive the grace of the situation.

When our sense of privilege is challenged.

See, Naomi had privilege. Wealthy family. Status. Comfort.

Imagine this: Naomi didn’t realize her privilege. If you would’ve told her she was privileged, she may have understood she was “blessed,” but like most of us, she very well could have figured that as the rain falls on the just and the unjust, ANYBODY can work hard, and have a good life.

Thus we have the presumptuous deception of positional privilege!

Naomi - much like you and I - didn’t realize her privilege, until she lost it.

And when she lost it, she then began to look back at how good she used to have it.

But it was too late to appreciate it, in her eyes, and that embittered her.

This happens in a number of ways -

job loss

loss of a loved one

loss of health

loss of a child, or the reality of a wayward child

loss of a relationship, or rejection

loss of a season of life

loss of freedom

BUT why do we get bitter about these things?

We get bitter about them because we have made those things the center of who we are. Just like Naomi.

We get bitter when we lose something that we feel we are owed or entitled to, based on an identity we have created for ourselves.

Notice, though that this is an identity we have created, not one that God has given us in Christ.

It’s human nature. And Naomi shows us that.

She shows us what bitterness looks like...

BITTERNESS Isolates us. Disconnects us from people.

Two types of isolation.

One: typical, where we withdraw from people, retreat into ourselves.

The other: less known, but just as common, where we begin to act differently toward people, to the point that they will retreat from us.

And when they do, it frees us from responsibility, because now we can be the victims who got rejected.

When Naomi sends her daughters-in-law away, she is not doing it to preserve them, bless them, or love them.

She is engaging in both types of isolation. -reference text

“I don’t even have any sons left.”

It’s all.about.her. It’s all about what material things she doesn’t have to offer anymore.

She’s making a case for why they should reject her.

But that case is entirely attached to her obsession with that season of life where things used to be good and comfortable and easy.

You ever meet somebody like that, where they can’t seem to let go of the glory days? And instead of celebrating the grace of the season they’re in, instead of praising God for the breath in their lungs, they’re constantly blaming others for their loss, or pointing out how much they don’t have anymore because it got taken from them?

I have never seen so many self-made victims in a nation of privilege and prosperity.

That’s Naomi.

She even says “I went away full and the Lord has brought me back empty.”

She’s using language and imagery and juxtaposition to make a point about how bitter her life has become.

Do you know, we do that, too?

We aren’t as poetic.

We just use things like sarcasm, and condescending tones, and emoji’s, and angry face reactions, and the unfollow button.

Let’s move on...

Then that attachment to material security draws her back to Bethlehem. Not because she wanted to be obedient to God, but because she had heard there was a resurgence of provision in Bethlehem.

On top of that, she is faced with a bit of embarrassment when she gets to her hometown.

“Is this Naomi?”

Implies that she is changed in her appearance.

Age can do that. Grief can do that. Suffering can do that.

But Bitterness WILL do that. Bitterness will wear on you. You can see it on your face. Your posture. Even your organs and your brain will show evidence of bitterness. (It’s scientific!) Our physical bodies were not meant to sustain the mental anguish of bitterness.

The greatest deception in this is that bitterness will actually make you blind to its affect on you!

Because, see, Naomi attributes the change in her appearance, not to her choice to be bitter, but again, to the things that were taken away from her.

We realize at this point that it was Naomi’s attachment to people and things that gave her peace and joy -

Her husband was her provider and her stability.

Her sons were her pride and joy.

Her wealth was her security and provision.

Who Naomi was, was wrapped up in, caught up, hung up on earthly things.

She then insists that her name is no longer “Naomi” (which means “my joy, my bliss, pleasantness of Jehovah”) but is now “Mara” (which means, “bitter,”).

Naomi forsakes the identity by which she has been called for a name that only points to the fact that she has lost what she once had - what she once was.

She sets up a bitterness blockade, thinking she’s protecting herself, but actually causing more damage and pain.

This same exact bitterness blockade paralyzes the Christian in the midst of tactical grace.

Now that’s not all.

Bitterness isolates you (so it affects you socially), it wears on you (so it affects you physically), but it also deceives you (affecting you spiritually).

Just like with Naomi, this blockade creates hardness of heart that make it almost impossible to recover in battle.

Almost impossible. Right, because with God all things are possible.

Reiterate the definition of blockade:

A blockade cuts off communication, resources, and war material or from a particular area.

How does it do this?

In your blockade of bitterness, Christian, you will become unable to worship God through the battle. That’s the greatest war material we have: praise

Let’s see how Naomi shows us that bitterness blocks your praise of God:

The hand of the LORD has gone out against me

The Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me

The LORD has brought me back empty

The LORD has testified against me

The Almighty has broughy calamity upon me

Through all of this, it’s clear that when bitter, you become more fixed on what God can do for you, or with you, or to you, than you are on God.

Period.

Normally we think, ‘you just need to look at all the good things God has done in your life, so that you can appreciate those things in spite of the things you lack.’

But that is exactly the kind of self-help mindset that actually contributes to bitterness.

It’s not the looking back at the stuff, that puts our hearts at ease.

It in praising God, in His rightful place, as the ONLY ONE who can truly put our hearts at ease.

Where we block ourselves from relationship, and wholeness, we can find reconnection in praising the Lord.

Truly.

Naomi’s words are not just a series of statements.

It’s a cacohony of worthless complaining and sarcasm to mask her incredibly deep insecurity.

Her focus is self. Her motivation is self-preservation.

Her tactic is victimhood.

Not humility. Not compassion. NOT GRACE.

Pure bitterness.

Because she is too bitter to see the grace of belonging to God and being His, Naomi is unable to show grace to others.

She’s impatient, and short, unfeeling, obstinate.

And in effect, she lacks any sense of grace.

And this is the place where we start the story of Ruth!

I mean, really, we get this backdrop of bitterness to set us up for a really sweet love story.

Not only a love story between two people (Ruth and Boaz), but THE love story of God’s tactical, intentional, prevenient, saving, sanctifying, and perfecting grace.

The love story of God choosing to pay the price to get back what was stolen from Him in the garden.

The love story that takes an interesting turn when we see the incarnation of pure love and grace, being placed inside the body of an unwed, teenage girl. A girl who stood to lose everything ahead of her, because God chose to change her circumstance, too.

In fact, it’s when faced with this incarnation, that this teenaged girl (actually one of Naomi’s descendants) sings this song,

My soul glorifies the Lord 47  and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, 49  for the Almighty has done great things for me— holy is his name. 50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. 51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. 52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful 55 to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.”

“The Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name." (Luke 1:49) Completely different tune from Naomi’s “The Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me” and “The Almighty has broughy calamity upon me.”

RIGHT?

Every single complaint that Naomi had about what God had done, the Holy Spirit filled Mary with joy and hope and PRAISE at what God has always been doing!

Even the NAME of Mary is a juxtaposition to Mara.

Did you notice, it doesn’t matter that Naomi wanted people to call her bitter (Mara), for the rest of the story, she’s still referred to as Naomi?

The writer of Ruth was like, “This was what she wanted, but that’s not what she got.”

Isn’t that crazy?

It’s almost like, God is showing us, it does not matter what you put your identity in, daughter, son, I WILL STILL CALL YOU BY NAME.

When people read about your bitter self, they’re still going to read my grace into your story. You’ve done nothing to earn it, but child, I will still rejoice over you with singing!

That’s how God’s grace works.

Mary gives us a clear view of what it meant to have your plans interrupted by God’s hand, and to PRAISE him, and to stay connected in community (Mary then goes to her cousin and stays with her during), and to actually be filled physically with God’s goodness (she was literally pregnant with the Savior of the world).

Every single area where Naomi allowed bitterness to reign, Mary turned it into sweet, sweet praise.

Where Naomi was stuck in a blockade of bitterness, Mary allowed the Lord to break through, and though it wasn’t easy - in fact the Word says that being the mother of Jesus was like a sword that pierced through her own soul - she did it, and because she did it, we know that it is possible for us.

Maybe you’re bitter today, but I want you to know, God wants to redeem your brokenness just as much as he redeemed Naomi’s…he wants to break through your blockade of bitterness...