Ruth 1:19-22, Return to God of restoration

Ruth 1:19-22, Return to God of restoration.

 When we meet hardships, we look back at ourselves, repent of our sins, and return to God. Naomi, the people of God, returns to Bethlehem, her hometown, with her daughter-in-law, Ruth, a Moabite woman. She returns to God, Lord.

1. Return to Bethlehem (19, 20). 
  They looked ashamed and shabby in a crisis. Look at verse 20, ‘Don’t call me Naomi, call me Mara’, Luke 15, The prodigal son returning to his father (20).

2. Return to the discipline of God's love (20,21) 

 “The Almighty has afflicted me very bitter”(20) “The Lord has punished me, and the Almighty has afflicted me.”(21) She lost her husband, two sons, and all property during the ten years of living in Moab(Mara, despair). Recovery begins when we humbly admit reality, repent, & turn around. Ex.15:25-26, Throw a tree to cure the bitter water of 'Mara' with sweet water. Hold on to the cross of Jesus & be washed in His blood(25). ‘Listen to God’s Word &keep it’(God the Healer, 26). Heb.12:5,6,8, If you humbly acknowledge the reality of Mara as the discipline of God's love for His true son, repent, & turn around, restoration begins. When the prodigal son realizes his sins &repent, the father accepts and restores him (Lk.15:21, 22).

3. Return from abundance to empty life (21). God prepares their recovery (22). 
 “I went out full (a perfect family), and the Lord brought me back empty (I lost my husband and two sons, left only myself).” That was the time when the barley harvest began (the time of grace) in Bethlehem (a place of grace). The abundance of life (Gn.27:28) is prepared. A new meeting for restoration (Ruth and Boaz), new love, new family, and new future await (4:17).
  God prepares the resurrection. Hos.6:1-2, Like the resurrection on the third day after the death of Jesus, a new history of resurrection begins at the end of the cliff in our lives. God is opening a new beginning.

I bless you to live a blessed life that saves your neighbors. Amen.