Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord who has not left you this day without a Redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel.” (Ruth 4:14)

You may remember from the beginning of Ruth (see Day 1) that this Israelite woman named Naomi was barren. In fact, she did not want to be called Naomi but rather Mara, which means bitter, because of how the Lord had dealt bitterly with her. So Naomi is bitter and barren, and her husband and sons have died. All she has is a daughter-in-law from a cursed people known as the Moabites.

Now, three chapters later, the Lord is being blessed for the way He has dealt with Naomi. In His grace, the Lord has blessed her with a redeemer (Boaz) and her life is entirely new. Through the marriage of Boaz and Ruth, Naomi has a son, a daughter-in-law, and a grandson. And this grandson will be the father of Jesse who will be the father of David. That makes Naomi’s grandson the grandfather of King David, Israel’s most famous king, and, more importantly, from whose line King Jesus will come (Matthew 1:1). You could not write a better script!

You may feel at times like Naomi did in Ruth 1––bitter, barren, hurt, despairing, and hopeless. But if you’re trusting in Jesus, you can persevere in hope because bitterness will not have the last word; bareness will not be the end of the story; hopelessness and despair will not be the final refrain. Through His death and resurrection, Christ has conquered death itself. Those who hope never need to despair.

In this fallen world, times of mourning will come. But “he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4), and He will have the last word. There is coming a day when sorrow and death will be no more (Revelation 21:1-4). God has the power to turn mourning into dancing, bitterness into blessing.

PRAYING IN LIGHT OF TODAY’S PASSAGE

Pray that your hope will be fixed on Christ so that you might persevere in the midst of trials and suffering.