This bible mother, Naomi, gives us the opportunity to see God at work in the present while preparing for the future. This is the case in many bible stories. Adversity in the lives of his people spearheads the greater purposes of God in the future. There are countless examples. Noah, Moses and the children of Israel, and Job and the eventual crowing of King David are just a few. All the adversity in their lives causesd a greater outcome of the will of God.
We can put our head in the sand but eventually we will see that God uses the lives of men in the performance of his will on the earth. We must further state, "That since we are God's people he will use the adversity in tests and trials to bring about his purposes in our heaven and our earth. When we experience devastation or what seems to be the end of our expectations it cannot compare to the glorious purposes that God has prepared for us. There is nothing separating us from the love of God. There is no adversity or loss without the rewards of the divine purposes and will of our Father. Our sacrifices lead to the greater purposes of the plan of God. We only need to look at the rise and fall of many Nations throughout civilization to understand that their ashes have brought about the explicit plan of God. There has been no stone or monument erected without the notice of his eye. For all
Nations shall come and worship before him for his judgments are made manifest.
A certain man left the House of Bread and Praise to seek the bread in the country of Moab, a country of mixed relations and strange gods. This certain man's name was Elimelech, a person with royal blood and status that did not need to conform to the ways of Moab for this way was death. He had lost his way and taken his family on a journey away from Jerusalem. His two sons, Maylon and Chilian express the fruit of his body. Maylon means sickly and Chilian means failure. This is unlike Elimelech's character, which means strong in the physical sense and powerful as an oak tree. Yet his sons did not reflect this strength.
Elimelech's redeeming feature was his wife Naomi though overwhelmed with the adversity and dealings of God upon
her life. The Lord had to bring about circumstances in Naomi's life so his will, could be done. God arranges the affairs of men for the purposes of his plan. History is the sum total of the events that God has arranged and not the arrangement of man. Naomi found her self in the hands of the Lord. God intervening in her life changing circumstances to bring about his will. Naomi represents some churches today. They are far from the place they need to be but almost ready to go back to Jerusalem. The name Naomi means a sweet and pleasant person. She had a positive attitude and a "name it claim it" doctrine which does not work when people finds themselves in the severe dealing of the Lord. The loss of her husband and two sons was the most devastating experience she could ever have imagined. Her dreams of the future where wiped away. What she had hoped for was gone.
What we want or think we want is not the issue. Naomi was not aware that the plan of God does not always correspond with our own hopes and dreams. We all may need to learn that having our own hopes and dreams is not always the true will of God. What may be ahead of us is to realize our will may have to be set aside for the will of God. Jesus spoke how he came to do the will of God, then said, "Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. " There are a people who will be willing in the day of His power, the day of our visitation when we cry, "Not my will but thine be done." God spared not his own son. Rom 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Rom 11:21 For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. 2 Peter 2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment...God has a way of interrupting our hopes in exchange for his own purposes and plans. Israel spent four hundred and
thirty years in Egypt before God sent Aaron and Moses. No amount of prayer changed this time line. Even though it was the will of God for Israel to go to war at times, Hebrew soldiers still fell to the ground.
All hope of Naomi's future was slipping away from her consciousness. There was nothing left but to go back to the place where there was some sign of hope. "The Lord had visited his people in giving them bread." A true revival was taking place in the city of the King, the place where God lives. They arrived in Bethlehem at the time of the barley harvest, (the grain most difficult to harvest --see barley feast) the time of Passover. The entire city greeted them when they saw them. Naomi cried out, "Call me not Naomi, call me Mara:(a name no one called her.) 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?" This is the response of emotions kidnapped by tragedy and held hostage by defeat. Often we find ourselves captive
by own sense of failure which we project onto the Lord. Lest we forget that God asked Abraham to offer his only son let us not forget that some obtained the promise by faith but others who also had faith did not obtain the promise, yet the scriptures tells us they had a good report of their faith.
Heb 11:36 And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: 37 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; 38 (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.Heb 12:3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. 4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
How or why there are these collision courses of faith is a great mystery but we know that God's plan is designed to bring us into the promise land. Yes, his plan is for us is to be made perfect. This plan is not exclusive but is all-inclusive designed to bring about the whole world into restoration. A plan for all the Nations to hear, see and speak his Glory, for every knee to bow and every tongue to confess that Jesus is Lord. Let us embrace this plan without reservation and bow to his understanding that reaches beyond ages. the voice
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