Redemption from a Bitter Life - A message from the book of Ruth

[James Nored]

I am preparing a message from the book of Ruth on "Redemption from a Bitter Life." Naomi, an Israelite, moves to Moab due to a famine, and there her husband and her two sons die. She goes back to Israel, and she tells people to call her "Mara," which means "bitter" because she is very bitter about her life. Who would not struggle with this in her circumstance.

Bitterness is something that God warns us against. However, it is also something which God can see, emphathize with our hurting, and respond to it with redemption.

For instance, when Israel was in Egyptian bondage, it says, "They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly" (Gen. 1:14). God saw the people's misery, and he raised up Moses to redeem them.

There is another similar message of redemption in the book of Ruth . . .

What are your thoughts on bitterness and redemption? What causes us to have bitterness, and how do we overcome it? How do we share the gospel with bitter people?

[James Nored]

John, I like your statement, "Those living the hardest life, dealing with the most bitter circumstances are those that the gospel was designed to lift up." An excllent summary of Ruth and Jesus' ministry.

Dad, thank you for the reminder about forgiveness. A very true statement.

[Lynn S. Nored]

Bitterness eats away at your ver being. It is taken away by forgiveness

[John Gentry]

James, 

When John was in prison, he was uncertain about Jesus and longed to hear the Jesus was the "Coming One."  Jesus' response to John's disciples provides insight into those that would be most receptive to Jesus:  "The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up."  But I believe the most telling evidence that Jesus provided was "the poor have the gospel preached to them."  Those living the hardest life, dealing with the most bitter circumstances are those that the gospel was designed to lift up.  Just as Ruth needed a "redeemer," so do we.  And the poor and bitter are often the ones that see it first.