God's Plan Behind the Pain [ENCORE]

In Ruth 1, Naomi experiences devastating loss.

Her husband and both sons die.

And in Ruth 1.20, she says, Well, let's get started with today's show.

And we're looking at the book of Ruth.

And in Ruth 1, Naomi experiences devastating loss.

Her husband and both sons die.

And in Ruth 1 verse 20, she says, don't call me Naomi.

Call me Mara because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.

Welcome, Michael.

Thank you

so much, Denise.

It's good to be back in studio today.

And my first question to you is, what does this teach us about how people interpret suffering, especially when they feel abandoned by God?

That's such a good question, and I think a lot of us as Christians, we go through these periods of our lives where we suffer loss or we experience betrayal and rejection, and we can feel as if God is distant.

So this statement by Naomi is one of the most honest emotional expressions in Scripture.

She is not just grieving, she is reinterpreting herself through the pain that she's feeling so this is very common in psychology when people go through prolonged suffering they shift from feeling that they are experiencing pain to feeling that they are defined by the pain that they're feeling so Naomi moves from Naomi A name meaning pleasant to Mara.

A name meaning bitterness.

And we are going to be drawing some parallel to the Easter story today.

And this is where we see the first parallel.

In that after Jesus' crucifixion, the disciples experienced a similar emotional collapse.

Everything they had hoped for seemed lost.

And in Luke 24, on the road to Emmaus, the disciples are walking in confusion and defeat.

And Jesus is actually walking with them.

But the sad thing is that in that account, they did not recognize that he was walking with them.

And this is such a profound picture of what suffering does.