Misperceiving God
How frequently do we either complain or get resentful, misunderstanding God’s plan and good purpose for us?
Too often! We need to push reset to refocus and see what he is really accomplishing in our lives.
In the Old Testament Book of Ruth, verses 1:1-5; 20-22. Briefly, what we learn is that there was a famine in the land of Judah during the time of the Judges. Elimelech, a Jew of Bethlehem, left Judah and moved his wife and two sons to the land of Moab, a sworn enemy of Israel. After ten years, he and both of his sons died, leaving only his wife, Naomi and her two Moabite daughters-in-law.
Now destitute without a husband or sons, Naomi, hearing that God had provided food for his people in Judah, sets out to travel back home. Ruth, one of the daughters-in-law, follows Naomi, while the other stays with her own people. At this time, Naomi repeatedly expresses great bitterness and resentfulness toward God for turning his hand against her and dealing with her so cruelly.
When they arrive in Judah during the barley harvest, Naomi advises Ruth to go into one of the fields to pick up any scraps left behind by the harvesters. Ruth dutifully obeys and does as her mother-in-law advises. Here’s where an amazing “coincidence” occurs—the field she chooses just happens to be that of Boaz, a prosperous landowner and relative of Elimelech.
In time, Ruth meets and marries Boaz and the fortunes of Naomi and Ruth are dramatically reversed. (You have to read the story!)
Not only is this an encouraging testimony for us to read, but more importantly for Jewish history, Ruth gives birth to a son, Obed. Obed becomes the father of Jesse, the father of David. So a Moabite becomes part of the bloodline of Israel’s greatest king and, ultimately, of Jesus of Nazareth.
Now think of the exquisite irony of this account, one full of complex interpenetration of divine providence with human decisions and mistakes. Naomi, wholly unaware of the arrangement of events taking place around her, is overcome by her profound misreading of God’s will and purpose. At the very moment she is complaining most of God’s uncaring abandonment of her, at the height of her resentfulness and disillusionment, God is preparing the most lavish rescue and blessing she could possibly have imagined.
And on a wider scale of history, through Naomi and Ruth, God was determining the future course of the Jewish people and the coming of the Messiah, all of which Naomi was totally unable to perceive. She was only partially aware of the extravagant, over-the-top deliverance God had in mind for her.
In generation after generation, God is the loyal parent who suffers the rejection and accusations from his rebellious and foolish children, knowing that he always has them in mind.
When trying to understand the Creator, we need to remember that he is absolutely sovereign. He is the King of heaven, Ruler of all, uncontested Master of the universe, and has no equals in this world or any other. God is never surprised or dismayed by anything that comes to pass. He decrees what he wills and nothing occurs that didn’t first come with his permission. Nothing has ever happened—good or evil, great or small, that he didn’t know about and fully reviewed first.
God is loving and generous, full of compassion and grace. He will be forever the faithful Father to his people, but he won’t act as the senile Grandfather. He won’t be manipulated or used. What he does and allows will be according to his love for us. His severity will reveal how serious he is about driving us to our intended destination. He permits virtually anything to happen to us if it contributes to our good ending and happy destiny. We may inevitably misperceive this as mean and even cruel, but he won’t be persuaded by our complaining or resentment to turn aside from his eternal purposes just so we’ll think better of him along the way. Thankfully, nor will he wash his hands of us because of our weak faith and myopic vision of what he is doing.
When we come to grasp the love and faithfulness of this wondrous God toward us, we can humbly and thankfully say with Ruth’s great-grandson King David:
Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast (Psalm 139:1-10).
Photo by Paul Skorupskas on Unsplash
