Ruth and the sixth man of Hindustan

"I do not claim this is the main theme of the book of Ruth," said the sixth man of Hindustan, having humbly waited till the end to make his point. "But I would be delighted to share a small facet of truth that the Lord has been showing me: It's about Naomi. It's about how she talks."

And it's about how I have talked all my Christian life.

First, I am reminded of a joke, if you will indulge me. There was a man who came to live in a monastery, as a postulant. This monastery had very strict rules: you had to keep a vow of silence and were only allowed to speak three words every year. At the end of the first year, the young monk candidate went to the abbot and said, "Bed too hard." At the end of the second year he went to the abbot and said, "Food too cold." At the end of the third year he went to the abbot and said, "I want out." The abbot replied, "You're not fit to be a monk anyway; you've done nothing but complain since you got here."

I realize you can't call Naomi a negative person on the basis of a few lines in three chapters of a short book. So I do not want to magnify her faults, and surely she had wonderful qualities. Nevertheless, I think it is not without design that the divine and human authors have selected for our consideration the words of Naomi that they did.

In 1:11-12, Naomi spews negative thoughts about her evaluation of her future ("I am too old to have a husband") and her present ("The LORD has gone out against me"). Time passes and the setting changes from Moab to Bethlehem, but the woman is still talking negatively in 1:20-21: "Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the LORD has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?"

I am here to confess to you all that I have never, until very recently, taken my casual utterances seriously, nor lived as though the words that come out of my mouth make any difference in the spiritual realm. It is the most wonderful thing to me that the Lord has used people and events to show me the solemn consequentiality of the words we speak---both in the hearing of others and in our own hearts.

With our spoken words we either hinder our own blessings or release them from the throne of grace. God is watching to see how we will speak as much as He watches to see what we will do.

Let us covenant together to put an end to faithless and worthless words. Just the preliminary trials in this have brought much joy to my soul. Isn't it just like the Lord to bless the doing of His commands in ways the heart of man cannot conceive?

When Naomi saw the outcome her gracious Lord brought about at the end of the story, and when she realized that He had been planning it all along, I wonder how she felt about her earlier words. I notice that in Chapter 4 she is happy but quiet. Quiet is a good place to start.

To read Andrée Seu's series on the book of Ruth, click here.

To hear commentaries by Andrée Seu, click here.