From Emptiness to Recognition
When Naomi first returned to Bethlehem, she cried, “Call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me… I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty” (Ruth 1:20–21).
Her perception was darkness; she saw only loss.
Yet now, after Ruth’s return from the fields with an abundance of grain and the name Boaz upon her lips, Naomi begins to perceive light breaking through.
She exclaims, “Blessed be he by the Lord, whose kindness (ḥesed) has not forsaken the living or the dead!” (Ruth 2:20).
The God Who Sees
In Naomi’s words we hear a shift.
She acknowledges the ḥesed of the Lord. The Hebrew term conveys covenant loyalty, steadfast love, mercy that endures.
Though Naomi felt forsaken, she realizes God has never abandoned her family, neither “the living” (herself and Ruth) nor “the dead” (her late husband and sons, whose name will yet be remembered).
Here Naomi echoes Hagar’s cry in Genesis 16:13, when she called God El-Roi—“the God who sees me.” Just as the Lord saw the plight of a rejected foreign servant in the wilderness, so He saw the grief of a bitter widow in Bethlehem.
Boaz as a Redeemer Figure
Naomi identifies Boaz as a go’el—a kinsman redeemer (Ruth 2:20).
In Israel’s law, the go’el was responsible for protecting family inheritance, redeeming land, and raising up offspring for a deceased relative (Leviticus 25:25; Deuteronomy 25:5–10).
Naomi’s eyes are opened to the possibility that Ruth’s encounter with Boaz was no accident, but part of a divine design.
This is a turning point:
Naomi moves from despair to expectation, from bitterness to blessing.
She begins to believe again in God’s providence.
Scriptural Parallels
In the Old Testament, think of Jacob at Bethel. Fleeing for his life, he dreamed of a ladder reaching to heaven and declared, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it” (Genesis 28:16).
In the New Testament, recall the disciples on the road to Emmaus, whose eyes were opened to recognize the risen Christ (Luke 24:31). Both Jacob and the disciples experienced what Naomi now tastes: the sudden awareness that God was present all along.
Theological Reflection
Naomi’s awakening illustrates the transforming grace of God. He does not scold her for her earlier bitterness; instead, He gently unfolds His providence through Ruth and Boaz. In this we see a foreshadowing of Christ, who reveals Himself to the broken not with condemnation but with hope. As Paul declares, “God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us” (2 Corinthians 7:6).
Naomi’s story reminds us that divine sight comes not when circumstances change, but when hearts are opened to recognize His hand at work.
Application for Believers Today
Take courage: even when you feel unseen or forgotten, the God of Ruth and Naomi is El-Roi—the God who sees.
Your grief, your emptiness, your prayers whispered in the night are not hidden.
He is weaving threads of redemption you may only recognize later.
Like Naomi, you will one day say, “The Lord has not forsaken me.”
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