G'day, and welcome to Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

I'm Dave, your host and storyteller.

There are so many great Bible stories to tell this year.

So many great things about God to discuss.

This is the start of the second year of the podcast.

If you tuned in last year, great to have you back.

If you're joining us for the first time, great to have you with us.

I hope you really enjoy hearing about our great and faithful God,

and have lots of fun as we do that.

If you want more, there's a whole bunch of episodes from last year.

Before we start, I've gotta mention the Stories of a Faithful God Club.

It kicked off with a couple of series at the end of last year.

This year already, there are two brand new video episodes

in a new series called Alone.

We're looking at how God's done everything we need to save us.

By His grace alone, through Jesus alone, for His glory alone.

We have so much fun with it.

There are people and puppets getting up to crazy adventures in the Australian bush.

It has to be seen to be believed.

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What are you waiting for?

Oh, I know what you're waiting for.

You're, um, you're waiting for me to get on with the episode.

Um, yeah, okay, uh, well, uh, let's get on with it then.

Okay,

do you know what it means when someone is bitter?

When a person is bitter, they're a mixture of sad and angry and grumpy.

Sad because something bad's happened to them.

and angry because they think that they've been treated badly or unfairly.

They're grumpy and they want someone to blame.

Sometimes your sports team might lose a game, and people get really

bitter and want to blame the referee.

Sometimes you might get in trouble at school, and you get bitter because

you think it was someone else's fault.

Or maybe you think it was the teacher's fault.

In today's story, we meet a lady who's had lots of bad and sad things happen.

And she becomes really bitter.

She's bitter towards God.

She thinks God's given up on doing anything good for her.

I wonder if that's true.

Well, it's time to find out.

Get ready for our next episode of Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

It's the time of the judges.

It's a crazy time for Israel.

They're in the land that God promised to give them, it's a really good

land, and they don't have a king.

Well, they do.

God's their king, but they keep ignoring him.

So God punishes them.

Then they come back to God, then he sends a judge to save them, and

everything goes well for a while.

But then the judge dies, and it happens all over again.

The people just keep turning away from God.

Well, when this story starts that we're looking at today,

it's during a time of punishment.

God's made it so that the food doesn't grow, and there isn't enough to eat.

You see, the Israelites kept trusting other gods that are actually fake.

And God's like, okay, let them give you food.

But they can't.

Because only the real God can give food.

God's showing them that they need to come back to him, and then he'll

give them huge amounts of food.

He loves to give good stuff.

So if that's the message that God's sending, what's the right

thing for the Israelites to do?

They need to turn back to God, right?

Ask him to forgive them, start trusting him.

Well, there's a man named Elimelech who lives in the town of Bethlehem.

That's right, THE Bethlehem, the famous one from Christmas.

But in this story, it's long before all that.

Bethlehem isn't particularly famous.

It's just another small town in Israel.

Now, Elimelech, when there isn't enough food around, he doesn't say,

Hey, we really need to turn back to God and he'll start blessing us again.

Instead, he grabs his family and he runs away to another country called Moab.

A country where they worship different, fake gods.

And you gotta think, Elimelech, what are you doing, man?

Far out!

In Elimelech's family, he has two sons, Marlon and Kilion.

Don't get too attached to them, they're not gonna be around for very long.

And then there's his wife, Naomi.

Naomi, you definitely have to remember.

She's going to be really significant.

In fact, even though this book of the Bible that we're looking at

is called Ruth, it's actually more about what God does for Naomi.

Anyway, Elimelech drags his family off to Moab, thinking

that he's making life better.

Thinking that he's escaping death.

He's wrong.

Elimelech dies.

As if running away from God was ever going to work out for him.

Bad idea.

So now, there's just Naomi and her two sons.

They must be pretty sad.

They've come to Moab to make life better.

And now their husband and dad is dead.

Doesn't seem better.

Well, the two sons are old enough to get married.

And that's exactly what they do.

They don't go back to Israel to find women who know and love

and trust the one true God.

They marry women from Moab, women who've grown up worshipping false gods.

The God of Israel said, never do that.

Ever.

You've got to think, Marlon, Kylian, fellas, what are you doing?

Sadly, they're just like their dad, they're ignoring God, and sadly, just

like their dad, they die as well.

Think about Naomi now.

She left Israel with her family, and now her family's all gone.

Her husband and her sons are dead.

She does have two daughters in law with her though, the

women who married her sons.

One of them is named Orpah, the other is named Ruth.

That's right, just like the name of the Bible book.

That's a little hint that she's going to be pretty important in this story.

In verse 6 of chapter 1, Naomi hears some news.

Verse 6 says this, While Naomi was in Moab, she heard that the

Lord had taken care of his people.

He'd given food to them in Judah.

Wow.

God's forgiven his people.

He's showing his love to his people.

It's got to make you wonder, what on earth is Naomi doing in Moab,

when she could be back in Israel, enjoying the kindness and love of God.

We don't know what she's thinking about God yet, but we do know she's

thinking it's time to head back home.

She starts heading back, and her two daughters in law are with her.

Somewhere along the way Naomi starts thinking, hmm, something's not right here.

She turns to Orpah and Ruth and she tells them this.

In verse 8 she says,

Go back home.

Each of you go to your own mother's house.

You've been very kind to me and to my sons who are now dead.

I hope the Lord will also be kind to you in the same way.

I hope the Lord will give you another home and a new husband.

It sounds really lovely.

She knows they've been kind to her.

She wants God to be kind to them.

She wants them to be able to find new husbands.

So, she's sending them back to Moab.

It sounds lovely, but it's a little strange.

She wants God to be kind to them, but Isn't the place where God's showing

his great kindness back in Israel?

Not in Moab.

Hmm.

Well, Orpah and Ruth burst into tears.

They really love Naomi, and they've been through a lot together, right?

I mean, they've all had to look after each other when their husbands have died.

And so the ladies say to Naomi, Uh uh, no way, we are coming with you.

But Naomi keeps trying to convince them to go.

She tells them that if they come with her, there's no way they can get new husbands.

It's not like Naomi, an older lady, is gonna get married again and

have more sons for them to marry.

And even if she did, are they gonna wait around while the suns grow up?

They're not gonna marry them when the boys are babies or toddlers or even your age.

They'd be waiting years,

Naomi's telling them that there's no way good things are gonna

happen if they come with her.

And she's really clear to them about the reason God, she thinks

God is fighting against her.

She says to them in verse 13.

Don't do this thing.

My life is much too sad for you to share.

This is because the Lord is against me.

Hmm, she thinks God is against her, and yet she's going back to the land where

God's showing his great kindness and love.

Strange.

Well, Orpah finally gives in, still crying.

She kisses Naomi goodbye and heads off back to her family in Moab.

And that's the last we ever hear from Orpah.

Ruth though is still holding on to Naomi and saying I am sticking with you.

So Naomi tries again.

She actually says something really yuck.

It sounds kind, but it's actually quite mean.

She says to Ruth in verse 15, Look, your sister in law is going back

to her own people and her own gods.

Go back with her.

What?

Go back to your own gods?

Her own gods are fake.

The Israelites are the only ones who know the one true God.

You gotta be thinking, Naomi, what are you doing?

She should be saying, hey, your God's a fake, come back to my land and

meet my God, he's really awesome.

But she's still thinking that God doesn't want to do anything good for her.

She's thinking, anyone who hangs around near me is only going to

have bad stuff, all because of God.

Strangely.

Ruth, who's grown up in Moab learning about fake gods,

refuses to go back to them.

She's like, I am sticking with you, Naomi, and that means I'm coming to your

land, and I'm going to worship your god.

In verse 16, she says this, she says,

Don't ask me to leave you.

Don't beg me not to follow you.

Every place you go, I will go.

Every place you live, I will live.

Your people will be my people.

Your God will be my God.

And where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried.

I ask the Lord to punish me terribly if I do not keep this promise.

Only death will separate us.

Given what Naomi's told her about God, it's pretty amazing that she's

still ready to have him as her God.

Anyway, finally Naomi gives in.

They head back to Bethlehem.

When they get there, people are amazed.

No one's seen Naomi for years.

They out there aren't any phones or computers.

She could have been dead for all they knew.

Everyone's really excited and the women are all saying, is this Naomi?

Now, the name Naomi has a really lovely meaning.

It means pleasant or delight, like really nice or really happy.

It's a really lovely name.

But Naomi doesn't want a name with a really lovely meaning like that.

She asks people to call her a different name, Mara.

And do you know what Mara means?

It means bitter.

That mixture of sadness and anger and grumpiness, where you

really want to blame someone.

Naomi is really bitter about all the sad things that have happened to her.

And as we've already seen, the person she blames is God.

This is what she says in verse 20.

She says, Don't call me Naomi.

Call me Mara.

Because God all powerful has made my life very sad.

When I left, I had all I wanted.

But now, the Lord has brought me home with nothing.

So why should you call me Naomi when the Lord has spoken against me?

God all powerful has given me much trouble.

Whoa.

She is angry.

She's really sad.

She's really bitter.

She thinks God's taken away everything from her, and that he

won't do anything good for her again.

She thinks there's no hope.

She thinks God won't be kind to her.

And yet, has God really done nothing for her?

What about giving her Ruth?

Naomi's husband took her away from the land of God and his people?

Ruth's kindly said, I'll follow you all the way back to your God

and your people and your land.

Naomi thinks she's all alone, but Ruth said, I'm going to stay with

you until death, and I'll even be buried in the same place as you.

Ruth seems like a pretty kind gift from God.

Not only that.

Naomi and Ruth have arrived back in Israel at a really special time.

A time when God's kindness can be seen waving in the fields.

God's made all the food grow, and all the barley is ready to be picked.

It's so different from when she left when there was no food.

So I guess the question is, will God be kind to Naomi?

Or will he just be kind to everyone else?

Is it impossible for God to do good things for Ruth and Naomi, like

Naomi told Ruth back on the road?

Or will God still show his love to Naomi?

Well, that's a story for next time.

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Keep trusting Jesus.

Bye for now.