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Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me\u2014even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons\u2014would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord\u2019s hand has turned against me!\u201d (Ruth 1:12-13).

As Pastor Anthony pointed out yesterday, Wilderness Wanderings editions of Lent 2021 will explore hope. Where to begin? How about a search for hope in the Bible? Its first occurrence in the NIV is here in our text, Ruth 1:12.

What a place for hope to show up!

Here\u2019s the story in a nutshell. Naomi and her husband fled famine in their hometown of Bethlehem, Judea. It was an act of disobedience to the God of Israel. Famine was understood as an act of judgement. God had said through both Moses and Joshua that obedience would lead to flourishing and disobedience to judgement, famine being close to the top of the list of God\u2019s punishments.

However, judgement and punishments were also God\u2019s call to his people to return to him. But Naomi and her husband, instead of returning to God in obedience, ran away from him. They landed in Moab where their two sons married Moabite women. Also acts of disobedience, because non-Jewish people were bound to lead their Jewish spouses away from God.

Naomi\u2019s husband and her sons die. They are buried in Moab. According to her cultural norms, Naomi has nothing left. When she hears that there is food again in her homeland she decides to return, destitute. As she says, \u201cDon\u2019t call me Naomi, which means pleasant, but Mara, which means bitter\u201d (1:20).

As she leaves Moab, her two daughters-in-law decide to trek along. But she discourages them with the words of our text. \u2018There is no hope for me,\u2019 she says, \u2018don\u2019t pin your future on me, because there is nothing for me.\u2019

Hopeless.

Maybe we wouldn\u2019t put it as strongly as Naomi, but many of us have had such feelings, especially in this past year. We have a sense of what Naomi is expressing.

But Naomi had it wrong. Her life was not hopeless. Why not? Because God was still around. The beauty of Naomi\u2019s story is that God is in the shadows. He doesn\u2019t do anything on page. He is only referred to in the common greetings among the Israelites: \u201cThe Lord be with you!\u201d \u201cThe Lord bless you!\u201d Its like he\u2019s hiding in the corners, hidden by shadows.

But he is there. And he\u2019s at work. At the end of the story Naomi bounces a grandson on her lap. And that grandson becomes an ancestor of Jesus Christ. God saved Naomi from bitterness and made her laugh. Jesus is our Saviour: he takes our bitterness and fills our mouths with laughter. He is our hope.

In Lent, we usually focus on our mortality. \u2018Dust to dust and ashes to ashes\u2019 is Ash Wednesday\u2019s refrain.

This year let\u2019s look in the corners and shadows and see God at work. Let\u2019s see how God is our hope. Let\u2019s already now reach out for Easter