Renaming Naomi
Gugulethu Mnisi unpacks Naomi in the book of Ruth and how the power of a name can impact a person and situation
I had the privilege of reading the book of Ruth recently and I found it very beautiful. In Ruth 1 we find interesting characters namely: Elimelek whose name meant 'God is King', his wife Naomi whose name meant 'Pleasant'. With such beautiful names one would think it impossible for Elimelek and Naomi's children's names to be less beautiful but surprisingly we find Mahlon (Waste away) and Kilion (Sickly). I quickly assumed that they were named after the circumstances they were born into. These parents changed the cause of their children’s destiny by renaming what God gave them, only because they looked at what was happening physically to them. These two died and left their wives behind, I'm assuming they died from sickness too.
Naomi goes on to call herself Mara when she gets back to her place of birth. She was bitter, too bitter to even see that God has made provision for her with Ruth in the midst of her sorrow. Ruth's name means 'friend' and Naomi missed that in this whole journey.
“20 “Don’t call me Naomi,[b]” she told them. “Call me Mara,[c] because the Almighty[d] has made my life very bitter.21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted[e] me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.””
Isn't that exactly what we do when faced with trials? We suddenly forget who God said we are and begin to partner with the devil and his lies. I believe with all of my heart that there is so much power in naming things. God did it, intentionally so when he renamed Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel and many others. We cannot change our confessions for any reason under the sun lest we change the cause of our destiny. We confess the truth of God even when there is no physical evidence of what we are talking about because we know the power that lies in our tongue.
I love how the story ends though. Just at the end of Ruth 4:13 the heading reads "Naomi gains a son", how amazing does that sound. As hopeless and discouraged as Naomi felt, at the end God gave her succession and a continuation. In the area where death reigned, God showed her that He had not changed his mind about it at all, but she was still Naomi, Pleasant.
GUGULETHU MNISI
Gugulethu is the founder of GugulethuWord, an organization which was born in 2017. She is a born-again child of God, who is passionate about teaching and living out the Word of God. She aspires to encourage young people to heal from their traumas through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ and to live a righteous and holy life through Christ. To this extent, she has a started blogging on her website , in which she shares all about her life’s journey and the lessons she’s gathered along the way and believes that she will touch many lives through this platform. Gugulethu currently resides in Benoni, South Africa. She holds a B.ed degree which she obtained at the University of Johannesburg, works as a mathematics teacher, a private tutor and is an aspiring author, speaker and songwriter.