Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

Ruth Chapter 1, verse 22.

So Naomi returned, and Ruth, the Moabite, her daughter-in-law with her,

who returned from the country of Moab.

And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.

This is one of my favorite verses.

I was about to say in the book of Ruth, but I think in the Bible, and part of it's because

Ruth is one of my favorite books in the Bible.

And this sentence, there's so much I could talk about that goes into why this is one of

my favorite verses.

But this was a low point in Naomi's life.

She had lost her husband, her two sons.

She was returning back to her homeland from Moab, not just a foreign land, but a forbidden land.

And she has a Moabite daughter-in-law with her.

And she has just said before this,

I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty.

But what happens at the end of verse 22 is the narrator, author of the Book of Ruth,

says they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley

harvest. And the picture is, Naomi has no idea. All the good God has in store for her and for her

family in this barley harvest and in this Moabite daughter-in-law next to her.

And the overarching takeaway from this verse is that in the moments when God may feel

farthest from you, the reality is he may actually be setting the stage for the greatest

...