The Rebuke of Hindsight

Ruth 1:21

I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the LORD hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?

The whole reason Naomi left Bethel was because there was a famine in the land. She thought Moab had more bread than Bethel, but when she came back, she proclaimed that she went out full, but the Lord had brought her home again empty. Apparently, even though they were in a time of famine, God still provided plenty of food for them. However, like many people in our day, what God provides never seems to be good enough. It is amazing how we always want more than what God gives, and yet we find out that what God has given to us is much more than the world will ever give. Naomi went out full of God's blessings, but she came home empty. Naomi discovered that the will of God always fills our spiritual cupboards with God’s blessings and that the world's cupboards are empty shelves.

Hindsight always tells you how good God is to you. One of our problems today is that we get used to the blessings of God and think they are never enough. It is not until those blessings are gone that we realize what God has done for us. Israel never understood the blessings they had while following God in the wilderness. Samson never understood all that God had done for him until it was gone. The prodigal son never realized how good he had it at his father's house until he was looking at the slop of the hogs that the world gave to him. While the prodigal was with his father, he griped and complained about the blessings, but when those blessings were gone, and he was staring at the hog’s slop was when he realized that what he had was more than anything the world had ever given him.

My friend, never let the present tell you that God is not blessing you. Naomi‘s problem was that she got used to the blessings of being full, and that is why she looked for something better than what she had. What she discovered was that the world’s advertising is false advertising. Many people have looked for greener grass only to find that what they thought was greener grass was a field of thorns. Let me give you a couple of thoughts about this important truth.

First, never doubt God's promise that He will supply all your needs. To look for something beyond what God has given you is to say that God has not supplied your need. You will always find that once you have lost the blessings of God that He did more than supply your needs; He filled your cupboards with blessings. God’s supply is always bountiful, and you must never get used to the supply that God has given you.

Second, glean every moment while you have God's blessings because one day those blessings may be gone. Many have looked back with regret wishing they would have taken full advantage of God's blessings when they had them. If you glean from God's blessings that you have today, you will never look back tomorrow and wish that you would have stayed.

Third, stay where you are and stop looking for something better; God has provided for you where you are and will continue to provide for you if you will stay. The greatest blessings of God are discovered by those who stay and not by those who constantly run to some new place to find greener grass.