It would be expected, then, that Naomi, whose name means “my pleasantness,” would picture those espoused to Jesus, those who are his bride, particularly those on earth in this “time of the end” when the drama is having its remarkable fulfillment.

6. What events occurred in Moab with Naomi’s relatives?

⁶ In the course of time the aged Elimelech dies and leaves Naomi as a widow.

7. How did Naomi view her condition, and what condition did Isaiah prophesy centuries later?

⁷ Naomi saw herself as a woman forsaken, one without seed or the reproductive power to produce seed. She was like “a wife left entirely and hurt in spirit, and as a wife of the time of youth who was then rejected.” In the days when fruitage of the womb could be viewed as a blessing from Jehovah and barrenness as a curse, Naomi felt justified in saying: “It is Jehovah that has humiliated me.” (Ruth 1:21) Centuries later the prophet Isaiah was inspired to write of a similar humiliation, in this instance as a direct result of Jehovah’s displeasure. To appreciate fully the challenge that faced Naomi, we must understand Isaiah’s prophecy and its application to events that have taken place in modern times in fulfillment. “‘For Jehovah called you as if you were a wife left entirely and hurt in spirit, and as a wife of the time of youth who was then rejected,’ your God has said: ‘For a little moment I left you entirely, but with great mercies I shall collect you together. With a flood of indignation I concealed my face from you for but a moment, but with loving-kindness to time indefinite I will have mercy upon you,’ your Repurchaser, Jehovah, has said.”​—Isa. 54:6-8.

JEHOVAH, A HUSBANDLY OWNER

8, 9. (a) To whom are the words of Isaiah 54:6-8 addressed, and how is this shown in the context of the prophecy? (b) What group is taken thereinto that is also pictured by Naomi?

⁸ This prophecy would suggest that Jehovah, the God of all creation, has a wife. Is this possible? Yes, symbolically speaking. To her it is said in Isaiah 54:5: “For your Grand Maker is your husbandly owner, Jehovah of armies being his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Repurchaser.” These words are addressed, not to Naomi, who had been dead for five centuries by Isaiah’s day, nor to any literal woman but to an organization, the heavenly Zion, God’s universal organization of spiritual sons in heaven. For the past nineteen hundred years these spiritual sons of God’s universal organization have not been confined to the invisible spiritual angels of heaven who are still holy and loyal to Jehovah God. This universal organization of Jehovah has taken in spirit-begotten sons of God on earth who finally total up to the number of 144,000. (Rev. 14:1) All of these are footstep followers of the chief one in God’s universal organization, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁹ These 144,000 footstep followers of Jesus Christ are engaged to marry him in heaven and consequently they are the prospective bride of Christ, as Revelation 21:9 calls them, “the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” The members of this bridal class have been in course of selection during the past nineteen hundred years. For this reason there could at most be only a remnant of them on earth today. Those who survived World War I, being dedicated to God and baptized before the year 1919 of our twentieth century, are pictured in the drama by Naomi. How, then, did they come to be in the condition of Naomi in the land of Moab, childless and forsaken?

10. What interrelationship exists between the remnant and God’s universal organization, and during what period did the Greater Elimelech “die” toward the Naomi class?

¹⁰ In order to understand this feature of the drama of Naomi and Ruth it is necessary to understand another feature of the relationship of the remnant on earth to the other members of God’s universal organization, those in heaven. Those of the remnant being members of the universal organization of God, whatever affects the remnant of the bride, still in the flesh though spiritual sons of God, likewise affects God’s woman, the heavenly Zion or the universal organization. This becomes quite clear when we consider the prophecy of Isaiah 54:6-8 in the light of events that surrounded the activity of the Naomi class during World War I. For it was in this period, from 1918 into 1919, that the Greater Elimelech “died” toward the Naomi class, who became forsaken, as though without a husbandly owner. It was an experience of humiliation when Jehovah, the husband of that universal organization, rejected his woman, as represented by the spirit-begotten members here on the earth, to fulfill Isaiah 54:6-8.

JEHOVAH IS DISPLEASED WITH HIS WOMAN

11. When and for what reason did Jehovah find displeasure in the remnant, and how was this manifested, affecting the entire universal organization?

¹¹ Notice how Jehovah describes his woman in Isaiah’s prophecy as being abandoned, hurt in spirit with his face concealed from her. That indicates a period of displeasure in her. That is why, in the Isa 54 eleventh verse, he addresses her: “O woman afflicted, tempest-tossed, uncomforted.” The Naomi remnant came into a condition like that, particularly in the year 1918, when they were, in a sense, exiled from Jehovah God’s favor. In that year Jehovah God came to his temple suddenly, accompanied by the messenger of the covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ. He examined the remnant here upon earth; he was displeased with them. (Mal. 3:1, 2) For a time they were not fully accepting the challenge of Jehovah’s Kingdom service that had opened up to them. They were holding back, through fear of man and were not properly keeping themselves “unspotted from the world.” (Jas. 1:27, Authorized Version) Therefore Jehovah let them go into bondage to Babylon the Great and her political associates. During this time much persecution and abuse were heaped upon them culminating in the arrest and imprisonment of the Society’s headquarters representatives in 1918, on the false charge of espionage.a This meant that all of the universal organization of God, God’s woman, would be affected by his displeasure, and the prophecy foretells that the entire organization would be as “a wife left entirely.”

18. Why did God’s woman, as represented by the Naomi remnant on earth, need to be redeemed?

¹⁸ Truly the Naomi class could say during this time of affliction: “Call me Mara, the bitter one.” Isaiah 12:1 also makes reference to this severe discipline when it says, the prophet speaking to Jehovah God: “Although you got incensed at me, your anger gradually turned back.” Then Isaiah 52:3 says: “For this is what Jehovah has said: ‘It was for nothing that you people were sold, and it will be without money that you will be repurchased.”’ In other words, the people who took captive God’s dedicated servants here on earth did not pay for them, they got them for nothing. Isa 52 Verses five and six add: “‘And now, what interest do I have here?’ is the utterance of Jehovah. ‘For my people were taken for nothing. . . . For that reason my people will know my name, even for that reason in that day, because I am the One that is speaking.”’ So God let his people go for nothing; he let the enemy take possession of them without purchasing them. Therefore, God’s woman, as represented by the Naomi remnant here on earth, needed to be redeemed, repurchased, from Babylon the Great.