(You can listen to this sermon here.)
As I have said, Ruth is a prodigal story. A story where a daughter, Naomi, goes out full and returns home humiliated and empty only to be lavishly restored by a prodigal Father in the end. This story follows God’s familiar pattern of death and division and then resurrection and redemption and restoration—fertility made barrenness to be made abundantly fruitful at last.
This story points us to Christ and to the good news of God’s sovereign grace but we don’t look at Christ like we would some museum piece or some beautiful painting. Christ is the Sun of Righteousness—the Light—and by this light we are to see everything else.
As we see Christ in this story that follows the familiar pattern of death and resurrection, it instructs us how to live and think as we experience this same pattern over and over as it is woven all throughout our lives.
Heavenly Father, as the preaching of Your word goes forth this morning I pray that it would challenge us where we are wrong. That we would be tried and equipped and that our faith would be built up. That by the light of Your Son, we would see everything else and that our lives in their entirety would bring You glory and honor. For Christ’s sake we pray. Amen.
To recall, Naomi and her husband and two sons go to sojourn in the country of Moab because of a famine in the land. They are Israelites from Bethlehem and Moabites were traditionally enemies of Israel.
Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, dies and her two sons take Moabite wives and after ten years, instead of a house full of grandchildren, Naomi is left empty when her two sons die childless. This leaves Naomi with only her two Moabite daughters-in-law so she urges them to go back to their mother’s house to find husbands. One leaves, but Ruth clings to her.
What we see is that instead of exclusively being a case of charity on the part of Ruth, she is insisting on staying a part of Naomi’s family and linage. It is here Ruth famously says, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”
In the course of ten years of barrenness and becoming a young widow, Ruth the Moabitess has come to trust in the God of Israel. And yet, Naomi saw only bitterness and despair as they returned home to Bethlehem, the house of bread.
Chapter two, however, was full of hope, introducing us to Boaz, a gibbor hayil—a worthy man—who is a relative of Naomi’s dead husband. We see Boaz show great favor and grace to Ruth because she has shown such kindness to Naomi and Elimelech’s family line, and ultimately because she has taken refuge under the wings of Yahweh.
We also saw, in chapter two, the love story between Ruth and Boaz begin to blossom over the course of the harvest season. Ruth has spent the entire harvest gleaning only in Boaz’s fields. We could imagine this as the transition scene in a movie showing the two lovers over an entire summer, falling in love.
Chapter three begins after the end of the harvests.
John Piper has some wonderful commentary on this chapter. He says that it answers the question, “What do a God-saturated man, a God-dependent young woman, and a God-exalting older woman do when they are filled with hope in the sovereign goodness of God?” The answer, he says, is strategic righteousness, which he defines as intentional, purposeful zeal for doing what is good and right when God is reckoned as sovereign and merciful.
He contrasts strategic righteousness with what he calls inactive righteousness that simply avoids evil. As we get into this chapter, I want you to consider what you are more familiar with. Are you more familiar with inactive righteousness that simply seeks to avoid evil, or strategic righteousness that is decisive and courageous and dreams of how to make things right?
In this scene, we see how hope births dreams. How Naomi, who is now finally filled with hope by the Spirit, dreams up a plan to make things right.
Read Ruth 3
(vv. 1-5)
Boaz is a relative which means that He can play that part of the kinsman redeemer and make barren Naomi fruitful again.
It was a custom back in that day that if a woman’s husband died, the next of kin would redeem her. He would give her a child so that the name and inheritance would not be cut off. This was already alluded to when Naomi, forgetting about all of her kin, pleaded with the girls to go find husbands because she wasn’t having any more children and even if she did they couldn’t wait around that long.
The kinsman redeemer is essentially a hero who saves when there is no other way. The kinsman redeemer is a sort of office in the old covenant. The word translated kinsman or redeemer is the same word that is also translated avenger or revenger. The kinsman redeemer had judicial responsibilities under old covenant law.
When someone was murdered, it was the avenger/kinsman redeemer’s responsibility to pursue justice on behalf of the victim and execute just judgement on the guilty (Numbers 35). Also, when someone became extremely poor or came under great debt or slavery, it was the kinsman who would redeem his family member from their poverty (Lev. 25:25). And finally, when a widow was left childless, it was the responsibility of the kinsman redeemer to impregnate her, giving her a child and an heir (Deut. 25:5).
Being a kinsman redeemer was a total sacrifice, a completely selfless task, in which the redeemer gives expecting nothing in return. As far as a young widow with no child, He would invest in the woman and give her a son to redeem his rightful inheritance from his father.
But before we get to the redemption that Naomi can almost now taste, Ruth and Boaz must first be married and so Naomi lays out her audacious plan to Ruth.
Tonight Boaz is going to be winnowing barely at the threshing floor. She tells Ruth to get all dolled up and go where he is. She says, “But when you go, stay back and don’t let Boaz see you until he’s finished eating and drinking. Wait till he lies down and go and uncover his feet.”
There are some things that we need to know in order to rightly understand this passage. First, Hosea 9:1 refers to the threshing floor as a common site of sexual immorality. Another thing is that this phrase “uncover his feet and lie down” is ambiguous. It could be referring to his feet, but this hebraic phrase can also refer to a more indiscreet uncovering.
I believe it is safe to assume that Naomi is talking about uncovering his actual feet to give him a chill that will wake him up in the middle of the night so he will notice Ruth lying there. However, it is absolutely impossible to escape the underlying sexual references in Naomi’s plans. While this does not amount to unrighteousness in and off itself, it is without question a surprisingly daring plan that puts to use Ruth’s feminine capacity to enchant a man.
This is the part in the love story that could easily lead us to a passionate sex scene, or on the other hand, this plan could end up, in the words of John Piper, a “stunning scene of purity, integrity, and self-control.”
Ruth must have been at least somewhat puzzled by what her mother-in-law was suggesting because Naomi finally says, don’t worry he will tell you what to do. Parents, is this the plan you would come up with for your daughter? I just found out this week that Ej and I will be having a daughter and under no circumstances can I imagine telling her to get dressed up and meet a man in the middle of the night and then tell her to let him decide what to do.
But the thing is, it is this daring plan that allows us to see the trust that Naomi is demonstrating in God’s sovereignty, and also her confidence in the faithfulness and righteousness of Boaz and Ruth. You can almost sense the grandmotherly smirk as she tells Ruth, “He will tell you what to do.” And this faithful and righteous daughter agrees to everything.
(vv. 6-9)
“She comes softly…” This tells us that Ruth isn’t just mindlessly obeying or going through the motions. She has hope. And like Naomi, her heart is wrapped up in this plan. She gently lifts his garment and lies down.
At midnight, Boaz is startled and realizes that there is a woman there with him. He says to her, who are you? And she replies with an answer that was un-scripted and un-rehearsed by Naomi. “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.”
Naomi’s instructions didn’t include such a direct ask and took more of a seductive and enticing approach, but Ruth breaks from the script, and puts herself in a very vulnerable position by unequivocally asking for marriage. Ruth, a gentile from Moab asking Boaz a gibbor hayil for marriage after everything he has already done for her, was a bold move that left her completely exposed. She was unreservedly throwing herself upon his mercy.
It’s interesting to note, this word “wings” has already been used in Ruth 2:12 and by none other than Boaz himself and the word also means corners of a garment. From this, we know that Ruth and Naomi are aiming for something very specific, they are aiming for a redeemer. But not only that, Ruth is calling Boaz to remember his own pronounced blessing upon Ruth and urging him to be the means of that blessing and redemption.
Remember the scripture I mentioned before from Deuteronomy 23:3 that says that no Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord? Well I want to draw your attention to the brief origin story of the Ammonites and Moabites because it is relevant to Ruth’s story.
As we read this, I want you to notice the parallels to Ruth’s story.
Read Genesis 19:30-38
Did you notice the parallels? Did you see the similarities between Ruth and the situation of Lot’s daughters? The barrenness. The desire for redeeming offspring. The scheming. The drinking. The uncovering. Do you see, the connection this story shares with Ruth’s?
Ruth is being tested and proven. She is being given a shot at that scene to see if she will get it right. Will she follow Lot’s desperate daughters into sin? Is she going to follow her sinful moabite heritage? Or is she going to trust? Is she going to bear good fruit or is she going to bear fruit that is rejected by God like the Moabites and Ammonites were?
You see, threshing floors may have been a common place of sexual immorality (Hos. 9:1), but they are also places of testing (Judges 6:37) and judgement (2 Sam. 6:6) and of sacrifice and intercession (2 Sam. 24:16, 18, 21). And aren’t we are seeing all of this culminating here on this threshing floor?
What we see from Ruth and Boaz in this scene is truly a beautiful manifestation of purity and faithfulness. You cannot help but feel the hope they are anchored to in the middle of the night on this threshing floor.
(vv. 10-14)
“You have made this last kindness greater than the first…” There is no doubt in my mind Boaz is elated that Ruth has looked on him favorably, just as I believe Ruth was pleased to have the favor of Boaz. However, he says the last kindness is greater than the first. So what are theses two kindnesses Boaz has in mind.
He is pleased and overwhelmed that Ruth has not gone after young men whether rich or poor. In other words, Ruth is not simply seeking companionship for herself. Ruth’s first kindness was staying with Naomi to care for her. But now Boaz sees with even greater clarity that Ruth is unreservedly giving herself up for Naomi’s sake—for Naomi’s redemption.
Ruth is not aiming to see Naomi’s wounds lightly healed, she was seeking Naomi’s complete redemption and restoration.
Boaz recognizes this. He recognizes Ruth’s great faith and calls her a virtuous woman. Now remember what Boaz was called? A gibbor hayil. Well, this is the female equivalent of a gibbor hayil. Boaz calls her a hayil ‘ishshah. This phrase is used three times in the scriptures, here in Ruth, and in Proverbs 12:4 and Proverbs 31:10.
Like a lock and it’s key, this is the perfect match. A gibbor hayil and his hayil ‘ishshah—a worthy man and a virtuous woman. A worthy man and an excellent wife.
Boaz assures Ruth, with no hesitation, that he will do what she is asking. He confirms that he is indeed a redeemer, but he reveals that there is someone else who is before him who must decide first whether or not to redeem Ruth for himself. And like every good story, it takes yet another complicated turn before we see resolution.
Listen to what kind of man Boaz is. He tells Ruth, “Remain tonight, and in the morning, if he will redeem you, good; let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then, as the Lord lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until morning.”
Boaz is intensely confident. He is acting from such secure faith in God that His will should remain. He says, “If [the other guy] will redeem you, good; let him do it.” But this is a love story! How can Boaz say good if he doesn’t get the girl?
Because Boaz, just like Ruth, is not considering himself first. He is putting first the interest of others—of Ruth and Naomi. If the the other guy redeems them, the worthy man Boaz, who solidly trusts the sovereign will of the Almighty, will be pleased knowing that Ruth and Naomi are cared for and more than that, that Elimelech’s name will live on.
(vv. 15-18)
Ruth gets home, and Naomi asks how it went. Ruth tells her mother-in-law everything and shows her the gift he sent (something like 75 pounds of barley). I can imagine an excited and somewhat anxious Ruth who has just had an amazing night with her hero—her would be redeemer—but now she must wait and see if there is in fact going to be another.
And now we see Naomi calming and comforting Ruth and encouraging her to not speculate one way or another. Do not overlook this dramatic change in Naomi. This is the once bitter and hopeless mother-in-law who plead with Ruth to leave her who is now encouraging Ruth to continue trusting and expressing her confidence in Boaz, that he will take care of the matter.
Commenting on this chapter in Ruth, John Piper says:
One of the reasons we must help each other “hope in God” (Psalm 42:5) is that only hopeful people, hopeful families, and hopeful churches plan and strategize… Churches that feel no hope develop a maintenance mentality and just go through the motions year in and year out. But when a church feels the sovereign kindness of God hovering overhead and moving, hope starts to thrive, and righteousness ceases to be simply the avoidance of evil and becomes active and strategic.
One of the things I am praying that you all take away from this series is an heightened view of the Almighty. I am praying that through our study of this story, the Holy Sprit, would give us Christ-exalting vision of God’s sweet and bitter providence.
So I want to leave you with some questions. Not for you to be morbidly introspective, but for you to consider in light of God’s grace and His supreme sovereignty.
As you consider your own life, your situations, your impossible circumstances, what are you afraid of—anxious about? What things or thoughts are threatening your hope?
How are you being tested? Is God giving you the opportunity to correct and redeem the sinful patterns of your past or of your families past?
What will your threshing floor experience be a picture of? When you are brought to the stone of testing and judgement, what will your outcome be? Will you throw yourself upon the mercy of another or will you seek to make your own way?
It’s my hope that as we grow up in our knowledge of Christ, Christ Fellowship Church will come to trust and to feel the sovereign kindness of God in all things—sweet and bitter. That from a firm hope in God, we would be a zealous and strategically righteous people who are completely reliant upon the grace and mercy of our Father.
Follow the links for additional resources in this series: