Ruth, romance and redemption

Ruth 3: a woman

Background• Takes place in the Judges period • Written after David is King • Possible Purposes

• David’s pious ancestors • Contrast Bethlehem • Covenant-keeping God • God supplies his people’s needs

- individually and nationally • God calls a people for himself

and we have a ‘female Abram’ who leaves homeland, relatives and trusts only in God

The story so far…• Ruth 1 is ‘winter’:

• death (husband, sons) • despair (‘against me’, bitter) • emptiness • hopelessness (too old for bearing sons)

• Ruth 2 is ‘spring’ (literally as in etc barley harvest until wheat harvest and figuratively as hope arises from a ‘redeemer’): Ruth ‘finds favour’

• Themes: Naomi’s story: from emptiness to fullness; from death to new life; Yahweh’s faithfulness (hesed love) ; Ruth’s integration to Israel (go’el a kinsman-redeemer)

• Application: Even at your lowest point, God has not abandoned you! God faithfully loves and provides.

• 3:1 Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? Is not Boaz our relative, with whose young women you were? See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor.

• 3:3 Wash therefore and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do.” And she replied, “All that you say I will do.”

• 3:6 So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her. And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. At midnight the man was startled and turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet! He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.”

• 3:10 And he said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich.

• 3:11 And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman.

• 3:12 And now it is true that I am a redeemer. Yet there is a redeemer nearer than I. 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 the morning.”

• 3:14 So she lay at his feet until the morning, but arose before one could recognise another. And he said, “Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.” And he said, “Bring the garment you are wearing and hold it out.” So she held it, and he measured out six measures of barley and put it on her. Then she went into the city. And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, “How did you fare, my daughter?” Then she told her all that the man had done for her,

• 3:17 saying, “These six measures of barley he gave to me, for he said to me, ‘You must not go back empty-handed to your mother-in-law.’” She replied, “Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today.”

Analysis Point

Conversation of Naomi and Ruth 3:1-6 Rest and risk

Acts of Boaz3:7-9 Identification

Acts of Ruth 3:9 Under his wings I shall safely abide

Promise of Boaz3:10-13 Kindness and worth

Acts of Ruth 3:14 Integrity

Acts of Boaz3:15 Gracious and generous

Conversation of Naomi and Ruth 3:16-18 Filled

Analysis

Rest and risk (1)• Naomi’s changed focus from herself

to Ruth ‘ seek rest for you’

• Move from Divine action to human activity (though 3:10, 13 the LORD’)

• last words:

• 1:20 Herself - ‘call me Mara’

• 2:22 Ruth - ‘lest in another field you be assaulted’

• 3:18 Boaz - ‘the man will not rest’

• hesed makes the difference (from the Lord mediated by Ruth); bitterness draws us inward in self absorption

Hebrews 12:15 ‘…no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it

many become defiled..’

Rest and risk (2)• Moabite women had a bad press Difficult

therefore to find husband in Israel):

• Son born from Lot’s incest with his daughter (Genesis 19)

• Illicit relationships with daughters of Moab leading to worship of Baal of Peor (Numbers 25)

• Naomi’s words are ambiguous in 3:4 (‘uncover his feet and lie down’)

• trusting in Boaz’ integrity (she prefers him to the other kinsman redeemer - she must have known him too in a small village)

• Ruth commits herself to obedience ‘All that you say I will do’ (biblical hesed - faithful love for Naomi) despite risk (‘his heart was merry’)

Identification• tension in the narrative: came

softly, uncovered his feet, lay down: sensuality, aroma of drink, darkness, quietness

• 3:9 At midnight - Boaz ’who are you’ (note the change from 2:5 ‘whose young woman is this?’ from a possession to a person)

• Ruth (not the Moabite) and ‘servant’ (mateka = maidservant implying marriagability) different to 2:10 ‘a foreigner’ and 2:13 ‘one of your servants’ (sipha)

Under his wings I shall safely abide• Ezekiel 16:8 ‘When I passed by you … I

spread the corner of my garment over you …I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine.’

• Ruth goes beyond the instruction of Naomi and risks everything in this one proposal

• Note: 2:12 ‘…the God of Israel, under whose wings (kenapayim) you have come to take refuge!’ equate to the garment-corner (kanap)

• Ruth invokes the gō’ēl on her own initiative as she is thinking not of a husband for herself but of the lineage for Naomi: she becomes the bringer of salvation to Naomi

Kindness and worth (1)• ‘last hesed greater than the first…’

• the first was her loyal attachment to Naomi in 1:16, 17 - characteristic of hesed is loyalty and faithfulness

• the last was her selfless giving for Naomi’s well-being (line of Elimelech)

• not marrying for wealth (rich or poor) and not marrying for physical attraction (‘young men’)

• Ruth did not act from passion or greed but for the needs of others (Naomi)

• Philippians 2:5-11 ‘…though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant…’

Kindness and worth (2)• 3:11 ‘…for all my fellow townsmen know

that you are a worthy woman’

• Recalls 2:1 ‘…a worthy man…’

• Ruth’s exemplary conduct has earned her the status as Boaz’s peer

• Juxtaposition of Proverbs and Ruth in Hebrew Bible: Proverbs 31:10-31 ‘Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all. Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.’

• Boaz and Ruth: a marriage based on character

Integrity• a kinsman redeemer closer than Boaz

• Reinstates the necessity of Divine Providence - Naomi, Ruth or Boaz can’t ‘fix’ this

• Irony - Naomi complained she was ‘empty’ but now has one redeemer too many!

• Boaz bows before the custom and does not circumvent it but waits on the LORD’s timing and solution: 3:13 ’…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.’

• He does not cover Ruth with his cloak in response to her request

Gracious and generous

• ‘six of barley’ without measure (likely the seah - 1/3rd of an ephah)

• helped her on with it: likely carried around the head

• scholars regard the gift as a symbol of Boaz commitment to Ruth (6 is one less than 7 - the number of completeness)

Filled• Ruth reveals the reason for

the gift in 3:17 ‘You must not go back empty-handed to your mother in law.’

• Naomi had suffered two kinds of emptiness: famine and childlessness

• The grain (seed) means a banishment of one and a promise of the other

• These were Ruth’s last words

• Naomi’s story continues…

Summary• The central point in Ruth 1 is about trusting God (a widow)

• The central point in Ruth 2 is about finding favour (a worker)

• The central point in Ruth 3 is about commitment based on mutuality of character - integrity, obedience, faithfulness and heed love (a woman)