| Ruth 3 - 26 October 2008
Andrew Lim
We first find Ruth not being in a good place / She has suffered much grief
- the famine / the death of her husband
- the death of a son / then the death of another son
- her daughter-in-law leaving and returning to Moab
- the poverty / the loss of a family line / and an uncertain future
Her world caves in on her and she sinks so low
she does not want her own name anymore
She is oppressed by what she’s received from God
She sees hopelessness ahead / She recognizes the sovereign hand of God
She says in 1:13, 20 “The hand of the Lord has gone forth against me
the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me”
Then in the first part of chapter 2
v. 3 / tells us that Ruth went and gleaned in the field after the reapers
and she happened to come to the part of the field
belonging to Boaz / who was of the clan of Elimelech”
We could say / she happens to want to go gleaning that day
she “happens” to stumble upon a field belonging to Boaz
he happens to come to the field that day
he happens to take notice of her
he happens to be kind to her
he happens to commend her for her kindness to her mother-in-law
he happens to invite her to sit at table with him for lunch
he happens to tell his workers to look out for her welfare
and then at the close of the day Ruth happens to have a fruitful day
The point I want to make is this
We are guided by the Lord through very ordinary circumstances
When we go about
doing the very ordinary things
responding to very ordinary situations in life
making very ordinary decisions / God guides our feet
And I said that / this / in fact / is the way God guides His people
God guides us / as we go about walking and living simply for Him
Many of you are in a place where you are looking for God’s guidance
in a relationship / in a career / a job / in matter of relocation
If your heart is right
If you’re walking in the will of the Lord and in the light of his Word
then / the ordinary decisions you make
- to go listen to a talk / to volunteer to help in a summer camp
- to reply a letter you long put off from replying
- to renew an old friendship / to join a study group in church
or help out in a Food Bank / or sausage sizzle / or carwash
to attend a Conference
These ordinary decisions you make
will put you in a place where God can guide you
Don’t despise the simplest decisions in life
A major turn in your destiny
might just be right there / around that corner
We will come to see this validated in Ruth’s life
when you come to the end of the book
When we’re finished with this book / you will come to see
that this simple / common-sense decision of Ruth to glean the fields
will put her in a place / where she becomes
one of the most blessed women in the whole wide world
I look back at my own life / and I am amazed at the way God guided me
without much of my own planning
* when I finished high school / didn’t really know what I was to do
* I went into teacher training because that was the thing to do
I completed my training and was sent to a place so small remote
when I first looked for it on a map I thought it was a fly dropping
I taught school there for seven years
but during that time God used me
to impact students with the gospel
* During that time / some well-meaning friends tried to match-make me
with a pretty young lady / I didn’t quite know how to respond
but God had other plans for me and that never took off the ground
* Gloria and I were classmates in school right up to 6th Form
and she was the love of my heart but I had no nerve to tell her
and she left for business school in New Zealand I thought I blew it
I stayed back to teach school in Malaysia
and when she came back with a boyfriend / and I was devastated
* I was just drifting / quite aimlessly you could say / no plans / no idea
where I should be / what I should be doing
* One day I was listening to an old hit song “Those Were the Days”
and my heart gave way to nostalgia and I got up went to my table
and wrote a long letter to Gloria / not knowing that by this time
she had broken off with her boyfriend
* We got together / then we got married
* And I thought since I was doing so much of church work
it might be an idea to go into the ministry / but I wasn’t really sure
on a human level I was scared stiff to leave the security of my job
* Then a man from the Solomon Islands / a graduate from BCNZ
came to my hometown and spoke and introduced us to BCNZ
The only property I had was my motorbike
but the door to the BCNZ opened / with full scholarship
and before we know it we found ourselves in New Zealand
studying the Bible full time
and classmates tells me that it pays to kill two birds with one stone
and I found myself enrolled
with the Melbourne College of Divinity to do a L.Th. as well
* Then came one child / then another
two girls born right there while we were at Bible College
* I thought the natural thing is to come back to Malaysia
and look for a pastoral position
the Anglican church closed its door to me
because I wasn’t trained in an Anglican College
* I was accepted by a Baptist church next door to Singapore
and there for seven years I preached my heart out
and pastored as best as I could
It turned out to be a great good church
* I then felt the rumble in my heart to pursue more studies
and I saw this piece of ad in Christianity Today magazine
advertising a philosophy of religion program
at TEDS in Deerfield Illinois
* I returned to Malaysia after 2 years
and I thought the most natural thing to do was teach seminary
and I taught at the Malaysia Bible Seminary for three years
* By this time my heart became nostalgic for New Zealand
and I came back here pastored a church for 17 years
until about two years ago the Lord bailed me out
and place me here in Christ Sanctuary
Now as I stand here / looking back through the corridor of time
I see two things clearly
One / that each time I’ve moved on / it had been God who moved me on
it was the Lord Who drove / and shove & shunted me
propelling me sweeping me along / to accomplish His good purpose
At each crucial crossroads of my life
a higher unseen hand had guided my steps
Two / each time I have moved on
I have ended up moving on to a better place
All through those crucial points of my life I have not seen it that way
but now standing at this vantage point
as I look back at the landscape I have journeyed through
I can see that each time I have made a vital decision in my life
invariably it had been God Who moved me
and always to a better place than the one before
So in a sense we mustn’t get all uptight about the need to plan so tightly
Sometimes get far too overly careful about the decisions we make
We need to know / that God has a way of leading us
even while we are simply walking step by step with Him
What does the Word of God say / Proverbs 16:9
“The heart of man plans his way but the LORD establishes his steps”
Back to our story
We are with the two widows / trying to scrape out an existence in Bethlehem
with Ruth gleaning in the field during the barley harvest
But the harvest will not last forever
She has almost exhausted all the opportunities of the season
She is now walking into the autumn of her life’s opportunities
She may go to glean daily in Boaz’s fields
but when the cold sets in / and the last sheaf of wheat is picked up
if by then she has not come to relate to the lord of the harvest
she will have to leave his field for the last time
perhaps never to return again
If that is so / then the months ahead
may find the two widows / huddling in the cold bereft and beggarly
Can you not catch here / the spirit of the urgency of time
Is it not the prophet Jeremiah who says to us: / “The harvest is ended
the summer is passed / and we are not saved” 8:20
Chapter three opens with such a spirit
The barley harvest is fast drawing to a close
The fields are almost barren now / the sheaves have been gathered in
all that’s left now / is for the grains to be threshed and winnowed
Naomi looks at the harvest sky / & she senses the shortness of time now
What will the future be / for her and her daughter-in-law
I believe she prays much over their future / and God gives her a plan
But before I go further / take a look at Naomi in this chapter
We are looking at a new Naomi
In chapter 1 she is beaten / and defeated
- resentment eats at the lining of her heart
- anger simmers inside her bowels
- hopelessness hangs like a heavy shroud over her mind
Even in chapter 2 / we see her passive / and uninitiated
Remember / it is Ruth who took the initiative to go gleaning
Naomi weakly gives her approval but stays home / probably to stew
But here in this chapter / we are looking at a new Naomi
the sky has opened up for her
In 2:20 she is awakened to the goodness of God’s hand on her
when she is able to bless the Lord
whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!
Boaz’s act of kindness shook the bitterness from her life
You never can tell / what your one act of kindness
may do for another person / in the depth of their despair
So this born-again Naomi comes to Ruth / and says to her
“My daughter should I not seek rest for you that it may be well with you?”
NIV / “My daughter / should I not try to find a home for you
where you will be well provided for?
The word “home” / in Hebrew “manoah” literally meant “resting place”
This word is a synonym for the word “rest” / “menuha”
used by Naomi before in her prayer in 1:9
“The Lord grant that you may find rest
each of you in the house of her husband!”
But the point is this / she not only has a desire
for Ruth to find a place of settled security in marriage
she actually has a plan in her mind / how that may come about
Now I have just spent the first part of this talk / asking you
not to get all that hung up about planning
I have said that we can sometimes get too uptight
about the decisions we make / and that we need to know
that the Lord leads us / while we are walking step by step with Him
But that’s just one side of the coin
On the other side of the coin / there is clear teaching in God’s Word
that we are to make intentional / purposeful planning
Yes there is a place in our lives / to simply faithfully naturally walk on
believing that God will guide our feet as we take a step at a time
But there comes a time / when we will need to put in place
some kind of a plan / in order to go where we want to go
We see this now in this second half of the story
Naomi has a strategy laid out in her head
She takes the initiative / to find Ruth a husband
She finds out that Boaz is a kinsman and able to redeem them
And Naomi’s mind goes to work to hatch a plan
Now Ruth and Naomi could have gone before the elders of the city
and demanded that Boaz redeem her
- it would have been within her legal rights to demand that
But they do not choose to take that approach
- they have the reputation of Boaz’s name in their hearts
- they will not do anything to embarrass his good name in public
- they would not force his hand / even legally
to do that / which he has no mind and heart / to perform
So instead of going public
- they chose to be discreet / and they take this modest approach
- she will go to him in the cover of darkness / because that
gives him the opportunity freely to accept or even reject her
and he would not be shamed in public / if he refused
So Naomi and Ruth forego their rights of a proper judicial hearing
They sought the gentle way instead
Ruth is to prepare herself to meet Boaz
- she is to bathe / put on perfume and clean clothes
Whatever Ruth has been wearing / when she has gone gleaning
will not be good enough for tonight
This is Ruth’s big moment
She needs to have a good bath / clean her body
anoint herself - presumable with some ointment
put on the right dress
Further / she’s not to make herself known
this is to be some kind of a clandestine mission
She has to go under the cover of darkness / she must not be found out
But why / why does scripture record for us / such meticulous details?
I mean the bath / the perfume / the clean clothes
the cover of darkness / the right approach to make
and after that / the attempt to remain out of public sight
There is a vital biblical truth for us to learn here / It is this:
* God has His part to play and He’ll be faithful in playing His part
* But we / have our part to play as well
Of course Naomi understands that she has to trust God
But she knows that that doesn’t mean that she is to do nothing
Yes! We are to trust God / No question about that
otherwise we might just as well not be Christians
But we should also take responsibility
both to plan / and to execute those plans
A Persian proverb says: “Trust God / but tie your camel”
Oliver Cromwell had this good instruction
for his Puritan troops in the English civil war / He told them:
“Trust in God / and keep your powder dry!”
The point is this: Faith in God does not mean
that I should not take the necessary precautions against danger
or actively go out and play my part to ensure success
Faith does not release us from our natural obligations
God will play His part / but we have our part to play
and that’s the balance / that Naomi tries to keep
None of the two women know / that Boaz might be interested in Ruth
But the least that Naomi can do
is to increase the odds of success / in Ruth’s favor
And that / spells prudence / What does our Lord say?
“Be cunning as snakes / and yet innocent as doves”
So we see a new Ruth emerging / even more beautiful than before
So far in the story / as a widow / Ruth may have been putting on
the same dress every day wherever she goes
- she puts on / what is called “the widow’s weeds”
- a simple covering of rough woven fibers
that symbolizes mourning and widowhood
Even to this day /in some Indian communities I’ve had associations with
the widows are not allowed to wear anything else but white sarees
for the rest of their lives / from day of death of their husbands
- it is supposed to be a sign of respect for the dead
This could well be the case with Ruth / an orient
She’s been wearing the widow’s weeds / since the death of Mahlon
But now with time / her wounds have healed
and her heart is now ready / to be set on another
She’s been covered with ashes / now she is to put on beauty
She’s been mourning / now she is to receive the oil of gladness
This evening she is taking off her sackcloth / for the last time
God-willing / she will never have to see it again
The long years of mourning / and waiting is now over
Ruth is coming out
She is declaring herself eligible again for marriage
She is a bride / making herself ready
Now the instructions are very clear
Ruth is to make herself clean and attractive
then to make her way to the threshing floor of Boaz
and after he has eaten and lain down for the evening
she is to creep in / lift up his cloak / and lie down at his feet
Now you’re thinking / and I am thinking / just where is this going to go!!
Why not just talk to the man in broad daylight?
Why this secretive and potentially seductive and dangerous liaison ?
The entire mission is one fraught with danger / its potentially explosive!
What if Boaz / being a righteous man / finding her at his feet
becomes righteously indignant / and lashes out at her
“What are you doing here / you slut / Get out of here!”
Or what if / in a moment of weakness / he is enraptured
by the titillating / and tantalizing situation
and he loses himself / and rapes her?
Or has Naomi come to know the heart of Boaz so quickly
to be able to trust him to act righteously
Just where is all this going? / What a strange plan this is!
We will never know / what exactly is in Naomi’s mind
But we know what Ruth does
She is a foreigner and will have to depend on Naomi for local custom
And she obey her mother-in-law / to the letter
She follow all of Naomi's instructions to the last detail
She makes her way / in the twilight / to the field
She arrives at the threshing floor / nobody notices her
She remembers that she is to wait until Boaz finishes his meal
It would be such poor timing / to seek a favor from a man
when his stomach is growling with hunger
Ruth is to wait until he has had an enjoyable meal
Then she is to note the place where he retreats for the night
Boaz soon completes his meal / he prepares to settle for the night
- he secures himself under his homespun blanket
- and / tired from the exertions of the day / he soon falls into sleep
Ruth approaches quietly / she is to take the lowly place
- she goes down to the floor / and lies down by his feet
- not by his side / for at this time / she is not his equal
- she lies there by the feet of her master
with the hope that all her destiny might be found there
So Ruth takes her place at the feet of the sleeping Boaz
- she remembers that she is to pull his long mantle over her
- a robe called the “chudda”
- she feels for it and she tugs at it a little / to uncover his feet
This is a gesture to symbolize her desire
to seek protection and shelter from him
- this is a modest way of telling him
that she is indeed willing for him to be her kinsman-redeemer
Verse 8 tells us / that in the middle of the night
- something startled Boaz and he is awaken
- he thinks that he hears something
The constant invasion / of the marauding hordes of Midianites
have made the Israelites light-sleepers during the winnowing season
- ever ready for the slightest sound
which may signal another Midianite raid
Boaz becomes suddenly aware of something or someone at his feet
He sits up half in a daze / and he finds a woman right by his feet
what a shock that must have been to him
There is no light he can switch on / So he can only ask “Who are you?”
He is expecting the worst
“I am Ruth / your servant” came the reply
Notice she identifies herself / by her name “Ruth”
She is no longer just Naomi’s daughter-in-law
She is no longer just a Moabitess / she is no longer just a gleaner
She is now a person in her own right
She is now speaking to him / as Ruth to Boaz
“I am Ruth / your servant” / she says to him
The word “servant” here / is not “shipha” as in 2:13
- a word reserved for servant-class women / Ex 11:5; 2 Sam 17:17
Instead the word used is “ama”
- a word used of workers with close family ties to the employer
She informs Boaz that he is a close next of kin / therefore a redeemer
She says to him / “I am Ruth / your servant
Spread your wings over your servant / for you are a redeemer” 3:9
Not beguiling and captivating as she may sound / saying that
this is not a biblical incitement to fornication
Fornication was prohibited in the Old Testament / Lev. 19 / Deut. 21
just as it is prohibited in the New Testament / Mt. 15
So No / This is not an inducement to fornication
Rather / Ruth is painting a graphic portrayal
of her utter helplessness / if he does not
grant her shelter / clothing / food and protection
Ruth is not approaching Boaz as a seductress / but as a suppliant /seeker
she is not approaching him as a scrounging swindler / but as suitor
she is not prostituting her maidenhood but preserving her womanhood
When she says: “Spread the corner of your garment over me”
she is asking him to redeem her
She is using the Eastern way of saying
that she would accept a marriage proposal / if one was made
This was the ancient near Eastern way of saying
“Yes / if you should ask / the answer is “Yes”
This custom of the woman asking the man
to spread his garment over her is still observed today
by some sectors of Jewish and Arab people
And to this day / in Israel / a part of the Jewish wedding ceremony
concerns the bridegroom covering the bride with a “talith”
- a fringed garment / belonging to the bridegroom
He is expressing his acceptance of authority over her
and his obligation to protect her
Leon Morris the Bible scholar says / “The spreading of a skirt
over a widow as a way of claiming her as a wife
is attested among Arabs of early days
and Jouon says it still exists among some modern Arabs”
And Clarke says / “Even to the present day
when a Jew marries a woman
he throws the skirt or end of his talith over her
to signify that he has taken her under his protection”
In Ezekiel 16:8 / God uses the same terminology in relation to Israel:
“I spread my wing over you and covered your nakedness
Yes / I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you
and you became Mine / says the Lord God”
It is simply / the then culturally acceptable way of saying
“I am a widow / take me as your wife”
Boaz has the right to redeem / and Ruth is now asking him to do so
You will remember that Boaz had prayed blessings for Ruth
That prayer is critical here
2:12 / Boaz prays / saying / “The LORD repay you
for what you have done / and a full reward be given you
by the LORD / the God of Israel / under whose wings
you have come to take refuge!”
There is something beautifully subtle here
When Ruth now says to Boaz / “Spread your garment over your servant
the word for “garment” here is the same word used of “wings”
in Boaz’s blessing in 2:12
You can see / that in a most subtle way / Ruth is saying to Boaz:
“You prayed blessing for me
because I sought protection under the wings of the Lord
But really / you can go beyond praying for me
You can be the answer to your own prayer
You can be the pair of wings
you’ve prayed for God to spread over me
For you are my dead husband’s relative / a kinsman-redeemer”
In essence she is saying to Boaz
I so much want to be the one
to whom / you will pledge your love and faithfulness
I so much want to be the one
with whom / you make a marriage covenant”
How about looking at Boaz’s prayer / in this same subtle way
When / in his prayer / he commended her
for choosing to come under the wings of Jehovah for refuge
is there a slight subtle hint in his words?
Is he in one breath saying “The Lord bless you
because you’ve chosen to come under His wings”
and in another breath / with those very same words
wanting her to hear him say to her
“Such / is the kind of woman
I should so much want to have come under my wings”
We do not really know when he begins to have eyes for her
but if he did at first sight / he could well be wanting her
to hear him say that such is the kind of woman
he would love to cover with his wings
And further / could Naomi and Ruth be just as subtle in their planning?
By coming to him / and covering herself with his sheets at his feet
be her subtle way of making him see
that she is happy to come under his wings / if he is happy
Whatever it is / that moment / when he awakens / is a moment frozen in time
- so much can go wrong / so disastrously
- yet so much can go right / so beautifully
That moment he awakes to find her at his feet
that’s / the nail-biting moment / that’s the real cliff-hanger
- did she read his mind rightly in the field the day before?
- and will he now / interpret her gestures rightly?
She is young / she is poor
and she is prepared to risk reading his intentions wrongly
He is older / he is rich
and does he really appreciate her forsaking younger men her age
and presuming upon his emotions and feelings
This is simply not a case of a young lusty woman
sneaking out in the stealth of night / for some cheap thrill
You cannot be more wrong to look at Ruth this way
She has the purest of intentions in her heart
You want proof / that there was no sexual impropriety on the part of Ruth
Boaz’s response confirms that for us
If Ruth’s approach is immoral
Boaz’s first words would surely not be to bless her
in God’s name for her faithfulness and moral virtue
vv 10-11
But that / is what he does
Now / just how does Boaz respond?
He is startled by finding a beautiful woman at his feet
He is looking down straight into her face
She remains quite still / she silent / she is waiting / expectant
waiting for his response / however he may choose to respond
Now this moment in time / is a highly charged sexual atmosphere
- the atmosphere is most erotic / they are both impassioned
- the air breathes of something / sensuous / rapturous / ravishing
something amorous and steamy
- either one / or both of them can suddenly become impetuous
and give way to their highly-aroused emotions
He is a strong man / in his own home / all alone by himself
she has come to his house / she is clean / sweet smelling
she has covered herself with his own cloak and lying at his feet
by all appearance / she appears to be a willing and ready
But the point is this / Boaz does not respond
the way many men and woman will probably respond today
given such a situation
No / he will not take her sexually
But you will be from another planet / if you conclude
that Boaz does not have that idea in his mind
Who do you think Boaz is / a eunuch?
- of course he is tempted
- of course he may even have come close to caving in
But the point is that he does not
This / is not the kind of scenario that is likely to happen in our time
Remember Debbie Boon’s line in her song You Light Up My Life
“It can/t be wrong /when it feels so right”
Even amongst Christians / self-control
for the sake of God’s glory / is almost unheard of these days
Let me put in a word about sexual intercourse here
Sexual intercourse is designed not primarily for self-gratification
not even primarily for procreation / although it includes those aspects
God created sex to give a man and his wife / the most beautiful means
to express their self-giving love / and trust / and commitment
- their oneness!
The Word warns us:
“Do you not know that anyone who joins himself to a prostitute
becomes one body with her?
For “the two will become one flesh” / 1 Cor 6:16
The Word of God says that when a man joins with a prostitute
they become “one body” / “sфma” / 1 Cor. 6:16
Richard Foster says that we need to remember that
we do not have a body / we are a body
we do not have a spirit / we are a spirit
and what touches the body / touches the spirit
Sex is more than just an act / it is a sacrament
Sex involves more than just the body
- more than the emotions / more than the psyche
Sexual intercourse infuses two living beings galvanizing them into one being
one gives wholly of himself to the other
each infects the other / for good or for ill
and its effects are not easily erased
God prohibits any kind of sex outside marriage
not simply because you’ll get disease or you’ll get pregnant
God prohibits it because in the sex act
two people are here proclaiming that there is oneness
when in actual fact there isn’t that oneness
- this sort of sex is portraying is a lie
it is deceitful
To have sex with another person
where there isn’t a oneness in marriage in God’s eyes
is a contemptible violation of God’s holy design for sex
Back to our story / and we must finish now / our time is upon us
How does Boaz respond?
He does the righteous thing
He says to her / “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
And now / my daughter / do not fear / for I will do for you
all that you ask / for all my fellow townsmen know
that you are a woman of worth”
He is full of gratitude for Ruth’s godly and gentle approach
and tells her that he will do for her what she has asked
And he even tells her the reason why / he tells her / that all entire town
has come to know her as a woman of worth / 3:11
So Boaz agrees to redeem Ruth
But there is one problem / There is one fly in the ointment
He knows of another man / who in fact / is a closer relative of Elimelech
and therefore / a nearer kinsman-redeemer than he was
And legally / he will get to have the first call on Ruth / v.12
Smack right in the heart of the story
we find another man / who has the first choice of Ruth
And most of us / when we hear of this / we say
“O No / Go away! / you pumpkin-head”
But the Jewish law specifies quite categorically
that the next of kin in blood relationship has the prior right to redeem
It is only / if he could not take up responsibility
either due to mental incapacity or financial inability
may the second in line / assume responsibility
Quite suddenly / there is a strange twist in the whole story
Boaz finds himself standing there / a helpless man
He may have to lose the hand of Ruth after all
and Ruth may not be able to have Boaz / after all
You could almost feel the anxious throbbing of the two hearts
Just at the very moment / that they have come to feel for one another
they are finding / that they may not have each other after all
Quite suddenly the whole matter is out of their control
What a strange turn of events / the plot thickens!
But right here / for one more time Boaz shows himself to be a noble person
Instead of cutting corner / he chooses to tell Ruth the truth
that there is another man who has a prior claim / over him
Boaz is not a man of expedience / he is a man of principle
Remember the meaning of Boaz’s name / is “one in whom is strength”
And he is going to honour God / by doing the right thing
For him / to turn a blind eye to this man’s prior claim
and taking her for his own /and therefore circumventing God’s law
is something unthinkable to Boaz
He is a godly man and he knows / that it is stupid
to begin a marriage / on a wrong / God-dishonoring footing
Much like a bowling ball that leaves you hand
- at a slightest tangent
the deviation only gets wider / as it takes its path
It is as if Boaz is saying to Ruth / “We must live by the word of God”
Boaz knows what is right and he does it
A few years back as I walked through a dark patch of my life
I read of the courage of a young man
and what he said / helped me make the right decision
and do the right thing
This was the sentence that inspired me
“Do the right thing / and face the consequence
But never fear the consequence and do the wrong thing”
Boaz probably says to himself / “It does not matter if I lose her
It is better to lose her within the will of God
than to win her outside the will of God”
Remember: “Do the right thing / and face the consequence
But never fear the consequence and do the wrong thing”
Are you in the middle of having to make a crucial decision
Choose the God-honoring decision / even if by choosing it
it will cut you up / and leave you bleeding”
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