5.3.35 7.23.2023 The Redeeming Relationships of Ruth Ruth 3

We are confronted with a different culture in a strange, celebratory, and intimate setting. The story of Ruth and Boaz goes down in history as a great love story. The episode of Ruth 3 looks more like lust, the convoluted scheme of a couple of gold-diggers to take advantage of a good man’s goodness.

Oh, how suspicious we are! Too many “romance novels”, too much intrigue.

Engage: It is a beautiful story. We should not abandon it because of the mysterious, desperate proposition Ruth makes to Boaz. Ruth and Naomi were desperate. The only real assets they had between them were the youth, beauty, and availability of Ruth. How were they to be delivered from poverty and despair if they were unwilling to take risks?

Ruth 3:1–18 ESV

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? 2 Is not Boaz our relative, with whose young women you were? See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. 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. 4 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.” 5 And she replied, “All that you say I will do.” 6 So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her. 7 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. 8 At midnight the man was startled and turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet! 9 He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” 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. 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. 12 And now it is true that I am a redeemer. Yet there is a redeemer nearer than I. 13 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.” 14 So she lay at his feet until the morning, but arose before one could recognize another. And he said, “Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.” 15 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. 16 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, 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.’ ” 18 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.”

Expand: We live in a farming community and yet there is still a vast cultural distance between them and us. The threshing floor on a harvest night was a place for feasting, celebrating, and yes, romance. As an older man, the patron of this particular barn, Boaz likely understood that, as the saying goes, the younger guys get the babes. However, for much more noble reasons Ruth approached him. And her faithful audacity triggered in him what can only be called a “grace response.”

Excite: One of the ongoing challenges of life and ministry is to figure out how to trigger more frequent “grace responses” in less desperate situations.

Explore:

Good people extend redemptive grace in desperate circumstances.

Expand: Ruth and Boaz both demonstrate characteristics of grace (CHeSeD)

Body of Sermon: Ruth acted with

1 Courage

1.1 At great risk.

1.2 In light of an already questionable reputation

1.2.1 She was an alien.

1.2.2 In the eyes of many, despite her goodness to Naomi this made her suspect. People would wonder. People would talk. And sometimes those words can be wounding.

This story tells us that Both Boaz and Ruth act with

2 Compassion

When reputation is risked, one must act with great Resourcefulness

2.1 Ruth resourcefully executed Naomi’s plan out of love for her.

2.2 Boaz, accepting Ruth’s proposition resolved to bring the plan to fruition.

Boaz demonstrated grace most eloquently by becoming Ruth’s

3 Champion

Redemption requires a champion. A redeemer. Someone who says “Yes” to God even to the point of personal sacrifice.

3.1 Putting your money where your mouth is.

3.1.1 In praising Ruth’s devotion Boaz has already suggested the solution.

Ruth 2:12 (ESV)

12 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!”

3.1.2 Now, Ruth reminds him with his own words, challenging him to “put up or shut up!”

Ruth 3:9 (ESV)

9 He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.”

3.2 A process that produces the promise.

It was a first step, a necessary step towards God redeeming His people, culminating in their ancestor Jesus, our redeemer.

Shut Down

It is relatively easy to read this text so that all the passion, the lust, the vitality, the mystery, the intrigue, and the risk is taken out of it. A flannel graph of this story would have Ruth in blue (like Mary in the NT). Boaz would be in a striped bath-robe. There would be a barn like structure, a pile of grain, and a donkey—because all valid flannel graph has a donkey. Such a sanitized version removes all the emotion all the pathos, all that really makes the story compelling. We need Biblical truth with whatever raw emotions it exposes. A sanitized Bible may be rated G, but it is the unedited, inspired Word of God, however uncomfortable it makes us feel--in which we hear the very redeeming voice of God.

When this episode ends Boaz, Ruth, and Naomi are waiting. Waiting on another relative whose rights are closer than Boaz’s. Waiting on the opening of business @ the city’s gate and the sitting of the elders whose task it was to execute both legal and covenant justice. Waiting, even if it is just until morning can be frustrating and frightening. As the song says…the waiting is the hardest part.

We wait on many things. When we were younger, we waited upon the badges of maturity like a driver’s license. When we get older we wait less and do more, for the time grows shorter. One thing we don’t have to wait on is our redeemer. The descendent of Ruth and Obed. The descendent of David. The Son of Man, who is Son of God has come to redeem us. He has spread the wings of God over us.

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