The Redeemer Spreads His Wings

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins in salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. A reading from Ruth chapter 3.

Then Naomi, Ruth's 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.

Wash, therefore, and anoint yourself. 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. 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? She answered, I am Ruth, your servant.

Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer. 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.

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.

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 Yahweh lives, I will redeem you.

Lie down until the morning. 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. And he said,

Bring the garment that you are wearing and hold it out. So she held it out, and he measured out six measures of barley and put it on her.

And then she went into the city. And when she came to her mother -in -law, she said, How did you fare, my daughter?

And then she told her all that the man had done for her, 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.

O Lord, have mercy on us. In the name of Jesus. Amen. Well, this is the chapter in any good chick flick or any story like Cinderella, you think of the fairy tales.

This is the part of the story where the fairy godmother comes out or the big twist of fate shows up.

The person who is the patron of the, well, the downtrodden and the oppressed comes to their rescue, and they give them a gorgeous dress, a coach to drive in, and, well, a coachman and things like this.

And this is where she makes her grand appearance, and everybody can see her for what she is, and gawking, whoa, and all that kind of stuff.

But you'll note, this isn't that kind of story. In fact, it's a lot meaner than that.

We must remember, even this far into this text, that Ruth and Naomi are dirt poor.

And when it comes to a marriage, they've got nothing to offer except for debt. And you'll note that this is kind of the metaphor that we look at regarding our own lives.

She is in desperate need of a redeemer. Without a redeemer, her situation will not improve.

They will live in squalor for the rest of their days. And that's the consequences of sin.

But this is where we must recognize that this is us. This is you. This is me. We are not capable of extricating ourselves from the poverty of sin.

We cannot. Our days on this earth are mean and toilsome, filled with all kinds of anxieties.

And it feels like even on the best of days, we're always financially hanging on a knife edge, right?

We went from having everything. Eating in Eden was simple.

If you were hungry, find your favorite tree, pluck a fruit or two, maybe one for your spouse or your friend, and you were good to go.

At lunchtime, if you were having a hankering for some bacon, I'm sure it grew on trees back then.

There is no such thing as a perfect Eden -like paradise without bacon trees. I'm just saying, if we're not able to eat the pigs, well, we'll have bacon trees.

And so that's the idea. Adam and Eve, they had the wealth of the Garden of Eden, everything at their disposal.

And their work and their life was not toilsome. And then they rebelled against God.

They broke the one command that God had given them. And what came on them was pain, suffering, slavery, the sin, death, the devil, and a life of barely getting by, of toiling, working hard by the sweat of the brow.

And farming back then could not have been a joy at all. I mean, you'll note that major farm implements were not around at that time.

And at that time, the ground was completely cursed. And so eking out a living was, at best, all that anybody could do.

But with Naomi and Ruth, they don't even have a property to their name that they can work.

They have assets that are locked up that they cannot get to. And Ruth, well, she's a foreigner.

And I want you to kind of think this out for a second here. She has come to a new land.

This is not where she grew up. This is not the culture she grew up in. And these technically were not her people.

They've now become her people. And by them becoming her people, because she has faith in the same

God as they do, there's a whole host of rules and regulations. And the rules and regulation regarding her getting out of poverty in the situation that she is in requires her to marry a fellow.

And you're going to note that this marriage is awkward. It's not one that normal kids her age, and yeah,

I would say she's a kid, would choose. Marry a man twice her age?

You'll note that girls are not really that interested in marrying guys that are the same age as their fathers.

That seems a little icky. And here we've got this woman, and you'll note not one single complaint from her.

If the only way out is for me to marry a Redeemer, then she's already set her eye on Boaz.

And I don't think she could have picked a better man. He's kind.

He's merciful. He's generous. He's protective. And it's absolutely stunning that he has set his eye on this woman, and she knows full well what's going on.

But she doesn't get to pull out the princess dress at this time, far from it. Instead, her mother -in -law has concocted a scheme.

We're going to see if we can, well, if we can hook Boaz. It's an interesting scheme, and we know, because I've just read it, that it works.

But let's walk our way through the text. 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?

Love that pronoun there. She's basically saying, we're family. We're kin.

And the way she's talking. You can always tell, by the way, when an employee goes from being new, when they first show up at a business, they'll talk about, you know, y 'all need to do this.

Y 'all need to do that. And they're already on the payroll, but they're still using the y 'all thing, right? But once they've settled in and actually feel like they're part of the team, everything changes.

They say things like, we. We need to make this decision. We need to jump on this opportunity.

We need to. And they see themselves as part of it. And so here, Naomi, she considers

Ruth to be absolutely family, and she says, he is our relative.

So should I not seek rest for you? That it may be well with you. So Naomi's thinking about her daughter -in -law and realizing that, you know, she needs more than what she can offer her.

And so she says, see, he's winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. And I just look at this and go, how did she get that little juicy bit of information, right?

Was she having tea with a gal from next door? You know, was somebody passing by and she overheard, as my mom would say, a little bird told her?

She knew exactly where Boaz was going to be. Was there any kind of internet stalking going on here?

Was she watching his Facebook? I don't know. It doesn't say. But she knew exactly where he was going to be.

And so here's what she says. Wash. Take a bath.

Anoint yourself. Put on your cloak, a dark one. By the way, it has to be dark because she's going all ninja style here.

And I want you to go down to the threshing floor. 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 then he will tell you what to do.

This sounds like a crazy plan. I mean, would Ruth get in trouble if she was caught?

I mean, she's in stealth ninja mode at this point, making sure that she's not going to be recognized.

When she goes out the door, is the music going dun -dun -dun -dun -dun? We don't know, right? But she says, all that you have said

I will do. And so she does. There is no beautiful dress. There are no coachmen.

There is no fairy godmother. Just a very, very poor woman.

Poor because of the consequences of sin. On a wing and a prayer, and the advice of her mother -in -law, she steals out into the night, and she heads to the threshing floor.

She did just as her mother -in -law had commanded her. And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, it was a good night there at the threshing floor.

A lot of work was done. Threshing is an important thing. This is where the wheat and the chaff are separated.

Do you think that this is some kind of a throwaway detail? No, it's not.

You'll think about this, that the temple itself was built on a threshing floor, the threshing of Ornon the

Jebusite. It belonged to that fellow before it became the property that David purchased when the angel of the

Lord stayed his sword. And so great things happen on threshing floors.

In fact, you can kind of think of Mount Moriah itself as one big, huge threshing floor.

There was Christ bleeding, dying, suffering for your sins and mine on the cross, and he was crucified between two thieves, one on his right and one on his left.

One cries out to him, If you're the Messiah, save yourself and save us. And the other rebuked him and said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

That threshing floor is a big deal because on that day, one was wheat and the other was chaff.

And the threshing floor continues to this day. The threshing floor metaphor here, this little detail invokes all of that threshing floor theology that points to how there's wheat and there's chaff, and it invokes this question.

Will Ruth be tossed with the chaff? Will she be seen as a defiant, rebellious, law -breaking foreigner?

Or will she instead be seen as wheat to come into the barn of the

Lord? And you remember all of this took place a long time ago in a little town called

Bethlehem, and that's not a throwaway detail either. So Boaz was merry, and he went to lie down.

Long day. He went down to sleep with good thoughts running through his head.

Maybe there was singing, maybe a little bit of dancing. Maybe there was a little bit of merrymaking, and he was with friends, and it was a great night.

And so the text then says, Why uncover his feet?

It's real simple. If you have your feet uncovered, when you're used to having them under a blanket or a cloak or something, your feet are going to get cold.

And if your feet get cold, you're going to get cold, which means you're going to have to wake up, reach down, and figure this out and sort it all out.

So this is a perfect way to wake him up, but not in a startling way, but to wake him up.

That's the plan, wake him up, get his feet a little bit cold. So she laid down.

And at midnight, and we don't know how many hours have passed, two, three, it doesn't say, but Ruth has got to stay awake.

She's got to see the plan through. At midnight, the man was startled and turned over.

Behold, a woman lay at his feet. What? Poor Boaz, the guy who's been a single bachelor his entire life, there's a woman lying at his feet.

And so he says, it's dark, she's got a cloak on. Who are you? She answered,

I am Ruth, your servant. And now in one of the most beautiful and startling and jarring texts in all of Scripture.

The reason why it's jarring is because what she says next is a full -on marriage proposal.

Now, think this through with me. Women today are trained that if the guy is interested in you and if this relationship is really getting serious, he has to put some thought into how the proposal takes place.

He's got to put some thought, some creativity, some ingenuity. Women today, they want what?

They want a social media potential type of proposal that would go viral on TikTok or YouTube or something like that.

Their friends would sit there and everybody in the family would go, aww. But that's not what happens with Ruth.

In fact, she doesn't insist on anything. You'll note that this woman has legitimately been doing everything in a selfless way.

She's there on the request of her mother -in -law. And so she answers,

I am Ruth, your servant, your slave. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.

She has come under the wings of Yahweh. Yahweh spreads his wings and we take shelter under the wings of Yahweh.

Christ is our redeemer. And this beautiful metaphor then invokes something that is deep, profound, beautiful.

It kind of chokes you up just thinking about it. That Christ, in his great work to redeem you and I from the poverty of sin, he has spread his wings over us.

But in so doing, we must remember that his wings were nailed to the cross. In spreading his wings to redeem us, it cost him his life.

And this he did for his bride, to redeem her, to redeem you, to redeem me, lost in sinful humanity.

Jesus indeed spread his wings over us. And it's beautiful.

And so now Ruth, kindly, unpretentiously, seriously, looks

Boaz in the eyes and says, Spread your wings over your servant, you are a redeemer.

She has nothing to offer him, except for maybe herself and all that debt.

And she knows full well that if he agrees and she gives birth to a son, that legally it's not even his own.

It belongs to her dead husband. Who would do that?

Christ does that for us. Boaz exemplifies

Christ. Is it any wonder he has a notable place in the lineage of Jesus?

I remember when I first started reading the Bible. Do you guys remember B. Dalton booksellers?

Remember B. Dalton booksellers? There was a B. Dalton bookseller right there in the

Santa Anita Mall in Arcadia, California. This was the mall that we would hang out when malls were still a big thing.

And the B. Dalton bookseller, I went to the B. Dalton bookseller, and I said I wanted to buy a

Bible. I had just started attending a Christian school. I'd never owned my own Bible. And the lady looks at me and says,

Well, what translation do you want? Right? And so I got my first patent leather

King James Bible. Patent leather, black, right?

And when I got home, I was shocked. These and thous and therefores and wherefores.

It was a little difficult to read. But I remember distinctly when we got to that part of the year where the

Christmas story would be read, of going into my King James Bible and reading the account found in the book of Matthew, and it starts with a genealogy, with a bunch of names that I knew nothing about.

I had no concept of the history of Israel. And all I heard was so -and -so begat so -and -so, who begat so -and -so, who begat so -and -so.

And my eyes rolled back in my head, and I thought, What kind of stupid thing is this? When I grow up,

I'm never going to read this again. Kind of nonsense, right? But yet when you read those beautiful genealogies, every name has a story behind it.

And Boaz is prominently featured, and that's the beautiful bit, is that Boaz's name is there, not the name of the deceased husband,

Boaz, by Ruth. And so his selflessness now,

God returns. The one who humbles himself, God exalts. And so he then, in this moment, with this awkward proposal, a marriage proposal, the woman has proposed the marriage, basically saying,

Marry me, but saying it in code talk. Spread your wings over me. You're a redeemer.

Will he say yes? Will he say no? That's always the thing. You ever watch a proposal? As soon as the guy gets down on his knee, and he pulls out the ring, and she goes,

Ooh! He asks the question, and everyone's like this. It's like listening for E .F.

Hutton to give stock advice. That's an old reference. What will he say?

His response. May you be blessed by Yahweh, 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.

He's not seeing her as a burden at all. Her proposal is received in the best possible light, and he describes it as a great kindness.

Listen, I know I'm twice your age. I'm old enough to be your father, and yet you didn't go after any of the younger men, either poor or rich, which was your right to do, because I know you're new to town, and what we do here in Israel may not make sense for what happens in Moab, but this is the way

Yahweh has set it up, and you have chosen to embrace not only

Yahweh's commands, Yahweh's redemption, and have chosen to embrace me.

So 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.

And now it is true that I am a Redeemer, yet there is a Redeemer nearer than I.

There's always a detail. There's always a wrench that gets thrown into the works, and it's like, we can't get a clean resolve at this point.

There's another guy, yeah, here's the bit, is that Boaz isn't Redeemer numero uno.

He's Redeemer number two. What will happen?

What is that Redeemer like? Is he anything like Boaz? There's nobody like Boaz. What do we expect to happen here?

But Boaz has character. You can trust him.

You can trust him with your life, and Ruth does. He's nothing but kind, and he's upstanding.

He's not going to do something underhanded. So, he says, there is a Redeemer nearer than I.

I've got to tell you the truth, so remain tonight, and in the morning, if he will redeem you, well, good.

Let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then as Yahweh lives,

I will redeem you. And now we've got a thorny problem. We've got a woman at the threshing floor in the middle of the night, and we've got to get her out of here without creating gossip in town.

So, he's already concerned about what's going on here, but he's got a plan. You lie down until morning.

So she lay at his feet, just like she had until the morning. But she arose before one could recognize another.

She was getting out of there before she could be recognized, and so he said to her, let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.

And he said, bring the garment that you are wearing and hold it out. So there in the darkness of the early twilight morning, before she could be recognized, she held out her garment, and he measured out six measures of barley and put it on her.

That's not a small amount. And then she went into the city. And when she came to her mother -in -law, she said, how did you fare, my daughter?

You're the one who put her into this situation, right? I bet you want to know all the details. Tell me the tea, dear.

And so she told her all that the man had done for her, 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. Again, nothing but generosity, nothing but kindness, complete mercy, complete looking out for her reputation as well as his own, that yet he has to not only meet her needs, he knows that he needs to also give something back to Naomi.

So she replied, you wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out. For the man will not rest, but he will settle the matter today.

And if you want to know how this ends, you have to come back next week. In the name of Jesus, amen.

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