Sunday School: The Relationship of Boaz and Ruth (Ruth 3:1-18)

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Ruth 3:1-18 and the Chapter’s Central Redemption Theme

Ruth 3, 1 through 18, we're covering the whole chapter today. Naomi encourages Ruth to go to Boaz at the threshing floor, sleep at his feet with a bold proposal of marriage. And Boaz says there is a kinsman redeemer nearer to her than he is, but the matter of redemption will be settled that very day.

That's the summary of what we have here in this chapter. Let's go ahead and look at all of it. And I'll read through these 18 verses, and then we'll pray again before looking at our text. Ruth 3, beginning in verse 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.

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. So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her.

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. 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 the Lord 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 you are wearing, and hold it out. So she held it, 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 Ruth 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. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, as we open your word, this is the word of the Lord. I pray that we see not just in this story a man who redeemed a woman who was poor and destitute and even foreign, but we know that even through this pointing to Christ, that we have a Redeemer who has redeemed us from our sin and given us an inheritance that we may become the heirs of all that has been given to Christ.

We are fellow heirs with Him of the glorious heavenly kingdom. May these things be our hope and our peace as we consider it further this morning, even through this Old Testament story in the book of Ruth.

Types and shadows of things that were to come and be fulfilled in Christ Jesus. And it's in His wonderful name that we pray, Amen. So giving you kind of an outline of the text here, we have this broken up into three parts.

If you're reading this from the English Standard Version, which I read to you from here this morning, then you'll see it's three paragraphs. And Mark Mills and I, we had gone through this together and really tried to see is there something else in the language or in the word structure that might indicate a different kind of an outline.

But we really felt like that the paragraphs, the way that they're broken up in the English Standard Version really is kind of the three breaks we have in the story. So first of all, we have in verses one through five, Ruth is prompted by Naomi to seek a Redeemer.

Naomi tells Ruth to go and make an appeal to Boaz. That's what we have in the first part. Then secondly, verses six through 13, we have this promise of redemption. Ruth sleeps at the feet of Boaz and she asks him to redeem her.

And then finally, we have this anticipation of redemption. After Boaz gives the promise, so we have an anticipation of something that is going to be done so that Naomi even tells Ruth that this matter is going to be settled this very day.

That's in verses 14 through 18. So there's kind of the way that we're broken up in these three sections. And our central proposition, the main focus of this text comes down to verse 13, where Boaz tells Ruth, as the Lord lives, I will redeem you.

This is his immediate action that is motivated by the faithfulness of God, our Redeemer. Now if you remember back to the very beginning of our study of Ruth, I said that this book often follows what's called a chiastic structure.

If you were to graph it out, it would mean the kind of the events of the story peak at a certain point, then they come back down again. And right there where it peaks is the central focus of that particular section of text that we're looking at.

And then in a chiasm, the events that led up to that play out again in reverse order. So if you'll notice at the very beginning of this chapter, we have an exchange between Naomi and Ruth, and it kind of builds up to a certain point with Naomi and Boaz.

And then at the very conclusion of the chapter, we come back to another exchange again between Naomi and Ruth. So as we're kind of looking at the structure of it there, it points right at this statement that Boaz makes to Ruth, as the Lord lives, I will redeem you.

And again, his motivation here is the faithfulness of God. The same motivation behind Naomi giving this instruction to Ruth, here's what you're going to do. I want to find rest for you. Here's what I'm going to have you do.

And now she's motivated by the faithfulness of God. Look at the difference between Ruth, or I'm sorry, Naomi specifically, look at the difference between Naomi at the start of chapter three, and what we saw about her at the beginning of chapter two.

You see some differences there. So end of chapter one, Naomi's despondent, she's depressed. She says, God has for me nothing but calamity. So don't even call me Naomi anymore. Call me Mara, because Naomi means pleasant, Mara means bitter.

And that's where Naomi's at now. She's just bitter. God is not good to me. He's brought calamity upon me. And then she just kind of comes home to Bethlehem with this woman who is her daughter-in-law, but nobody knows her.

And they just kind of, you know, Naomi has a pity party for herself. At the beginning of chapter two, Naomi is perfectly capable to go out to the field and glean. But she doesn't. Because she's just, you know, if they have rocking chairs back then, she's just rocking in her chair, woe is me.

You know, that's the attitude of Naomi right at that point. And Ruth realizes that if Naomi's going to stay alive, I have to provide for both of us. And so she says, I'm going to go out to the field and glean.

And the only word that we get from Naomi at the beginning of chapter two is, go my daughter. That's all we have. So not, I'm going to go with you, not, oh, let me tell you about some relatives we have whose field that you can go into and glean and they'll take good care of you.

She gave her no instruction. No instruction at the beginning of chapter two. And it wasn't until all of the kindness that Boaz showed to Ruth and saying to her, all that you've done has been told to me, how you've cared for your mother-in-law, how you left a land, you left your own father and mother and came to this place, a people that you did not know.

And all of this in faithfulness to Yahweh, it's because you've done this, may Yahweh bless you. And then Boaz, out of Yahweh's provision for her, he blesses her. And when Ruth returns with just an abundance of food and explains to Naomi everything that has happened, then Naomi lights up.

The Lord has not forgotten us, is what she said. May he be blessed by the Lord whose kindness has not forsaken the living and the dead. And when Naomi says that, the nearest antecedent to whose kindness is not forsaken is the Lord.

So she's not saying that Boaz's kindness has not forsaken the living and the dead. Naomi realizes that the Lord's kindness is with her, is with these two widows, Naomi and Ruth, who are depending upon one another.

And Naomi said to her, this man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers. So we see Naomi light up at the end of chapter two, and then here at the beginning of chapter three, in light of the provision of God, Naomi sees now that God is with them.

God has provided, and because of Yahweh's provision for them, Naomi wants to provide for Ruth. So she says, let's look at the text here, beginning of chapter three, Naomi, her mother-in-law said to her, my daughter, and again, every time we've seen that, it's been with affection.

Even at the beginning of chapter two, though she said, go, my daughter, it wasn't just like, oh, yeah, go, I don't even know why you're hanging around me anymore. It wasn't quite that disconnected. It was still a term of affection for Naomi to say that to Ruth, to call her daughter.

Remember back in chapter one had said, go back to your mothers, as though Naomi was saying, I'm not your mother anymore. But because Ruth clung to her, Naomi has a commitment and affection for her as well.

So to say, my daughter, a term of affection, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you. Now, again, going back to chapter one, what was it that Naomi said to Ruth and Orpah when she told the two of them to go back to Moab?

Go, and may you find what in the house of a husband? They find rest, right? So that same word was used there in chapter one, go and find rest with a husband. And so now Naomi is trying to encourage Ruth to the same thing here in Bethlehem.

My daughter, should I not seek rest for you? Now before, when Naomi was telling Ruth and Orpah to go back to their birth mothers, their mothers would have been the ones that would have helped them find husbands again in their youth.

So here, Naomi, you're my daughter, I'm your mother-in-law, I'm going to find a husband for you. 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 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.

Okay, we'll kind of pick this apart as we continue through this. So winnowing, in case you were unfamiliar with what winnowing is and what a threshing floor is. So the threshing floors in ancient Israel at this particular time, it is a packed down piece of ground, generally in a circle, and all of the barley would be stacked there.

The sheaves of barley would be there, they would take out the sheaves, they would kind of pile up the barley. They would use a winnowing fork, same thing that we would call a pitchfork. And with that winnowing fork, they would pitch the barley into the air, hence why it's called a pitchfork.

And as they pitch it into the air, the chaff and the dust and dirt and all that stuff that's in with the barley would be caught by the wind and would be carried away. And then the heavier barley would fall to the threshing floor and then it would be gathered up again and kind of bundled up.

So then you have everything together as it should be without the dirt and everything else that's in it. Now the threshing floors, sometimes there would be multiple threshing floors, it wouldn't just be one, there'd be several circles like this.

And they would be on the east side of Jerusalem. Anybody have any idea why they would all be on the east side of Jerusalem? That's right. The wind comes from the west and as the threshing floors are on the east, it would carry all the chaff the other way.

Now as you have several threshing floors where this is being done and they're pitching the stuff into the air and the dust is getting picked up, as multiple different threshing floors are doing this, this stirs a lot of dust into the air.

So it's not like one threshing floor that's maybe the size of the center court of the gym and we're just kind of pitching up the barleys. All the fields that were around, they've all brought their barley to this place to winnow out the chaff, for the winnowing.

And so it stirs up a lot of dust, you don't want to be in Jerusalem on the other side of that where the dust is going to be blowing right into Jerusalem. How many, I'm not too familiar with east Texas since I've only been here a little over a year, but have you ever had really dusty days in east Texas?

What's that? Pollen days. Pollen days, there you go. Okay, we don't have dust, but we've got plenty of pollen. So in western Kansas, where I spent most of my life, yeah, we had really dusty days. And even during those harvest times in June, whenever the big tractors would be out there in the field churning up the wheat or corn or whatever it was they were harvesting, man, dust would fill the air all over the place.

You always knew that the tractors were out there harvesting because you could smell it in the air. It even brought a fragrance into the air. So the winnowing floors would be on the east side of Jerusalem to prevent that.

Everybody not having to walk around and cough in the dust from everything they were stirring up as they were winnowing. Now this would happen in the evening because as soon as the sun goes down, those winds pick up from the west.

It's just not strong winds, but those breezes that would come through would be perfect for winnowing. That way it's not carrying off the barley. You just kind of pitch the barley into the air, the chaff gets carried off, and then the barley falls to the threshing floor.

So they would, since this happens after dark, they would sleep there and they don't come with mats or sleeping bags or anything. They sleep in what they're wearing. And so when you have the reference to the cloak there, where Naomi is telling Ruth to put her cloak on, she's telling her that because when you go to the threshing floor, you're going to stay there and sleep there and you'll be sleeping in your cloak.

And likewise with Boaz, he's there at the threshing floor and he's asleep in his cloak. They're going to sleep in whatever it is that they have on. So all of this kind of being set up for what Naomi is encouraging Ruth to go do.

And they would stay there at the threshing floor because of course it's nighttime, they don't have streetlights lining the way to be able to go back into Jerusalem. It's pitch black out there. So they would spend their time winnowing and then once it got to later on in the evening, then they would go to sleep and wake up again at first light and then continue with harvest.

So Naomi knows that's where Boaz is because that's what's going on at that particular time. They're winnowing now. So continuing on, coming back to verse three, she says, wash therefore and anoint yourself.

That word for anoint is to put perfume on. So smell nice, make yourself look real good because I'm telling you, you're going to go propose marriage to this man. Ruth is going to propose to Boaz. So make yourself presentable, make yourself desirable to this man and put on your cloak, go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to him until he has finished eating and drinking.

Now one of the things this indicates is that the harvest is going really well. If they're eating and drinking in the midst of winnowing, they've had a really good harvest. Wine was a sign of God's provision for his people.

When, like, you know, we have references in the Psalms and in Proverbs, your vats will be overflowing with new wine, right? That was a cause for celebration. It showed that God was providing for his people.

So we not only have a successful barley and wheat harvest, we know the vineyards are doing well as well. And so Boaz is enjoying some good drink and good food, even while they're out there at the threshing floor.

And when he's done eating and drinking, Naomi says, that's when you're going to make your presence known to him. Verse four, but when he lies down, observe the place where he lies, because again, really dark out there.

Watch carefully where he lays down. You don't want to propose to the wrong person. So observe where he lays and then go and uncover his feet and lie down and he will tell you what to do. Now there's something very specific about this gesture and I'll get to it in a moment when we get to it in the narrative where Ruth uncovers his feet.

But Ruth replies to her, all that you say, I will do. Full compliance with her mother-in-law. You know what you're talking about. I will obey. And this is exactly what Ruth does. So that's our first section there.

Ruth is being prompted by Naomi to go and seek a redeemer. Now part two is we have the promise of redemption that Boaz is going to give to Ruth here. So beginning in verse six, so she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law commanded her.

Now when it comes to what the law says about redemption, we have this in Leviticus chapter 25. We have laws about redeeming the land and in Deuteronomy 25 we have laws concerning what is called leveret marriage.

Now if you've ever heard of leveret marriage, you may have made the same mistake that I used to make where, well, leveret has the word Levi in it, L-E-V-I. So it must be some sort of command of marriage that comes from the tribe of Levi, that comes from the Levites or comes from Leviticus.

No, none of that is the case. The word leveret is actually a Latin word and it means a brother's marriage. So this leveret term is something that came about later. It wasn't the word leveret that was used in Bible times, but we do have those laws laid down in Deuteronomy chapter 25, what's called leveret marriage.

So first of all, concerning redemption of the land in Leviticus 25 verses 23 through 25. Now, you can either go with me there or you can just write that down. I will ask you to turn with me to Deuteronomy 25.

So if you want to keep your finger in Ruth, go to Deuteronomy 25. This is a longer section, would just be easier if we look at it. But let me read to you what Leviticus 25 says in verses 23 to 25. God said, the land shall not be sold in perpetuity for the land is mine.

For you are strangers and sojourners with me and in all the country that you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land. If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold.

And the nearest relative to redeem the land from Elimelech, Naomi's late husband, was not going to be Boaz. It was another man who's actually not named when we get to chapter four. But then Boaz would be the next in line to be able to redeem that land.

That's what we have in, according to the law there, that's in Leviticus 25. If you've read Nehemiah, then you know that something that was going on in the book of Nehemiah was that those who were wealthy had come to possess all the land and those who were poorer in Israel didn't have anything.

So they didn't have anything with which that they could bargain and make a deal to be able to get food. And so the rich had possessed all the land of Israel and the poor had nothing. And so what was being said there then to those who were rich is, you need to divvy the land back up.

That's according to the law that we have in Leviticus 25. And you've been reluctant to give that land back to those to whom it belongs. This law also prevented Israel from selling the land to a foreigner because, as God said here, the land is mine.

So it belongs to me. I've given it to you as a fulfillment of the promise that I gave to Abraham's descendants. So it wasn't free for the Israelites to do with it whatever they wanted. They still had to follow God's law when it came to the way that they dealt with that land.

So we have there in Leviticus 25 laws concerning the redemption of the land. Now let's look at what's called Leveret marriage, which we have in Deuteronomy 25, verses 5 through 10. We read beginning in verse 5, if brothers dwell together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger.

Her husband's brother shall go into her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother. That his name may not be blotted out of Israel.

Verse 7, and if the man does not wish to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, my brother's, or sorry, my husband's brother refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in Israel.

He will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me. Now notice who is that that's speaking there? That is the, the, the late husband's wife who's saying this to the elders at the gate. That's important.

So verse 8, then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him. And if he persists saying, I do not wish to take her, then his brother's wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face.

And she shall answer and say, so shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house. And the name of his house shall be called in Israel, the house of him who had his sandal pulled off.

So does it sound like, does that sound like an honorable thing? Does that sound like you want something you want to have done to you? No, that's a very dishonorable. And then it's known throughout Israel that I did not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to my late brother's wife so that even the woman may accuse him before the elders pull off his sandal and spit in his face.

So this is the law concerning lever at marriage. Now there's a very important qualifier here at the very beginning of this section. Look again at verse five. What are those first four words there? If brothers dwell together, right?

So this, this is not some sort of rigid law that if your brother dies, no matter where he lives in the world, you have to go find him and then take his wife to yourself. In fact, if your brother lives a great distance and it's, you know, maybe several months before you hear that your brother has passed away, there's no obligation for that brother to have to take his late brother's wife.

This is if they're dwelling together, that qualification is there. And where was a limeleck at the time that he died? He was in Moab, right? Where were Mallon and Killian, Ruth and Orpah's husbands? They were in Moab.

So there is not a requirement here, understanding this going into what we're going to read here in chapter three, there is not a requirement here for Boaz to have to take Ruth. He doesn't have to. And this wouldn't even lead to a sort of a situation where Ruth would therefore have to bring him to the elders and pull his sandal off or spit in his face.

He's already absolved from having or from any obligation to this. And in fact, Boaz even says, as we've read in the text, there's already a redeemer who's nearer to you than I. So Ruth should be talking to that guy and not Boaz, but she knows that she's found favor with Boaz.

Naomi knows that Ruth has found favor with Boaz. Naomi knows this guy. Remember Naomi's been gone from Bethlehem for over 10 years. And yet hearing of the kindness of Boaz to Ruth, she knew his reputation before they left.

And Boaz apparently of a certain age that he's owned land for a long time. He's had workers out in these fields for many years. And so hearing of the kindness that he has shown to Ruth, Naomi knows this man's reputation.

He is a kinsman redeemer to them. And seeing that Ruth has caught the eye of Boaz, Naomi is now setting this up that Ruth would be redeemed and therefore become Boaz's wife. And the other guy, who we won't even hear from until we get to chapter 4, he's not even on Naomi's mind because I know Boaz is the good man.

That's the guy that Ruth really should be with. Boaz is such an honorable man. He wants to do this according to the law of God, which is why he says to Ruth, there is a redeemer nearer to you than I am.

So if he will redeem you, he has to be able to get first claim. But if he will not redeem you, I tell you, in the name of the Lord, I will do it. So we continue on now in verse 6, she went down to the threshing floor.

She did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her because Naomi knows this law. She knows Leviticus 25. She knows Deuteronomy 25. Ruth may have only been sort of acquainted with it, right? She may have learned from her husband or from Elimelech about some of these things.

But it was the household of Elimelech that was raised in this to know what the law of God said. Naomi knows it. And so she's telling Ruth, according to the law, what it is that she is to do. So in verse 7, when Boaz had eaten and drunk, that's just past tense of the word drink.

It doesn't mean he's drunk, but he certainly had enough wine to the point that his heart is merry. His heart was merry and he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. So Ruth observes where he lays down.

She came softly, end of verse 7, and uncovered his feet and lay down. Now you have probably heard it said about this verse that there's something sensuous going on here. This is not a recent controversy.

This goes back decades, even centuries for some teachers who have claimed way back when, and with even more graphic detail today, unfortunately, that for Ruth to uncover the feet of Boaz, that this is a euphemism for some sort of sensuous thing that's going on here.

And I tell you that it's not. It is true that there are occasions in the Old Testament where the writer doesn't want to go into too much detail, and so will give some sort of a euphemism. Like for example, Adam knew his wife, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth.

So that is, of course, a reference to them consummating, there's a consummation that happens there, and then she conceives and brings forth a son. So sometimes you'll have those kinds of statements that will be in the Old Testament, but this is not one of them.

This is exactly the gesture, exactly as we see it. Ruth goes to Boaz's feet and uncovers his feet. Remember, he's sleeping in his cloak, and that cloak is long enough that it even comes down and uncovers his feet.

Ruth goes to the place, observes where he's laying, and there's a whole bunch of other people around, which is why she's got to be certain that this is the right guy. She's not going to propose marriage to the wrong person.

So she goes to where he's laying, uncovers his feet, and lays down. There is a double meaning here. Number one, it is a gesture of submission. If you'll remember back to chapter two, when Boaz showed her such kindness, what was the gesture before Boaz that Ruth made?

She bowed at his feet. She bowed down, and she said, who am I that you have shown such kindness to me, a foreign woman? And that was the gesture of humility and submission that she made before Boaz, not even knowing at that time that he was a Redeemer.

She was just in submission because he was in charge of this field, and he had shown blessing to her. And so now the same sort of a thing, with him being asleep, she uncovers his feet and lays down there, same sort of a gesture.

It's a gesture of submission and of humility before Boaz. Now she would not have gone and laid at his side. That would have been improper. Only a wife was to lay at the side of her husband. So in this proposal of marriage, she goes to his feet and uncovers his feet.

That's the first meaning there, the meaning of submission, of humility. What would be the second meaning? Well, this ties right into the Leverett marriage thing. Remember, if the man will not redeem, then the wife pulls his sandal off and spits in his face.

So there's a connection here to Ruth is asking Boaz to redeem her. Now she's not suggesting, if you don't redeem me, I'm going to pull your sandal off and spit in your face. But because there is a connection to the feet with the redemption, then her proposal, her request to this involves the feet.

So she uncovers his feet, lays down there at his feet, and this does not immediately stir him. It says it's not until midnight that he's startled. So somewhere in there with the winds that are blowing, you know, blowing on these bare feet, anybody's feet ever poked out of the blanket before and it wakes you up, you know, my feet are cold.