Ruth's Kinsman Redeemer | Sermon 07/07/2024

All right, if you would, please turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Ruth. Book of Ruth in the Old Testament, it's just right after the book of Judges, before 1 Samuel. We're going to be in Ruth chapter 3 today, the entire chapter, verses 1 through 18.

And the title of the sermon today, church, is Ruth's Kinsman Redeemer. Ruth's Kinsman Redeemer, so starting in verse 1 of the book of Ruth, chapter 3, hear now the inerrant and infallible words of the living and true God.

To verse 5, then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, My daughter, shall I not seek security for you, that it may be well with you? Now is not Boaz our kinsman with whose maids you were? Behold, he winnows barley at the threshing floor tonight.

Wash yourself therefore, and anoint yourself, and put on your best clothes, and go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. It shall be when he lies down that you shall notice the place where he lies, and you shall go and uncover his feet and lie down.

Then he will tell you what you shall do. She said to her, All that you say, I will do. Thus ends the reading of God's holy and magnificent word. Let's pray once more as a church before we get started.

God, we come before you as your people with open hands, looking to receive from your word, your eternal word that is always feeding us. You said that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

And so God, feed us today as your people. We recognize how we can be on spiritual E, empty, Lord. And so God, we ask that you would fill us, that you would teach us, Lord, what you want us to know in these verses.

God, to understand what Ruth was doing and what Boaz indicated to do for her, and how this all brought you glory, dear God. Lord, we look to see here today what we can take away as well, and how we might be transformed by the hearing of your word this morning.

Please be with us, Lord Jesus Christ. Keep our every focus on you today. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, church, like any good story, the book of Ruth has thus far captured our hearts. It has for me.

I hope it has for you. We've been drawn into the plight of a limal X family. We saw their journey to Moab when we saw how it turned out. Naomi took comfort in her two sons and their wives. But the family never grew beyond that.

Stagnation, then even worse, degradation and death. And that pain affected Naomi and Orpah and Ruth, and it was tangible. You could see it. It's not something many of us have lived through ever before, but it's definitely something we think about from time to time.

I know the morning of my wife's surgery, a week and a half ago, I had opened my Bible and she wrote me a note that you're the best husband, God has given me the best gift. You know, and these things come to our minds sometimes, right?

These women lost their husbands, these people suffered great loss, and we can't help but think about this sometimes. Sometimes, as we saw Naomi make up her mind to go back to Israel and the grief that the women shared together at their parting from one another, we thought of similar goodbyes that we've had in our own lives.

But Ruth clung to her. Ruth clung to her mother-in-law in the most peculiar and yet selfless kind of way. It took one person. It took one person to change the theme, to change everything, to turn it around, a remnant.

Ruth brought hope to the situation that seemed so hopeless. Now when Naomi and Ruth came back, the women of Bethlehem couldn't believe Elimelech's wife had returned, and she was, not only did she return, but she returned without her husband and her two sons.

Where's the whole family? What happened? Is that Naomi? Who's that with her, and where is everyone else? And the scene kind of became pitiful. She said, call me Marah, for the Lord has dealt bitterly with me, and so I shall be called bitter from now on.

Don't call me Naomi, which means sweet or kind in Hebrew. Call me bitter. That's my name now. I've changed who I am. God has poured out his judgment on me, and I can't take it anymore. I'm giving in. She couldn't see the evidences of grace all along the way.

However, when Ruth went out to glean, in whatever field of whomever would give her favor, God sovereignly brought her to the one field that would have mattered the most, right? Out of all the upright men in all the land, she was brought to a man who was not only upright but a candidate for Goel.

Told you that. That's the Hebrew word for kinsman, redeemer. There Goel. We watched the encounters with Ruth and Boaz. We saw his protection, his care for her, his respect, his sympathy, his kindness towards Ruth.

We saw that he was like a type of Christ I mentioned. He gave her his own bread, and he let her dip her bread in his cup, and she sat as equals among Israelites. She's a foreigner. It's unheard of. This is a lowly outsider who was with God's chosen people.

A stranger was brought near. And Ruth's actions were considered, this is the second Hebrew word I told you, Goel and chesed. Chesed. Boaz's actions were chesed. That is the word that encapsulates so many traits of God's kindness and goodness all in one word.

Boaz's actions were chesed. Ruth's actions were chesed. Boaz became the instrument of God's kindness and grace towards Naomi and Ruth. To the point, if you remember last week, what happened. Naomi praised the living God.

She praised God once again, the Lord Yahweh, that he has not, she said, he has not withdrawn his chesed from us. God has not. I thought he was bitter towards me. I thought he treated me terribly. She accused God, and she said, God has not withdrawn his kindness towards me.

He sees her. God sees her. He's never left her. The hard shell of bitterness started to melt away from this woman. She's thought mostly about herself this own time. She's thought mostly about her own plight.

She's had eyes for nothing and no one else. But this shook her loose. This changed things. She's going to think about another person now. We're going to see she's thinking about Ruth's future. Because like any good story, it can't end at chapter two.

It simply can't. Ruth continued to glean in Boaz's field until the end of the barley and wheat harvest. And if the narrator of the book of Ruth were to put in the end, and she gleaned for the rest of the season, the end, we would go, what?

There's got to be something more to this. We've put these people in our hearts. We have to find out what happens. We imagine each day that Ruth went back to glean during the harvest. She was thinking of Boaz.

And I imagine that Boaz was waiting for her each day. I told her, she doesn't need to go to another field. I hope she returns. Is she here? Is she coming? And he sees Ruth coming back to his field. And she did again.

And she did again. And when he thought maybe she wouldn't come back, she came back. Ruth came back all throughout the harvest. I wonder if in some way, Ruth and Boaz didn't want the harvest to end. Because that would be their time together.

How will they see each other again in Bethlehem? What will become of these individuals? And what is God showing us in this story? It's in the Bible for a reason. So we've got to go forward to find out, okay?

Verse 1, then Naomi, her mother-in-law said to her, my daughter, shall I not seek security for you that it may be well with you? So Naomi sees it as part of her duty as a mother to find Ruth a husband.

And isn't it funny? I sense that most mothers likely feel this responsibility to find a mate that is suitable for their sons or daughters. Some of you have been sizing up potential suitors since you got here, or since they were born, right?

You know, who's my kid going to marry? And so number one, calm down. Number two, Naomi gets it, right? Naomi understands what you're going through. She wants to do that too. When she says, shall I not seek security for you, that is literally a place of peace in the Hebrew.

It's synonymous with a home that has a husband and a family and protection, a place that was used that women would long for. Oh, I hope for a place of peace one day, a place to settle down and have a family.

And Naomi had prayed, if you remember, in chapter 1, that Yahweh the Lord, may he give hased or deal kindly with you, Ruth, may he give you, what did he say? Rest in the house of a husband, a new husband.

Her husband was dead. May God give you rest, a place of peace in the house of a husband. And she saw that while it would ultimately be up to God, a little meddling would be appropriate too. And don't all mothers do that, a little involvement there.

And that's what Naomi did. Even a mother's meddling is not outside of God's sovereignty, by the way. And Naomi recognized that. She wants things to go well for Ruth. That is to say, she wants specifically, when this word says, I want it to go well with you, she wants the burden of widowhood to be gone, to be removed from her daughter-in-law.

You know, in small towns, everyone knew who the widows were. Everyone knew the town widows. Why? Because if you were actually righteous, you would often visit. If you actually cared, you would bring a meal.

People knew who the town widows were, and even the people would meddle as well. I wonder if this person would consider the widow. And so that's what would happen. And a day is coming when Naomi will die.

And Ruth will have no Israelite clan connections Ruth could be preyed upon. And above all, Ruth is a foreigner. Within a century or so prior to this, Moabite women were the ones who tempted Hebrew men to immorality and idolatry, not even just 100, 150 years prior to this in Numbers 25.

And so there's an image of Moabite women among the Israelites. Could that image of Moabite women be overcome enough to where a man would be willing to marry Ruth? And lastly, what is marveling about this moment is Naomi doesn't think of Elimelech's name to be carried on.

Oh, I must have my husband's name carried on. She doesn't think that. She's not concerned about finding an heir for her son Malon. That Malon's name would be carried on. Who she's thinking about? She's thinking about Ruth, her daughter-in-law.

She's finally caring for someone else. And it makes sense. As a widow herself, she knows what it's like to lose everything. She wants her daughter-in-law to gain what she can't get back. She goes, I'm too old to start over.

Not you. Let me help you. This is huge because bitterness, bitterness wants everyone to be as miserable as you, at least it thinks that. Joy and contentment in the midst of loss wants others to have more joy than you.

Do you see that? You could even be going through terrible hardship, but someone who has real joy, real contentment, and no bitterness goes, my life is hard, but may God bless people more than me. That's a heart of contentment.

That's a heart of joy. So Naomi thinks, what can be done? Verse two, now is not Boaz our kinsman with whose maids you were? Behold, he winnows barley at the threshing floor tonight. So Naomi's mind goes right to the man that they have seen give them compassion.

The man whom they have seen, much of his character throughout the entirety of the barley harvest, they know this man. They've seen how well he treats his employees and those of his own household. They've seen how he treats the sojourner, the foreigner.

They've seen how Boaz protects women. He actually protects women. He doesn't want men to fall upon women in the fields. And they've seen how he believes the Lord is the only one in whom you may find refuge.

And not only that, Boaz is a relative of Elimelech. Naomi specifically says, our relative. She's with Ruth and she says, Boaz is our relative. She includes her. It doesn't matter that she's a Moabitess.

It doesn't matter that she's not connected by blood. She is connected to Israel now in Naomi's mind. And Naomi says, behold, look, Boaz will be winnowing the barley tonight. You see, the reapers would go out into the fields and they would take sickles and they would cut the stalks with the grain heads on top and they would make bundles of this barley and of the wheat and they would put it in a storehouse.

But they didn't want that stuff to go rancid. As long as you separated the wheat head or the barley head from the rest of the stalk and you store that in a dry place, it would stay good for years, definitely through to the next season.

But if you let that stalk start to degrade in compost, you'll spoil the kernels of wheat and barley. And so after you're done and after you've gathered the bundles, you've got to go to the threshing floor.

And that was work in and of itself. And they would beat it. They would beat the wheat, the barley and the chaff and the stalks and everything would fall. But the kernel would remain, right? And that's what Boaz was doing, OK?

And so, according to one commentator, where they would do this is people would find a hard rock surface so that when the kernels of wheat fell, when they were, you know, beating the wheat and the barley, they wouldn't get mixed into dirt because then they'd become spoiled.

So threshing floors were often built on a hill by the field and over a slab of rock. And it was built on a hill because you would want on the hilltop for the wind to run through it and so the wind would blow away the chaff and the wheat kernels would remain.

And we presume that Boaz did this at night because it's now late May, early June in Israel. It's hot. It's the desert. They're a little higher in elevation than other parts of Israel. But it would get cooler at night.

So that's what he did. That's a smart man. You go to the threshing floor at night. So Naomi knows who to look for, where he will be and what he will be doing. It's now time to make a plan. But how does a woman go up to a man and make her hopes known, right?

In Israel, what would typically happen is an agent of a man's house would join him and they would go and they would speak to the father of the woman he sought to marry. So it was either someone up high in your household or a young man and his father would go to the father of this woman's household and they would negotiate even a dowry, a bride price, you know, where they would live if he would build on an attachment to his father's house.

And that's how it would occur. And so in this culture, though, it would be improper for Naomi and Ruth to approach Boaz like this. I wonder if they were hoping for him to act first during the barley harvest.

She went there every single day, but that man didn't say anything about her status. He did nothing. So here's the plan. Boaz is clueless. So we've got to act. We've got to show him. Verses three through five, wash yourself, therefore, and anoint yourself and put your best clothes on and go down to the threshing floor.

But do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. It shall be when he lies down that you shall notice the place where he lies and you shall go and uncover his feet and lie down.

Then he will tell you what to do. Ruth said to Naomi, all that you say, I will do. So what's happening here? I'll tell you what's really happening here. Naomi is telling Ruth, it's time to move on. It's time to move on.

Wash yourself, bathe and be clean, anoint yourself, apply perfume to yourself. You see, they would take olive oil and they would take herbs or flowers and they would put it inside a jar of olive oil and let the olive oil infuse from the flowers and from the different herbs and they would make this perfume and so she says anoint yourself, put on this olive oil perfume, put on better clothes.

Now some have said Naomi is prepping Ruth in a way that women would prepare for their wedding nights. Some have said that Ruth is even preparing for a sexual encounter. But they already know Boaz to be a righteous man.

He's an elder at the gate in Bethlehem, bypassing his request for engagement, acting like this is a marriage night or dressing to seduce him would be things that would repulse a righteous man. It would repel him.

It would, it would turn him away. She's trying to appeal to him, not to repel him, not to repulse him. Immorality won't bring a man like Boaz to her. Immorality won't work for him. And that's a lesson for us as well.

You see, if it takes immorality, if you're with someone and they want you to commit immoral acts with them, if it takes immorality to gain a husband or a wife, then you may just be with the wrong person.

Now all of us have marriages where we, we've been through a lot and God sovereignly brought us through that, but, but how should it be? What is the ought? Not what is. What is ought? The ought is immorality shouldn't be used to gain a husband or a wife.

No potential suitor of high quality will ask you to disobey God. So what is Naomi doing here with Ruth? Why is she telling her to do this? If this is all the case? It's possible Boaz has never approached Ruth because Ruth has still acted like a widow in the period of grieving, okay?

She has had a sign on her person, so to speak, that says ineligible. Grieving widow and Boaz, as a righteous man, he respected that. He respected that. He doesn't know if she desires to remain single, a single widow for the rest of her life.

And unfortunately, these women didn't concoct their plan during the harvest. It's over. Ruth during the harvest didn't change. She didn't take off the sign that said ineligible. How will he see that she's available now?

She's going to have to visit him and show him that she is. It's exceptional. It's not the norm. It's an exception. And the way that she's going to do that, well, consider this 2 Samuel 12 20 shows us how one changes the perception of everyone else around you after you've been grieving, okay?

Following the death of David's son from his union with Bathsheba, it says this in 2 Samuel 12 20, so David arose from the ground, he washed, he washed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes. And he came into the house of the Lord and worshiped.

Then he came to his own house, and when he requested, they set food before him and he ate. So do you get that? To show that she's no longer an unavailable grieving widow, Ruth must wash herself. She must anoint herself with perfume.

She must change her clothes. And you know what's so wild? This is David's grandmother, by the way. Ruth is David's grandmother. And she did the same thing. Wash, anoint yourself, change your clothes. So Naomi is basically saying, don't do an immoral act.

She's saying, Ruth, show Boaz that the period of mourning for your husband is over. It's done. You're available. And he showed her such kindness. And more than a friendship was building in Boaz's mind, but he dared not approach a woman in the state of mourning.

I believe that he started to love her, but he was a righteous man. He's not going to go to a woman who looks unavailable, grieving, and in mourning clothes. She's in mourning clothes. So she used to bathe, apply a scent, change her clothes, then go to the threshing floor.

OK? Normally, an Israelite man would work. He'd work in the field. And each night, he'd go back to his home. Usually, his home was within a walled community for security. But Boaz intends to sleep by the grain that he had just winnowed.

Why? Because of animals and critters that would seek to eat the harvests that they just collected. Because thieves and bandits could come in and take all your grain. So on these special occasions, a man like this is to sleep right next to the grain at the threshing floor.

OK? Notice that he doesn't make his servants do that. Boaz takes the risk himself. He does it himself. Boaz says, I'll be the first line of defense for what we've all worked hard for. That's a man. That's a man.

Naomi says, let him finish for the night. Don't let him see you. Let him eat and drink first. That is, let Boaz cease from the burden of work. Let the man get satisfied and relaxed. And while it is very likely, in fact, almost 100 likely that he was drinking wine, this is not to be like Lot and his daughters in Genesis.

The ones in whom Moab was born, do you remember? How did Moab come into being? How did Moab become a nation? When Lot's daughters thought the world had ended, and they got their father drunk, and they committed incest with their father.

And one of the children's name, a son named Moab, that's where Moab came from. And so, what Ruth is, Ruth is trying to right that wrong. That was the bad way to do things. And this story is the redemption of that error.

That's one way to see it. So, Boaz was not a drunkard. There is no indication in the text that Naomi expected him to be drunk. But having just completed his work, having just eaten dinner, having had a little wine with that dinner, Boaz is now resting.

He's comfortable. Because, you know, when a man's at work, right, if your husband's doing a project in the garage, and he's right in the middle of it, and he's going, you know, he's sawing something, he's doing something, and you're like, honey, honey, and he's like, you're killing me a little, right?

You know, there's some impatience showing through there. When a man's got his mind focused on work, he doesn't want to be approached. But when the work's over, and he's sitting down, and he's relaxed, it's time to come to him.

Naomi knows. Naomi was married for a long time. She knows what to do, okay? A man who is done with his work, it'll bode well, better interaction. So, Naomi continues. She tells Ruth to watch for him when he lies down, make note of it.

And finally, what is one of the most controversial verses in scripture, one that has proffered a variety of interpretations, and this is most likely in part because several of these Hebrew words can be used in multiple ways in the Bible.

Some of these words are very ordinary, but they can also be used in very sexual ways. Right here, okay? She is to uncover his feet and lie down. I can't go into all the ways that those Hebrew words can be used, but that's what our translation shows.

I think it's an accurate translation. According to one commentator, in this cultural context, it was possible that prostitutes would come in the middle of the night during the harvest time. Prostitutes would come to threshing floors and find the men sleeping by the grain.

And while they were tired from all that they did and weak, wicked men, the prostitute in the middle of the night would offer their services to these men for payment. And a weak man, a wicked man would succumb to this immorality.

So why would Naomi risk everything with this plan? Why would she risk everything that has been built up thus far with Ruth and Boaz? Well, while definitely forward, it's definitely forward, there is nothing to suggest in the text that it was immoral.

In fact, Naomi would want to maintain a sense of virtuous near for her daughter-in-law. Ruth is to simply uncover Boaz's feet and likely only up to his lower legs just below the knees. That's what we believe the text says.

Nothing higher than that. There's nothing about uncovering his nakedness here, despite some people believing that that's what happened. You see, such an action like that, if this was sexual, if this was uncovering his nakedness, if that were the case here, that would go against the whole context that the narrator has been trying to establish thus far.

You see, the narrator was trying to show us the beginning was like judges, the beginning was immorality, the beginning was wrong decisions, the beginning was evil, and then they paid for it. We're now supposed to be in the stage of the book of Ruth where grace and redemption is happening.

This would be so out of place if Naomi wanted her daughter to do something sexual, something inappropriate, okay? This would be against Yahweh, the Lord that they've been calling upon. This scene is trying to show us and keep in line with what's already been established, Boaz is a man, a mighty man of virtue.

I talked about how that means he's a noble man, and Ruth is loyal, Ruth is selfless and loving. To make this moment anything other than innocent is to disregard what we've been told to know and feel about these people in this story.

And it doesn't say here that she is to lie down, even touching his feet. She isn't to lie down touching his body or curled up against his body. There's nothing to indicate that. She is to lie, it says literally, lie down and wait, wait for him.

He'll tell you what to do. And so the whole idea rests on a razor's edge. There's no doubt about that. There's no going around that. This whole idea is on a razor's edge. This could possibly go very, very wrong.

But now Naomi has faith in it. She's seen what God has done. She knows he can do this for her and Ruth. So her daughter-in-law trusts her, all that you say I will do. Ruth says, you know more than me, I'm going.

Go to verses six and seven. So she went down to the threshing floor and did according to all that 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.

And she came secretly and uncovered his feet and lay down. So Ruth did exactly what Naomi told her. They are depending on Boaz's sense of integrity, are they not? They're depending on Boaz's sense of integrity.

Because even though Ruth and Naomi might have the right intentions in mind, what does a man have on his mind when he sees a woman at the threshing floor? What will he do? Will Boaz do the right thing?

They're counting on it. They're counting on Boaz doing the right thing. That he will interpret this gesture favorably and righteously. In fact, what I believe, I believe that God has to impress upon him what's happening here.

I believe that God's spirit must show this man what's happening here. He must not indulge in the flesh. I will say that the word for clothes in verse three was simla in Hebrew, which often means a cloak of poverty, okay?

So Ruth is not in the seductive outfit of a harlot. She bathed, she put on perfume, and she took off her widow's clothes of grief. And when she laid down, when she uncovered his legs up to the knees and she laid down, it basically says that she put a cloak over herself, a cloak of poverty, okay?

This was a cloak or a garment to show that she was needy. She's saying, I have no one. I am lying on the ground in the dirt and I've got no one. I'm lying with a poor man's blanket. And so what she's doing right here, okay, this is it.

What's happening right here, this is it. She's saying this all in an image. She's saying by washing and anointing herself and changing her clothes, she's saying I'm done with the period of mourning, I'm available, okay?

Then by uncovering his legs and then laying down with a garment that is typically used for someone who is poor, she's saying I need a redeemer. I need a husband. I need someone. I'm available. I'm no longer mourning and I'm needy.

Would you be that redeemer for me? That's all happening in this image. Will you be what I need? Will you give me what's yours despite me deserving none of it? And isn't that what Christ does? Christ puts his cloak of righteousness over us.

We need Christ to cover us in our sin. None of what we were, who we were, that sin that stained us is ever seen again because Christ covered us. He didn't have to but he did. So will Boaz see a foreigner unworthy of him?

Will Boaz see an immoral woman? Will he see a potential marriage that will ruin his reputation in Bethlehem? Okay? Let's keep going. Go to verses 8 through 13. It happened in the middle of the night that the man was startled and bent forward and behold a woman was lying at his feet.

He said, who are you? And she answered, I am Ruth, your maid. So spread your covering over your maid for you are a close relative. Then he said, may you be blessed of the Lord, my daughter. You've shown your last kindness to be better than the first by not going after young men, whether rich or poor.

Now my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you whatever you ask. For all my people in the city know that you are a woman of excellence. Now it is true I am a close relative. However, there is a relative closer than I.

Remain this night and when morning comes, if he will redeem you, good, let him redeem you. But if he does not wish to redeem you, then I will redeem you as the Lord lives. Lie down until morning. So we're not certain how much time went by after she uncovered his legs and laid down, but eventually Boaz woke up in the middle of the night.

It's possible what startled him was the chilled night air that came through the threshing house. That cool summer air drifted over his bare legs, okay? And it says that he was startled by it and he woke up and he leaned up where he was lying and he was about to cover his legs.

And so bending forward to cover himself, he sees a woman lying on the ground at his feet right near him. Remember, this book was at the time of the cycle of the judges and the sin of the people. Most men would see a woman lying there and take advantage.

But Boaz is not most men. He says, who are you? Who are you? What's interesting is she doesn't say, I am Ruth, the Moabitess. She doesn't say, I am Ruth, Naomi's daughter-in-law. She keenly says, I am Ruth, your maid.

She gives him possession. I'm your maid. And this time she doesn't say the Hebrew word for slave girl. She says the word maid in Hebrew that makes a woman eligible to marry an Israelite landowner. She goes out on a limb.

She called herself a lowly slave before, but she listened to her mother-in-law and said, I'm a woman that you could marry now. But then she takes the focus off of herself. She says who he is and what he can do for her.

You are a Goel. You are our kinsmen redeemer. And she says, spread your covering over your maid. You see, Boaz was about to cover himself, but she's asking for him to take what is his and cover her. She wants to remove the garment of poverty and be clothed by him.

Be covered by him. That's the image of what's occurring here. And if he does that, if he removes her cloak of poverty and gives her his cloak, she will be his. She will be his wife. This word, this covering, this word for covering is actually used 107 times in the Old Testament.

And 78 of those 107 times, it literally means wings or wing. That's what's amazing is Ruth specifically chose the word in response to his blessing back in chapter two. Do you remember? Boaz said to her, may the Lord give you peace, the God of Israel under whose wings you have sought refuge and safety.

And being covered by the wings or an edge of a man's garment was a saying back then to indicate you are a Goel. You're a kinsmen redeemer. Would you marry your maid, Ruth? She's saying, would you marry me, essentially?

Would you be there for me? Would you cover me? And so what you can see here is, did Ruth's mother-in-law tell her to do this? Did Naomi tell her to say these things? She didn't. Ruth went beyond her mother-in-law's instructions, as you can see.

She told her what? Uncover his feet and lay on the ground and he'll tell you what to do. He'll tell you what to do. Be silent. So it's a bit surprising in a way. In the command form, a servant tells the master to marry her.

A Moabite demands an Israelite. A woman approaches a man in this way. A poor person comes to the rich and says, give me what you have. Now there is no indication that she was breaking God's law, as there were more descriptions on marital engagement rather than prescriptions.

But she's definitely acting outside the cultural norm. Ruth is acting outside the cultural norm. We don't know what overcame her, except maybe the sovereign hand of God. That she would speak up this way, that's what I see this as.

That Ruth would do and say what she said. Normally it would be unacceptable and that Boaz, that Boaz would interpret it correctly and respond favorably. That all this would go so perfectly right, that's God.

That's the sovereign hand of God acting through maybe the imperfect actions of humans. Not the right way, not the way back then a woman ought to do it, but she did it. She spoke out, cover your maid, give me your garment.

Essentially saying, can I be your wife? Can I be your wife? Despite what has come over her, Ruth is hoping, she is praying Boaz would be this redeemer for her. It's still up to him, he's got to decide what to do.

Nevertheless, his response is exactly what Naomi was longing for. He knows, that's what's crazy is, he knows she didn't come for a sexual encounter. She came for marriage, she came for redemption, she came for all the protection and provision that goes with it.

Because he is her Goel, that's what she says. You are our kinsman redeemer, cover your maid. And that's how he sees it, it's perfect. And so he says, may you be blessed of the Lord, my daughter. You have shown your last kindness to be better than the first, by not going after young men, whether poor or rich.

Boaz doesn't cry, cursed be you, harlot, leave my presence, prostitute. He doesn't say that. He says, rather, blessed be you, my daughter. Using this title again, my daughter, continues the theme of love and respect and care for her, and it causes everyone, including us, including Ruth, to finally take a deep breath.

How's he going to respond to this? And he says, may you be blessed. He blesses her, in the name of the Lord. Your has said, your kindness, now in this act, is greater than the first, and the first act of has said he praised her for was leaving her people and her home.

And so Boaz believes that this night, Ruth has shown more grace, she's shown more kindness, more goodness than before. And just as Ruth goes the way many people consider nonsensical, like going with a widow to a foreign nation, isn't that radical?

That's radical. She could have stayed home with her family. She could have remarried a Moabite man. She could have had all that she needed with no burden of taking care of a widow, but she did what people think is nonsensical.