Ruth 3:14-15 – “Walk With the Wise”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁴And she lay down from his feet until the morning and she arose before a man notices his friend and he said, “Do not let it be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.” ¹⁵And he said, “Give the cloak which upon you and grasp to it,” and she grasped to it and he measured six of barley and he set upon her and he came to the city.

From reading commentaries, people put a lot of spins on Boaz’s warning, “Do not let it be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.” Some suggest he’s actually talking to his workers who may have been nearby. Others suggest he’s actually talking to himself. The obvious understanding would be that he’s talking to Ruth. But no matter what, the question is also asked why is that important? Again, many views are offered. Since I think that is what is actually important, and just to confuse the world, I’ll offer my opinion: Somewhere over the years I have read that it was very common for prostitutes to hang around the threshing floors. The end of the harvest was a time of celebration for the men, the workers perhaps got paid their wages, they all had a feast, the men were all away from their wives and families and I think it obvious that would be a prime opportunity for prostitutes to cash in. Again, somewhere in my memory banks I have read that was in fact the case.

Here is what I suspect: Boaz is a good man – a very good man. This is his threshing floor and these are his workers. I think he had a hard fast rule that no prostitutes were allowed anywhere near his threshing floor, and everyone knew it. For Ruth, a woman, to be seen near the threshing floor, especially in the wee hours of the morning, would immediately suggest she’d been playing the prostitute and it would malign Boaz’s good reputation that he did not allow such things. I would suggest, understanding these aspects of their culture, it is obvious why Boaz did not want her presence known. He’s just being a good man, again.

Another interesting observation from the Hebrew text is that at the end of verse 13, Boaz had told Ruth to “lie here till morning.” Immediately after that it says, “So Ruth lay there till morning.” The Hebrew verb in Boaz’s command to “lie down” in verse 13 is exactly the same verb describing Ruth’s response in verse 14. Then in verse 15, he tells her to “hold out” her shawl and, in Hebrew, her response is to “hold out” her shawl – again exactly the same verb from his command. I can’t help but think the Hebrew is deliberately highlighting how compliant Ruth is. She does exactly what she is told to do and she does it immediately. Ruth’s response to Naomi earlier in the chapter was, “All that you command me, I will do.”

Now I don’t believe for a minute that Ruth was stupidly obedient to just anyone who issued her a command. I rather suspect the exact opposite – that she is very intelligent and very aware of every action she takes. But with Naomi, again, this Moabite girl Ruth is smart enough to let this older wiser Jewish woman give her specific directions how to conduct herself in this Jewish culture. And Boaz is now a man who may be her husband in just a few hours. Given that Ruth is a very wise and virtuous young woman, in the right times and the right places, she knows how to be very humbly compliant. I would suggest the very fact that she is so immediately compliant probably only made Boaz all the more hopeful she’d soon be his wife. It’s a wonderful thing to have a wife who is very smart, very talented, very capable of independent thinking, but who also knows when it’s time to simply “do as she’s told.” The same of course applies to husbands – there are times when clearly our wife knows better than us or perhaps it’s her project and we’re the ones helping. Then real faith will make us humbly pleasantly compliant people. A submissive spirit is a beautiful thing – not a stupidly submissive spirit, but rather a wise and capable person humbly acquiescing at the right time and in the right place. That’s our girl Ruth! She’s just a good young woman.

Another point in the text that gets a lot of discussion is the “six measures of barley” which Boaz gave to Ruth. What generates all the discussion is that actually there is no “measures” in the Hebrew. As my literal translation above indicates, it was simply “six of barley.” So everyone has to ponder, six what of barley? Depending on what measure people choose, Ruth could be carrying a small amount or 200 lbs! Here’s what I think: the Lord doesn’t tell us what “measures” Boaz used because that isn’t important. What is important is that he gave her six. Once again, just as he used words for “redeem” six times in verses 12 & 13, now he measures out for her six “somethings” of barley. I would suggest they were probably just handfuls, as Boaz would unlikely have some specific measuring device just lying there ready to use. And again, I think what was important was that it was six. In their culture, as he counts out the handfuls, “One, two, three, four, five, six,” he is communicating to Ruth. He didn’t give her the 7^th, and she knows it. Six is the number of incompletion. I think he is saying to her again that he himself will be #7, that he fully intends to redeem her. He’s already communicated it very deliberately using the word redeem six times in only two verses, then he says, “Oh, before you leave, here … and scoops out six handfuls of barley. Six. “I’m not done," he is saying, “But I will be. You can count on me.” I would even suggest that Naomi’s response in v18 supports this understanding. When Ruth tells her he gave her six measures of barley, Naomi responds, “Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today.” Naomi got the point. He won’t rest until there is completion, and he obviously hopes (and Ruth too) that he himself will be that completion.

Once again, to me it is just pleasant to watch these very godly people interact. As I’ve said before, I wish we had volumes written about them. But I’ll have to be content to learn what I can from these four little chapters. Certainly what we do see is enough to keep us all growing for a long, long time! It’s always a blessing to “walk with the wise.”

Ruth 3:10-13 – “A Good Man”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁰And he said, “[May] you [be] one blessed by the LORD, my daughter. You have done well. Your kindness, the former from the latter, not to go after the young men, either poor or rich. ¹¹And now, my daughter, do not be afraid. All which you are saying I will do to you because the all of the gate of my people [are] knowing that you [are] a virtuous woman. ¹²And now because [it is] truth because a redeeming one I [am] and also there is a redeeming one nearer from me. ¹³Remain tonight and it will be in the morning if he will redeem, good, he will redeem and if not he is pleased to redeem you and I will redeem you, [as] the LORD lives. Lie down until the morning.”

Here’s a bunch more miscellaneous notes and thoughts from this passage:

Interesting that Boaz says to Ruth in v11, “Don’t be afraid.” Someone once made the statement, and I don’t doubt it, that “Fear not” or “Don’t be afraid” is the most common command in the Bible. Just think how many verses begin with “Fear not.” It seems like the older I get, the more I realize how big a problem fear is, how much it is the very emotion which holds me back and ruins me. The Bible teaches us “Perfect love casts out fear,” and “God has not given us a spirit of fear,” but learning how to appropriate the Lord’s strength and overcome it turns out to be a lifelong challenge. The Lord of course knows all of this and so He often (very often, it seems) prefaces what He says to us with “Don’t be afraid.”

What strikes me is how quickly and naturally those same words come out of Boaz’s mouth. A girl wakes a man up in the middle of the night and startles him, and some of the first words out of his mouth to her are, “Don’t be afraid.” Once again, I personally think it is very revealing of this man’s character. Even startled, this man talks like Jesus! When he speaks with another human being, he talks like Jesus – and I would suggest that is because he has long made a deliberate habit of loving God and others. As Jesus said in Luke 6:45, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart … for out of the abundance of his heart a man speaks.” Interesting how fractal all of this is. Ruth, the foreigner, hears from her Jewish redeemer, “Don’t be afraid,” while us Gentiles often hear our great heavenly Redeemer say, “Don’t be afraid.”

While I’m on the subject of Boaz and his words, another thing I find instructive is to consider just in general that everything he says to Ruth in this passage, he says as a man startled awake in the middle of the night. Once again, what a good man he is. Go back and read what he says to Ruth, deliberately noticing that these are not words he rehearsed or had time to think about. Ruth had no doubt rehearsed her words over and over and over in her mind until finally she gets her chance and says, “Spread the corner of your garment over me.” But Boaz has no such opportunity. He awakes in the middle of the night startled, only to be confronted with a question of enormous importance – the kind of question he is probably in the habit of thinking through long and carefully.

As Jesus’ words quoted above would tell us, “A good man speaks out of the good things stored in his heart” and Boaz does exactly that. With barely a moment to collect himself, he utters to Ruth words of blessing, and kindness, and assurance, and praise. And his very first words are “The Lord bless you.” It is all just marvelous to me and so encouraging to know the Lord, to keep striving to know Him better, to let Him change me from the inside out, to let His Spirit control my thoughts, to give Him my desires, to trust Him – and let him make me a man like Boaz, like Jesus. A good man.

Something interesting from the passage is to note that, in answering Ruth, Boaz seems to very deliberately use variations of the word “redeem” six times. As we’ve noted before six seems to be, in a Jewish mind, the number of incompletion. You can’t see it in English, necessarily, but Boaz definitely uses six “redeem” words and the way he does it you can’t help but think he is doing so very deliberately. Read my rather literal translation of verses 12 and 13 above and you’ll see what I mean. Could it be, even in that, he was communicating to Ruth? In both their minds, he would be “Redeem #7” and “complete” it all. Interesting in the book of Revelation, we learn that the number of a man is 666. Incomplete. Incomplete. Incomplete! Until our great Redeemer comes. Without Him we are thrice over incomplete. Hopeless. But He is our Completer and our Completion. Our “Redeem #7!”

Then notice what he says of Ruth: he tells her in verse 11, “All my fellow townspeople know that you are woman of noble character.” The Hebrew word for “noble character” is the same word used to describe Boaz back in 2:1, where the NIV translated it, “Boaz was … a man of standing.” It is a word that is hard to translate into English because it is a picture-word. It is a picture of a person of strength, of sterling character, of stability, possibly of wealth and position, but just in general, a person to be admired. The Lord uses it to describe Boaz in 2:1 and Boaz uses it to describe Ruth in 3:11. Interestingly, it is the same word used in Proverbs 31:10, in the verse, “A wife of noble character (same word), who can find?” Boaz found one and had the good sense to marry her!

A couple more indications of the goodness in Boaz’s heart: Notice in both the beginning and end of verse 13 he tells Ruth to “Remain here for the night.” She would probably be inclined to think she should get up and leave. He even has to make a point of it in the morning, in verse 14, “Don’t let it be known that a woman came to the threshing floor.” But he is too good a man to send this young woman out into the darkness and the dangers of a night. She might be inclined (out of the goodness in her heart!) to get up and leave, but Boaz will have none of that. He risks whatever stigma may have been attached to Ruth’s presence and thinks first and foremost of her safety. He’s just a good man.

Then, he could have simply taken Ruth to be his wife there on the spot, but he will not do it. Why not? Because there is “another.” He obviously loves Ruth and, being a man myself, I can only imagine how badly he would want to just push ahead. But he is a man who respects the Lord and His law too much for that. He simply will not take Ruth – no matter how much he’s attracted to her – unless he can do it in good conscience before God and the community. Here is a man whose character rules him, not his desires. And of course, in the end, he gets what he desires, but only after he first resolves to do right. “Commit thy way unto the Lord and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart!” Boaz had already established a life of committing his way to the Lord and once again he practices that priority – only to blessed in ways he could have never imagined. That is a great reminder for all of us. God’s way is always best and the sure path to everything we ever dreamed!

I suppose finally I want to note something from the fractal (what others call typology) of this whole passage. Boaz is a picture of our heavenly Redeemer.  He comes to us wanting to redeem us, but there is “another” and that is the Law. The Law in a sense has “first dibs” on us. “Do this and live,” the Law says. If only we would keep the Law, the whole Law, we would be redeemed. But, alas, what do we find? The “other” cannot redeem us. It gets its chance in our lives. We are born incorrigibly legalistic. We all think the answer is law. If only I can do “better” somehow it will make me right. We try to make ourselves “right,” and we may give it a noble effort, but invariably, the Law says to Jesus, “I cannot redeem them. You redeem them Yourself. I cannot do it.” Fortunately for us, our Redeemer’s intentions were already, “And now, my children, do not be afraid. I will do for you all you ask.”

Boaz is a good man. He was a good man in seemingly a thousand different ways. He was sure good to Ruth. And everything about him reminds us of our great Redeemer, Jesus.

He’s just a good man.

Ruth 3:10-13 – “Faith and Families”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁰And he said, “[May] you [be] one blessed by the LORD, my daughter. You have done well. Your kindness, the former from the latter, not to go after the young men, either poor or rich. ¹¹And now, my daughter, do not be afraid. All which you are saying I will do to you because the all of the gate of my people [are] knowing that you [are] a virtuous woman. ¹²And now because [it is] truth because a redeeming one I [am] and also there is a redeeming one nearer from me. ¹³Remain tonight and it will be in the morning if he will redeem, good, he will redeem and if not he is pleased to redeem you and I will redeem you, [as] the LORD lives. Lie down until the morning.”

Here’s some miscellaneous notes and thoughts from this passage:

Throughout the book, Boaz has been identified as a kinsman to Naomi’s deceased husband Elimelech, but exactly what relation he was we’re never told. According to John Gill (ca. 1760), Jewish tradition holds that Elimelech and Boaz were first cousins, the sons of two brothers. According to the genealogy of Matt 1, Boaz’s father’s name was Salmon (the man who married Rahab of Jericho), the son of Nahshon:

“…Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth …”

So, if tradition is correct, Elimemech would have been the son of Salmon’s brother, who was also a son of Nahshon. Then, according to Gill, Jewish tradition holds that the “nearer kinsman” was another of Salmon’s brothers, so another of Nahshon’s sons, which would make him Boaz and Elimelech’s uncle.

If this is all true, a family tree would look like:

Nahshon

|

                Salmon                   x                “the other kinsman”

|                            |                             |

Boaz                Elimelech                   x

Interestingly, that could have made the “other” kinsman old enough to be Ruth’s grandfather! That may not be true, though, in a culture where there could be ten or fifteen children. Salmon would likely have been Nahshon’s firstborn (since he’s listed as his son in the genealogy), and “the other kinsman” could have been one of Nahshon’s younger sons, potentially making him about the same age as Boaz. It is very common in a “many-children” culture to have uncle-nephew boys who functionally grow up as cousins. That is true of David and his sister Zeruiah’s sons, Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. David was actually their uncle but obviously they were all similar in age and functioned like cousins. David was Jesse’s youngest son and Zeruiah was apparently a much older daughter, so that her sons were similar in age to David. So, probably “the other kinsman” was similar in age to Boaz, still making him old enough to be Ruth’s father.

Another interesting note here is that Boaz’s father Salmon married Rahab of Jericho, who had been a harlot but became a woman of faith. So Rahab was Boaz’s mother! One can’t help but wonder if that wasn’t part of what made Boaz who he was, to have a mother of such notable faith. She wasn’t “just another Israelite” who grew up “in church.” She was a woman who intimately knew “the other life” and chose to worship the Lord. That might also explain part of Boaz’s attraction to Ruth – she’s reminds him of his mom! That also might explain why Boaz was so willing to marry a “foreigner.” His mother was one! Finally, all of this might explain David’s amazing faith. He definitely came from a line of people of unusual faith, Ruth’s son Obed being his grandfather.

It is interesting to think how neither Rahab nor Ruth could possibly have realized the far reaching impact of their decisions of faith. Here is Rahab a harlot in Jericho, a city so wicked that the Lord told Israel to utterly wipe it out and then cursed anyone who would try to rebuild it. While everyone else in Jericho cringed in fear, Rahab somehow realized the reason it all was happening was because Israel’s God was the true God. And so she resolved in her heart if it was at all possible, she would attach herself to these people. The Lord of course made a way by sending Joshua’s spies right to her doorstep. But all she knew was that she was leaving her own people and their gods and attaching herself to Israel and their God. Like Ruth, the Lord blessed her with an Israelite husband who could look beyond her past and her nationality and make her his wife. Little could she imagine that their son Boaz would himself marry a foreign girl and together build the lineage of a King David … and ultimately the Messiah Himself!

The obvious implication of all of this is that we never know what the Lord is up to. We make our decisions of faith in our lifetimes, in our generations, and those decisions may be setting up blessings our children’s childrens’ children will enjoy. We just don’t know. The one thing we do know is that our God’s name is El Shaddai, the God who does “immeasurably more than we could ask or think.” He is the God who can take five loaves and two fishes and bless them and break them and multiply them to bless thousands.

May the story of Boaz and Ruth today remind us to never make light of even our “little” faith decisions. Our God may be doing great things far beyond our wildest imaginations and perhaps blessing our families long after we’re gone!

Ruth 3:10-13 – “R.E.S.P.E.C.T.”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁰And he said, “[May] you [be] one blessed by the LORD, my daughter. You have done well. Your kindness, the former from the latter, not to go after the young men, either poor or rich. ¹¹And now, my daughter, do not be afraid. All which you are saying I will do to you because the all of the gate of my people [are] knowing that you [are] a virtuous woman. ¹²And now because [it is] truth because a redeeming one I [am] and also there is a redeeming one nearer from me. ¹³Remain tonight and it will be in the morning if he will redeem, good, he will redeem and if not he is pleased to redeem you and I will redeem you, [as] the LORD lives. Lie down until the morning.”

What a treat it has been to study this book, just to get to spend time with these people. I’ve read this passage over and over and always come away amazed what a good man Boaz was.

Here he is rich, powerful, established – everything a man could want to be – and here is Ruth, a poor, destitute foreign widow. Certainly anyone can imagine Boaz “helping” this girl, but doing it from the perspective of “big, rich man reaches down and helps poor, pitiful girl.” But instead, every time Boaz speaks to her, he makes it sound like she’s the one to be admired and it’s his honor to speak with her. She asks him to “spread the corner of your garment over me,” and he responds not only by saying, “Yes,” but doing it in a way that communicates very deep respect for Ruth.

First, he responds by saying, “The Lord bless you, my daughter.” She just stuck her neck out. She asks him to redeem her, then hangs there in space waiting for a voice in the darkness to answer her. He could have just said, “Yes” but first he has to lift her up. I don’t know how the first few words out of his mouth could have been more comforting. He immediately brings the Lord and His blessing into the conversation – this in itself offers to Ruth comfort and stability and assurance (none of which she had 10 seconds before). Then he calls her “my daughter,” a term of endearment assuring her of the kindest, warmest, most gentle loving intentions. He might as well, like a good father, have wrapped his big strong arms around her, kissed her head, and said, “Don’t worry about anything, Angel. I’ll take care of it all.”

Then, again before he has even said yes, he praises her, “This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the young men, whether rich or poor.” You see what he’s doing? Anyone else would look at the situation and say the big issue is Boaz’s kindness to Ruth. He’s the rich one. Yet, he pushes Ruth’s kindness to center stage and makes her feel like he’s the one being blessed. She’s the one doing the blessing! Here’s this rich, powerful man, telling this poor destitute widow, “I can’t believe you’d even notice me!”

Finally, he comes to an answer, and listen how he says it: “And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid, I will do for you all you ask.” What a sensitive man he is. Again, he uses the fatherly, “my daughter” to communicate warmth and affection, then he says, “Don’t be afraid.” Notice he knows she is! This rich man with nothing to fear realizes this girl is scared. Of course she is. Her whole world is uncertain. And he realizes even in asking him to redeem her, she had reason to fear. He doesn’t take those things lightly and speaks directly to the issue, “Don’t be afraid.” And he could of just said, “Yes, I’ll redeem you,” but he did not, he says, “All you are asking, I will do for you.” He’s wanting to assure her that he not only intends to redeem her, but that everything she’s concerned about, everything she’s dreaming of, everything will be taken care of.

But his kindness doesn’t end there. Once again, he’s the “catch.” He’s the rich one. He could have said, “I will fulfill my duty as a kinsman-redeemer.” But, no; he says, “Yes, I’ll do it because all my fellow townsmen know that you are a  woman of noble character.” Once again, he’s making it sound like he’s the one being blessed, that she’s the “catch.”

He talked to Ruth the same way back in chapter 2, always lifting her up, always being very kind to her. He’s just a good man. He always, always, always treats her and speaks to her with respect. You already know he will be a very good husband to her.

I have been amazed over the years to see how important it is that a man respect his wife. I’ve observed young men who simply do not respect a woman and so they never respect their wife, no matter how much of a treasure she is. And I’ve watched one such young man after another end up losing that treasure of a wife only to see her snatched up by some man far more deserving of her love. What is heart-warming in this story is knowing without a doubt that Boaz will be a wonderful husband to Ruth – knowing it because from the very beginning, he is a man who will respect her.

If we just slow down enough to really think about what is happening and what is being said, Boaz is a man all men should be like!

Ruth 3:10-13 – “Living in the Present ... Again!”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹⁰And he said, “[May] you [be] one blessed by the LORD, my daughter. You have done well. Your kindness, the former from the latter, not to go after the young men, either poor or rich. ¹¹And now, my daughter, do not be afraid. All which you are saying I will do to you because the all of the gate of my people [are] knowing that you [are] a virtuous woman. ¹²And now because [it is] truth because a redeeming one I [am] and also there is a redeeming one nearer from me. ¹³Remain tonight and it will be in the morning if he will redeem, good, he will redeem and if not he is pleased to redeem you and I will redeem you, [as] the LORD lives. Lie down until the morning.”

In my last post, I noted how Ruth has been constantly having to make decisions and choose to live in the present with no assurance (apart from faith) that things would turn out well for her. Even coming down to the grain pile and right down to the minute she says, “Spread the corner of your garment over me,” she does not know how it will turn out.

Boaz’s response is her dreams come true, “The LORD bless you, my daughter … all you are asking, I will do.”

But, once again, Ruth has to live in uncertainty. “There is another kinsman-redeemer closer than me.”

I almost want to reach out and hug Ruth and assure her, “Everything’s gonna be OK. Don’t worry, sweetheart! It’s going to be OK!” Goodness. After all she’s done, after all her faith and her willingness to step out and do the right thing – here she is, once again, hanging in space. “Another redeemer?” My own mind would race ahead and fear, maybe he’ll be some boor or some worthless drunk who beats his wives – and I do mean “wives.” Maybe he already has five wives and mistreats them all. And maybe they all hate each other. Oh, no! What if, what if, what if …

I want to spend some time listening to Boaz and learning from him, but right now, I just want to stop and consider Ruth again. I said in the last post, I don’t want any longer to live in the present, fearing the future. And yet I find Ruth’s position soooooo familiar. I pray, the Lord helps me and gives me strength and courage to do the right thing, and, in fact, things turn out well … except …! Some new wrinkle rises up! And I have to fight my fears again!

Apparently the Lord knows we need it. Apparently it is a good thing that we are always having to wait, always having to live in some element of uncertainty. My first thought is, “Noooo. Don’t do this to Ruth! Don’t make her spend another night in uncertainty. Why couldn’t it have just been a done deal? Why couldn’t Boaz just say, ‘You’re right. I am your kinsman-redeemer and I will redeem you.’ Why does there have to be ‘another?’” My natural response would be to spare Ruth this time of uncertainty and just give her the blessing. I think of my own daughters and I don’t think I could bear to make them wait like this.

Which only proves that the Lord is a better father than I am! He does what is best for us, not necessarily what is easiest and the most pleasant. He’s always looking beyond the present and thinking about not only where we are but what we are becoming. He’s more concerned to build us and make us better than He is necessarily to make us happy today. Again, apparently it is good for us to have to live in uncertainty. He knows that. He loves Ruth way more than I ever could love my daughters. And He allows what is best for her – another night of uncertainty!

Back to my life. This battle – not living in the present in fear of the future – is obviously not something we recognize, conquer, and move on to the next adventure. Apparently we need to accept that the battle itself is good for us. It is the battle of faith. Am I going to live trusting God that He is up to good in my life, or am I going to let my fearful imagination torment me with all the ugly “what if’s?”

Today is a new day. It will bring its own uncertainties. I seem to remember some wise fellow who once said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matt 6:33,34).

In other words, “Don’t live in the present in fear of the future.”

That’s a novel idea. I probably should try it.

Again.

Ruth was brave. She did what was right and the Lord always took care of her.

He will take care of me too.

Ruth 3:1-9 – “Living in the Present”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹And Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek for you a place of rest which will be good to you? ²And now, is not Boaz from our kindred [the one of whom] you have been with his servant girls? Notice, he [is] winnowing [at the] threshing floor barley tonight. ³Wash and anoint and put on your garments upon you and go down [to] the grain pile. Do not let yourself be known to the man until he [is] finished eating and drinking. ⁴And he will be lying down and you must note the place where he lies down and go and uncover his feet and lie down and he will tell you what you are to do.” ⁵And she said to her, “All which you say I will do.” ⁶And she went [to] the threshing floor and she did according to all which her mother-in-law commanded her.

⁷And Boaz ate and he drank and his heart was good and he came in to lie down in the end of the pile and she came in secret and she uncovered from his feet and she lay down. ⁸And it was in the middle of the night and the man trembled and turned himself and behold! a woman lying from his feet. ⁹And he said, “Who [are] you?” and she said, “I [am] Ruth, your maid-servant, and spread your wing upon your maid-servant because a redeeming one you are.”

This is another place where I would suggest we need to slow down and really think about what it is like for these people. What stands out to me is the realization that at the end of verse 9, when Ruth says, “Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a kinsman-redeemer,” she has no idea how Boaz will respond. We get to read the whole account knowing “the end of the story” but Ruth does not. Every step of this whole book, from the time she decided to cling to Naomi and go to Israel, Ruth has never known “the end of the story.” She very well could have left Moab and gone to Israel only to starve to death. And yet she went. She went out one day to glean in someone’s field not knowing if she’d even come home with a day’s supply of grain – or perhaps be mistreated and … who knows what?

When Naomi says, “Here’s what you need to do” and sends her down to the barley piles, Ruth responds to her, “I will do whatever you say” (v5). But Ruth did not know the outcome – as she was washing herself and putting on some perfume, as she put on her best clothes, as she walked down toward Boaz’s barley piles and tried to stay hidden, as she watched him lie down and noted the spot, as she crept in, uncovered his feet and lay down herself – and even as he asks in the dark, “Who are you?” and she says, “I am Ruth. Spread the corner of your garment over me” – she does not know the outcome.

Even up to this very point, as those words leave her mouth, “Spread the corner of your garment over me” she does not know how it will turn out. What if he’s totally not interested? She would get up and walk away having made a complete fool of herself. What if he thinks she’s ridiculous? What if, what if, what if? She is so, so, so vulnerable at this point.

Pause a moment and realize that as Ruth speaks these words her heart is hanging in space.

What strikes me is the realization that this is exactly where we all live our lives. We never know “the end of the story.” In a sense, while we live in the present, we do so never knowing the outcome of whatever it is we’re doing. I don’t know about other people, but I guess my natural bent is to live in fear of the future. Every little thing I do, I’m very aware that there are many possible outcomes, and I am perhaps too aware that some of them are ugly. Every project I start on at work, I don’t know how it will turn out. In a way I have to do like Ruth and step forward in faith, do whatever is right, do the math, fill out the forms, make the phone calls, all the while not knowing the outcome but being painfully aware it could be bad. I have to overcome my fears with faith in God that the assignments are actually from Him, that He will help me to do good for people, that it is actually Him who wants to bless people and I am simply His chosen hands and feet to accomplish it.

I did a project once where a subdivision of homes had always had a terrible problem with flooding in heavy rains. They even showed us pictures of people in boats floating around in their front yards. When we got the project funded, one older lady stood in her yard and cried and said, “I never thought I’d live long enough to see this problem solved.” As we set about the design and then construction, I lost about 10 years of my life worrying about the obstacles that rose up. But in the end we finished the project on time and within budget and now those people’s yards don’t flood any more. I think about, what if Jesus had walked through that subdivision when it was flooded? What if He talked to that lady standing there crying? What would He have done? He would have fixed it for them. In a sense, you see, He did. He just used me and a bunch of other people to make it happen. But it was still Him.

As I go through my day, like Ruth, I don’t know the outcome of anything I do. I just have to say to the Lord, like Ruth, “I will do whatever You say.” I know His two great commands are to love God and love people. Whatever I’m doing, I have to keep love in view. Love and faithfulness. Love people and do what you should. All the while knowing I’m on God’s errands, loving people for Him, doing what He would do if He had my job. If I can just keep that in view, then “perfect love will cast out fear.” I quote often to myself, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and of a well ordered mind.” But I myself find often that I almost cannot rise above my fears and my fearing, even with those Scriptures to lift me. It is often God Himself who has to give me the strength to go on.

But I don’t want to live in the present fearing the future any more. I want to take every step believing God is in it for good and trusting Him with that future. I don’t know what made Ruth so brave. Somehow it was her faith in God. I don’t know what thoughts went through her mind that allowed her to rise above her fears and to bravely step forward again and again. But I think I see the thoughts I need to be practicing to be like her. Wouldn’t it be interesting to know what she was thinking as she walked into that “scary” situation and as she hung there in space waiting to hear Boaz’s response? Maybe the Lord hasn’t told us because we each need to learn our own thoughts to think to make us brave and keep us going. Perhaps I’m just one of the people who struggle with fear. Maybe others struggle with something else to keep them going. I don’t know. But fortunately the Lord knows me and He’s helping me work through it all. I need to learn how to live well in the present.

He sure helps me. He helped Ruth 3000 years ago and His name is still Jesus, “Savior.”

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.

Ruth 3:1-6 – “Knowing What We Don’t Know”

As always, here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:

¹And Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek for you a place of rest which will be good to you? ²And now, is not Boaz from our kindred [the one of whom] you have been with his servant girls? Notice, he [is] winnowing [at the] threshing floor barley tonight. ³Wash and anoint and put on your garments upon you and go down [to] the grain pile. Do not let yourself be known to the man until he [is] finished eating and drinking. ⁴And he will be lying down and you must note the place where he lies down and go and uncover his feet and lie down and he will tell you what you are to do.” ⁵And she said to her, “All which you say I will do.” ⁶And she went [to] the threshing floor and she did according to all which her mother-in-law commanded her.

This passage of course always raises eyebrows. I looked forward to the opportunity to actually study the Hebrew in the hopes it would make more sense. As I read many commentaries, there were a very wide variety of responses and interpretations. All center around the question of whether there is something immoral going on here. Some suggest Naomi is being downright reckless with Ruth’s purity while others suggest it was morally dangerous but that Naomi was trusting in the integrity of Boaz and/or Ruth to protect them in an otherwise volatile situation.

What I would like to point out is that we are reading about a culture of people halfway around the world and 3000 years ago. The plain simple fact is that we know almost nothing about their culture and certainly less about the activities surrounding issues of courtship and marriage. Even today it can be almost humorous to hear how people in other countries approach the business of courting and marriage.

If we were honest, even the whole concept of levirate marriage and kinsman-redeemers, which both play significantly into this account, are completely foreign to us. I can’t even imagine the cultural gymnastics we would go through to deal with a brother-in-law taking his deceased brother’s wife – just to think about it, you realize how messy that would be. Reading ahead, the “other” kinsman-redeemer refuses to take Ruth saying, “I might endanger my own estate.” How it would have endangered his own estate we don’t know, but obviously there was something too “messy” for him in it all. For sure all sorts of customs and rules would have to quickly arise to deal with something as precarious as levirate marriage. Just in the last 10 years, as use of the internet has gone pervasive, we’ve had to develop a whole new set of “cyber-ethics” to regulate how we communicate on-line. That is complex enough, but, I would suggest, it would be trifling compared to issues of courtship, marriage, sex, family procreation, etc.

As I said above, I had hoped the Hebrew would help me but, instead, what I find is the exact opposite. What we have in these six verses is almost all dialogue, almost all a record of what Naomi and Ruth said to each other in a language and culture from 3000 years ago. In fact, what I find is that even the way they talk almost defies understanding. I have suggested above a translation of these verses but I have to confess, it is very difficult to translate. The way they talk bears little resemblance to our modern sentence structures. They use participles and infinitives in crazy places, leave out words (I indicate in the brackets […] where I have had to add words which simply are not there in Hebrew), and just generally obviously they don’t even think like us.

I say all of that to make my point -- I think we should admit we don’t have the slightest clue and lay off maligning these three very godly people. I personally think that to imply anything even suggestively immoral is to have missed the integrity of who these three people are. Looking ahead, notice when Boaz discovers Ruth at his feet, his very first words are “the Lord bless you,” and then he tells her, “All my fellow townsmen know that you are a woman of noble character.” That doesn’t exactly sound like “pillow talk,” does it?

I would suggest what is going on here is simply one of the customs that developed around the practice of levirate marriage, that there is no impropriety of any kind, and we should be reminded how important it is to “know what we don’t know,” to openly admit it, and especially to refrain from accusing people in places where we lack the facts to make any evaluation at all. I would suggest it makes a lot more sense that Naomi (an Israelite) is instructing Ruth (a Moabite) what, in this Israelite culture (from 3000 years ago!), are the accepted customs to be followed in pursuing levirate marriage. I don’t know if other ancient cultures practiced levirate marriage too, but even if they did, you can bet they all came up with a whole set of do’s and don’ts unique to their own countries. Ruth would need instruction from Naomi how to “fit in” with this Israelite culture. My contention, I suggest, would be supported by how quickly Boaz understood exactly what Ruth was asking for. He obviously didn’t think she wanted “to crawl in bed with him.” He immediately understood she was appealing to the practice of levirate marriage and his position as kinsman-redeemer. He immediately understood that.

I would suggest it is true all through life we need to learn to “know what we don’t know” and then have the humility to admit it. In my field of engineering, everywhere we go people expect us to be “experts.” Too many of my colleagues respond to that by never admitting when they frankly don’t know. They plunge ahead and even design processes when the truth is they don’t know what they’re doing. They think they have to pretend expertise they don’t have or people will “take their business elsewhere.” As a result I have spent a considerable portion of my career cleaning up the messes these guys leave behind. I have found, instead, that no one seems to mind if I admit, “I don’t know much about that,” and then say, “But if you’d like me to work on it, I’ll learn as fast as I can.”

I suspect that same problem surfaces here. Pastors and theologians are “supposed” to be experts in the Bible. When it comes to the Bible, people expect them to “know.” It seems at first glance inappropriate for them to walk away from a Bible passage saying, “Beats me.” But, just as with engineers, theologians need to learn to “know what they don’t know” and have the humility to admit it. And the same principle extends to every walk of life. It is in the end a pride issue to go around acting like we’re omniscient, forming opinions and making statements based on knowledge we ought to admit we simply do not have. Then when we start accusing other people of improprieties based on facts we don’t have, we have really crossed the line.

Based on the “facts” we do have – the information we are clearly given in the book of Ruth, it is my conclusion that these are three very godly people and I intend to consider their dialogue and actions on that basis until the Lord shows me something different.

I would suggest that this passage reminds us we all need to learn to “know what we don’t know” then have the humility to admit it and act accordingly. God help me to be aware of what I don’t know and help me especially not to be maligning good people when I ought to be admiring them.

What if everybody did?