Ruth 4:5,6 – “Big Hearts”

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

⁵And Boaz said, “In the day of your buying of the field from the hand of Naomi and from Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, you have bought to raise the name of the dead upon his inheritance.” ⁶And the kinsman-redeemer said, “I am not able to redeem to myself lest I ruin my own inheritance. You, you redeem to yourself my redemption because I am not able to redeem.”

When, in vv. 3&4, Boaz offered the land to the kinsman, he was ready to buy it. However, here in vv. 5&6, when Boaz brings up his levirate responsibility, the man instead declines. In the last post, I pondered the question of whether the kinsman’s levirate responsibility actually would have extended to Ruth, since she was a Moabitess, or if, in the minds of the Jewish community, that obligation would have ended at Naomi. As I said there, the problem is we just don’t know. We don’t know why the kinsman was unwilling to take Ruth. I’m not even sure under a strict reading of the Law (since she was a Moabitess) he was “required” to take her and, as I said, the “requirement” as stated by Boaz could have simply been a condition of sale that Naomi had stipulated. We just don’t know.

But regardless of all of that, Boaz was willing.

That is what I want to ponder a while before moving on. Boaz was willing.

Boaz is a wealthy man and a “man of standing” in the community. He probably could have had any wife he wanted. He didn’t need to marry a widowed Moabite girl. I might inject here that I do suspect Ruth was a very pretty girl. David would be her great grandson and he was deathly handsome (I Sam 16:12). His daughter Tamar was described by the Bible itself as a beautiful girl (II Sam 13:1) and of his son Absalom it is recorded, “In all Israel there was not a man so highly praised for his handsome appearance as Absalom. From the top of his head to the sole of his foot there was no blemish in him.” (II Sam 14:25). Obviously there were a lot of “good-looking” genes in David’s family and I strongly suspect Ruth was a part of it all. I want to say that up front because it certainly wouldn’t hurt Boaz’s interest in her if she was in fact a beautiful girl.

However, that admitted, the fact still remains that she was a Moabite girl and a destitute widow. No doubt there were plenty of pretty young Jewish girls who were from “good families” around Bethlehem. If that was all Boaz was interested in, once again he could probably have had anyone he wanted. But he chose Ruth – in spite of the fact that she was a Moabite and widowed and poor.

What I would like to suggest is that Boaz was a big-hearted person, someone who escaped the usual petty Jewish prejudice against Gentiles. Simeon in the New Testament was another big-hearted person in the Bible. Out of all the “songs” sung over and around the birth of Jesus, Simeon’s was the only one that mentioned that this baby was come to help not only the Jewish people but the Gentiles as well (Luke 2:32). Even Mary, in her Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55), mentions only “Abraham and his descendants forever.”

Like Simeon, Boaz for whatever reason could look above those natural and popular prejudices and see in this girl a woman of genuine worth, a woman of true character.

One immediately obvious explanation for this quality in Boaz could be found in the realization that his own mother was Rahab the harlot of Jericho (Matt 1:5). His father Salmon obviously was a man who could look past nationality and see a woman of genuine faith. So we could say “the apple didn’t fall very far from the tree.” Boaz is being like his father. Another factor that could come into play is the fact that his mother Rahab had been a harlot, a prostitute. Invariably, such women have suffered considerable abuse in their lives. Perhaps Boaz’s father was particularly loving and gentle with Rahab, Boaz’s mother, and Boaz picked up that male sensitivity for disadvantaged women? Much of this is just conjecture but it sure fits.

What is further of interest to me is to see that this “big-heartedness” still ran in the family as late as their great-grandson David. David, for whatever reason, was surrounded by Gentiles. If you look into his “mighty men,” a number of them were Gentiles. Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba, was a Hittite. There were 600(!) Gittites who followed David – and realize these were men from Gath, the Philistine home of Goliath, whom David killed. In II Sam 15:18 we find them going with David as he fled from Absalom. David tried to dissuade Ittai (apparently their leader), but they would have none of it, and stuck with David through his trial. Ittai’s response to David was “As surely as the Lord lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king may be, whether it means life or death, there will your servant be” (II Sam 15:21).

David surrounded himself with Gentiles and they followed him with impassioned loyalty. Obviously there was something in David that communicated worth and respect to these “foreigners.” They knew it and they loved him for it.

I guess I’m suggesting it “ran in the family.”

And then I am noting it because that’s how we all should be. God loves everyone in spite of their nationality and He very specifically called not only the Jewish people to Himself but us Gentiles as well. When He sent Jesus into the world He said to Him, “It is too small a thing for You to be My servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make You a light for the Gentiles, that My salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6).

That was Boaz’s spirit. It is God’s spirit. And it should be ours. May the Lord give us all eyes to see people as He does, to look past the outward appearances and to value in people the things that really matter. Boaz did. David did. Jesus does. And we should too.