September 9, 2025 • 52 mins
Sexual tension crackles through the midnight air as Ruth uncovers Boaz's feet at the threshing floor. This pivotal chapter marks the moment when human agency takes center stage in what has thus far been a story of divine providence working mysteriously behind the scenes.
After watching from the sidelines, Naomi awakens to her responsibility. The formerly bitter widow crafts a bold, risky plan that sends Ruth into a potentially compromising situation. The midnight encounter is deliberately cloaked in ambiguity, with Hebrew words laden with possible sexual connotations. Yet beneath this tension lies something profound – a testament to honor, covenant faithfulness, and moral integrity.
Ruth's approach to Boaz brilliantly weaves together personal need with communal responsibility. Her request "spread your wing over me" simultaneously proposes marriage and invokes his duty as kinsman-redeemer. It echoes Boaz's earlier blessing that Ruth find refuge under God's wings, suggesting Boaz himself can become an instrument of divine protection. When she adds "for you are a kinsman-redeemer," Ruth ensures Naomi remains part of the equation, demonstrating her extraordinary loyalty.
Boaz's response reveals his exceptional character. Unlike his ancestors who fell to sexual temptation, he maintains absolute integrity. He acknowledges Ruth as "a woman of valor" – the same phrase used for the ideal woman in Proverbs 31 – and pledges to resolve her situation legally, respecting both her virtue and the rights of a nearer kinsman. Through these complex interactions, we discover God's providence often works not through miraculous intervention, but through righteous people acting justly within established systems to protect the vulnerable.
What might appear scandalous on the surface actually reveals profound theological truth: God doesn't want passive followers waiting for divine intervention – He wants people who actively reflect His character by caring for those in need. How are you using your position and resources to act as God's hands today?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jessica LM Jenkins (00:01):
Chapter 3 of the Book of Ruth is full of
sexual tension and innuendo.
It leaves the listener to thispassage wondering exactly what
is going on and what will begoing.
There's a large shift in thischapter from Naomi's apathy and
(00:21):
inability to act for herself inchapters 1 and 2 to now she is
taking incredible action forward.
Whereas in chapter two God'sprovidence was exceptionally
evident as he worked things outfor Ruth to get where she needed
to be at the right time, nowGod's providence seems to take a
step back, while the mainactors of the story choose to do
(00:47):
things that forward God's plan,but rather than God's behind
the scenes providence being inthe front.
Now we see people's decisionand free will acting in
accordance to the way God wouldhave them be what moves the
story forward.
Remember, as we're looking atthe book of Ruth, that the book
(01:09):
of Ruth is ultimately about Godmore than the characters we are
seeing, and it is showing how heshowcases his care for the weak
and the vulnerable throughrighteous people functioning
justly in the societal systemsand structures that God set up
for all of their flourishing.
(01:29):
Before I start walking throughthe text of chapter 3, I am,
like every other episode, goingto review my translation of the
Hebrew, using the name meanings,to help us get into the feel
and flow of the text Ruth,chapter 3.
And then, pleasant, hermother-in-law said to her my
(01:51):
daughter, shall I not seek foryou rest?
What will I do for you?
And now is not strength ourkindred?
You were with his young women.
Behold, he is winnowing thethreshing floor of barley
tonight and you will bathe andyou will anoint and you will
(02:11):
place your cloak on you and godown to the threshing floor.
Do not make yourself known tothe man until he finishes eating
and drinking.
And it will be when he laysdown that you note the place
where he lays and you will comeand you will uncover his.
He lays down that you know theplace where he lays and you will
come and you will uncover hisfeet and lie down and he himself
will tell you what to do.
(02:32):
And then she said to her allthat you say I will do, and she
went down to the threshing floorand she did according to all
which her mother-in-law hadcommanded.
And then strength ate and hedrank and his heart was happy.
And then he lay down at the endof the heap and she came in
secrecy and she uncovered hisfeet and she laid down.
(02:55):
And then it happened in themiddle of the night that the man
trembled and he turned andbehold, a woman was lying at his
feet and he said who are you?
And she said I am Ruth, yourmaid.
Spread out your wing on yourmaid, for you are a kinsman
redeemer.
And he said Blessed are you tothe Lord.
(03:17):
My daughter, you have made goodyour covenant, faithfulness,
your kindness.
From the first, you were notgoing after the young men,
whether poor or rich.
Now, my daughter, do not fearall which you say.
I will do for you.
For all the gate of my peopleknow that you are a virtuous
(03:38):
woman.
And now for sure I am a kinsmanredeemer.
And there is also a kinsmanredeemer nearer than me, lodge
tonight, and it shall be good.
And if it is good, he willredeem you in the morning.
And it shall be good if heredeem you in the morning and he
(04:00):
could redeem, and if he doesnot delight to redeem you, I
myself will redeem you, as theLord lives.
Keep lying until morning.
Then she laid at his feet untilmorning.
Then she rose up before a mancould recognize his breath and
then he said Do not let it bemade known that a woman came to
the threshing floor and then hesaid Present the cloak which is
(04:21):
upon you and take hold of it.
And she took hold of it andmeasured six of barley and he
put it on her and he came to thecity and then she returned to
her mother-in-law and then shesaid who are you, my daughter?
And then she told her all whichthe man had done for her and
she said these six of barley hegave me, for, he said, you shall
not go emptily to yourmother-in-law.
(04:43):
And then she said sit, mydaughter, until you know how the
thing has fallen, for the manwill not be quiet until he
accomplishes the thing today.
So in chapter three Naomi wakesup.
We saw this happening at thebeginning of chapter two and now
she seems to fully coming backinto herself as the head of
(05:04):
their small household.
It's Naomi's job to care forRuth.
She needs to find a way to getRuth the rest she was praying
for in chapter one.
If you remember, in chapter oneNaomi said that she hoped her
daughters-in-law would find rest.
For anyone in the ancient worldthey needed to be part of a
(05:26):
household, to have security andrest.
Even men needed to be part of ahousehold.
A single person functioningsolo by themselves was an
anomaly at best and just ahorrible situation at worst in
the ancient world.
And so a condition of restmeans a settledness, a wholeness
, a being in the place you needto be.
(05:48):
Therefore, you can just relaxbecause you are where you need
to be, with the people you needto be with, to be taken care of.
So Naomi is looking for this forRuth and she says shall I not
seek for you a condition of rest?
Which is an interestinglanguage, because Naomi, besides
giving instructions to Ruth inthe first part of this chapter,
(06:09):
doesn't do much.
She's not out there, shedoesn't go to see Boaz, she
doesn't go intercede on Ruth'sbehalf.
She comes up with a plan, shecomes up with an idea which some
commentators have discussed.
Why would this be?
And it could be because Naomiand Ruth are very low status in
(06:30):
the Bethlehem community.
Boaz is very high status.
In order for a low statusperson to ask for patronage, to
ask for help from a high statusperson, they might need an
emissary, they might needsomeone to go in between them
and whereas Ruth has been withBoaz's servants, they may not
have built other relationshipsand social capital needed in the
(06:51):
city to approach Boaz directly.
They would need someone to kindof bridge that gap Because
though Ruth and Boaz had aconversation at the beginning of
chapter two, they weren't indaily communication.
That was kind of a one-offconversation.
They're not like besties now.
He is still an extremely highstatus man and they are still
poor, destitute widows.
(07:12):
They are worlds apart.
He has all the honor.
They have all the shame.
They can't just go directlyapproach him.
So Naomi's trying to find a wayto get around this.
She knows Boaz's character, sheknows that he is a good man,
she trusts him, but she'sworking within honor-shame
culture and she is workingwithin a culture that has very
(07:34):
clear status for certain membersof the culture and you kind of
have to approach each otheraccording to the status.
In America our status is muchmore flat.
Other, according to the status.
In America our status is muchmore flat.
We call the offices of ourrepresentatives, we email them,
we let our voice and our opinionbe known and we feel like we
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should in town hall meetings orprotests, that we should have
that access even to the powersthat be in our country, not so.
In the ancient world, if youwanted to talk to somebody, you
have to have an emissary orsomeone to kind of bridge the
gap between you.
And so Naomi here is trying tothink about how to work this
(08:21):
situation.
They don't have an emissary,they don't have those social
connections in Bethlehem, sothey're trying to figure it out,
and their women's network thatthey may have isn't providing
that for them.
So Naomi comes up with a plan.
She turns from being someonedissociated in grief to someone
(08:41):
who is active and looking onbehalf of another Naomi.
For the first chapter and ahalf, though, she is concerned
for her daughters-in-law, cannotsummon up within herself
activity to benefit them fromherself.
She says go back to yourmothers.
She allows Ruth to go glean,but she is not an active
participant in their lives, intheir fate.
(09:03):
Now she wakes up and she saysI'm going to be, I'm going to
come up with an idea, I'm goingto come up with a plan.
I'm going to use my knowledgeof the law of Bethlehem, of the
customs of men and women, my ageand experience, and I'm going
to craft a situation that Ithink will result in you, ruth,
(09:24):
being put in a position of restwhere you can get what I was
praying for in chapter one.
So here's Naomi's plan, andthis plan is fraught with
innuendo and fraught with riskand it's incredibly important
that it's pulled offmeticulously.
(09:44):
So Naomi says is not Boaz ourkindred?
Is he not a family member?
You were with his young women.
Behold, he is winnowing tonighton the threshing floor.
Now, ruth, I need you.
I need you to bathe, anointyourself and place a cloak or a
garment on yourself and go downto the threshing floor.
(10:07):
So what Naomi is instructingRuth to do?
Some commentators this says thisis like preparing herself to be
a bride.
That might be part of it.
Some say this is leaving offthe signs of mourning.
When someone in the OldTestament moves from a state of
mourning or widowhood to not,this is the steps that they take
, whether they're man or woman.
(10:27):
When David stopped mourning, hebathed, anointed and put cloak
on him.
So some people say Ruth is beinga bride.
Some say she's putting off hermourning clothes.
That could be both, and myquestions, as I'm coming to this
, is we're dealing with fairlypoor, destitute widows.
(10:48):
We do not know what kind ofphysical goods they have.
So I want us to remember thatin the ancient world people did
not have a closet full ofclothes like we do.
So put on your cloak does notnecessarily mean she has a
second change of clothes to putinto, to put on.
She may have two garments atunic and then a cloak to go
(11:11):
over it.
So Naomi's saying put thatcloak on your second layer,
which she wouldn't have had outin the fields gleaning, because
who's going to cart that aroundwhen it's 95 degrees and you're
doing manual labor.
That's going to stay with Naomi.
But she's saying wear all yourappropriate garments, dress
yourself appropriately, anointyourself.
Maybe they had some perfumedoil, maybe they just had basic
(11:32):
olive oil.
A lot of people said she wouldhave perfumed herself.
I'm like, if they're poordestitute widows, I mean that's
probably one of the first thingsI would sell to try to buy food
.
So maybe she had some left thatshe was holding on to.
Maybe she didn't, maybe she'sjust using regular olive oil.
But she's cleaning herself up.
(11:52):
She's doing the best she canwith her limited means, putting
on all the appropriate garmentsto be as best dressed as
possible within her limitedmeans, which Boaz is fully aware
of.
So he's not expecting her tolike pull out a ball gown or
anything.
So Naomi instructs her makeyourself as good as you can
(12:14):
prepare as for a bridal.
Lay off your signs of mourning,do the best you can, bathe,
anoint and place your cloak onyou, go down to the threshing
floor, but do not make yourselfknown to the man until he
finishes eating and drinking,and it will be that he'll lie
down somewhere.
Naomi seems to be intimatelyaware.
(12:37):
I mean she grew up in Bethlehem, or nearby, most likely, and
lived there with Elimelech by,most likely, and lived there
with Elimelech.
Naomi seems to be aware of howBethlehem does the harvest and
how they do the threshing.
She's aware of the customs ofthe city.
So she knows that Boaz, as awealthy landowner, is probably
(12:57):
going to sleep on the threshingfloor.
Whether that is to protect hisgrain or whether he has some
religious or ceremonial dutiesaround the threshing, we don't
know.
The text does not tell us, butNaomi knows and that's what
matters.
So she says he's going to laydown, notice where he lays down
(13:21):
and then, after everybody goesto sleep she doesn't say that,
but that's implied then you willcome and you're going to
uncover his feet and lay downand then he himself will tell
you what to do.
Naomi's instructions here arefull of subtle sexual innuendo
(13:43):
or maybe not subtle, they'repretty overt sexual innuendo.
In scripture, words like knownlie, come uncover.
Those are all words that cannot always but can be used in
sexual context to deal withsexual acts, and here every
(14:04):
single sentence of Naomi'salmost has one of those words in
there.
Now, the Hebrew grammar, thespecifics of the Hebrew grammar,
are shaded in such a way thatthe innuendo is there.
It's giving you these sexualovertones of the scene, but it's
not committing that Naomi istelling Ruth to do a sexual act.
(14:24):
You have innuendo, you havesetting up of a scene that's
very tenuous.
That's a little scary, thatthere's a lot of risk, but it is
not an instruction to commit asexual act.
The phrase you will uncover hisfeet is often discussed.
There's lots of opinions onthat, especially on TikTok,
(14:47):
instagram, twitter, theinterwebs.
I've heard people talk abouthow this indicates a sexual act,
or that feet is euphemistic formale genitalia, that perhaps
this text was kind ofwhitewashed to save Ruth's
reputation.
She went and did do a sexualact and then the editors of the
(15:09):
text tried to like clean it upto make it not seem as overt as
it was, so let's talk about it.
First.
Let's talk about uncover.
Uncover is a word that can beused for a sexual act, always,
though, there's lots of otherthings that are uncovered as
well.
So it's one of those can, butdoesn't necessarily equal.
(15:32):
But the it hints towards it,but it is not stating it
directly here.
Normally, um, there's specifichebrew constructions that
indicate a sexual act, and thoseare missing in this passage.
So it says you will uncover hisfeet, now feet.
There's a lot of claims that theHebrew word feet, regal
(15:53):
indicates genitalia, that it'sused euphemistically for
genitalia, and even most of thecommentators I read have a
statement that says this wordcan be used euphemistically for
genitalia.
And that is true to a point,and I really want to talk about
this, because understanding thatsaying something is used
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euphemistically for genitalia,you automatically think sexual.
Understanding how a word isused not just what it's
euphemistically used for, buthow it is used in that context
is important to understandingthat usage.
So I sat down and I looked overall 251 uses of the Hebrew word
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regal in 232 verses in the OldTestament.
I looked them all over and Ifound that there was only a
handful that were not implyingsome sort of literal usage of
physical feet.
That's very obvious.
Or using feet to imply movement, which makes a lot of sense
(17:03):
because that's how you getplaces, is you walk on your feet
.
So there are.
There is a case where Feet regalis used euphemistically for
male genitalia, but it is neverused for male genitalia in a
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sexual context.
That is confirmed.
Exodus 4, where Zipporah putsthe foreskin on Moses' feet.
Some people question whetherthat's a euphemism for male
genitalia or whether that isMoses's literal feet, but kind
of like Ruth 3, it's.
We don't know.
Now there are four passageswhere it is very much obviously
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being used.
Regal is very much obviouslybeing used as a euphemism for
the penis and it is not usedsexually in any of these four
places.
It is used euphemistically forgoing to the bathroom and it is
used in shame contexts In Judges3.24 and 1 Samuel 24.
(18:16):
3, you have the literal Hebrewphrase cover his feet, which
basically means going to thebathroom.
You have a character who needsto follow nature's call and they
take themselves off and theycover their feet.
One is Ehud in Judges 3 andthen Saul relieving himself in a
(18:36):
cave and for Samuel 24.
So those aren't that's not ashameful context that, although
there was a little bit of shamearound human elimination, but
that is people doing what theyhave to do and just showcasing.
You know, when I was in Israel,one of the guys I was in Israel
with would say I need to gowater a tree.
(18:57):
You know that was his euphemismfor needing to go relieve
himself on a hike.
So we have lots of thesephrases in Hebrew.
Cover his feet is one of them.
The second place it is used,the literal Hebrew is drink
water of their feet, whichobviously our literal feet don't
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produce water but malegenitalia does.
When talking about going to thebathroom and in those passages
2 Kings 18, 27 and Isaiah 36, 12, king Sennacherib is mocking
the people of God, saying thatthey are going to drink the
water of their feet.
They are going to eat theirfeces and drink their urine.
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It's a shaming context.
But regal is not used for malegenitalia in a sexual context.
The only place regal is used ina sexual context that I could
find in the Hebrew Bible isEzekiel 1625, that I could find
(20:03):
in the Hebrew Bible is Ezekiel1625, where it's used of women,
a woman, an immoral woman, andthis is what the verse says from
the NIV At every street corner.
You built your lofty shrinesand degraded your beauty,
spreading your legs withincreasing promiscuity to anyone
who passed by.
So that usage the spreading ofyour legs or the spreading of
your feet in Hebrew, hand andfoot could indicate like the
like.
You could say hand, butindicate the whole arm, foot,
you can indicate the whole leg.
(20:24):
And so in Ezekiel 16, 25, it'sbasically using spreading your
legs, the same way doing Egypt.
She just can't keep her legsclose, she spreads her legs to
everybody.
It's using the same.
It's not necessarily talkingabout the actual female
genitalia, it is talking aboutopenness to sexuality and could
be just literally talking aboutthe feet and the legs.
(20:46):
And so that is the only placewhere regal is used in a sexual
context and it makes perfectsense that you could also
interpret that completelyliterally, not euphemistically,
for genitalia.
So back to Ruth 3, since I'vegiven you an overview of the
usage of chfot, regal in the OldTestament.
(21:08):
Out of 251 verses, there arethe verses in Ruth and then the
one in Exodus 4 that are we'relike maybe, the verses in Ruth
and then the one in Exodus 4that are we're like maybe, but
we see that regal is used ofmale genitalia either in
shameful contexts eitherelimination going to the
bathroom or being mocked aboutelimination going to the
(21:30):
bathroom and when it's usedsexually, it's not necessarily
euphemistically, but just whatis involved with a woman having
sex and spreading her legs.
So I, on basis of usage studyand considering how the Hebrew
culture used the word regalthroughout the entire Old
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Testament, do not think feethere in Ruth 3 means anything
other than literal feet.
I do not think this is animplication that she is
uncovering him up to the waistor doing anything to his private
parts.
It seems like the instructionis, and Ruth's actions are, to
go note where he lies down,uncover his feet, lie yourself
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down, and then he himself willtell you what to do.
Now, the fact that redle doesnot mean private parts does not
take away the sexual innuendoand risk of this scene.
You have a woman going to thethreshing floor at night.
At certain periods in Israel'shistory we don't know how
(22:47):
widespread it was, but atcertain periods there was
prostitution that happened onthe threshing floor at night I
believe Hosea references thatand so she's sending her
daughter-in-law by herself tothe threshing floor where
someone could potentially thinkshe's a prostitute where someone
could find her and assault her.
It's highly risky and she'srisking her reputation for this
(23:10):
encounter.
She is also basing thisencounter on what she knows of
Boaz's character, because Naomitells Ruth lay down at his feet
and do what he tells you to do.
So you have a man who, bigfeast, big happy event, he's
(23:32):
eaten, he's drunk, we don't knowhow much.
He might be a little buzzed, alittle tipsy, we're not sure.
And then he's going to go sleep.
He's going to be in a greatmood, he's going to go sleep and
when he wakes up from his sleep, you're going to do whatever he
says.
There's a very big implicationthat what he says could be all
(23:54):
sorts of things, all sorts ofthings.
And Ruth replies in completeopposite of how she has acted.
The rest of the book, the restof the book for chapters one and
two, naomi has given Ruthinstruction and Ruth has said no
, I'm not going to do that.
You told me to go home to myparents.
I'm going to stay with you.
(24:14):
They get to Bethlehem andNaomi's not even talking to her
anymore and Ruth says I am goingto go do gleaning to take care
of us, and Naomi's like sure,fine, whatever.
Now Naomi has this big plan thatseems a little off and very
risky and a lot of sexual.
Oh, what's going to happen?
And Ruth submits she sayseverything you said to do, I
(24:36):
will do, you said to do, I willdo.
This is especially risky as aMoabite because, if you remember
from our first episode of theRuth podcast, the Moabite people
have a sexually fraught history, especially in relationship to
the Jewish Israelite people.
(24:56):
The Moabite people, if yourecall, came to be because Lot's
daughters basically raped himwhen he was drunk to get
pregnant and then have Moab andAmmon.
Then Balaam couldn't curseIsrael, so he told the Moabite
people to have their daughtersseduce Israelite men.
So now Naomi is telling Ruth todo this seemingly sexually
(25:23):
dubious plan in the middle ofthe night and Ruth says all
right, I trust you, I trust Boaz, I'll do it.
Whatever you say I will do.
And so Ruth goes down to thethreshing floor.
You say I will do, and so Ruthgoes down to the threshing floor
and she did according to allwhich her mother-in-law
commanded Boaz ate, he drank,his heart was happy and he came
(25:46):
to lie down at the end of theheap.
So let's set the scene.
Okay, the threshing floor seemsto be a little bit maybe down
the hill from Bethlehem, soBethlehem's kind of up on a hill
for fortification purposes.
Everybody lives in Bethlehem,if you recall.
Their fields are outside,surrounding the city, but they
live inside Bethlehem.
(26:07):
So everybody goes in and out ofthe city day and night and so
some of the men, the reapers,especially the landowners.
There's probably been bigmulti-gender parties going on
because this is the harvestseason.
This is a big deal this time ofyear, but it's gotten late.
The women probably went backhome.
Some of the men stayed, likelyto guard the grain or just be
(26:30):
there to keep working in themorning.
The importance of guarding thegrain is probably important
because this would be theperfect time for one of the
neighboring groups to come inand steal all your grain, as has
been happening all throughoutthe judges period.
That was why Gideon was I thinkhe was trying to thresh grain
(26:50):
in a wine press at one point inthe book of Judges.
So try to hide and protect youryield from your fields is a
very real concern.
So, but you also need to haveyour threshing floor somewhere
where the wind can get to it,because the process of threshing
is you drive wagons or you beatit, whatever they would have to
do to get the kernels of grainto separate from the hull, kind
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of like when you have a popcornand you have that little hole on
the outside and there's theseed, and so they separate that
and then they throw it up in theair and a nice breeze takes all
the really light, chaff thoseholes and blows it away and then
the seeds fall down and theycan put the seeds in piles to
then put in bags or pots orbaskets or whatever they store
it in.
And so it seems like Boaz has abig heap of the seeds that may
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not be put in all the basketsand everything yet, and he's
going to come lay down by his.
But the threshing floor is goingto be large enough where here
is Boaz's grain, here and othermen might have their grain piles
.
Or, alternatively, the men inthe town have organized which
families are going to get to dothe threshing on which nights.
(27:54):
Monday night is Boaz, Tuesdaynight is Matthews or whoever's
I'm just making names up.
But they're going to organizewho gets to use the threshing
floor when if it's not bigenough to accommodate everybody
which may be why Naomi said Boazis winnowing tonight because
it's been the talk of the town.
Boaz is tonight, he's tomorrow,and so people are aware of the
(28:17):
sharing schedule of these publicspaces.
In the ancient Israelite townsthey would have certain public
amenities that everybody shared.
You didn't own your own winepress, you didn't own your own
threshing floor.
Even ovens for cooking might beshared by several households
not the whole town, but you knowtwo or three households, and so
sharing these public amenitiesis going to be public knowledge.
(28:41):
Naomi knows tonight is Boaz'snight.
There may be a couple guys whoit's.
You know these three guys.
It's their night.
We don't know exactly how itworks.
Naomi does.
That's what's important.
So he's laying at the end ofthe heap and it seems like this
also might be towards the edgeof the threshing floor, which
would make it a little biteasier for Ruth to like sneak up
through the bushes, becauseit's kind of going to be on the
(29:06):
side of a hill and she couldkind of sneak up.
So he lays down, she comes insecretly, uncovers his and she
just lays down.
And then it happened in themiddle of the night.
The Hebrew wants us toemphasize that Also in the
Hebrew Old Testament.
The middle of the night is whenmysterious and pivotal things
happen to move stories forward.
(29:26):
So the original audience tothis is going to be noticing all
of the sexual innuendo.
They're going to remember allof the stigma that the Moabite
people carry.
And you have Ruth.
Remember all of the stigma thatthe Moabite people carry.
And you have Ruth.
She's there as a lone woman atthe threshing floor in the
middle of the night.
His feet are uncovered.
She's not supposed to be there.
There's been a lot of sexualinnuendo.
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What is going to happen?
Is she going to seduce him?
Because this harkens back toTamar.
Definitely check out thatepisode.
This harkens back to Tamar.
This harkens back to Tamar.
Definitely check out thatepisode.
This harkens back to Tamar.
This harkens back to Lot andhis daughters.
What is going to happen?
So it's the middle of the night, everybody else is asleep.
Maybe Ruth is dozing.
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She's probably can't sleepsuper well with anticipation
because she doesn't know what'sgoing to happen.
So she's just laying there asquiet as can be, and suddenly
the man trembles and wakes up.
The Hebrew here has stoppedusing names after verse seven
and it's the man and the woman.
It's giving you this idea Ifyou think of Ruth as a play.
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All the stage lights are off,boaz and Ruth are in the middle
with just a single spotlight onthem.
Everything is dark.
They're the only ones thatexist in the world.
Darkness shrouds everythingelse.
It is the man and the womanalone in the middle of the night
.
At this pivotal moment, the keymoment of the narrative, he
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trembles, he wakes up.
This Hebrew word is often usedfor fear.
There's no indication of fearhere, but maybe the breeze
caught his feet and he's likewhoa shivers and he wakes up and
he turned.
We don't know if he's justrolling over, if he's looking
for his blanket why are my feetuncovered?
I kept off my blanket.
I need to fix that.
And behold, while he's tossingand turning, there's a woman
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laying at his feet, immediate,like whoa.
That's new.
There wasn't a woman when Ifell asleep, and if he had
something to drink, he's goingto be wondering who is she here?
What is she here?
What have I done?
What has she done?
What is going on?
So now Boaz is instantly awakeand he says who are you?
And she says I am Ruth, yourmaid.
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This is the first time she getsto introduce herself.
All throughout the book she'sbeen Ruth the Moabitess, or
Naomi's daughter-in-law, or theMoabitess Continually.
Her Moabitess ancestry has beenfronted.
When people introduce her ortalk about her, this is when she
gets to introduce herself andshe just uses the simplest
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version I am Ruth, yourmaidservant.
The Hebrew word for maidservantis different than the one she
used in chapter 2, where shesaid she was his maidservant.
That was the lowest form ofmaidservant in the house.
She was debasing herself,humbling herself before him.
Now this is a step up on therung.
This is a maidservant or awoman who's marriageable, who's
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open.
And so she says I am Ruth.
She just stands there or sitsthere as who she is, her
identity, not her ancestors.
She's not carrying that intothis's just saying I am ruth, I
am here, I am your maidservant.
And then, contrary to whatnaomi said, naomi said he'll
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tell you what to do, but whenthe moment came, boaz asks you
Because, remember, identity hasbeen crucial all throughout this
book who are you, who are you,who are you, who are you?
And we're going to see it againat the end of the chapter.
Identity is crucial and shepresents herself simply as Ruth,
his maidservant, a humbleperson coming before him.
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But then she doesn't wait forhim to tell her what to do, and
she doesn't wait for him to tellher what to do.
She acts.
Ruth is an actor, she's going totake initiative.
She says spread your wing overyour mate.
This wing here is the corner ofthe garment, most likely if we
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take it literally, which in somecontexts indicates marriage.
This is a marriage proposal Putyour wing over me to marry me.
But it's also reminding Boaz ofhis prayer, of his blessing on
her in the previous chapter,where he said may you find
refuge under the wings of theLord.
And so she is in effect tellingBoaz I need you to act as the
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wing of the Lord on my behalf.
Spread your wing over me as Godspreads his wing over me.
Because in chapter 3, god'sprovidence, his mysterious
behind-the-scenes working, isnot fronted.
Now it is people working,people using their free will to
(34:20):
echo the character of God tocare for other people.
And Ruth says you wanted God tobless me by giving me refuge
under his wings.
You can do that for me.
Marry me, spread your wing overme, for you are a kinsman
redeemer, for you are a kinsmanredeemer.
What Ruth does here is sheblends a marriage proposal with
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his duty as the Goel.
Last episode we talked about theduties of the Goel.
The Goel had several duties inthe ancient world.
They would in the Israelitecommunity.
They would repurchase propertyfrom those who had to sell it
because they were just destituteand they were like we need any
money we can get.
So they'd sell their propertyto go away.
I would buy it back to keep itin the clan.
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He would redeem relatives whohad to sell themselves into
slavery because of poverty.
He would avenge murder in thefamily.
He would take restitution moneyand make sure it got to the
appropriate parties.
He would assist clan members inlawsuits.
He had lots of responsibilities.
In the community, marryingwidows isn't stated as one of
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the clear duties of a go-whale,but in an honor-shame culture,
one way you gain honor is bygoing above and beyond what is
expected.
By being magnanimous andgenerous you're going to
increase your honor and that isin many ways what she is asking
here.
She is saying there is a female, there is a familial
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responsibility to care forwidows, and I'm asking you to do
that and uphold that, whichgives you potentially if it's
not too shameful to marry aMoabite a chance to earn more
honor.
Bringing in the Goel also andwe'll talk about this more in
our next episode for Chapter 4,bringing in the Goel and
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bringing together the marriageand the kinsman redeemer is also
going to be a key legalloophole that can finally fully
integrate Ruth into thecommunity, and we'll talk about
that in the next episode.
But, as we talked about in thefirst episode, part of what's
going on in the book of Ruth is,I believe, legitimizing David's
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reign Because, if you recall wetalked about it in the first
episode, there's Old Testamentlaws that say a Moabite cannot
enter the assembly, the worshipcommunity of Israel for 10
generations.
David is only two or threegenerations away from a Moabite.
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Solomon is one more generationaway from a Moabite, yet they
are the ones who lead God'speople and Solomon builds the
temple.
So how could this work?
This is a question that couldbe out there that Ruth solves If
she just gets married straightout, solves If she just gets
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married straight out.
It may not solve that question,but when she evokes you are a
go-ale, you have kinsmen,redeemer, responsibilities
towards me and Naomi, thatchanges the picture from just a
marriage to a family-widestatement of significance that
gives Ruth identity and aparticular place in the family.
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Also, bringing in that he is akinsman redeemer, keeps Naomi on
the forefront.
Ruth isn't just seeking marriagefor herself so that she alone
can have rest, which is whatNaomi sent her out to do.
She's bringing in the kinsmanredeemer on Naomi's behalf and
Boaz recognizes that and we seethat in his reply.
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He says blessed are you to theLord, my daughter, you have made
good your chesed, your covenantloyalty, your kindness from the
first.
He recognizes that she isacting not out of her own
benefit but for the good of thefamily, for the good of the clan
, for the good of Naomi.
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He says you did not go afterthe young men, the young
marriageable men, whether pooror rich.
He's basically saying you couldhave married for love or you
could have married for wealth.
Young men, poor, she would havebeen marrying a poor man for
love and a rich man she wouldhave been marrying potentially
for wealth.
And he says you didn't marryfor love or wealth.
Instead, you came to me out ofan understanding of covenant
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loyalty for Naomi and yourfamily, honoring your husband,
your father-in-law, yourmother-in-law, the customs of
the people and thereby your newGod.
Boaz sees her in a communalculture where identity is caught
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up in who you know and whoyou're a part of.
Ruth identifying herself simplyas her own self and Boaz
recognizing her unique personalcharacter is part of what this
story hinges on.
The personal character of theindividual matters even in
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communal cultures.
And he looks at her and he saysand now, my daughter, do not
fear For all you say I will dofor you.
Boaz says, hey, I'll marry youAbsolutely, for everybody at the
gate of my people and we'lltalk about gate next time in
that episode.
But everyone at the gate of mypeople know that you are a
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virtuous woman.
You are an eshet ha'il.
You are a woman of valor.
You are a woman of substance.
You are a woman of character.
You are a Proverbs 31 woman.
Everybody knows that in thewhole city.
So of course I will marry you.
You want me to spread my wingover you?
Absolutely, I have no problemdoing that.
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You are a high character woman,even though this entire
situation is set up with thepregnant question in the
hearer's mind is this going toresult in a sexual liaison,
especially because she is aMoabite woman?
Boaz recognizes her characterand I do not believe there is
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anything sexual outside of theimplications of the verbiage
happening in this situation, andpart of the reason for that
comes next.
He says I will absolutely marryyou, but whereas I am a kinsman
redeemer, there's a kinsmanredeemer nearer than me and he
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gets the right to try to redeemyou first.
If you had just asked amarriage proposal, maybe I could
have just up and married you.
But as soon as you bring in thego whale and you make this
about the clan and the family,we have to go through proper
channels.
Boaz slows things down and thisis part of the reason I don't
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think there actually was asexual liaison.
There are some commentators andarticles written that think she
actually got pregnant thisnight.
I don't think that's the casebecause Boaz has a plan to make
sure he's the one who's going tomarry her in chapter four.
But even the best laid plansfailed and getting a woman
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pregnant before you try to marryher off to a different man is
just a bad idea.
Like that could go sideways inall sorts of ways.
So I think the accusation thatthe text is just trying to
whitewash this and make Ruthseem cleaner than she was the
Bible has no problem.
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I mean, go listen to or readthe story of Tamar.
Obviously the Bible can say itlike it is.
I mean Lot's daughters.
The Bible lets you know whensexual stuff happens.
They don't sugarcoat it andhere they don't mention it.
And it doesn't make logicalsense that if Boaz is going to
offer another man an opportunityto marry Ruth, even though he's
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going to shade it so that theguy doesn't want to but if he's
going to offer havingintercourse with her,
potentially getting her pregnantbeforehand, is a way to tank
your standing in the community.
Bad idea.
But it also goes to show Ruth'scharacter and Boaz's character.
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Because unlike the Israeliteswho got seduced by the Moabitess
women, unlike Lot, unlike Judah, moaz's forefather, boaz can be
in the dark alone with a womanand not touch her even after
he's had something to drink.
Like Lot, even when he coulduse the excuse of being the
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go-whale as well.
I'm your redeemer, you know Imight as well.
I have that familial right.
Like Judah, he doesn't do it.
He takes a step back and hesays everyone knows you're a
virtuous woman, I'm going toguard your virtue and I'm going
to do what is right.
Lodge tonight, stay with metonight and if it's good, the
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man will redeem you in themorning and he can redeem you.
But if he does not delight toredeem you, I love that it's not
if he won't begrudgingly demeanyou.
Boaz wants like enthusiasticconsent from this guy Like I'm
going to make sure that hedelights to redeem you and if
it's not, like you also marryRuth, then I'm going to make
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sure the guy doesn't get to doit.
If he does not delight toredeem you, I myself will redeem
you as the Lord lives.
He promises her on the name ofthe Lord that he will take care
of her.
Keep lying here until morning,he says.
So she laid at his feet untilmorning and she got up before a
man could recognize a friend.
It's still pretty dark out,starting to get a little bit
(44:31):
light, time for her to scamperback home.
And he said we don't know towhom, whether it was to her or a
servant.
Do not let it be made knownthat the woman came to the
threshing floor.
Hush, hush, moans the word.
We're not going to say anything.
He says to Ruth present yourcloak, which is on you, take
hold of it.
She took hold of it, held itout to him and he measured.
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The Hebrew literally just sayssix of barley.
We're taking handfuls, scoops,buckets, we're not sure, but six
of some sort of measurement,not six kernels of barley,
because that would be pointless,but six of barley.
And he wraps that up and hehands that to her.
So he puts that on her and thatit says and then he came to the
city, and that is a masculineverb, so maybe he even walks her
(45:14):
back to the city so that she issafe and she returns to the
mother-in-law.
So he kind of heads home, maybehe goes back to the threshing
floor but he is watching overher physical safety.
He's not just sending her out,he's physically providing for
her.
And then he is returning herhome to her mother-in-law.
Naomi greets her.
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I don't even know if Naomislept that night, I know I
wouldn't her.
I don't even know if Naomislept that night, I know I
wouldn't.
Naomi greets her and says whoare you, my daughter?
Again, this is a question ofidentity.
Are you, mrs Boaz?
Have you found a new family?
Who are you connected to?
What household do you belong to?
Who are you?
And so Ruth tells her all thatthe man had done for her, which
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partly includes my identity, isnot sure.
Yet I am still a Moabitess.
I am still a widow, but thesesix barley he gave to me, for he
said you shall not go emptilyto your mother, which is a
beautiful turn of phrase.
Naomi, at the end of chapter onetold the women of the town, and
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remember, word's going to getaround to everybody.
Boaz probably heard it.
Naomi says do not call mepleasant, call me bitter, for I
went away full and the Lordbrought me back empty.
So now Boaz I can see thetwinkle in his eye says do not
go empty.
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To your mother-in-law he says Isee you and your character, I
see her and her need and I willwatch out for both of you.
I have both of your good heart.
So then naomi, naomi tells Ruth.
She says sit my daughter, which, if you know anything about
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Ruth from the book of Ruth,sitting is not Ruth's strong
suit.
Ruth is a mover, ruth is a goer.
She's going to do.
She's going to get up and makethings happen.
She's going to propose to theman when she was told to let the
man tell her what to do.
She's going to glean.
She's going to make audaciousrequests over and over.
And now she has to sit.
Naomi says sit my daughter,till you know how this thing has
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fallen.
There is a hint of theprovidence language again, but
it is not providence justblowing out in the wind, where
it may take it.
This is providence in the handsof those who act as agents of
God.
Boaz is acting on their behalf,boaz is working for them and
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Naomi says, for the man will notbe quiet until he accomplishes
the thing.
Today, sit, ruth, you've doneeverything you can.
Now is your time to let the manstep up and do his duty.
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There's questions that could beflying, like why didn't Boaz do
something sooner?
What is going on?
If there's a nearer kinsman,redeemer, maybe he's not, he's
trying not to step on that guy'stoes, but why didn't he like,
be like, hey, you could dosomething?
We don't know.
But now Boaz is going to actand now Ruth has not to.
Naomi is the one who is helpingRuth know how to navigate this
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situation.
Naomi is the woman she's thetheologian of the text, remember
who understands the communitydynamics, who understands all
the actors involved in thecommunity dynamics.
She knows Boaz.
She may have grown up with Boaz.
She understands how this worksand she is coaching Ruth through
how to handle it.
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And so, as chapter three, thecurtain falls.
We have hope for tomorrow, whereBoaz will accomplish the thing
he will accomplish rest for Ruth.
In whose household this restwill be, we don't know yet, but
there will be finality.
There will be rest for Ruth atthe end of the day.
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There will be rest for Ruth atthe end of the day.
That is full of hope for bothRuth and Naomi, and it brings us
back to the book of Ruth beingnot just about individual good
people doing individual goodthings, but individual people
working within the systems andstructures that God set up in
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the Mosaic law for the good ofhis people, and people using
those systems and structures tobenefit the poor and the needy
and to be actors, not just tosit there and be like, oh well,
god will take care of it.
Oh, people are dying.
Oh, people are hungry.
Oh, there's trouble and I'mcare of it.
Oh, people are dying.
Oh, people are hungry.
Oh, there's trouble, and I'mjust going to sit here in
thoughts and prayers.
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I hope something gets better.
No, god's people stand up to dosomething on behalf of those who
need it Sometimes that's onbehalf of their self and they
make clear requests and they dowhat they need to do clear
requests and they do what theyneed to do.
Sometimes they act on behalf ofothers, but in Ruth we see God's
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people acting out his characteron behalf of the poor and the
needy.
I cannot wait to finish the bookof Ruth with you next time as
we look in chapter four at thelegal wranglings and the nuances
and bring it back to David andwhat is going on with David.
But remember this week as weclose, god does not ask his
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people to be passive in order toaccomplish his will.
God is looking for his peopleto reflect his character and to
do good where they can see it.
The book of James tells us thatthose of us who know what good
to do and don't do it are in sin.
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Here we see Naomi and Boaz andRuth all acting to do good for
those that need it in theirsituation.
Find me on social media.
Let's talk about this more.
I want to hear your thoughtsabout Ruth and Naomi activity
versus passivity in doing goodfor those in our families and
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lives and communities that needus to reflect God's character in
tangible, practical, pro-lifeways for the good of those
around us.
Chapter 3 of the Book of Ruth is full of
sexual tension and innuendo.
It leaves the listener to thispassage wondering exactly what
is going on and what will begoing.
There's a large shift in thischapter from Naomi's apathy and
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inability to act for herself inchapters 1 and 2 to now she is
taking incredible action forward.
Whereas in chapter two God'sprovidence was exceptionally
evident as he worked things outfor Ruth to get where she needed
to be at the right time, nowGod's providence seems to take a
step back, while the mainactors of the story choose to do
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things that forward God's plan,but rather than God's behind
the scenes providence being inthe front.
Now we see people's decisionand free will acting in
accordance to the way God wouldhave them be what moves the
story forward.
Remember, as we're looking atthe book of Ruth, that the book
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of Ruth is ultimately about Godmore than the characters we are
seeing, and it is showing how heshowcases his care for the weak
and the vulnerable throughrighteous people functioning
justly in the societal systemsand structures that God set up
for all of their flourishing.
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Before I start walking throughthe text of chapter 3, I am,
like every other episode, goingto review my translation of the
Hebrew, using the name meanings,to help us get into the feel
and flow of the text Ruth,chapter 3.
And then, pleasant, hermother-in-law said to her my
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daughter, shall I not seek foryou rest?
What will I do for you?
And now is not strength ourkindred?
You were with his young women.
Behold, he is winnowing thethreshing floor of barley
tonight and you will bathe andyou will anoint and you will
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place your cloak on you and godown to the threshing floor.
Do not make yourself known tothe man until he finishes eating
and drinking.
And it will be when he laysdown that you note the place
where he lays and you will comeand you will uncover his.
He lays down that you know theplace where he lays and you will
come and you will uncover hisfeet and lie down and he himself
will tell you what to do.
(02:32):
And then she said to her allthat you say I will do, and she
went down to the threshing floorand she did according to all
which her mother-in-law hadcommanded.
And then strength ate and hedrank and his heart was happy.
And then he lay down at the endof the heap and she came in
secrecy and she uncovered hisfeet and she laid down.
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And then it happened in themiddle of the night that the man
trembled and he turned andbehold, a woman was lying at his
feet and he said who are you?
And she said I am Ruth, yourmaid.
Spread out your wing on yourmaid, for you are a kinsman
redeemer.
And he said Blessed are you tothe Lord.
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My daughter, you have made goodyour covenant, faithfulness,
your kindness.
From the first, you were notgoing after the young men,
whether poor or rich.
Now, my daughter, do not fearall which you say.
I will do for you.
For all the gate of my peopleknow that you are a virtuous
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woman.
And now for sure I am a kinsmanredeemer.
And there is also a kinsmanredeemer nearer than me, lodge
tonight, and it shall be good.
And if it is good, he willredeem you in the morning.
And it shall be good if heredeem you in the morning and he
(04:00):
could redeem, and if he doesnot delight to redeem you, I
myself will redeem you, as theLord lives.
Keep lying until morning.
Then she laid at his feet untilmorning.
Then she rose up before a mancould recognize his breath and
then he said Do not let it bemade known that a woman came to
the threshing floor and then hesaid Present the cloak which is
(04:21):
upon you and take hold of it.
And she took hold of it andmeasured six of barley and he
put it on her and he came to thecity and then she returned to
her mother-in-law and then shesaid who are you, my daughter?
And then she told her all whichthe man had done for her and
she said these six of barley hegave me, for, he said, you shall
not go emptily to yourmother-in-law.
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And then she said sit, mydaughter, until you know how the
thing has fallen, for the manwill not be quiet until he
accomplishes the thing today.
So in chapter three Naomi wakesup.
We saw this happening at thebeginning of chapter two and now
she seems to fully coming backinto herself as the head of
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their small household.
It's Naomi's job to care forRuth.
She needs to find a way to getRuth the rest she was praying
for in chapter one.
If you remember, in chapter oneNaomi said that she hoped her
daughters-in-law would find rest.
For anyone in the ancient worldthey needed to be part of a
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household, to have security andrest.
Even men needed to be part of ahousehold.
A single person functioningsolo by themselves was an
anomaly at best and just ahorrible situation at worst in
the ancient world.
And so a condition of restmeans a settledness, a wholeness
, a being in the place you needto be.
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Therefore, you can just relaxbecause you are where you need
to be, with the people you needto be with, to be taken care of.
So Naomi is looking for this forRuth and she says shall I not
seek for you a condition of rest?
Which is an interestinglanguage, because Naomi, besides
giving instructions to Ruth inthe first part of this chapter,
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doesn't do much.
She's not out there, shedoesn't go to see Boaz, she
doesn't go intercede on Ruth'sbehalf.
She comes up with a plan, shecomes up with an idea which some
commentators have discussed.
Why would this be?
And it could be because Naomiand Ruth are very low status in
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the Bethlehem community.
Boaz is very high status.
In order for a low statusperson to ask for patronage, to
ask for help from a high statusperson, they might need an
emissary, they might needsomeone to go in between them
and whereas Ruth has been withBoaz's servants, they may not
have built other relationshipsand social capital needed in the
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city to approach Boaz directly.
They would need someone to kindof bridge that gap Because
though Ruth and Boaz had aconversation at the beginning of
chapter two, they weren't indaily communication.
That was kind of a one-offconversation.
They're not like besties now.
He is still an extremely highstatus man and they are still
poor, destitute widows.
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They are worlds apart.
He has all the honor.
They have all the shame.
They can't just go directlyapproach him.
So Naomi's trying to find a wayto get around this.
She knows Boaz's character, sheknows that he is a good man,
she trusts him, but she'sworking within honor-shame
culture and she is workingwithin a culture that has very
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clear status for certain membersof the culture and you kind of
have to approach each otheraccording to the status.
In America our status is muchmore flat.
Other, according to the status.
In America our status is muchmore flat.
We call the offices of ourrepresentatives, we email them,
we let our voice and our opinionbe known and we feel like we
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should in town hall meetings orprotests, that we should have
that access even to the powersthat be in our country, not so.
In the ancient world, if youwanted to talk to somebody, you
have to have an emissary orsomeone to kind of bridge the
gap between you.
And so Naomi here is trying tothink about how to work this
(08:21):
situation.
They don't have an emissary,they don't have those social
connections in Bethlehem, sothey're trying to figure it out,
and their women's network thatthey may have isn't providing
that for them.
So Naomi comes up with a plan.
She turns from being someonedissociated in grief to someone
(08:41):
who is active and looking onbehalf of another Naomi.
For the first chapter and ahalf, though, she is concerned
for her daughters-in-law, cannotsummon up within herself
activity to benefit them fromherself.
She says go back to yourmothers.
She allows Ruth to go glean,but she is not an active
participant in their lives, intheir fate.
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Now she wakes up and she saysI'm going to be, I'm going to
come up with an idea, I'm goingto come up with a plan.
I'm going to use my knowledgeof the law of Bethlehem, of the
customs of men and women, my ageand experience, and I'm going
to craft a situation that Ithink will result in you, ruth,
(09:24):
being put in a position of restwhere you can get what I was
praying for in chapter one.
So here's Naomi's plan, andthis plan is fraught with
innuendo and fraught with riskand it's incredibly important
that it's pulled offmeticulously.
(09:44):
So Naomi says is not Boaz ourkindred?
Is he not a family member?
You were with his young women.
Behold, he is winnowing tonighton the threshing floor.
Now, ruth, I need you.
I need you to bathe, anointyourself and place a cloak or a
garment on yourself and go downto the threshing floor.
(10:07):
So what Naomi is instructingRuth to do?
Some commentators this says thisis like preparing herself to be
a bride.
That might be part of it.
Some say this is leaving offthe signs of mourning.
When someone in the OldTestament moves from a state of
mourning or widowhood to not,this is the steps that they take
, whether they're man or woman.
(10:27):
When David stopped mourning, hebathed, anointed and put cloak
on him.
So some people say Ruth is beinga bride.
Some say she's putting off hermourning clothes.
That could be both, and myquestions, as I'm coming to this
, is we're dealing with fairlypoor, destitute widows.
(10:48):
We do not know what kind ofphysical goods they have.
So I want us to remember thatin the ancient world people did
not have a closet full ofclothes like we do.
So put on your cloak does notnecessarily mean she has a
second change of clothes to putinto, to put on.
She may have two garments atunic and then a cloak to go
(11:11):
over it.
So Naomi's saying put thatcloak on your second layer,
which she wouldn't have had outin the fields gleaning, because
who's going to cart that aroundwhen it's 95 degrees and you're
doing manual labor.
That's going to stay with Naomi.
But she's saying wear all yourappropriate garments, dress
yourself appropriately, anointyourself.
Maybe they had some perfumedoil, maybe they just had basic
(11:32):
olive oil.
A lot of people said she wouldhave perfumed herself.
I'm like, if they're poordestitute widows, I mean that's
probably one of the first thingsI would sell to try to buy food
.
So maybe she had some left thatshe was holding on to.
Maybe she didn't, maybe she'sjust using regular olive oil.
But she's cleaning herself up.
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She's doing the best she canwith her limited means, putting
on all the appropriate garmentsto be as best dressed as
possible within her limitedmeans, which Boaz is fully aware
of.
So he's not expecting her tolike pull out a ball gown or
anything.
So Naomi instructs her makeyourself as good as you can
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prepare as for a bridal.
Lay off your signs of mourning,do the best you can, bathe,
anoint and place your cloak onyou, go down to the threshing
floor, but do not make yourselfknown to the man until he
finishes eating and drinking,and it will be that he'll lie
down somewhere.
Naomi seems to be intimatelyaware.
(12:37):
I mean she grew up in Bethlehem, or nearby, most likely, and
lived there with Elimelech by,most likely, and lived there
with Elimelech.
Naomi seems to be aware of howBethlehem does the harvest and
how they do the threshing.
She's aware of the customs ofthe city.
So she knows that Boaz, as awealthy landowner, is probably
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going to sleep on the threshingfloor.
Whether that is to protect hisgrain or whether he has some
religious or ceremonial dutiesaround the threshing, we don't
know.
The text does not tell us, butNaomi knows and that's what
matters.
So she says he's going to laydown, notice where he lays down
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and then, after everybody goesto sleep she doesn't say that,
but that's implied then you willcome and you're going to
uncover his feet and lay downand then he himself will tell
you what to do.
Naomi's instructions here arefull of subtle sexual innuendo
(13:43):
or maybe not subtle, they'repretty overt sexual innuendo.
In scripture, words like knownlie, come uncover.
Those are all words that cannot always but can be used in
sexual context to deal withsexual acts, and here every
(14:04):
single sentence of Naomi'salmost has one of those words in
there.
Now, the Hebrew grammar, thespecifics of the Hebrew grammar,
are shaded in such a way thatthe innuendo is there.
It's giving you these sexualovertones of the scene, but it's
not committing that Naomi istelling Ruth to do a sexual act.
(14:24):
You have innuendo, you havesetting up of a scene that's
very tenuous.
That's a little scary, thatthere's a lot of risk, but it is
not an instruction to commit asexual act.
The phrase you will uncover hisfeet is often discussed.
There's lots of opinions onthat, especially on TikTok,
(14:47):
instagram, twitter, theinterwebs.
I've heard people talk abouthow this indicates a sexual act,
or that feet is euphemistic formale genitalia, that perhaps
this text was kind ofwhitewashed to save Ruth's
reputation.
She went and did do a sexualact and then the editors of the
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text tried to like clean it upto make it not seem as overt as
it was, so let's talk about it.
First.
Let's talk about uncover.
Uncover is a word that can beused for a sexual act, always,
though, there's lots of otherthings that are uncovered as
well.
So it's one of those can, butdoesn't necessarily equal.
(15:32):
But the it hints towards it,but it is not stating it
directly here.
Normally, um, there's specifichebrew constructions that
indicate a sexual act, and thoseare missing in this passage.
So it says you will uncover hisfeet, now feet.
There's a lot of claims that theHebrew word feet, regal
(15:53):
indicates genitalia, that it'sused euphemistically for
genitalia, and even most of thecommentators I read have a
statement that says this wordcan be used euphemistically for
genitalia.
And that is true to a point,and I really want to talk about
this, because understanding thatsaying something is used
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euphemistically for genitalia,you automatically think sexual.
Understanding how a word isused not just what it's
euphemistically used for, buthow it is used in that context
is important to understandingthat usage.
So I sat down and I looked overall 251 uses of the Hebrew word
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regal in 232 verses in the OldTestament.
I looked them all over and Ifound that there was only a
handful that were not implyingsome sort of literal usage of
physical feet.
That's very obvious.
Or using feet to imply movement, which makes a lot of sense
(17:03):
because that's how you getplaces, is you walk on your feet
.
So there are.
There is a case where Feet regalis used euphemistically for
male genitalia, but it is neverused for male genitalia in a
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sexual context.
That is confirmed.
Exodus 4, where Zipporah putsthe foreskin on Moses' feet.
Some people question whetherthat's a euphemism for male
genitalia or whether that isMoses's literal feet, but kind
of like Ruth 3, it's.
We don't know.
Now there are four passageswhere it is very much obviously
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being used.
Regal is very much obviouslybeing used as a euphemism for
the penis and it is not usedsexually in any of these four
places.
It is used euphemistically forgoing to the bathroom and it is
used in shame contexts In Judges3.24 and 1 Samuel 24.
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3, you have the literal Hebrewphrase cover his feet, which
basically means going to thebathroom.
You have a character who needsto follow nature's call and they
take themselves off and theycover their feet.
One is Ehud in Judges 3 andthen Saul relieving himself in a
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cave and for Samuel 24.
So those aren't that's not ashameful context that, although
there was a little bit of shamearound human elimination, but
that is people doing what theyhave to do and just showcasing.
You know, when I was in Israel,one of the guys I was in Israel
with would say I need to gowater a tree.
(18:57):
You know that was his euphemismfor needing to go relieve
himself on a hike.
So we have lots of thesephrases in Hebrew.
Cover his feet is one of them.
The second place it is used,the literal Hebrew is drink
water of their feet, whichobviously our literal feet don't
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produce water but malegenitalia does.
When talking about going to thebathroom and in those passages
2 Kings 18, 27 and Isaiah 36, 12, king Sennacherib is mocking
the people of God, saying thatthey are going to drink the
water of their feet.
They are going to eat theirfeces and drink their urine.
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It's a shaming context.
But regal is not used for malegenitalia in a sexual context.
The only place regal is used ina sexual context that I could
find in the Hebrew Bible isEzekiel 1625, that I could find
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in the Hebrew Bible is Ezekiel1625, where it's used of women,
a woman, an immoral woman, andthis is what the verse says from
the NIV At every street corner.
You built your lofty shrinesand degraded your beauty,
spreading your legs withincreasing promiscuity to anyone
who passed by.
So that usage the spreading ofyour legs or the spreading of
your feet in Hebrew, hand andfoot could indicate like the
like.
You could say hand, butindicate the whole arm, foot,
you can indicate the whole leg.
(20:24):
And so in Ezekiel 16, 25, it'sbasically using spreading your
legs, the same way doing Egypt.
She just can't keep her legsclose, she spreads her legs to
everybody.
It's using the same.
It's not necessarily talkingabout the actual female
genitalia, it is talking aboutopenness to sexuality and could
be just literally talking aboutthe feet and the legs.
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And so that is the only placewhere regal is used in a sexual
context and it makes perfectsense that you could also
interpret that completelyliterally, not euphemistically,
for genitalia.
So back to Ruth 3, since I'vegiven you an overview of the
usage of chfot, regal in the OldTestament.
(21:08):
Out of 251 verses, there arethe verses in Ruth and then the
one in Exodus 4 that are we'relike maybe, the verses in Ruth
and then the one in Exodus 4that are we're like maybe, but
we see that regal is used ofmale genitalia either in
shameful contexts eitherelimination going to the
bathroom or being mocked aboutelimination going to the
(21:30):
bathroom and when it's usedsexually, it's not necessarily
euphemistically, but just whatis involved with a woman having
sex and spreading her legs.
So I, on basis of usage studyand considering how the Hebrew
culture used the word regalthroughout the entire Old
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Testament, do not think feethere in Ruth 3 means anything
other than literal feet.
I do not think this is animplication that she is
uncovering him up to the waistor doing anything to his private
parts.
It seems like the instructionis, and Ruth's actions are, to
go note where he lies down,uncover his feet, lie yourself
(22:26):
down, and then he himself willtell you what to do.
Now, the fact that redle doesnot mean private parts does not
take away the sexual innuendoand risk of this scene.
You have a woman going to thethreshing floor at night.
At certain periods in Israel'shistory we don't know how
(22:47):
widespread it was, but atcertain periods there was
prostitution that happened onthe threshing floor at night I
believe Hosea references thatand so she's sending her
daughter-in-law by herself tothe threshing floor where
someone could potentially thinkshe's a prostitute where someone
could find her and assault her.
It's highly risky and she'srisking her reputation for this
(23:10):
encounter.
She is also basing thisencounter on what she knows of
Boaz's character, because Naomitells Ruth lay down at his feet
and do what he tells you to do.
So you have a man who, bigfeast, big happy event, he's
(23:32):
eaten, he's drunk, we don't knowhow much.
He might be a little buzzed, alittle tipsy, we're not sure.
And then he's going to go sleep.
He's going to be in a greatmood, he's going to go sleep and
when he wakes up from his sleep, you're going to do whatever he
says.
There's a very big implicationthat what he says could be all
(23:54):
sorts of things, all sorts ofthings.
And Ruth replies in completeopposite of how she has acted.
The rest of the book, the restof the book for chapters one and
two, naomi has given Ruthinstruction and Ruth has said no
, I'm not going to do that.
You told me to go home to myparents.
I'm going to stay with you.
(24:14):
They get to Bethlehem andNaomi's not even talking to her
anymore and Ruth says I am goingto go do gleaning to take care
of us, and Naomi's like sure,fine, whatever.
Now Naomi has this big plan thatseems a little off and very
risky and a lot of sexual.
Oh, what's going to happen?
And Ruth submits she sayseverything you said to do, I
(24:36):
will do, you said to do, I willdo.
This is especially risky as aMoabite because, if you remember
from our first episode of theRuth podcast, the Moabite people
have a sexually fraught history, especially in relationship to
the Jewish Israelite people.
(24:56):
The Moabite people, if yourecall, came to be because Lot's
daughters basically raped himwhen he was drunk to get
pregnant and then have Moab andAmmon.
Then Balaam couldn't curseIsrael, so he told the Moabite
people to have their daughtersseduce Israelite men.
So now Naomi is telling Ruth todo this seemingly sexually
(25:23):
dubious plan in the middle ofthe night and Ruth says all
right, I trust you, I trust Boaz, I'll do it.
Whatever you say I will do.
And so Ruth goes down to thethreshing floor.
You say I will do, and so Ruthgoes down to the threshing floor
and she did according to allwhich her mother-in-law
commanded Boaz ate, he drank,his heart was happy and he came
(25:46):
to lie down at the end of theheap.
So let's set the scene.
Okay, the threshing floor seemsto be a little bit maybe down
the hill from Bethlehem, soBethlehem's kind of up on a hill
for fortification purposes.
Everybody lives in Bethlehem,if you recall.
Their fields are outside,surrounding the city, but they
live inside Bethlehem.
(26:07):
So everybody goes in and out ofthe city day and night and so
some of the men, the reapers,especially the landowners.
There's probably been bigmulti-gender parties going on
because this is the harvestseason.
This is a big deal this time ofyear, but it's gotten late.
The women probably went backhome.
Some of the men stayed, likelyto guard the grain or just be
(26:30):
there to keep working in themorning.
The importance of guarding thegrain is probably important
because this would be theperfect time for one of the
neighboring groups to come inand steal all your grain, as has
been happening all throughoutthe judges period.
That was why Gideon was I thinkhe was trying to thresh grain
(26:50):
in a wine press at one point inthe book of Judges.
So try to hide and protect youryield from your fields is a
very real concern.
So, but you also need to haveyour threshing floor somewhere
where the wind can get to it,because the process of threshing
is you drive wagons or you beatit, whatever they would have to
do to get the kernels of grainto separate from the hull, kind
(27:13):
of like when you have a popcornand you have that little hole on
the outside and there's theseed, and so they separate that
and then they throw it up in theair and a nice breeze takes all
the really light, chaff thoseholes and blows it away and then
the seeds fall down and theycan put the seeds in piles to
then put in bags or pots orbaskets or whatever they store
it in.
And so it seems like Boaz has abig heap of the seeds that may
(27:34):
not be put in all the basketsand everything yet, and he's
going to come lay down by his.
But the threshing floor is goingto be large enough where here
is Boaz's grain, here and othermen might have their grain piles
.
Or, alternatively, the men inthe town have organized which
families are going to get to dothe threshing on which nights.
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Monday night is Boaz, Tuesdaynight is Matthews or whoever's
I'm just making names up.
But they're going to organizewho gets to use the threshing
floor when if it's not bigenough to accommodate everybody
which may be why Naomi said Boazis winnowing tonight because
it's been the talk of the town.
Boaz is tonight, he's tomorrow,and so people are aware of the
(28:17):
sharing schedule of these publicspaces.
In the ancient Israelite townsthey would have certain public
amenities that everybody shared.
You didn't own your own winepress, you didn't own your own
threshing floor.
Even ovens for cooking might beshared by several households
not the whole town, but you knowtwo or three households, and so
sharing these public amenitiesis going to be public knowledge.
(28:41):
Naomi knows tonight is Boaz'snight.
There may be a couple guys whoit's.
You know these three guys.
It's their night.
We don't know exactly how itworks.
Naomi does.
That's what's important.
So he's laying at the end ofthe heap and it seems like this
also might be towards the edgeof the threshing floor, which
would make it a little biteasier for Ruth to like sneak up
through the bushes, becauseit's kind of going to be on the
(29:06):
side of a hill and she couldkind of sneak up.
So he lays down, she comes insecretly, uncovers his and she
just lays down.
And then it happened in themiddle of the night.
The Hebrew wants us toemphasize that Also in the
Hebrew Old Testament.
The middle of the night is whenmysterious and pivotal things
happen to move stories forward.
(29:26):
So the original audience tothis is going to be noticing all
of the sexual innuendo.
They're going to remember allof the stigma that the Moabite
people carry.
And you have Ruth.
Remember all of the stigma thatthe Moabite people carry.
And you have Ruth.
She's there as a lone woman atthe threshing floor in the
middle of the night.
His feet are uncovered.
She's not supposed to be there.
There's been a lot of sexualinnuendo.
(29:48):
What is going to happen?
Is she going to seduce him?
Because this harkens back toTamar.
Definitely check out thatepisode.
This harkens back to Tamar.
This harkens back to Tamar.
Definitely check out thatepisode.
This harkens back to Tamar.
This harkens back to Lot andhis daughters.
What is going to happen?
So it's the middle of the night, everybody else is asleep.
Maybe Ruth is dozing.
(30:10):
She's probably can't sleepsuper well with anticipation
because she doesn't know what'sgoing to happen.
So she's just laying there asquiet as can be, and suddenly
the man trembles and wakes up.
The Hebrew here has stoppedusing names after verse seven
and it's the man and the woman.
It's giving you this idea Ifyou think of Ruth as a play.
(30:33):
All the stage lights are off,boaz and Ruth are in the middle
with just a single spotlight onthem.
Everything is dark.
They're the only ones thatexist in the world.
Darkness shrouds everythingelse.
It is the man and the womanalone in the middle of the night
.
At this pivotal moment, the keymoment of the narrative, he
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trembles, he wakes up.
This Hebrew word is often usedfor fear.
There's no indication of fearhere, but maybe the breeze
caught his feet and he's likewhoa shivers and he wakes up and
he turned.
We don't know if he's justrolling over, if he's looking
for his blanket why are my feetuncovered?
I kept off my blanket.
I need to fix that.
And behold, while he's tossingand turning, there's a woman
(31:17):
laying at his feet, immediate,like whoa.
That's new.
There wasn't a woman when Ifell asleep, and if he had
something to drink, he's goingto be wondering who is she here?
What is she here?
What have I done?
What has she done?
What is going on?
So now Boaz is instantly awakeand he says who are you?
And she says I am Ruth, yourmaid.
(31:40):
This is the first time she getsto introduce herself.
All throughout the book she'sbeen Ruth the Moabitess, or
Naomi's daughter-in-law, or theMoabitess Continually.
Her Moabitess ancestry has beenfronted.
When people introduce her ortalk about her, this is when she
gets to introduce herself andshe just uses the simplest
(32:03):
version I am Ruth, yourmaidservant.
The Hebrew word for maidservantis different than the one she
used in chapter 2, where shesaid she was his maidservant.
That was the lowest form ofmaidservant in the house.
She was debasing herself,humbling herself before him.
Now this is a step up on therung.
This is a maidservant or awoman who's marriageable, who's
(32:26):
open.
And so she says I am Ruth.
She just stands there or sitsthere as who she is, her
identity, not her ancestors.
She's not carrying that intothis's just saying I am ruth, I
am here, I am your maidservant.
And then, contrary to whatnaomi said, naomi said he'll
(32:52):
tell you what to do, but whenthe moment came, boaz asks you
Because, remember, identity hasbeen crucial all throughout this
book who are you, who are you,who are you, who are you?
And we're going to see it againat the end of the chapter.
Identity is crucial and shepresents herself simply as Ruth,
his maidservant, a humbleperson coming before him.
(33:14):
But then she doesn't wait forhim to tell her what to do, and
she doesn't wait for him to tellher what to do.
She acts.
Ruth is an actor, she's going totake initiative.
She says spread your wing overyour mate.
This wing here is the corner ofthe garment, most likely if we
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take it literally, which in somecontexts indicates marriage.
This is a marriage proposal Putyour wing over me to marry me.
But it's also reminding Boaz ofhis prayer, of his blessing on
her in the previous chapter,where he said may you find
refuge under the wings of theLord.
And so she is in effect tellingBoaz I need you to act as the
(33:57):
wing of the Lord on my behalf.
Spread your wing over me as Godspreads his wing over me.
Because in chapter 3, god'sprovidence, his mysterious
behind-the-scenes working, isnot fronted.
Now it is people working,people using their free will to
(34:20):
echo the character of God tocare for other people.
And Ruth says you wanted God tobless me by giving me refuge
under his wings.
You can do that for me.
Marry me, spread your wing overme, for you are a kinsman
redeemer, for you are a kinsmanredeemer.
What Ruth does here is sheblends a marriage proposal with
(34:47):
his duty as the Goel.
Last episode we talked about theduties of the Goel.
The Goel had several duties inthe ancient world.
They would in the Israelitecommunity.
They would repurchase propertyfrom those who had to sell it
because they were just destituteand they were like we need any
money we can get.
So they'd sell their propertyto go away.
I would buy it back to keep itin the clan.
(35:07):
He would redeem relatives whohad to sell themselves into
slavery because of poverty.
He would avenge murder in thefamily.
He would take restitution moneyand make sure it got to the
appropriate parties.
He would assist clan members inlawsuits.
He had lots of responsibilities.
In the community, marryingwidows isn't stated as one of
(35:30):
the clear duties of a go-whale,but in an honor-shame culture,
one way you gain honor is bygoing above and beyond what is
expected.
By being magnanimous andgenerous you're going to
increase your honor and that isin many ways what she is asking
here.
She is saying there is a female, there is a familial
(35:50):
responsibility to care forwidows, and I'm asking you to do
that and uphold that, whichgives you potentially if it's
not too shameful to marry aMoabite a chance to earn more
honor.
Bringing in the Goel also andwe'll talk about this more in
our next episode for Chapter 4,bringing in the Goel and
(36:12):
bringing together the marriageand the kinsman redeemer is also
going to be a key legalloophole that can finally fully
integrate Ruth into thecommunity, and we'll talk about
that in the next episode.
But, as we talked about in thefirst episode, part of what's
going on in the book of Ruth is,I believe, legitimizing David's
(36:37):
reign Because, if you recall wetalked about it in the first
episode, there's Old Testamentlaws that say a Moabite cannot
enter the assembly, the worshipcommunity of Israel for 10
generations.
David is only two or threegenerations away from a Moabite.
(36:57):
Solomon is one more generationaway from a Moabite, yet they
are the ones who lead God'speople and Solomon builds the
temple.
So how could this work?
This is a question that couldbe out there that Ruth solves If
she just gets married straightout, solves If she just gets
(37:25):
married straight out.
It may not solve that question,but when she evokes you are a
go-ale, you have kinsmen,redeemer, responsibilities
towards me and Naomi, thatchanges the picture from just a
marriage to a family-widestatement of significance that
gives Ruth identity and aparticular place in the family.
(37:46):
Also, bringing in that he is akinsman redeemer, keeps Naomi on
the forefront.
Ruth isn't just seeking marriagefor herself so that she alone
can have rest, which is whatNaomi sent her out to do.
She's bringing in the kinsmanredeemer on Naomi's behalf and
Boaz recognizes that and we seethat in his reply.
(38:08):
He says blessed are you to theLord, my daughter, you have made
good your chesed, your covenantloyalty, your kindness from the
first.
He recognizes that she isacting not out of her own
benefit but for the good of thefamily, for the good of the clan
, for the good of Naomi.
(38:29):
He says you did not go afterthe young men, the young
marriageable men, whether pooror rich.
He's basically saying you couldhave married for love or you
could have married for wealth.
Young men, poor, she would havebeen marrying a poor man for
love and a rich man she wouldhave been marrying potentially
for wealth.
And he says you didn't marryfor love or wealth.
Instead, you came to me out ofan understanding of covenant
(38:53):
loyalty for Naomi and yourfamily, honoring your husband,
your father-in-law, yourmother-in-law, the customs of
the people and thereby your newGod.
Boaz sees her in a communalculture where identity is caught
(39:15):
up in who you know and whoyou're a part of.
Ruth identifying herself simplyas her own self and Boaz
recognizing her unique personalcharacter is part of what this
story hinges on.
The personal character of theindividual matters even in
(39:41):
communal cultures.
And he looks at her and he saysand now, my daughter, do not
fear For all you say I will dofor you.
Boaz says, hey, I'll marry youAbsolutely, for everybody at the
gate of my people and we'lltalk about gate next time in
that episode.
But everyone at the gate of mypeople know that you are a
(40:03):
virtuous woman.
You are an eshet ha'il.
You are a woman of valor.
You are a woman of substance.
You are a woman of character.
You are a Proverbs 31 woman.
Everybody knows that in thewhole city.
So of course I will marry you.
You want me to spread my wingover you?
Absolutely, I have no problemdoing that.
(40:26):
You are a high character woman,even though this entire
situation is set up with thepregnant question in the
hearer's mind is this going toresult in a sexual liaison,
especially because she is aMoabite woman?
Boaz recognizes her characterand I do not believe there is
(40:47):
anything sexual outside of theimplications of the verbiage
happening in this situation, andpart of the reason for that
comes next.
He says I will absolutely marryyou, but whereas I am a kinsman
redeemer, there's a kinsmanredeemer nearer than me and he
(41:12):
gets the right to try to redeemyou first.
If you had just asked amarriage proposal, maybe I could
have just up and married you.
But as soon as you bring in thego whale and you make this
about the clan and the family,we have to go through proper
channels.
Boaz slows things down and thisis part of the reason I don't
(41:32):
think there actually was asexual liaison.
There are some commentators andarticles written that think she
actually got pregnant thisnight.
I don't think that's the casebecause Boaz has a plan to make
sure he's the one who's going tomarry her in chapter four.
But even the best laid plansfailed and getting a woman
(41:53):
pregnant before you try to marryher off to a different man is
just a bad idea.
Like that could go sideways inall sorts of ways.
So I think the accusation thatthe text is just trying to
whitewash this and make Ruthseem cleaner than she was the
Bible has no problem.
(42:14):
I mean, go listen to or readthe story of Tamar.
Obviously the Bible can say itlike it is.
I mean Lot's daughters.
The Bible lets you know whensexual stuff happens.
They don't sugarcoat it andhere they don't mention it.
And it doesn't make logicalsense that if Boaz is going to
offer another man an opportunityto marry Ruth, even though he's
(42:35):
going to shade it so that theguy doesn't want to but if he's
going to offer havingintercourse with her,
potentially getting her pregnantbeforehand, is a way to tank
your standing in the community.
Bad idea.
But it also goes to show Ruth'scharacter and Boaz's character.
(42:59):
Because unlike the Israeliteswho got seduced by the Moabitess
women, unlike Lot, unlike Judah, moaz's forefather, boaz can be
in the dark alone with a womanand not touch her even after
he's had something to drink.
Like Lot, even when he coulduse the excuse of being the
(43:25):
go-whale as well.
I'm your redeemer, you know Imight as well.
I have that familial right.
Like Judah, he doesn't do it.
He takes a step back and hesays everyone knows you're a
virtuous woman, I'm going toguard your virtue and I'm going
to do what is right.
Lodge tonight, stay with metonight and if it's good, the
(43:48):
man will redeem you in themorning and he can redeem you.
But if he does not delight toredeem you, I love that it's not
if he won't begrudgingly demeanyou.
Boaz wants like enthusiasticconsent from this guy Like I'm
going to make sure that hedelights to redeem you and if
it's not, like you also marryRuth, then I'm going to make
(44:09):
sure the guy doesn't get to doit.
If he does not delight toredeem you, I myself will redeem
you as the Lord lives.
He promises her on the name ofthe Lord that he will take care
of her.
Keep lying here until morning,he says.
So she laid at his feet untilmorning and she got up before a
man could recognize a friend.
It's still pretty dark out,starting to get a little bit
(44:31):
light, time for her to scamperback home.
And he said we don't know towhom, whether it was to her or a
servant.
Do not let it be made knownthat the woman came to the
threshing floor.
Hush, hush, moans the word.
We're not going to say anything.
He says to Ruth present yourcloak, which is on you, take
hold of it.
She took hold of it, held itout to him and he measured.
(44:53):
The Hebrew literally just sayssix of barley.
We're taking handfuls, scoops,buckets, we're not sure, but six
of some sort of measurement,not six kernels of barley,
because that would be pointless,but six of barley.
And he wraps that up and hehands that to her.
So he puts that on her and thatit says and then he came to the
city, and that is a masculineverb, so maybe he even walks her
(45:14):
back to the city so that she issafe and she returns to the
mother-in-law.
So he kind of heads home, maybehe goes back to the threshing
floor but he is watching overher physical safety.
He's not just sending her out,he's physically providing for
her.
And then he is returning herhome to her mother-in-law.
Naomi greets her.
(45:35):
I don't even know if Naomislept that night, I know I
wouldn't her.
I don't even know if Naomislept that night, I know I
wouldn't.
Naomi greets her and says whoare you, my daughter?
Again, this is a question ofidentity.
Are you, mrs Boaz?
Have you found a new family?
Who are you connected to?
What household do you belong to?
Who are you?
And so Ruth tells her all thatthe man had done for her, which
(45:58):
partly includes my identity, isnot sure.
Yet I am still a Moabitess.
I am still a widow, but thesesix barley he gave to me, for he
said you shall not go emptilyto your mother, which is a
beautiful turn of phrase.
Naomi, at the end of chapter onetold the women of the town, and
(46:22):
remember, word's going to getaround to everybody.
Boaz probably heard it.
Naomi says do not call mepleasant, call me bitter, for I
went away full and the Lordbrought me back empty.
So now Boaz I can see thetwinkle in his eye says do not
go empty.
(46:42):
To your mother-in-law he says Isee you and your character, I
see her and her need and I willwatch out for both of you.
I have both of your good heart.
So then naomi, naomi tells Ruth.
She says sit my daughter, which, if you know anything about
(47:04):
Ruth from the book of Ruth,sitting is not Ruth's strong
suit.
Ruth is a mover, ruth is a goer.
She's going to do.
She's going to get up and makethings happen.
She's going to propose to theman when she was told to let the
man tell her what to do.
She's going to glean.
She's going to make audaciousrequests over and over.
And now she has to sit.
Naomi says sit my daughter,till you know how this thing has
(47:30):
fallen.
There is a hint of theprovidence language again, but
it is not providence justblowing out in the wind, where
it may take it.
This is providence in the handsof those who act as agents of
God.
Boaz is acting on their behalf,boaz is working for them and
(47:50):
Naomi says, for the man will notbe quiet until he accomplishes
the thing.
Today, sit, ruth, you've doneeverything you can.
Now is your time to let the manstep up and do his duty.
(48:11):
There's questions that could beflying, like why didn't Boaz do
something sooner?
What is going on?
If there's a nearer kinsman,redeemer, maybe he's not, he's
trying not to step on that guy'stoes, but why didn't he like,
be like, hey, you could dosomething?
We don't know.
But now Boaz is going to actand now Ruth has not to.
Naomi is the one who is helpingRuth know how to navigate this
(48:35):
situation.
Naomi is the woman she's thetheologian of the text, remember
who understands the communitydynamics, who understands all
the actors involved in thecommunity dynamics.
She knows Boaz.
She may have grown up with Boaz.
She understands how this worksand she is coaching Ruth through
how to handle it.
(48:56):
And so, as chapter three, thecurtain falls.
We have hope for tomorrow, whereBoaz will accomplish the thing
he will accomplish rest for Ruth.
In whose household this restwill be, we don't know yet, but
there will be finality.
There will be rest for Ruth atthe end of the day.
(49:20):
There will be rest for Ruth atthe end of the day.
That is full of hope for bothRuth and Naomi, and it brings us
back to the book of Ruth beingnot just about individual good
people doing individual goodthings, but individual people
working within the systems andstructures that God set up in
(49:43):
the Mosaic law for the good ofhis people, and people using
those systems and structures tobenefit the poor and the needy
and to be actors, not just tosit there and be like, oh well,
god will take care of it.
Oh, people are dying.
Oh, people are hungry.
Oh, there's trouble and I'mcare of it.
Oh, people are dying.
Oh, people are hungry.
Oh, there's trouble, and I'mjust going to sit here in
thoughts and prayers.
(50:03):
I hope something gets better.
No, god's people stand up to dosomething on behalf of those who
need it Sometimes that's onbehalf of their self and they
make clear requests and they dowhat they need to do clear
requests and they do what theyneed to do.
Sometimes they act on behalf ofothers, but in Ruth we see God's
(50:24):
people acting out his characteron behalf of the poor and the
needy.
I cannot wait to finish the bookof Ruth with you next time as
we look in chapter four at thelegal wranglings and the nuances
and bring it back to David andwhat is going on with David.
But remember this week as weclose, god does not ask his
(50:53):
people to be passive in order toaccomplish his will.
God is looking for his peopleto reflect his character and to
do good where they can see it.
The book of James tells us thatthose of us who know what good
to do and don't do it are in sin.
(51:13):
Here we see Naomi and Boaz andRuth all acting to do good for
those that need it in theirsituation.
Find me on social media.
Let's talk about this more.
I want to hear your thoughtsabout Ruth and Naomi activity
versus passivity in doing goodfor those in our families and
(51:38):
lives and communities that needus to reflect God's character in
tangible, practical, pro-lifeways for the good of those
around us.
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