Ruth and Boaz: A Story of Boldness and Redemption (Part 3)

Sinclair Ferguson delves into the story of Ruth and Boaz, focusing on Ruth’s bold request for redemption and Boaz’s response. Ferguson highlights the themes of God’s providence, redemption, and the faithfulness of Ruth and Boaz. He emphasizes the significance of Ruth’s actions and Boaz’s integrity in the unfolding of God’s redemptive plan.

The following unedited transcript is provided by Beluga AI.

---

We read from the book of Ruth 3.

¹ Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? ² Is not Boaz our relative, with whose young women you were? See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. ³ Wash therefore and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. ⁴ But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do.” ⁵ And she replied, “All that you say I will do.” ⁶ So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her. ⁷ And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. ⁸ At midnight the man was startled and turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet! ⁹ He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” (Ruth 3:1-9, ESV)

“The Lord bless you, my daughter,” he replied. “This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier. You must not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All the townsmen know that you are a woman of noble character.

Although it is true that I am near of kin, there is a kinsman-redeemer nearer than I. Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to redeem, good, let him redeem. But if he is not willing, I vow that as surely as the Lord lives, I will do it.

¹³ Remain tonight, and in the morning, if he will redeem you, good; let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then, as the Lord lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until the morning.” (Ruth 3:13, ESV)

So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anybody could be recognized, and he said, “Don’t let it be known that a woman came to the threshing floor.” He also said, “Bring me the shawl you are wearing, and hold it out.” When she did so, he poured into it six measures of barley, and put it on her. Then he went back to town.

When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, “How did it go, my daughter?” Then she told her everything Boaz had done for her, and added, “He gave me these six measures of barley, saying, ‘Don’t go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.'” Then Naomi said, “Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens, for the man will not rest until the matter is settled today.”

Now, this little book of Ruth, which we have been studying together in these mornings, has been, I think, quite aptly described as perhaps the greatest short story ever written.

But we have been trying to discover in these pages of Godís infallible Word that it is not merely a story of human romanticism, but a story and devotion, although it certainly is that, but it is one of those books in the pages of Scripture that gives us insight into the great divine romance and the significance of devotion to our Lord in His covenant grace and mercy.

And we have seen already in the first chapter the wonder of God’s covenant providence in the way in which He brings sinners to Himself in what, as we saw on Tuesday, is really a narrative of a surprising conversion. And yesterday in our study of chapter 2, we came in some measure to understand the wonder of God’s grace in what He begins to produce in His people. Godliness, as we saw, we must never forget, is God-likeness. I incidentally often think of that as I think about what it means to be an expositor of God’s truth.

Isn’t it true that in some sense or another, in the exposition of God’s Word, the minister of God’s Word inevitably becomes, in some sense, identified with the one on whose behalf He speaks? And the result is, and you notice this I think as you move from congregation to congregation, that the character of the Christian life and fellowship, and indeed the view of God, which is characteristic of many congregations, becomes almost horrifyingly at times intimately associated with the way in which the one who expounds God’s Word thinks of the community, character of God.

And that’s why, for those of us who are ministers of God’s Word, this principle that we so often enunciate but need to have engrafted into our souls, that we really need to become mirrors of the true character of God. You know what it is like to hear preaching and to ask yourself, is God really like that?

And what is, as I suppose those of us who are ministers of the gospel are supremely conscious of, what is true of us is equally true of course of all of us as Christian believers, the way in which those who encounter us are ever going to learn to think about the character of God is by the expressions of that character that are manifested in our lives.

And we were beginning to see yesterday in Ruth chapter 2 how the character of God’s loyal love, His steadfastness, His grace in the fulfillment of His promises, His desire to bring blessing at whatever expense to Himself had begun to be manifested in these two people, Boaz and Ruth.

And as I said yesterday, I think it is quite deliberate on the part of the author of the book of Ruth that we should understand that what is actually taking place here in the romantic dimension that develops between these two people is a replay of the first wedding in the Garden of Eden, but now set in a fallen world. Most of us know the book of Ruth well enough. We knew it at the beginning of the week well enough.

Those of us who knew little of it have probably, as we sometimes read books, gone to the end to see what actually happens. We all know now what happens at the end of this book, but what we saw in the second chapter was that what is true in the sovereign purposes of God finds its marriage partner in the suitability that God has created in these two, this man Boaz and this woman Ruth, for one another.

The sovereignty of God, that is to say, takes up the providences of God in order to bring forward the purposes of God in the lives of these two people. But it’s characteristic of good narrative of any kind, actually, but certainly characteristic of biblical narrative, as it is characteristic of the ways of God in the world that when the work of God seems to advance, there will always be obstacles in the way. So that we are always asking the question, in what way will God overcome these obstacles that appear to the outworking of His sovereign will?

And sometimes these obstacles come from the world that is opposed to His purposes. Sometimes as I think is actually true here in the third chapter of the book of Ruth, those obstacles come from within the people of God, because we ourselves are still natively inclined to thwart the purposes of God as He seeks to bring them to pass in this world. And it is in that context that we turn to this third chapter of the book of Ruth, a chapter which I think I scarcely need say few of us would preach on.

And if it were not for the fact that it happens to be the next chapter in the course of our exposition, I wonder if you read it yesterday or as we were hearing it together this morning. I wonder if you couldn’t help thinking to yourself, “What on earth is going on here? Am I understanding this correctly?”

Is this woman who has been so marvelously restored by God’s grace, is this woman really telling her daughter-in-law to perfume herself, to get out her nicest clothes, to go down to the threshing floor in the middle of the night and to lie at the feet of this man Boaz? Am I really hearing God’s Word when I hear that kind of thing? Can that be right? Is it divinely blessed? Or what is going on here?

And of course, if that’s the question that comes to you instinctively as you read this passage, as I hope it does, you realize the author of the book of Ruth has got you precisely where he wants you. That’s exactly what he intends you to feel.

And if, as I said the other day, we were sitting around the campfire rather than here in the great hall listening to this and listening to it in the language in which the Old Testament was originally given, we would discover that the author was throwing out all kinds of little verbal hints that we would immediately recognize that brought us almost to our toes, saying, What is going on here?

Well, of course, one of the things we need to understand, as we have seen this pattern already in our studies in the book of Ruth, is that one of the ways in which the book of Ruth advances our understanding of the purposes of God is by throwing out an idea and then dropping it, and then in the next chapter picking it up. We saw that yesterday: how the desire that Naomi has that Ruth will experience the covenant loyalty of the Lord begins to be manifested in the narrative of chapter 2.

And in some ways, the key to understanding the significance of chapter 3 is found earlier on in the words that were thrown out, yes, in chapter 2:20. “The Lord bless him,” that is Boaz, Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “he has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” And then she added, and as I indicated yesterday, it seems that Ruth doesn’t hear this or really understand it, but she adds in her conspiratorial fashion, “That man is our close relative. He is one of our kinsmen redeemers.”

²⁰ And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord , whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.” (Ruth 2:20, ESV)

And certainly at one level if we are to understand the narrative here, we need to have some little understanding of this idea of a kinsman redeemer. And the best way for us to understand this is to recognize that when God called His people to Himself in these ancient days, He established His people as a people, as His family. And He brings into the ordinances of His law provisions of blessing for His family when His family encountered distress and failure and difficulty and tragedy.

And thus there was written into the law of the Old Testament two great principles closely associated with one another that were intended to safeguard the life of God’s people as a community. One was the principle of the kinsman-redeemer, and the kinsman-redeemer, that is a close relative in the family, was one who became responsible for the family’s need in a whole series of different circumstances described in the law.

For example, he would become responsible within that context if land was likely to pass out of the family possession, because the blessing of God under the Old Covenant was so integrally related to the land that God had parceled out for His people as an earnest of the inheritance of grace that He purposed for His people in the future, that it was written into the law of God that the family’s land should remain within the family.

But if the family became impoverished, it became the responsibility of the kinsman-redeemer to make sure that that land could be preserved for the family. The kinsman-redeemer would also be responsible, for example, if someone found themselves in such debt that they sold themselves into slavery, the goel, the kinsman-redeemer, would pay the purchase price and redeem that family member so that the family member did not belong to an alien people but to his or her own people.

You remember too how it was the responsibility of the kinsman-redeemer to execute vengeance and justice on behalf of a family member who had been slain with a high hand, and there were a number of other responsibilities. And coupled with that, there was the principle that is usually referred to as the law of the leveret. Now, the word leveret comes from the Latin word levere, which means a brother-in-law, although it seems that the principle of leveret law extended beyond the borders simply of a brother-in-law to members of the family generally, and the principle was this.

Not only was the land important and the life important, but the future of God’s covenant promises being fulfilled from generation to generation was important, first of all, because of God’s promise, and secondly, for the people’s blessing.

And so, if a man died childless, it became the responsibility of the brother-in-law, and then failing the brother-in-law, some close relative, to father a son for the dead man, that his name should not be forgotten and lost in Israel, but that in him the great promise of God that he would bless a faithful man to generations yet unborn should have visible physical testimony among the people of God in the Old Testament.

Of course, we need to understand as we read the Old Testament that, in a sense, God revealed himself in deeply concrete and physical ways, in a land, in a family, in physical propagation and generation, in riches and poverty, in famine and plenty, and in

In all of these ways, just as he was doing in the physical character of the bloody sacrificial system, the nauseous sacrificial system, God was impressing lessons of His grace in a quite physical way upon His people so that it wasn’t possible to live under the old covenant without constantly bumping into reminders of the ways in which God was displaying His grace to His people.

But here are these two womenfolk, and they are significantly not only widows, but they are both now barren. And it is therefore not surprising that in Ruth 3:1, Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law, turns to her and says, “My daughter, should I not try to find a home for you where you will be well provided for? Is not Boaz a kinsman of ours?” And you see what she is doing.

¹ Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? (Ruth 3:1, ESV)

She is taking up the providence of God in chapter 2, in which, behold, Boaz appears in the field where Ruth just happens to be gleaning, and she puts two and two together. The principle of the kinsman-redeemer, who will be the Savior of the barren, and the providences of God that just happened to bring Boaz into the field where Ruth happened to be gleaning.

And so, she gives her daughter-in-law instruction, “Tonight, he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. Time, wash and perfume yourself, and put on your best clothes. Go down to the threshing floor. Don’t let him know you are there until he’s finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Go and cover his feet. Lie down and he will tell you what to do.”

³ Wash therefore and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. ⁴ But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do.” (Ruth 3:3-4, ESV)

Now, it scarcely needs to be said that this is one of the passages in Ruth that is more difficult to interpret with confidence. Therefore, when Ken Stockley handed me this brown envelope, which I have in my hand, yesterday evening carefully addressed to myself, I must say my spirit rose because I thought there is somebody in this conference who has cracked the secret of Ruth chapter 3, and this is the manuscript. Only to discover, as I opened it in my hands, The People’s Friend.

My favorite reading as a seven-year-old, and although I have not exegeted the entire text of The People’s Friend, I must say I’ve looked for providential clues. Can the message be, for example, as this week’s reading with its romantic complete story from Maggie Howard, can the message be another time, another place? Or can it be in Karen E. Macaulay’s dramatic story, and her family never knew? Or can it be in the entertaining complete story by Lee, that man upstairs?

I must say the one thing that encouraged me was to notice there is no horoscope in the People’s Friend, but there is a message from a minister. So there is something still to be said for it at 45p. Three recipes and a pattern that I cannot imagine anybody in the gallery would ever dream of wearing, so if one of your children’s up there please don’t knit that. Well, what are we to make of this? What will the kinsman redeemer do?

That is really the question and the author gives us a hint of that in these words that are spoken by Naomi. He will tell you what to do. He will tell you what to do. I’m not so sure about the other things that she said, but as it happens that becomes a key to the salvation of both of these women. The kinsman redeemer, he will tell you what to do.

And so although the story begins by these details of what Naomi plots and what Ruth puts into practice and effect, the real focus of the third chapter is now especially on Boaz. The first is on Naomi and what God does through her. The second is on Boaz and Ruth as the spotlight shines upon the gracious characteristics that God has worked in them and now the spotlight falls upon Boaz and his deep-seated godliness and piety. And I want to invite you to think about this under three headings.

And because these three headings are really a cover for about 14 headings, let me, although I am by no means addicted to it, let me call into my service apt alliterations, artful aid as I recall the Approach to Standard English Volume 1 used to teach us at school. First of all, in these opening verses, I want you to notice what we might call the risk to which he was exposed in the scheme of Naomi, the risk to which he was exposed in the scheme of Naomi.

Now, I’ve been reading the commentaries diligently on this passage, as you would understand. And it is characteristic of the commentaries to draw attention to the tremendous risk that was involved in this scheme in which Naomi and Ruth together participated. For I have to confess to you, I still have quite serious questions, deeply unsettling questions about the risk to which particularly Naomi was prepared to expose this man Boaz.

Is this business, perfume yourself, your best clothes down at night, hide behind whatever bushes you can find, and when the man has had his fill of good food and good wine, slip down there, lie at his feet, and ask him to spread the corner of his garment over you. Now, you see what is happening here because the language that’s used there is an echo of the language that was used by Boaz himself when he spoke about Ruth coming to shelter under the wings of the Almighty.

And as Ruth has said, this is what Boaz said to me, “Naomi, as it were, has devised out of these words a scheme by which she may make Ruth say to Boaz, ‘Boaz, become the answer to your own prayer.'” Just as we’re told here in Chapter 3:1, Naomi, who certainly had a responsibility for Ruth, decided that she would become the answer or the instrument of her own prayer finding its fulfillment. “May the Lord bless you,” she had said in Chapter 1, “may you find rest in the home of another husband.”

And here she is now making sure that her daughter-in-law will find rest in the home of another husband. But is this just the equivalent of the Bethlehem personal column, do you think? Single Moabite woman, divorced, seeks well-to-do businessman, must love mothers-in-law. I doubt it very much and I doubt it for a number of reasons. The first is this, and what I’m suggesting that this is not simply a matter of the risk to which Boaz was exposed, this is a matter of the spiritual rashness of Naomi.

It is a hangover, it seems to me, from what characterized this little family at the beginning of chapter 1. If God does not do things speedily enough for us in our way, then we will take matters into our own hands and devise ways of bringing what God has promised to give to us without waiting for God’s purposes to come to their fruition. Now, there is a general way in which this is indicated to us, and again, it’s characteristic of Old Testament narrative. It’s the atmosphere.

You know, it’s a great thing about storytelling that atmosphere is created. And you notice there is a pattern in the atmosphere here that is almost reminiscent of the pattern of some of the Psalms in the sense that it is a pattern that goes from day to night to day. And the night is the low point of the narrative. The night is the place of spiritual need and spiritual danger. The narrative begins one day, one day in the clear light of the day.

But as the narrative proceeds, you recognize that the day is going on and the atmosphere is becoming darker. And indeed, it’s quite clear that in Naomi’s purposes, this event can take place only in the darkness. It must be done secretly and mysteriously. And it is only when Boaz has spoken from the deep darkness of the night in the Bethlehem fields, and those of you who live in really rural areas will know in a way in which city dwellers never ever know what darkness is in a rural area. You really can see nothing.

You can put your hand in front of your face in a rural area far from a major center of population and see absolutely nothing, not even the hand in front of your face. And it is in that deep darkness that this godly man begins to speak. And as he begins to speak, the light begins to dawn and the next day arrives.

And it is, I think, therefore, clear from the atmosphere that the narrator is creating for us that we are meant to understand that this counsel of Naomi, however much the end in view was a righteous end, this counsel of Naomi produces means that are not only risky but reckless and indeed spiritually rash. There are other signs of that. One of the other signs is the way in which what she does here is to be contrasted with her concern in Chapter 2:22.

She says, it will be good for you, my daughter, to go with his girls because in someone else’s field you might be harmed. You might be harmed. In the middle of the day she is concerned. Let us be frank about this. She is concerned for the purity and the preservation of her daughter-in-law. But isn’t it interesting how that concern seems to have almost been thrown overboard as she encourages her to go down to the threshing floor?

And from the few other references there are in Scripture to the threshing floor, it is pretty clear that at harvest time the threshing floor for a young woman could be a spiritually and morally dangerous place to be. But notice also, will you, the secrecy of this. Go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he is finished eating and drinking. And when he is asleep, go and encourage him. cover his feet. This is spiritual immaturity and childishness.

You know what it is when you see one of your young children, and you know something is up. Why is it that they don’t tell you? They don’t tell you; they keep it a secret because they know that something is wrong. And do you notice how, as the story goes on in verse 14, this becomes clear also?

From the words that Boaz speaks to her at the end of the verse, she lay at his feet until morning, got up before anyone could be recognized, and he said, “Now you see, he recognizes the danger,” and he said, “Don’t let it be known that a woman came to the threshing floor.” Now you see, I think what it is that is happening here. It is vital for us to understand, on the one hand, lest we totally misjudge her, that Naomi has a sense of what God’s purposes in providence may be.

But it’s one thing for us to have a sense of what God’s purposes in providence may be. It is another thing to take to ourselves the right to bring those providences to pass. She recognized, it seems in some sense, that this might be God’s leading. But she did not, it seems to me, submit herself to the principle that God’s purposes are to be fulfilled in God’s ways and at God’s time. God’s purposes are to be fulfilled in God’s ways at God’s time.

And the great thing about Boaz in this context, in which the dear man, it seems to me, is severely tried at the hands of these two womenfolk. Ruth meekly doing, and you can understand this, meekly doing what her mother-in-law suggests. What daughter-in-law would, under the circumstances, do anything else? And Boaz now is set before us, Boaz now is set before us as the model kinsman redeemer.

The man whose life is characterized by a desire for the best for his own life under the providence of God, but a resolute commitment to the principle that God’s purposes must be fulfilled in God’s ways and at God’s time. And it seems to me that there is, therefore, in this part of the narrative a great deal of instruction for us, both general and specific, about the way in which we interpret the providences of God and seek the guidance of God.

And although it will mean we will take up most of our time this morning under this first general heading, let me draw your attention to some of these principles and lessons that surely God has enshrined in this model man He has set before us in Ruth chapter 3. What are the general lessons? What general lessons do we learn about how we are to interpret the circumstances or the providences of God? Let me simply throw out some headings to you.

First of all, it’s clear that what was characteristic of Boah’s life was that he had developed in his heart a commitment never to run ahead of God. He had developed in his heart a commitment never to run ahead of God. Second, he understood that the providence of God or the providences of God in our lives are never in and of themselves self-interpreting. The providences of God are never self-interpreting.

The providences of God in a fallen world for fallen children of God must always be interpreted in the light of the infallible teaching of God that is given to us in His Word. To the law and to the promises we turn in order to understand the providences of God.

What is characteristic of him, as we see here by the way in which, in an almost unspoken instinctive way, he is able to apply to his situation the principles of godliness found in Scripture, is that the chief characteristic of the man’s response to all of God’s providence is to think biblically and to do so in an instinctive way. Boaz seems to me to be a great illustration of that wonderful principle of John Newton’s that we learn the guidance of God in our lives rather the way somebody has learned to play the piano.

The music, the score has become so much part of them that it liberates them to play as it were without constantly having to turn over the pages to see where they are.

And in the same way, he says, when we are growing in the Christian life, what is in view is not that we should be carrying around young’s concordance or Strong’s concordance or for that matter an electronic Bible in our hip pockets so that in every circumstance we flurry in a state of bemusement to say, is there something that the Bible has to say about this?

But that as was true of our Lord Jesus Christ and is true here of Boaz, we have learned something of a biblical instinct that enables us to respond to the providences of God in a way that is consistent with the Word of God. But there are not only those general principles here, I think quite clearly there are specific principles here that are meant to help us in the whole realm of courtship and marriage.

As I was thinking about this this morning, I was partly regretting that I hadn’t been able to get a notice intimated yesterday that all those who are under thirty should sit downstairs this morning and the geriatrics be carried upstairs so that we could be eyeball to eyeball as it were as we address this theme.

But it’s clearly applicable to all of us in so many ways that we understand some biblical counsel because, as we noted yesterday, this passage, this whole section in 2 and 3 and into 4, is a rerun in a fallen world of how it is that God brings together a man and a woman who are not only set for one another in the sovereign, mysterious, electing purposes of God, but really are, by God’s grace, recreated to be helpers of one another.

And Boaz seems to have a clearer idea of how God wants to do this, if I may say so, than Naomi does, because, and I think this comes out again rather clearly in the narrative, you sense in the language that Naomi uses, can I say this even though I know it’s not politically correct, that the woman is a romantic engineer.

Now that may be a feminine characteristic, for all I know, but that’s what she is, and you see how this is written into the narrative. She’s full of explicit commands to her daughter-in-law: “This is what you have to do, and this is what you have to do, and this is what you have to do.” you almost sense there is a kind of feverishness about her that God’s will will be done.

Whereas, by contrast, Boaz, not because he is a man, but because he is a godly and a consistently godly man, his whole response to this situation is characterized by a deep-seated trust that God is able to bring His own purposes to pass in His ways and in His time. That includes manifestly the meeting of what is clearly a deep instinct and desire in his own heart that God might give him a life companion. Now, let me give you some negatives, first of all, lest we misunderstand some of the things I’ve said.

in this passage in this connection. This passage is not, it is not in the first place a trumpet blast against the wearing of perfume and pretty clothes. So let none of us earnest Christians misunderstand what is going on here and commit ourselves to a life of consistent dowdiness. There is simply too much in Scripture, sometimes almost too much for us to be able to cope, but there is too much in Scripture about attractiveness and beauty, albeit Scripture constantly underlines for us that physical beauty is only skin deep.

I saw a fascinating program some time ago, just a snip on some documentary program about the production of journals in which I could hardly… I could believe this theologically, but the world had taught me not to believe it. Here were these beautiful models of clothes and their photographs appearing in all these magazines. Did you know that they perfect those photographs by computerized technology? Even the most beautiful face in the universe isn’t apparently really fit for the front cover of Vogue. Beauty is only skin deep of that kind.

You know, you need to come down here sometime and they will strangle me for saying this, look at some of the sixty-year-old women. You young men, come and look at some of the sixty-year-old women. You know the counsel, the counsel that was given in our time was, if you’re thinking about marrying somebody, go and have a good long look at her mother.” And it’s in those later years that the true beauty begins to appear, doesn’t it? You know that.

You have seen the beauty shining out of, I think perhaps we may even dare to say, the physical beauty shining out of an older woman, by contrast with some woman who has been a beauty in her younger years, but her lifestyle has made her ugly. But understanding that, understanding that, we need to recognize that God has given us attributes and characteristics, and we ought not to be over fearful of the fact that this is God’s way, although we recognize how easily we turn the best into the worst. I think there’s another principle here.

I think it’s possible in our fear that we may misunderstand the will of God, that we become paralyzed in our expressions of brotherly and sisterly affection for one another. And it’s clear if we may take Boaz as the hero of this narrative, it’s clear that careful though he was to observe the law of the Lord, he was also equally careful to give expression to the God-given affection and appreciation and admiration that he had for this young woman.

But what is chiefly characteristic of him is this, that the man is absolutely committed, the man is absolutely committed that he will do nothing to compromise his biblical integrity, but also, putting it positively, and this I think is so vital because it’s so easy for some of us, especially in this area, to become completely negative.

Not only is he resolutely committed, as it were, that he will do nothing to compromise biblical integrity, he is not resolutely committed in a Pharisaic style, but he is resolutely committed to bring to fruition in his relationships with others, and in this context in his relationship with this young woman, the commands of Scripture to express affection for our fellow believers in grace and love, and thus to do nothing, and this is so important for us, and perhaps a simple principle that is so helpful to some of us, to make sure that we do nothing that will ever endanger a burgeoning friendship that may never lead to marriage.

And you see how he does these things not only in a somewhat negative way, but there are many positive things that he does here. He rejoices, you’ll notice. Like, Adam rejoicing, at last, this is what I was looking for. He as much as says that to her, you see, he says, you are exactly what I have been looking for. And he is concerned in his desire to find a mate for himself, that that mate be a soulmate.

And what he recognizes God may be giving to him, although at the moment he is fulfilling that proverb that says, better one hand full with quietness than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit. He recognizes that what God may be giving him is someone who is spiritually compatible with himself. And that’s brought out by the narrator by the fact that Boaz actually uses an identical term about Ruth to the term that the narrator had earlier used about Boaz. Boaz, we read at the beginning of chapter 2, was a man of substance.

And we are discovering he was a man of substance in every conceivable sense. And now he says to Ruth, he says, I recognize that you are a woman of genuine spiritual substance. And it’s precisely because I value that more than I value anything else, I value the friendship of that more than I value anything else that may not be the Lord’s purposes for me. But I want to submit my natural instincts and my desires for the best for myself to the will of God for my life.

And the way in which I’m going to do that is by fulfilling my biblical duties in this providential situation, and trusting that the Lord will lead my life into the future. You know, that’s one of the great differences between the 20th century and many 20th century Christians and Christians in an earlier generation. Those of you who are familiar with Christian literature down through the centuries may know that in earlier centuries, Christians never dreamt of writing books like Guidance or even, if I may say so, Discovering God’s Will. You don’t get books under those titles.

And there’s a reason for that. There is a reason why so many of us as Christians are drawn today to books that will tell us how to find God’s will.

It is because, by contrast with Christians in earlier generations who were catechized, not just because they were catechized, but because those of you who know the catechisms know that in some cases, half of the catechisms are taken up with an exposition of the answer to the question, “Where do we find God’s will in the Scripture, and where in particular in the Scripture, in the commandments that God has given to us?” And so, the Ten Commandments, you may have noticed in the catechism, sometimes their exposition takes up half of the space of the catechism. Why?

Because Christians understood that 95% of our need to find what God’s will is in any specific situation and in our daily lives is found in answering the question, what does the Lord require of me here in His Word? And that’s what so characterized Boaz: master of God’s Word hidden in his heart. He submitted himself to God’s Word in order that he might allow God’s work to be fulfilled in God’s time.

Now, that’s not something you can learn from any book on guidance because it’s got nothing whatsoever to do with our ability to read and everything with our willingness to trust. Trust in the Lord, and he will so mold you that the desires of your heart and the purposes of his providence will one day meet.

Well, there’s a second R, and we can look at this much more speedily. Boaz was exposed to the rashness of Naomi’s plans. In the second place, I want you to notice the reactions that he displayed in the crisis of the night.

Think of the situation. Here you are, you’ve been threshing your grain, it’s late at night, you’re tired, you’ve had a nice meal, you lie down under the stars, the Lord’s blessing your life, and in this marvelous way. And I think again there’s just a touch of almost comic relief in the tenseness of this situation. We’re told there this shadowy figure comes and she lies down at Boaz’s feet and she uncovers the edge of the garment, and of course, the poor man’s toes are sticking out of the bottom of the bed. He does.

You know what it’s like, those of you who are married when you’re husband pulls the downy off the bed, you wake up. Why? Because your toes are cold. And it is graphically put in the original, there is a shudder in the middle of the night. The man shudders in the middle of the night. He wakes up. Now how does he respond? Well, he responds, it seems to me, first of all, with a quite remarkable poise. I know what you are like when you wake up in the middle of the night.

Now, this is partly a matter of personal disposition. Those of us who are in families, we see our family in the morning and it seems that everybody gets out of bed in a quite different mood. There are some who get out of bed and they are so noisy and so full of energy and there are others who get out of bed and the last thing in the world they want is for anybody in the world to speak to them. But you know, to a certain extent, it is a real test of our spirituality.

How do we instinctively respond in a crisis? How do we instinctively respond in a crisis? He is cold. He pushes around with his feet and he bumps into something and it is a human body. And it makes a noise and clearly it is alive and it speaks. Can you imagine this? This is why I think there really is a rashness about what Naomi had done. I don’t suppose any of you who are mothers would ever say to your young daughter anything remotely resembling this, even in the company of the most godly. How would you respond?

Do you know what some of us would do? We’d be tempted either to strangle Ruth or strangle her mother-in-law. I think I’d go for the mother-in-law myself. Wait till I get that, Naomi. She may have been wearing perfume called The Midnight Hour or The Threshing Floor, but it had Naomi written all over it, as actually becomes clear in the narrative. We were in a Chinese restaurant, actually just the other day in Philadelphia.

One of the great things about Chinese restaurants in Philadelphia is you get a fortune cookie at the end of the meal, part of the price, and my daughter opened her fortune. And her fortune said, never mistake temptation for opportunity. He could easily have done that. He could very easily have done that.

He was a raw, red, sinful man, and he could easily and secretly, in the context of such a guilt on the part of Naomi, perhaps, because of what happened on the part of Ruth, because of what happened, and on the part of Boaz, because of what might happen, that no other soul in the world would ever, ever be likely to hear what took place.

The thing that strikes me is the way in which this man awakens in the middle of the night, and it’s so clear because it’s the middle of the night, the man doesn’t even have time to think that God has so worked grace in his life that…

A time of what is really moral and personal crisis of all kinds, the man is characterized by a deep spiritual and moral poise. His equilibrium, however much he may naturally be astonished, his equilibrium is not ultimately unsettled. And that’s a great mark of true godliness in Scripture, isn’t it?

You remember the Apostle Paul in the midst of the storm, our Lord Jesus in the midst of the storm, Simon Peter later on in Acts in the midst of the storm when he seems to be in danger of being executed the next day. What is it that’s characteristic of them all? God’s grace wrought in them to such an extent that they respond to the crisis with deep poise. Many of you thank God you would never attribute it to yourself because you know it’s not in you by nature.

Many of you know what it is for that to appear in your life and for others to recognize it. They don’t know where it comes from, but it comes from the fact that your soul is embedded in the sovereign grace of God and your heart has been given over to meditating upon His Word and so you bear fruit in such a season. Remarkable poise and coupled with it, absolute integrity, absolute integrity.

She’s like, you remember Jonathan Edwards was as a teenager, writing his resolution in his diary: resolved never to do anything in either soul or body but what will tend to the glory of God. And that’s the way he sees the situation. This is the secret, really. He sees the situation not simply by asking the question, “What am I to do now?” but by asking the question, “How may I most glorify God? How may I most glorify God?” And you see what he does.

He who had spoken kindly to her in chapter 2 speaks kindly to her again. It’s extraordinary. Reminds me of what Paul wrote to the Corinthians. You remember when he sends poor Timothy to them with his stomach problems and says, “Now when Timothy comes to you, you belligerent Corinthians, make sure that you put Timothy at his ease.” And here you see, Boaz finds this woman who is really in serious spiritual and moral danger on the threshing floor.

And the thing that he’s concerned about, isn’t this interesting, the thing he’s concerned about most is not simply preserving his own integrity, but preserving her integrity and protecting her in her time of need. In that sense, he is so Christ-like. When his heart was breaking with sorrow as the crisis of the crucifixion poured over upon him, what was so characteristic of our Lord Jesus? It was the way in which he was concerned for the preservation and the protection of his disciples. And you see it here. And it is exquisitely beautiful.

See it in the way in which he expresses such a respect for her. Look at what he says in verses 10 and 11, “you would not say this by instinct, would you? Not if you were a really righteous man, would you? The Lord bless you, my daughter. This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier. You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. Don’t be afraid, I will do all you ask. You are a woman of noble character.” you see what’s characteristic of him again? It is so God-like.

He carries his lambs in his bosom. He doesn’t take this, he says, now let’s get out of here, I have a number of things to tell you, young woman. Let me tell you a thing or two about really living a covenant life that might have destroyed her, but he speaks to her with a tenderness and a graciousness that marks him out as precisely the kind of man this young woman really needs. You know Alexander White, the Scottish minister last century in Edinburgh, used to say that there is such a thing as sanctification by vinegar.

Remember playing Conkers when you were younger and cheating in your unregenerate days? How did you do it? You soaked your Conker in vinegar to harden it so that it would be undefeatable. And White is really saying.

And you know, it’s possible for us to think of sanctification in that way. I will be invincible, strong, but hard, metallic, unyielding, ungracious, and in the end, unChristlike. But God had carved grace into this man’s life.

And you couldn’t look at him without being deeply persuaded that our covenant God is a God of infinite tenderness and compassion and sweetness and gentleness in his righteous dealings with his children. And thus he was content to apply biblical principles to his situation, to do his duty really and to leave the consequences in the unfolding mystery of the providence of God. And that leads me briefly to the third thing that we need to notice because it’s with this that the passage ends. Yes, he experiences a great deal of rashness at the hands of Naomi.

He manifests the most wonderful reaction in the crisis of the night. But notice how the story ends on an upbeat note, and an upbeat note that is expressed also in the atmosphere of what happens that makes you smile in the wonderful reassurance that he brings to the lives of these women. One of the great hallmarks of grace, you remember how Paul put it to the Philippians about Timothy. He says, “I’d love to send Timothy to you. I’ve no one like him. Everyone else seems to be taken up with their own affairs, but Timothy is taken up with the affairs of Christ and with your concerns too.”

And you see that here. He comes, God-like as it were, with armloads of grace and mercy upon these women, and his great desire is first of all for the protection of the young woman Ruth, and then for the provision for both Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi. And you see how an echo of the refrain that’s been running through this book appears, Naomi went out full and came back empty.

Now Ruth has gone out into the potential emptiness of her future, should this incident lead to sin and to disgrace. But she comes back full, just as she had done in the previous chapter, although it’s even more emphatic here as you’ll notice in the text. We’re told that he says to her, protecting her, protecting her reputation, “Don’t let it be known that a woman came to the threshing floor.” And then, in verse 15, he said, “This time, bring me your shawl, bring me the shawl you are wearing, and hold it out.”

Now, get the picture here: she’s got this great shawl around her, like one of these old Welsh women, and she spreads it out. “Hold it out,” he says, and he begins to pour the grain into the shawl. Six measures of barley—the commentators are at a loss to interpret this because it seems to be an overwhelming amount of barley. And you notice how it’s even further emphasized. You see what he says; he says now, “She looks at the grain, she can just see now and no more.” She looks at the grain.

The grain, and you can see the look on her face, “you’re not going to tell me to take that home, are you?” He says, “Just bend over,” and he gets it together, and when she’s bent over, he says, “Now grab this,” and then he heaves it onto her. I hope this wasn’t a foretaste of the responsibilities she would have in the marriage to come. And then he says, and you can see the twinkle in this Boaz’s eye, “Take this home to your mother-in-law.”

Boaz, she said, gave me these six measures of barley, saying, “Don’t go back to that mother-in-law of yours empty-handed.” And he’s really saying to her, “I understand. I understand the need, I understand the panic, I understand why she did it. I don’t approve, but my heart is open to you in grace, and this is a little message to your mother-in-law to learn to trust in the provision that God will give.” This wasn’t what she expected, but this is the kind of thing God provides, and you see the scene.

Here is Naomi; she went out perfumed, and as she left the house, her mother-in-law could still smell the scent of the perfume she was wearing. And now she’s coming home, and you see what she says? Naomi says, she’s so casual, she’s got it together, so in control, “How did it go, my daughter?” Now she’s what the Americans would call a total basket case. She’s been up all night worrying. “How did it go, my daughter?” She’s a nervous wreck, that’s the truth. “How did it go, my daughter? How did it go, my daughter?”

And she comes home. She must have been smelling of perspiration rather than perfume. You imagine, Naomi hears her, she opens the door. She’s almost collapsing. From inside the door she says, how did it go my daughter-in-law? What’s happened? And you can see Ruth turning to him. Boy, I said, don’t go back to your mother-in-law. And she gets the message at last. You see the contrast from the beginning to the end. My daughter, shouldn’t I try to find a home for you where you’ll be well provided for? Boaz, isn’t he the man? He’s been a kinsman.

Tonight, he’ll be at the winnowing floor. He’s a kinsman of ours. Wash yourself. Detail by detail by detail by detail by detail. A mother-in-law like that would drive me to distraction. But then, do you see what she says? She immediately, as though this sack of grain, or better, the shawl of grain, were all, almost like a sacrament of God’s gracious purposes, she now says to Ruth, “Wait. Trust. Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens,” and in brackets, “in God’s purposes,” because the man, the man will not rest until the matter is settled today.

It’s impossible as New Testament believers not to recognize that one of the things that God is doing here is giving his people in ancient days a rerun of Eden, but in a fallen world, in which, in that first unfallen world, he had brought a bride to the first Adam in order that he might embrace her, protect her, and preserve her, so that together they might walk in communion.

And here in a fallen world, there is a rerun of the garden of Eden in which the man takes the woman to himself and provides for her need that they may walk together in communion. As a little hint to the people of God of the way in which God brings his salvation to his people, as one day he would surely do, not in Adam, or in Boaz, the kinsman-redeemer, but in our Lord Jesus Christ, the great kinsman-redeemer, of whom his father could say, “Wait, because this man will not rest until it is finished.”

And we know even better than Boaz, and certainly better than Naomi, that if God did not spare His own Son, but made Him our kinsman-redeemer, we may believe with all our hearts that He will freely give us everything with Him, and we may thus learn to trust Him. From heaven He came, and by His precious blood He bought us to be His holy bride. From heaven He came, and for our lives He died, and we may trust Him.

Remember how Mendelssohn has it in his great oratorio, Elijah, when Elijah, I suppose, has been caught up in a sense that he is the great instrument of fulfilling the purposes of God, and he begins to feel that everything is falling apart in his hands, and the desires of his heart are not being met. You remember how following his lamentation, “My labor is in vain,” comes those marvelous words from the 37th Psalm, “O rest in the Lord. Wait patiently for Him, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

Wait, then I say, on the Lord. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, how gracious you are to us. We confess, Ezekiel-like, that your Word, when we taste it, is often bitter to us, but when we digest and swallow it, it becomes sweet. We know what it is to say that we have enjoyed your Word and yet at the same time to wonder whether we thus express ourselves well. But surely, you have made us for your glory and that we might enjoy you forever.

And we thank you for the ways, sometimes unexpected and surprising, that you speak to us through your Word to show us your grace and your graciousness, to give us instruction that will direct our lives, to make us conscious that you work in mysterious ways your wonders to perform and that we may trust you wholly and find you wholly true. Lord, what a variety of circumstances you see us in here today.

How we thank you for the reminder here in your Word that you are able to take our imperfections and even our failures and our rashness and in your sovereign providence provide means by which even these may be turned to your glory. And we confess, some of us, perhaps even many of us, in these very matters we have acted rashly and sometimes foolishly and as we hear and read of principles of true godly living can so easily be thrust into despair.

But we thank you that you have sent a kinsman-redeemer to save us from our sins, and that in the body of Christ, you frequently send kinsmen and women to us to preserve us, protect us, and redirect us. Therefore, whatever our failure may have been in too easily seizing for ourselves our heart’s desires, we praise you that you are a God of infinite grace, pardon, and restoration, and that you pour out upon us, as Boaz did upon these womenfolk, arm lords of mercy.

Help us, we pray, thus immersed in your grace to live graciously, godly, Christlike lives for the glory and honor of our great Boaz, even our Lord Jesus Christ who has supplied all our needs, we pray. I pray in his name, amen.