Sermon 68 - Ruth 3
Ruth 3:1-4
One day Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi said to her, "My daughter, I must find a home for you, where you will be well provided for. Now Boaz, with whose women you have worked, is a relative of ours. Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do."
And now we come to the really problematic part of the book and series. Here, in chapter three, we have Naomi counseling Ruth to seduce Boaz, in order to trap him into a marriage.
Okay, maybe that's overstating it a bit, but that's certainly the way that it looks. But let's break it down a bit.
First of all, Ruth has been very kind to, and supportive of, Naomi. How on earth can Naomi repay any of this? Well, she can take some thought to Ruth's future. And Ruth's future is pretty bleak. The Israelites are possibly not noted for their hospitality to foreigners, even though God keeps telling them to be kind to foreigners, because at one time they *were* foreigners. So the Israelites are even commanded not to get too close to the foreigners. Not to intermarry with them. So Ruth, in a patriarchal society where there really is no place for the women, except as wives, may be in for a world of hurt when Naomi dies. When Naomi dies, Ruth has basically no claim on the Israelite community at all.
So Naomi is probably correct in terms of thinking that getting Ruth married is possibly the most important thing that she, Naomi, can do for Ruth. And we've already got a candidate. Here is Boaz. He is wealthy, and, from all indications, he's a pretty good guy. He has treated Ruth more kindly than he needed to during the period of the harvest. It seems to have a relation to one of the main themes of "Pride and Prejudice," by Jane Austen: when you have responsibility for daughters, what is more important than getting husbands for them?
We might question Naomi's plan, but, really, can you come up with a better one?
Naomi explains to Ruth about the harvest. At the end of the harvest, when you have harvested, dried, and threshed all the grain, you have this enormous pile of the grain that is going to keep you over the next year. It is the harvest festival. It is the time of thanksgiving. This is the time of gratitude for the fact that God has provided for you for the next year. There is going to be a party. Probably all the harvesters are going to be there. I'm not sure about the women who are helping to clean up after the harvest. Obviously there's going to be feasting. And, as Naomi mentions, there's going to be an awful lot of drinking. And as the party winds down, the people involved in the harvest, and particularly Boaz, are going to be sleeping there, turning in for the night, and sleeping beside this huge pile of grain which represents their security for the next year. And they're probably going to be plastered.
It's pretty clear, from the instructions that Naomi gives Ruth, what she intends to happen. Ruth is to wash and make herself up, wear perfume, and put on nice clothes. She is not to participate in the party: she probably isn't invited. But, as the party is winding down, she is to take note of where Boaz beds himself down beside the pile of grain. And when he's asleep, she is to go and snuggle into bed with him. I mean, this wording about uncovering his feet is pretty strange, but it's pretty clear what the implication is here.
Naomi is pretty sure that Boaz is going to wake up, be physically intimate with Ruth, and then, the next morning, feel guilty enough about it that he's going to have to marry her. And then Ruth will be married and secure.
Well, Ruth goes along with this plan. But, apparently, Boaz doesn't. He wakes up in the middle of the night, and there's Ruth, basically in bed with him. But he doesn't proceed in the way that Naomi seems to have foreseen. Or, then again, maybe Naomi *did* foresee this.
Anyway, he realizes what is happening. He realizes that Ruth is making a play for him. And, as a matter of fact, he's pretty grateful for it. Like I said, one of the reasons that we know that Boaz is older, is because he tells us so. He says that he is grateful that Ruth has not gone after a younger man, in her search for husband.
He also doesn't sleep with her. As a matter of fact, he takes great care with Ruth's reputation. He gets up, before it's light, and makes sure that she is on the way home before anybody realizes that she has even been there. But first he tells her that he will make sure that she is married. He knows that he has the right of redemption of the property, and he also knows that along with the right of redemption comes the responsibility to marry Ruth. He also knows that there is one person who has a closer claim than he does. So he tells Ruth this, and tells her that he will make sure that this is addressed.
So, Ruth is off home, and reports all this to Naomi. And Naomi seems to know Boaz pretty well. She tells Ruth not to worry: the situation is going to be resolved, and resolved quickly. Boaz will not rest until he puts things right, and does it the right way.
Boaz is going to do it by the book. He isn't going to sleep with Ruth on the threshing floor, and then have a hurry-up marriage to cover things up. As a matter of fact, he's not even going to get engaged to Ruth at all, at least, not right away. There is somebody else who has a greater claim, and Boaz, as much as he may want to, and there are indications that he wants to, is not going to jump the line. He is going to do it properly. He is going to do the right thing, but he's also going to do the right thing in the right way.
Ruth series
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