As she proposes to Boaz, she uses a word that's a derivative of a word that Boaz has already used on her. Listen, she's actually asking Boaz to become the answer to his own prayer. He had said when he met her, oh may God spread his wings over you. She now later says, I think God's plan is for you to be the agent of spreading wings over me.
Will you answer your earlier prayer? This week on Wisdom for the Heart, we continue through the book of Ruth. The story of Ruth and Boaz is one of the greatest love stories ever written. It's not just because the plot is interesting and the characters are compelling. It's because the story of Ruth and Boaz serves as a real-life picture of God's love for mankind. Today and all this week, Stephen Davey continues through his series. On our last broadcast, we began a message called A Midnight Proposal.
There wasn't time to bring you the entire message, so we'll review and then conclude that message right now. If you were with us in our last study, you have no difficulty believing that by now Ruth and Boaz are definitely in love. They probably had many more lunch dates out in the field.
Boaz's employees have definitely noticed that he is more interested in work than ever before. But now there's a problem. This text informs us that harvest time is wrapping up and Boaz and Ruth have now parted, perhaps wondering if they will ever see each other again. Ruth here, we're told, has settled back in with her mother-in-law, Naomi.
Look at chapter 3 verse 1. Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, My daughter, shall I not seek security for you that it may be well with you? That's a long biblical way of saying, Ruth, I need to find a husband for you. It was not unusual, by the way, in this culture, in this custom, for wedding prospects and plans to be worked out between the mother and father.
If you read the Old Testament, it seems like the patriarch is in charge, but actually, according to the culture and what we do know, a lot of it was done by the mother and the daughter in what was called the mother's chamber, behind closed doors, or in this case, closed curtains. According to Old Testament law, a widow could demand that the next closest relative, who was willing and available, marry her. According to God's plan, back in Deuteronomy chapter 25, the marriage was designed to provide for the young widow financial security and a future, and even more interestingly enough, the children born to them would be given the name of her first husband. That would secure his name and the clan for generations to come.
His family farm, his family estate would stay in that particular part of the family. This wonderful provision allowed for a widow to be cared for. So according to law, you need to understand here that Ruth is actually the one to take the initiative. Her condition wouldn't be the same as that of an unmarried woman. In that case, the man would take the initiative. But as a widow, it was her right to let her intentions be known to the kinsmen. So you need to think of it this way. It was Ruth's move.
And so Naomi is urging here, Ruth, look, harvest season is over. You may never have another chance like this again. You may not even see Boaz until next year. In fact, he may not be single next year. He can redeem you if he wants.
So you ought to let him know you want him to. Ruth is obviously a stranger to these customs. She's a Moabitess. She's not a Jewess. These laws are still foreign to her more than likely. She probably says, and I imagine her saying to Naomi, well, what do I do?
How do I do that? Naomi in verse 2 says effectively, well, I've got that all thought through. Here's my plan. She says in verse 2, the middle part, she says, Behold, he winnows barley at the threshing floor tonight. Now, wait a second. How did she know that?
Oh, she's been working on this plan for quite some time. He winnows barley at the threshing floor tonight. I have no idea what it means. He winnows barley at the threshing floor tonight.
So let's hit the pause button. And in fact, by understanding this, it'll help us understand the setting of this interesting proposal. I was raised in the city. How many of you were raised in the city like I was?
Just about all of you. My father was raised on a farm. In fact, he can talk about planting and he can talk about bailing. He can talk about threshing. Had he not been led by God into the ministry right before being married, I would have grown up on a farm in Minnesota milking cows at 4 a.m.
I praise God my dad was led into the ministry. I asked my dad a couple of months ago, I said, Dad, how did you and your brother and your sisters, how did you guys stand sub-zero weather in a barn in Minnesota in the winter milking cows at 4 a.m.? It was funny, he said, well, your hands stayed warm as you milked. And then you sat real close to the cows. Well, growing up, every summer we would travel back to Minnesota. I was born in Worthington, so we always took a trip over to Worthington where some of our kin were located.
I had a great uncle who owned the one store, the little department store in Worthington, and across town, a little town called Butterfield. In Butterfield, every summer they had a threshing bee. And these farmers, most of them in a town of about 2,000, they'd all show up. They'd pull out this equipment and they'd have it polished and painted and they'd kind of show it off, and they'd be threshing with old equipment out in the fields. They loved it. These were the most boring days of my life, personally. The threshing bee at Butterfield.
Just the sound of it gives me shivers. But not for these farmers. This was serious business. Those machines had changed everything in their families' lives. These were people of the soil. These crops meant everything.
And they mean everything to us, but we take it for granted, don't we? Well, centuries earlier, we've got this farmer named Boaz, and this is his life, and he loves it. He's threshing barley with the workers at the threshing floor. Threshing floors in Old Testament times were constructed out in the open field. It's nothing more than a big patch of ground they'd clear off and remove all the stubble. It was typically on a ridge or a hill where it could catch the evening breeze. They simply raked off a large, flat, open area.
They swept the ground clean. They sprinkled water on it and tamped it down. They would encircle it with stones to keep the grain inside the threshing floor. These sheaves would be brought on the backs of workers. They would be carried on the backs of donkeys and camels and carts and whatever the owner had at his disposal. And they'd be heaped in this large, circular area called the threshing floor. Then two or three animals would be harnessed shoulder to shoulder, and they'd literally just be driven around the threshing floor so that they could, with their hooves, separate the husks from the kernels.
And then winnowers would come in with pitchforks or shovels or by hand if they were poor, and they would throw that shaft, the husks, into the air, and the wind would catch the empty husks and just carry it away, and the heavier grain would fall back down into that large, circular area. The men and women and children would work late into the night. It was always a time of great celebration. It was always a festive time.
Why? The harvest is being brought in. And if you remember, this little book starts in verse 1 by telling us there's a famine in the land. We learn from other passages of Scripture that this famine lasted seven years. It was devastating. This is how Naomi and her husband and their two sons left to go to Moab where they married these two Moab girls.
Ruth was one of them. We have every reason to believe that this is the first good crop because we're told that Naomi returns to the land hearing the famines over. And now you've got this bumper crop.
We have every reason to believe this is the first one after seven long years of struggling. And so here you have them out at the threshing floor. They are celebrating the goodness of God. Good times have come back to Bethlehem. God is good again. Of course, the judges inform us that they have repented. And God is now blessing them again. So this is a time of hard work, yes. But all these farmers, they are excited.
They're bringing in a bumper crop. That sets the mood then. And Naomi knew that if there was ever a time when Boaz would know he had money in the bank for a wife, he'd be in a wonderful mood. He'd be ready to start something new.
It would be here. Boaz, Naomi's little phrase informs us, is there on the scene. No doubt to help not only Winnow, perhaps, but another thing would be in mind.
In these days, we learn from the book of Judges, the Midianites had made a habit of coming into the land and stealing the grain from the threshing floors. And so Boaz is there on the scene with others to not only work, but to protect what they winnow. And so with it all piled up somewhere on that threshing floor, Boaz and the rest are about to settle down. And so Naomi tells Ruth, and this is where it intersects with Ruth at this one critical intersection. This is Ruth's last chance. It's her best chance, but it also represents her last chance before Boaz leaves the fields for several months, maybe not to return, and maybe not to return a single man.
If she's going to make her desires known to him, now's the time to do it. There are a few more details, by the way, in Naomi's well-thought-out plan. She tells Ruth in verse 3 to wash herself.
This Hebrew verb signifies the full treatment. This is the pedicure and the manicure, and the Mary Kay lady came out and gave her her color chart and all that stuff, did it all for her, get ready. Next, Naomi says, anoint yourself, literally put on perfume. Did they have perfume back then? Listen, 1,500 years before Christ was born, the Queen of Egypt and the elite in society were sending search parties all around the known world to bring back the latest perfume samples for their collection. Ruth, evidently, though she's poor, and Naomi is poor, guess what she's kept? Some perfume. She has a little of it left from her former life. J. Vernon McGee used to say that her favorite perfume was probably called Midnight in Moab. I love that.
Put some of that Midnight in Moab on. Ruth, get ready to propose to Boaz. Naomi has even thought about the timing. Look at verse 3, the latter part. Go down to the threshing floor. Now note this. Do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking.
She's wise. Wait until he's had his dinner before you try something major. It's great advice. Before you show him the dent in the car, feed him.
Junior's report card. Ask him to paint the rest of the house a different color after he's already started or halfway through. I don't know why that comes to my mind. Feed him first. This verse couldn't be any clearer.
Here it is, ladies. Wait till he's had supper. It's biblical. Naomi says to even wait until the work party lies down to sleep. You don't want to interrupt Boaz while he's working in his ledger.
Wait till everything's done. Now look at verse 4 for a rather strange detail. You shall notice the place. When he lies down, you shall notice the place where he lies.
And you shall go and uncover his feet and lie down there his feet. Implication. Now some would suggest that Ruth is told to go down and proposition him by uncovering his feet. They conclude that this is a euphemism for sexual relations.
Well, short answer is nothing could be further from the truth. From what we've learned, Boaz is a godly man. In fact, when he meets Ruth, he starts praying for her. He will praise Ruth in a few verses for being a woman of moral excellence. You don't violate one another sexually and then praise each other for moral excellence, which is what he will do. In fact, he will ask her in a few verses to leave before the break of dawn so that both of their reputations can be above suspicion. He doesn't want her to leave to go back in the middle of the night. That would be dangerous.
But leave before anybody gets up. Our reputations are worth protecting. He added to that the fact that the Mishnah.
The Mishnah is a Jewish commentary on Jewish custom and law. It specifically would not allow a man to act as a kinsman redeemer toward a Gentile woman he had already been sexually involved with. Outside of marriage. Why?
It's obvious. This protected a vulnerable widow from being abused. Taken advantage of by a man who should be redeeming her first, but he says, I love you, I'll redeem you later. If you love me, you will let me.
Uh-uh. Redeem her first. And if he will not redeem you and he violates you, he can't have you at all. And so that rule basically protected the widow from being abused, taken advantage of in her vulnerable condition of needing security and help and coverage. He had to marry her first.
Ruth is not making some kind of lurid proposition to Boaz. She is told by Naomi to go down where he's sleeping and uncover his feet. Let me give you the literal Hebrew translation of that phrase, uncover his feet. You might want to write it down.
Here it is. Uncover his feet. Take the blanket off his feet. And what will he do? He will wake up.
That's what he'll do. It was a way that she could wake him up in the middle of the night without startling him. Remember, they're out there to protect that grain and they're alert. They're wondering if perhaps the Midianites will come and so if she just happens to come along and shakes him, makes noise, that could spoil everything. How do you wake him up? Quietly. The same way some of you guys have been awakened.
Take the covers off his feet and he'll get cold. Notice verse six. So she went down to the threshing floor and did according to all that her mother-in-law had commanded her. When Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain.
Now, again, let me pause for a moment. There are still others that would suggest that Boaz is drunk. Ruth is calm when he's incoherent. She's going to take advantage of him into making a promise that he probably wouldn't want to keep if he was sober. Again, the text answers ridiculous commentary that, frankly, and I've had to read a lot of it, it just cannot stand the sight of a godly woman and a godly man. And I want to say leave them alone for goodness sake. But solely their character, run them through the mud, and make the authors feel better about their own moral compromises, basically is what it's all about.
No need to drag them through the mud. The text says he'd eaten and drunk and his heart was merry. The Hebrew idiom yah-the-v-lev means simply he was in good spirit. We would say he was in a good mood.
Why not? It's a bumper crop. Everything's been threshed, we got piles of grain, I've got finances taken care of, I've eaten, I'm with my comrades, life is great, I'm in a good mood. And with that he covers himself up and goes off to sleep. Is this a perfect night, he's thinking, is this a perfect night or what?
I think Boaz, oh boy, it's about to get a lot better. Look at verse eight, and it happened in the middle of the night. The Hebrew text literally reads in the half of the night, meaning around midnight. Around midnight the man was startled, bent forward, and behold, a woman was lying at his feet. The word translated startled could be translated better I believe with the word shivered, which is a literal rendering of that verb as well. Shivered. Somewhere around midnight, Boaz's uncovered feet get cold.
That's the plan. He wakes up shivering, he sits up, bends forward to put the blanket back over his feet, and when he does he sees the form of someone lying at his feet. Verse nine, and he says, who are you? And she answers, I'm Ruth your maid. So spread your covering over your maid, for you are a close relative.
Literally, you are a redeemer. This is tantamount to Ruth proposing the Boaz. This is the biblical way of saying in this context, will you marry me?
Can you imagine? I mean Boaz has had his hair all messed up, he's been snoring, he's in his pajamas, and she's all dressed up, and is this love or what? She leans forward and says, Boaz, effectively you have the legal right to marry me. Will you accept that right? And she's come to him in the night, perhaps out of respect for his character, not wanting to demand her rights in public. She could have forced this scene before the elders at the gate. This was her right to choose. I want you to notice how carefully she's worded her proposal. Two elements are significant here.
First, there's this symbolic custom. Look back at verse nine. Ruth asks Boaz to spread, spread your covering over me. Now she's not asking for his blanket, because it's cold out there. She's referring to the Jewish custom of the bridegroom, who would on the wedding day place the talith upon his bride. The talith was a fringed garment, and it was significant because by doing so, it was signifying to the wedding audience that he was covering her with his authority, his care, and his love. Ruth is effectively saying, will you cover me with your care and your authority and your love?
Or in simpler terms, will you marry me? Now remember, Ruth has the right to ask. However, instead of forcing Boaz to play the role of kinsman redeemer, instead of bringing him to the public eye before the gates of the elders and potentially embarrassing him, she loves him that much, she is going to give him the opportunity to privately turn her down and say I'd rather not.
Kind of like Joseph, when he discovered that Mary was pregnant, loved her so much that rather than make a public spectacle of her obvious unfaithfulness to their betrothal, decided to do everything privately, secretly. Now there is one other option, and since we're trying to uncover every stone, let me give it to you. Perhaps she came to him that night because Naomi had told her there's somebody else in line before Boaz. So what you need to do is go ahead and let Boaz know you'd rather have him, and then wait to see what Boaz will do, which I believe is exactly what happened. Now there's a significant word as well, that's the second thing, not just a symbolic custom, but she words this proposal wonderfully with this significant word she uses.
I want you to see this. Ruth says, when she says, spread your covering over your maid, as she proposes to Boaz, she uses a word that's a derivative of a word that Boaz has already used on her when they first met. May the Lord, this is when he first meets her, may the Lord reward your work and your wages be full from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you've come to seek refuge. That word translated wings is the same word Ruth now uses as she says, effectively, Boaz, spread your wings over me. Listen, she's actually asking Boaz to become the answer to his own prayer. She's asking Boaz to become the application to his earlier intercession. He had said when he met her, oh, may God spread his wings over you. She now later says, I think God's plan is for you to be the agent of spreading wings over me. Will you answer your earlier prayer? No doubt in my mind Boaz got it. He called the significance of that precious word that she weaved into her proposal.
So there she is effectively whispering to Boaz on the threshing floor at midnight. Would you like to answer your own prayer? Thanks for joining us today here on Wisdom for the Heart.
Wisdom for the Heart is produced by Wisdom International, the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davey. We were glad to get this note from a man named Stephen who lives in Texas. He said this, About three years ago, I started a job that included a 35-minute commute. For some reason, I searched radio stations in my car and came across my local Christian station. The time of my commute lined up with Stephen's sermon.
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