Well, turn with me in your Bibles to Ruth chapter three.

Several of you have commented to me how much you’ve enjoyed this study in Ruth, and good, because I’m enjoying it as well. I really enjoy the book of Ruth. It’s such a special book of the Bible. It’s so unique, and it really speaks a lot to us, not only in the words that it says, but in the way that things are said.

So in Ruth chapter three is where we find ourselves this evening. And last week we finished Ruth chapter two. And there in Ruth two, we saw Ruth and Boaz’s first encounter. Boaz demonstrated the grace and loving kindness that is expected of God’s people. He really is the premier example of what it is to be like God in the sense that he bestows unearned favor upon someone like Ruth. And Boaz cares for Ruth. He gave her numerous blessings. while gleaning in his field. He provided food and water and safety and protection. And he invited her to remain in his fields throughout the harvest. That is what she did, and that was really the last we saw of Boaz.

We also saw the account close with Naomi getting excited at the prospects that were presenting themselves to these women. Ruth was now in contact with a near kinsman redeemer, and Naomi knew what that meant. We also see that God was providing for these women, despite the circumstances that they found themselves in. All of that. brings us to where we are tonight in Ruth chapter three. And tonight we will see the threshing floor encounter. And in this third chapter of the story, we really see three scenes. As has been typical, you see an opening scene that sets up the context, that tells us what’s about to happen. And we see in verses one through six, the plan. Naomi’s plan for Ruth.

Then in verses 7 through 15, the second scene of this chapter, we see the encounter, the encounter that takes place there on the threshing floor. And then lastly, you see a summary scene where really the significance of what happened is highlighted for them. And that is verses 16 through 18. So we’ll begin here just with the opening scene, the plan that is really crafted by Naomi as we approach this scene that is about to take place on the threshing floor.

So I’ll read verses 1 through 6 now of Ruth chapter 3. This is the word of the Lord. Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, my daughter, shall I not seek a state of rest for you in that it may be well with you? And now is not Boaz our kinsman with whose young women you were? Behold, he is winnowing barley at the threshing floor tonight. So you shall wash yourself and anoint yourself and put on your best clothes and you shall go down to the threshing floor. But do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. Let it be that when he lies down, you shall know the place where he lies and you shall go and uncover his feet and lie down. Then he will tell you what you shall do. She said to her, all that you say I will do. So she went down to the threshing floor and did according to all that her mother in law had commanded her.

So again, we see a lot of speaking by Naomi here. reverses the roles from what we saw in chapter two. In chapter two, Ruth initiated the action. She begins the chapter by saying, I think I should go start to prepare a life for us, start to provide for us, to go gleaning in the fields and at least get us some food. Well, here in chapter three, it’s Naomi that takes charge. Naomi takes the initiative and she hatches this scheme that would bring about this encounter between Boaz and Ruth. So the focus here is on Ruth, but Naomi does all the talking. Really, in the first section here, in the Hebrew at least, Naomi speaks 53 words and Ruth only speaks four words. So really, Naomi is the one driving this plan here. And she says, my daughter, my daughter, shall I not seek a state of rest for you, that it may be well with you? And so we see a lot of information in this first section.

You see the timing of this conversation is the time of the barley winnowing. It’s where they process the barley that they’ve harvested. So it’s probably been a few weeks since their first encounter because the last time we saw Ruth and Boaz, they were harvesting. Now it’s time to process the harvest. And Naomi seems to be growing impatient. They met, they were introduced, and Ruth apparently stayed in his field, but nothing’s happened. Nothing further has happened other than Boaz treating her kindly and taking care of her. And it could have been out of respect or concern for her, or maybe he was more focused on his business. Boaz was a busy guy.

Whatever the reason, Naomi’s ready to get the ball rolling. She’s sick of waiting around, and she’s ready to make a plan and get it into action. She sounds like a mother-in-law. She’s ready to make things happen here. She says, my daughter, she’s speaking to her affectionately, and she says, shall I not seek a state of rest for you, that it may be well with you? Like saying, am I not responsible for taking care of you? You are younger than me, so I should look out for your future. You have more of a future ahead of you. She didn’t stay with the family she had in Moab, so now Naomi feels a responsibility for her, for finding a future for this woman who is with her now. And she says, so that it may be well with you.

Well, what did it mean to be well in that culture, that society? Well, really, if you think about the timeframe of it, in the ancient Israelite world, being well, having a good life, involved living a long life, and being in a happy marriage, and being financially prosperous, and having many children, and all those things that the ideal life would be. And Ruth had none of that. Ruth had none of what it would be considered having a well life, that it would be well with her. So since Ruth was far from her home, her native land, and she didn’t have a husband or even a father figure in the house to take care of her, it does fall to Naomi to make sure that this Moabite daughter-in-law’s future is being taken care of, that Ruth has a future to look forward to.

If you remember back in chapter one, in verse nine, Naomi prayed for this. She prayed that God would supply a life for both of her daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah, that they would find rest in the house of a man, that they would find a life now that the life that they had with her was apparently over because all of the men in that family had died. after praying for God to bring this about, Naomi’s taking things into her own hands. She’s hatched this plan and really there’s no mention of God in this plan that she has. It’s not that maybe God will provide or that he will show grace to you or anything.

Naomi’s really taking everything into her own hands and trying to bring this about on her own. And the scheme that she comes up with is questionable. At very least. It’s not something that you would think should be a plan of somebody in the Bible. That you would come up with on your own, perhaps, as a godly man or woman. But, we’ll see how all of these things work out. In verse two, she says, she starts to really present this plan to Ruth. She says, shouldn’t I take care of you? In verse two. And now, is not Boaz our kinsman? with whose young women you were. Behold, he is winnowing barley at the threshing floor tonight.”

So this isn’t the first time that this is occurring to Naomi. She’s thought about this a few times. She’s been thinking things over and she’s hatched this plan. And first, Boaz was the kinsman. He is the near relative to them. But in Naomi’s mind, she is not just a relative, or he is not just a relative. He is someone who can do something about their future. He is someone who can redeem them. And she knows the process and the Israelite law that they follow and how things could get better for these two widows. And then second, she reminds Ruth of his character. And not directly, but she says, with whose young women you were, she’s reminding her of how he took care of her. And she did so by identifying him as the one who was in charge of the women she’d been working with this whole time.

Boaz had taken care of Ruth and Naomi. And Naomi’s now thinking, maybe this will continue. Maybe if we pursue this, there will be more that happens here. Then third, Naomi alerts Ruth to an opportunity that’s about to present itself. There’s an opportunity for action here, and she calls Ruth’s attention to this opportunity by saying, behold, hey, you remember Boaz, the one that you’ve been working with, the one who is in fact our near redeemer? Well, look at that. He’s going to be down at the threshing floor tonight. It is winnowing season and he is in charge of the winnowers, so she announces that Boaz would be there. So as we’re getting all of this contextual information, it’s setting the stage of what’s about to happen, what is winnowing? We talked about gleaning and threshing before, but what is winnowing?

Well, I’ll read a description of what winnowing is and it kind of as it relates to this time period and really Boaz and Ruth. So the description from a biblical scholar says this, at the end of growing season, when crops were mature, harvesting and winnowing grain could occur simultaneously. However, the process of winnowing is more efficient if the grain had a chance to dry after it was cut. Barley was typically threshed in the onset of the dry season, late May and June. So after the grain After all the grain, barley and wheat, had been cut and gathered, the threshing floors involved rock outcrops on hilltops, which often provided a hard surface to keep the grain free of dirt and facilitated sweeping up the grain at the end of the day.

So you’re picturing this facility that has got a hard floor, and they throw the wheat up, and they can collect the grain that falls off the barley and the wheat. Winnowers favored a hilltop because there was wind that would blow off the chaff. And when the threshed grain was tossed into the air with a fork, it allowed the heavier kernels to fall onto the floor. And so this threshing floor was probably located in or near the field where Ruth had been gleaning this whole time, some distance from the town of Bethlehem, as we see in verse 15, where she has to travel back. And Boaz chose to do his winnowing at night, presumably because the night breezes were more predictable than the gusty daytime winds. But since threshing floors were often publicly owned, they also served as a significant social functions, providing a place for judicial and administrative proceedings, business transactions, and even worship. These social functions provide important background for understanding Boaz’s later Caution for Ruth, that she not let anyone know that she had spent the night there. Undoubtedly, other men were also sleeping in the vicinity to protect the fruit of their labor.”

So that’s what is happening here. That gives us some context for what Naomi’s talking about. And then Naomi has more instruction here for Ruth. Not only is Boaz going to be down at the threshing floor, down winnowing his barley, she continues in verse three to say this. So, behold, there’s Boaz. So, therefore, because of what Boaz is going to be doing, you shall wash yourself and anoint yourself and put on your best clothes and you shall go down to the threshing floor. But do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking.”

So this is the plan. This is what Ruth is to do, and there’ll be more to this, but this is the initial part of the plan, and her advice for her really has three parts. Number one, prepare yourself. Prepare yourself for this encounter with Boaz. Number two, go down and find him down to the threshing floor. And number three, this is how you should respond to him, and we’ll see that in verse four. So it says there, Ruth is to wash herself and to apply perfume or anoint herself, to put on her best clothes. And so typically, widows would dress in a certain way. They would dress in a way that would show people they were mourning and that they were, in fact, widows. And here, Naomi tells her, put on your best clothes. Don’t dress as though you’re a widow. Dress as though you’re available. Dress as though Boaz would know that you are available to him.

And again, Ruth is advising Ruth to really move on from the life that she’s been in, this time of mourning, this being the destitute one from Moab, the widow who left everything behind. And you need to start building a new life here. You need to move on to a life that you can live here in Israel. Not, and you have to be careful with the way you understand this chapter, because different Bible scholars take it differently, but there’s really a clear way that this ought to be taken. Because this is not instruction to dress immodestly or provocatively to attract a man’s attention. That’s not what Naomi is telling Ruth to do here.

And as I taught this with the teens a few years ago, one of the things that I stressed with them, and I’ll stress with you tonight, is that being attractive does not equal immodesty. So that’s not what Ruth is saying. She is not telling, no, that’s not what Naomi’s saying. She’s not telling Ruth to go seduce Boaz by the way that you dress. That’s not what she’s saying. There’s nothing wrong with dressing nicely. You should dress nicely. And there’s nothing wrong with the way that God made you. You shouldn’t be ashamed of your body. But that doesn’t mean you should dress in a provocative or seductive way.

And as we were teaching this to the teens, this was something I did kind of focus on and stress for them. especially to the young women, that you should not be dressing in a way that will draw the kind of attention that only your spouse should give you after marriage, right? So that’s not the focus here. And Ruth is, again, not trying to seduce Boaz. She’s trying to attract him. There’s a difference.

There are other passages in Scripture that speak of seduction and dressing seductively and provocatively. You can think of Isaiah 3 or Proverbs 5, and that’s not the same language that’s used here. It’s simply seduction. Clean yourself up and put on your best clothes and make yourself attractive and presentable.

First Peter chapter three really speaks a lot about how especially a woman should present herself to be attractive, how she should adorn herself. And it said, First Peter three verses three through six says this, your adornment or the way that you present yourself, it must not be merely external. So when you’re thinking about being attractive, don’t just think about the external, braiding the hair and wearing gold jewelry or putting on garments, but let it be the hidden part of the person, with the incorruptible quality of a lowly and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. For in this way, in former times, holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being subject to their own husbands, just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord. You have become her children if you do good, not fearing any intimidation.

So that’s 1 Peter, and that’s Peter’s instruction to women on what they ought to consider when they want to be adorning themselves or presenting themselves to be attractive. Again, this text is saying how you should adorn yourself. Beauty is not merely external, it says. Your adornment must not merely be external. It’s internal as well. And if you make yourself attractive in this way, you will attract the right kind of man. If you focus on what God finds beautiful, a godly man will too. And that’s really the character that we see in Ruth, what is described here in 1 Peter. Ruth has already demonstrated that she has that internal character, that focus upon the incorruptible qualities that Peter talks about, the lowly and quiet spirit, the things that are precious in the sight of God.

And while beauty is not merely external, it is true that external beauty exists. That passage is not saying, don’t worry about the external. It’s saying, don’t focus only on the external. And that’s what we see here with Ruth. There is both internal and external beauty. And the external beauty is not immodesty. The Bible clearly warns against that. It’s clear that immodesty is wrong. There’s nothing wrong with making yourself attractive. And this text in Ruth, it goes to show us that if you are in the market for a husband like Ruth is, you ought to let him know you’re available. You ought to present yourself in a way that is attractive in the way that God sees fit.

And so as we were teaching to the teens or even anybody today, young men or women, it’s all right to present yourself in a way that is attractive to a potential husband or wife. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with attracting or pursuing a husband or wife if you’re doing it the right way. But we do see there is a right way and a wrong way. And to the younger single guys that are thinking about these things. You ought to be pursuing a future wife by looking for those who are making themselves attractive by God’s standards, not by the world’s standards. Because if a girl is dressing in a way to draw the wrong type of male attention, it’s not just your attention that she’s trying to get. So that’s something to keep in mind. Word to the wise, young men. Something to think about.

As we see Ruth and this instruction to her, as she’s seeking a husband, to present herself in a way that is attractive. Naomi’s instructions here are reflective of a preparation of a bride for marriage. And given his righteous character, If this was an inappropriate act, as some people would present it, this would be something that Boaz would not be interested in. Such a brazen act of seduction, as it might be presented, would not be what Boaz would be looking for. It would not be something that would attract Boaz.

So Naomi’s goal here is obviously to give Boaz an impression. And that’s not the impression that she would be going for. So as you think about this preparation for Boaz, one of the questions you might have is why on earth is Boaz there at night? Why is he there at night? We already mentioned the winds and that may be part of it. But another aspect of it is that normally landowners and field owners and those who were in charge of the crops, they went down to the fields in the morning and they returned to the security of the village at night. However, at the winnowing time, they had a lot on the line at the threshing floor. Their wealth was sitting there on the threshing floor, and the men would sleep there to guard their grain and their barley, not only from thieves, but from animals that may be there.

So Naomi had a good indication that that’s where Boaz would be. So verse four says, let it be that when he lies down, you shall know the place where he lies and you shall go uncover his feet and lie down. Then he will tell you what to do. So having given Ruth counsel on her preparation, Now Naomi instructs her on what to do, how to conduct herself, to go down to the threshing floor and be careful not to let Boaz know you’re there yet. Don’t announce yourself when you get there. And she wasn’t to do anything until Boaz was asleep, until he had finished his supper and laid down for the night. And after a hard day of work, eating and drinking would relax him and he would drift off to sleep pretty quickly. And so again, this narrative you see, it is descriptive. It is not prescriptive. Because as we see, she was to enter the place where Boaz was lying and uncover literally the place of his feet and lie down and wait for him to speak.

So, again, it’s describing what’s happening. This is not instructive for today. This is not what you should do if you were in the market for a husband, is to go at night and uncover his feet. This is just describing the way that this took place. And as I taught this to the teens, we had some young teen ladies that couldn’t stop giggling at this lesson, and we had a hard time finishing it. This is a strange thing for us to see something like this happening.

And again, some have interpreted this as a act of seduction, but that does not fit not only the language used, but the character of these two in the story. It doesn’t fit the character of Boaz. It doesn’t fit the character of Ruth. It doesn’t fit the reaction of Boaz to what happens, as we’ll see here shortly. He basically calls her righteous for doing this. So it is not the way that sometimes it’s presented as an inappropriate or immoral act. Naomi’s concern here was to provide for Ruth, and she’s hoping that this will go the best way possible, and only a husband could give the protection that Ruth needed. And so if she was too forward in this approach or inappropriate or immodest, she could ruin the whole thing.

So I really don’t even think that’s anywhere in the intention of what’s going on here with Naomi’s advice to Ruth. And as I mentioned, godly men will be attracted to the right thing. And they will also be repulsed by the wrong thing. So if Ruth comes to him as a Moabite would, The Moabites were known for some things, and morality was not one of them. So if she approached him as a Moabite would, that would not go well with Boaz. We can see the character that he’s already shown. But as Naomi says, he will tell you what to do. Naomi is trusting in Boaz’s character. Naomi is trusting that Boaz, if approached the right way, will do the right thing. Boaz would have the last say in Ruth’s fate.

As we see in verses five and six, Ruth responds and she says, all that you say I will do. So she went down to the threshing floor and did according to all that her mother-in-law had commanded her. And what we see next is the details of that, that not only did she do it, but this is how she did it. This is how it went. So she obeys her mother-in-law. And that’s the plan. That’s the first part of this text that we see is the plan that’s given. And next we have the encounter. And that’s verses 7 through 15.

And Boaz ate and drank, and his heart was merry. And he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. And she came secretly and uncovered his feet and lay down. Then it happened in the middle of the night that the man was startled and bent forward. And behold, a woman was lying at his feet. And he said, who are you? And she answered, I am Ruth, your maidservant. So spread your wing over your maidservant, for you are a kinsman redeemer. So he said, may you be blessed of Yahweh, my daughter. You have shown your last loving kindness to be better than the first by not going after young men, whether poor or rich. So now, my daughter, do not fear. All that you say, I will do for you. For all my people within the gates of the city know that you are a woman of excellence. But now it is true that I am a kinsman redeemer. However, there is a kinsman redeemer closer than I. Stay this night, and it will be in the morning that if he will redeem you, good, let him redeem you. But if he does not desire to redeem you, then I will redeem you. As Yahweh lives, lie down until morning. So she laid his feet until morning and rose before one could recognize another. And he said, let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor. And he said, give me the cloak that is on you and hold it. So she held it and he measured six measures of barley and placed it on her. Then she went into the city.

So this is the threshing floor encounter. This is everything going to the plan that Naomi had made. So Ruth arrives at the threshing floor. She’s probably hiding and waiting somewhere. And just like Naomi had said, Boaz ate and drank, and after his meal, he was in very good spirits, and he went and went to bed. He lay down for a good night’s sleep. He was satisfied with his workers and that they had accomplished everything for the evening, so he slept restfully. And how much time elapsed between Boaz going to bed and Ruth coming, we don’t really know. It doesn’t explain for us. But since he didn’t notice that she uncovered his feet, he must have fallen asleep pretty quickly. Before Ruth made that move, he was already asleep. So she snuck up and uncovered his feet, like Naomi said, and she laid down.

Now I doubt that Ruth went to sleep. I’m sure she’s probably pretty nervous at this time that she’s doing these things. She had not come to the threshing floor for that purpose. She was there for another reason. And then verse eight, it says, it happened in the middle of the night that the man was startled and bent forward and behold, a woman was lying at his feet. Now this is interesting because startled there could also mean that he shivered. I think that’s kind of a little more of the picture that’s taking place here, that his feet are uncovered, he’s sleeping, it’s the middle of the night, and he’s starting to shiver because he’s cold. And so it says he bent forward to pull up the blankets, and behold, there’s a woman at his feet. Behold, a woman is there.

A single man finding a woman at his feet in the middle of the night would be a bit shocking. I’m sure Boaz was startled. In verse 9 he says, who are you? And she answered, I am Ruth, your maidservant. So spread your wing over your maidservant, for you are a kinsman redeemer. Apparently he didn’t recognize Ruth. It’s probably pretty dark there on the threshing floor at midnight. And so Ruth answers, I am Ruth, your maidservant. Now this is an interesting shift in this book.

Interestingly, she did not introduce herself as Ruth the Moabite. And she did not introduce herself as the one who returned with Naomi from the land of Moab, as she was introduced in chapter two. She didn’t even introduce herself as Ruth, the widow of Malon. She said, I am Ruth, your maidservant. She’s no longer identifying with her negative past. She seems to be doing what Naomi encouraged her to do. To move on with her life. To take that next step. To clean herself up and present herself to Boaz in this way. And that’s what she’s doing.

And then she uses a… figure of speech or an idiom that we really don’t understand in English, or in our time at least. She says, spread your wings over me. And that’s just not something that we say. So what does that mean? Really the context there, it’s a euphemistic expression for marriage. Sometimes in marriages, the husband would put his cloak over the wife signifying that he would now protect and support her. That was just an act that happened in marriages.

As Daniel Block, one commenter says, this gesture involved a man covering a woman with his garment signifying the establishment of a new relationship in the declaration of the husband to provide for the sustenance of the wife. So it’s an act that happens at a marriage. So, quite literally, Ruth is proposing marriage by asking that. By saying, spread your wing over me, it’s asking for marriage.

So, Ruth is a little bold here. Ruth, the Moabite woman, is approaching this wealthy man of excellence, this well-known man in town, and saying, marry me. Put your wing over me. Again, not necessarily recommended. This is describing the way this happened. But she says, for you are a kinsman redeemer. You are a kinsman redeemer for me. And Boaz’s response to Ruth’s actions is as remarkable as her deeds were and her words had been. In verse 10, Boaz responds, by hearing in the middle of the night a woman who has uncovered your feet and woken you up and you sit up and say, What’s going on here? Who are you? And she says, I’m Ruth. You should marry me, since you’re my kinsman redeemer.

I’m sure it probably took a moment for Boaz to gather his thoughts, but this is how he responds. May you be blessed of Yahweh, my daughter. You have shown your last loving kindness to be better than the first by not going after young men, whether poor or rich. This is how I am convinced that this was not an inappropriate interaction, that this was not an immoral sort of situation. Boaz’s immediate response, Boaz confirmed his positive reception of this action by Ruth. He praises her for her really remarkable, her extraordinary demonstration of loving kindness.

This is that word again, that hesed, that characteristic of God, that his people are supposed to emulate, that grace, that mercy, that, again, loving kindness. And he says more at the end than at the beginning. He had already praised Ruth in chapter two, verse 11. He praised her for her former loving kindness by leaving where she was, by leaving her family and coming to take care of her mother-in-law. So the first time they met, he praised her for her loving kindness. And now he’s saying, you’re even better than I thought. Your last loving kindness is even better than the first.

So in Boaz’s mind, this daring, this… appearance at the threshing floor and her request that he marry her, it actually showed the grace of God. It showed loving kindness of God. It showed her loving kindness not only in leaving her people behind, leaving her comfort and her family behind, but her commitment to Naomi. And why would he say that? Why is this greater than what he saw before? And he answers that question by bringing up the fact that Ruth had not gone after other men to marry. She hadn’t gone after younger men. She hadn’t gone after rich or poor men. Rich men means she’s going after them for their money. Poor men means she’s going after them for physical reasons. But whatever the reason, she didn’t seek after her own personal desires.

She was aiming to take care of Naomi. And Boaz was somebody who could do that. If she had gone after younger men, Naomi had released her. If you remember that from chapter one, she said, you can go marry whoever you want. And if she had married outside of Elimelech’s family, Naomi is left on her own. There’s nobody to redeem Elimelech’s possessions for Naomi. But by going after the one who could, she is taking care of Naomi in this. She is looking after her mother-in-law. And so by pursuing Boaz, Ruth is again showing this loving kindness for her mother-in-law. And again, Boaz deflects the attention from himself and onto Ruth and in her character.

And again, although Ruth asked Boaz to marry her, as soon as she asks, Boaz realizes the stakes are much higher than even she probably realizes. She’s looking out for this clan in Israel being a Moabite. And again, Boaz is impressed. But then Boaz answers in verse 11. So now, my daughter, do not fear. All that you say I will do for you, for all my people within the gates of the city know that you are a woman of excellence. So he answers, yes. Again, Boaz is shifting their attention from her past, from the past that she had left behind, to the future. Boaz is answering as though he is the servant here, that he is the one who owes this favor, because he says, all that you ask, I will do for you. That sounds like a servant. That’s what a servant would say. Again, Boaz had reasons for accepting this proposal. The citizens of Bethlehem were beginning to come to know who Ruth was.

Ruth was, in fact, a woman of excellence. She was a good candidate for a wife. She had a reputation. People knew who she was. First, when she first came to Israel, she was known only as the Moabitess, the one that Naomi dragged back with her. Now, she’s known as a woman of excellence. In chapter two, we saw that was how Boaz was described, this man of excellence. He was the one who was the ultimate man for Naomi and Ruth in this situation, and now Ruth is the one who is called the woman of excellence.

Think of that turn of fortune for Ruth. She comes from Moab. She is undesirable. Nobody in Israel wants a Moabite around. This is a matter of weeks or months. She’s the foreigner at the mercy of the Israelites. She’s the lowest of the low. She was left only to go scavenge in the fields of Israel, behind the harvesters. And Boaz could have treated her like moabite trash. Left her to scavenge behind in Israel’s garbage. and left her to, assumingly, corrupt the people of Israel with her Moabite morals. That’s how she’s looked at. But because of her character, because of this loving kindness that she shows, her gracious and righteous actions, Boaz sees her as a woman who is equal in character to him, and someone who is equivalent to him.

So verses 12 and 13 says, But now, it is true, I am a kinsman redeemer. However, there is a kinsman redeemer closer than I. Stay this night and it will be in the morning that if he will redeem you, then good, let him redeem you. But if he does not desire to redeem you, then I will redeem you. As Yahweh lives, lie down until morning.”

Boaz had initially responded yes to Ruth’s proposal, that yes, he will marry her. So I’m sure her hopes jump. Her heart is probably beating a mile a minute now. She has found a husband, somebody who will marry her. And then, but now, Boaz has some bad news. There’s a foil in the plot, which shows that Boaz had thought about this too. This wasn’t the first time that this had been on Boaz’s mind. He knows the issue here.

As again, one commenter said, Ruth’s heart probably skipped a beat or two as she listened to Boaz’s warm response. But with the second but now in verse 12, the man signaled a disturbing hitch in Naomi’s scheme that could have caused her heart to stop. So Boaz again affirmed he is a kinsman redeemer, but there’s another one. And there’s one that’s even closer.

There’s another man in the story. I’m telling you, this is an Old Testament Hallmark movie. It’s all here. This other man. was actually the one who could legally be this redeemer for Ruth. He was closer than Boaz, so we have a problem. So Boaz tries to calm Ruth with some immediate counsel. Just wait. Let me go see you in the morning, and we’ll try to take care of this.

By the sounds of Boaz’s explanation, Ruth might be a little upset or a little distraught by this news. But he says, just be patient. Lie down until morning. He tries to calm her nerves here, although notice he did not say calm down. Again, young men, that one’s free. But he says, lie down until morning. I’ll go take care of this.

Again, this is not an inappropriate invite from Boaz to Ruth to lie down until morning. It’s speaking of lodging or staying the night. Ruth had used this word in verse 16 of chapter one where she tells Naomi, where you lodge, I will lodge. That’s what he’s telling Ruth to do, just lodge the night here. There’s nothing inappropriate here. Again, they had just talked about their character, so that’s not what’s going on. He’s not going to take advantage of this woman who he just said he couldn’t marry yet. I mean, he’s willing to obey the law in that regard. He’s going to obey the law in the other regard as well.

But obviously, Boaz has great respect for Ruth here and his eagerness to resolve this situation. I think not only respect for Ruth, he’s interested in Ruth. We’ve seen this all the way along. Remember, whose young woman is that over there? I don’t recognize her. That was in chapter two. Now, he wants to get this handled. He wants to get this taken care of. So it will happen in the morning, he says. He wants to get it taken care of immediately.

So Ruth, again, obeys. She heeded Naomi’s advice in the beginning of the chapter, and now she heeds Boaz’s advice. And Ruth laid down at the place of his feet for the remainder of the night, as we see in verse 14 and 15. So she lay at his feet until morning and rose before one could recognize another. And he said, let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor. And he said, give me a cloak. Give me the cloak that is on you and hold it. So she held it and he measured six measures of barley and placed it on her and she went into the city.

So before dawn, where it’s still dark out, Ruth gets up and prepares to leave. And Boaz is already awake. And under the dark of the early morning, you can see this whispered conversation going on and he’s speaking to somebody else. Because he says, don’t tell anyone that the woman was here. So he’s not talking to Ruth, he’s talking to somebody else first. Boaz, obviously, from what we saw already, supported her efforts, but he wants her to go away without being noticed. Boaz has a reputation to protect too. And he’s not covering for anything, he’s just not wanting people to get the wrong impression. He’s not wanting people to get the wrong idea about what happened.

So both he and Ruth’s standing in the community could have been jeopardized by seeing her leave early in the morning. But again, Boaz is seeking to maintain his extraordinary generosity and to demonstrate his character once again. Or maybe he wanted to make it look like the reason she came down was for grain. So he says, here, quick, give me your cloak and I’ll give you some grain. Whatever the reason, he sent her home with a pretty substantial gift of food again.

And again, it says measures here, six measures. Before she took home one ephah of barley. Here it’s not a specific measurement, so it’s probably just six scoops of grain into the hood of her coat so that she could carry it home. So again, this is the end of the encounter on the threshing floor and Ruth goes away well-stocked again. She brings home plenty for her and Naomi. And we’ll see that as we come, lastly, to the significance of this encounter, starting in verse 16.

“Then she came to her mother-in-law and she said, how did it go, my daughter? And she told her all that the man had done for her. And she said, these six measures of barley he gave to me. For he said, do not go down to your mother-in-law empty. And she said, sit then my daughter until you know how the matter falls into place. For the man will not remain quiet until he has finished the matter today.”

And that is the end of chapter three. So Ruth gets home from this encounter. I doubt Naomi has slept much either, awaiting to see how things went after sending her with this scheme in place. And she says, how did it go? How did it go, my daughter? And so Ruth reports what happens. And she says that Boaz again had showed himself generous. And the first thing she mentions here, at least that we have, is the grain.

So Naomi says, well, how did it go? She’s like, look, I got a bunch of grain. No, not that. That’s not what I’m asking about. How did the rest of it go? But apparently she did at some point explain all that happened on the threshing floor that night because she gives Ruth instruction to sit and wait, to let Boaz do what he said he was going to do.

Again, Boaz’s own words declare the Extraordinary generosity that is found in this gift that was given to Ruth. He didn’t want Ruth to return home empty-handed. He wanted to send a gift back, not only to Ruth, but to Naomi. He didn’t want to send her home without a gift. So again, Boaz’s character is on display, even in that seemingly insignificant action, that he is a generous man, that it keeps shining through over and over again.

Now again, remember Naomi’s attitude at the beginning of this book. Naomi’s attitude in chapter one, in verse 21. She says, God has left me empty. I went out full, but God has emptied me. And yet again, God is taking care of Naomi. God is filling Naomi. God is providing for Naomi. And God continually provides for us in ways that we never expected. And that’s what we see with Ruth once again. And so Naomi says, sit then, my daughter, until you know how the matter falls. For the man will not remain quiet until he has finished the matter today.

So she has some encouragement for Ruth. Remember who Boaz is. That man will not let this remain until he has finished the matter today. So Ruth had carried out this unconventional scheme of Naomi’s and a scheme that could have gone wrong in many ways. But God is sovereign. God is protecting them along the way. God is working out the details of this encounter. Probably if it was any two other people in Israel at that time that did this thing, it would not have turned out the way that it turned out. But God is orchestrating the events that are happening here.

God sovereignly brought this family together. And this plan, again, could go horribly wrong. And we see God’s sovereignty in it all. But again, alongside God’s sovereignty, you see man’s responsibility. A lot of the things that happened in this story happened because different people took action and did something. And while they didn’t know how it would turn out, they still took action, and God handled the rest. While God is working all this out, different people are making different choices, and there were different factors that played into the situation, like that Ruth had an excellent reputation, so that when Boaz hears that it’s Ruth, he knows that it’s not an inappropriate situation. He knows that she is someone to be trusted.

The same thing with Boaz. Boaz had an excellent reputation and Boaz had an excellent character, which is why he didn’t take advantage of her and why Naomi felt that she could trust Ruth to go carry out this plan. And this ought to instruct us about our reputation, that our reputation matters. And our reputation will play into the different opportunities we are afforded in life, that it matters the way that we carry ourselves and the character that we display in life. That yes, God is sovereign over it, but we too have some responsibility on our end.

One bad decision could ruin a reputation or could ruin a story like this. And yes, God is sovereign once again, but we too need to take the appropriate actions when we need to. And again, lastly, we see the providence of God. God provides. God continually provides throughout this whole story. Naomi is being provided for more than she could ask or imagine. And through Ruth’s persistent obedience, Ruth herself is receiving God’s blessings as well. Despite some odd and unlikely circumstances, things that you probably wouldn’t do, God is providing. And the God of the Bible is bringing this story together and He is sovereign over it all.

Let’s stand and close in a word of prayer tonight. Our God, we thank You for this wonderful story that we have in Your Word. This true story. The way that You work things together for the good of those who love You. For those who seek to obey You and to live out the character that you have displayed for us. We thank you for this story and for the things that it teaches us, the encouragement that it brings us. And we know that we can trust you because you haven’t changed. You are still the God who sovereignly works things out. You are still the God who provides. God, we thank you for who you are and for the way that you teach us about yourself. And we pray all these things in Christ’s precious name. Amen.