3 One day Naomi said to Ruth, “My daughter, it’s time that I found a permanent home for you, so that you will be provided for. ² Boaz is a close relative of ours, and he’s been very kind by letting you gather grain with his young women. Tonight he will be winnowing barley at the threshing floor. ³ Now do as I tell you—take a bath and put on perfume and dress in your nicest clothes. Then go to the threshing floor, but don’t let Boaz see you until he has finished eating and drinking. ⁴ Be sure to notice where he lies down; then go and uncover his feet and lie down there. He will tell you what to do.”

⁵ “I will do everything you say,” Ruth replied. ⁶ So she went down to the threshing floor that night and followed the instructions of her mother-in-law.

⁷ After Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he lay down at the far end of the pile of grain and went to sleep. Then Ruth came quietly, uncovered his feet, and lay down. ⁸ Around midnight Boaz suddenly woke up and turned over. He was surprised to find a woman lying at his feet! ⁹ “Who are you?” he asked.

“I am your servant Ruth,” she replied. “Spread the corner of your covering over me, for you are my family redeemer.”

¹⁰ “The Lord bless you, my daughter!” Boaz exclaimed. “You are showing even more family loyalty now than you did before, for you have not gone after a younger man, whether rich or poor. ¹¹ Now don’t worry about a thing, my daughter. I will do what is necessary, for everyone in town knows you are a virtuous woman. ¹² But while it’s true that I am one of your family redeemers, there is another man who is more closely related to you than I am. ¹³ Stay here tonight, and in the morning I will talk to him. If he is willing to redeem you, very well. Let him marry you. But if he is not willing, then as surely as the Lord lives, I will redeem you myself! Now lie down here until morning.”

¹⁴ So Ruth lay at Boaz’s feet until the morning, but she got up before it was light enough for people to recognize each other. For Boaz had said, “No one must know that a woman was here at the threshing floor.” ¹⁵ Then Boaz said to her, “Bring your cloak and spread it out.” He measured six scoops of barley into the cloak and placed it on her back. Then he returned to the town.

¹⁶ When Ruth went back to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, “What happened, my daughter?”

Ruth told Naomi everything Boaz had done for her, ¹⁷ and she added, “He gave me these six scoops of barley and said, ‘Don’t go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’”

¹⁸ Then Naomi said to her, “Just be patient, my daughter, until we hear what happens. The man won’t rest until he has settled things today.”

Ruth 3

Dear God, still following this theme of Ruth not having any guile about her, this is the part of the story where Naomi teaches her to have a little strategy, and I think that’s okay. But there are still a couple of things I noticed about Ruth’s character here.

• Boaz is right in that it would have been the more obvious path for her to have pursued younger men. Excitement. Happiness. Frivolity. I don’t know how old Boaz was. Maybe as young as 40. Maybe as old as 80. It’s difficult to say. But Ruth wasn’t waking up in the morning looking for a young husband. Maybe she had already been there and done that with her first husband, Kilion. She had been to the circus and looked behind the curtain. Now she just wanted to serve Naomi, and this is what Naomi was asking her to do.
• There was no reason for Ruth to be there except to present herself to Boaz. It’s not like this was the end of a long harvesting day. Ruth got washed up, perfumed up, and dressed up. She went down after everyone had been drinking. I wonder if it was typical for women to come and offer themselves to men in some way at times like this. I’ll need to look that up.
• This whole scene is probably a little more risqué than I give it credit for. How much was Ruth jeopardizing her reputation in the community by doing this? At least to some extent because she had to sneak away before daylight.

Father, I just love Ruth’s gentleness. She is just waking up and doing in each moment what she things is best. And you were using her and this situation this whole time. And this is actually the last story we get about Ruth herself interacting with someone in the book. The last chapter is about what Boaz does and then the fruit of their lives. I read one time that your design for us is to be born, grow up, have babies, and then get out of history’s way. And to some extent that is true. We are also called to love you and love others while we are here. That’s what our children are to do as well. Help me to simply love you and love others today.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen