Boaz points us to Christ’s compassion and generosity. Just as Boaz extended kindness and protection to Ruth, a foreign outcast, Jesus offers His grace to all who are spiritually destitute. Just as Boaz redeemed Ruth from her destitution, Jesus redeems believers from their spiritual poverty and makes them his own.

The story of Ruth is one of the most beautiful narratives in the entire Bible. It’s rich with themes such as loyalty, kindness, humility, faithfulness, and redemption. It’s a rich tapestry of character qualities and moral lessons. It teaches us about loyalty, redemption, kindness, humility, hard work, and God’s sovereignty. And, believe it or not, it teaches us a little about the meaning of Christmas too.

The story starts in Ruth 1, where a woman named Naomi experiences a famine and loses everything except her foreign daughter-in-law. Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth had nothing. They had no prospects for the future, no rights, and no hope. Ruth, a foreigner, would have faced distrust due to her allegiance to other gods. In Ruth 1, we see that God works in our darkest moments and among the most hopeless people, even when it’s not clear to us.

But in Ruth 2, we found a bit of hope. God provided for Ruth and Naomi through a righteous man named Boaz and some seeming coincidences. We learned last week that God works in anxious times through God’s people and God’s providence. Even in moments when God appears to be absent, he is always present. And when things look hopeless, God is working behind the scenes for the good and happiness of his people.

Today we focus on Ruth 3. Ruth 3 is where everything changes in the story of Ruth. Chapter 3 is where the story goes from a story of gleaner and benefactor to that of potential marriage partners.

Today I want to do two things: I want to experience some of the power of the story, and then I want to show how this story connects us with Jesus.

The Story

Last week, we saw that Boaz went out of his way to help Ruth. Not only did he protect her, but he sent her home with a lot of food, probably about 35–40 pounds of barley, enough to feed Ruth and her mother for up to a week. At the end of chapter 1, Naomi and Ruth are empty. At the end of chapter 2, they’re full. Something is happening in the story.

I didn’t mention it last week, but Naomi gave Ruth an important detail about Boaz. It’s only mentioned briefly, but it’s one of the keys to the whole book. “Naomi also said to her, ‘The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers’” (Ruth 2:20). A kinsman-redeemer was a male relative who had the responsibility and right to act on behalf of a relative who was in trouble, danger, or need. A kinsman-redeemer had a few basic duties, including these two:

• If relatives became so poor that they had to sell themselves as slaves, the kinsman redeemer was responsible for purchasing their freedom (Leviticus 25:25-55).
• When a married man died without having children, the kinsman redeemer could be required to marry the widow. Any children from this marriage would legally be considered heirs of the deceased husband, ensuring his family line and property rights continued (Deuteronomy 25:5-10). This practice helped preserve the deceased man’s name and legacy within the community.

You can sense a bit of hope. There were some problems as well. In Ruth’s case, two things made the situation unusual:

• Boaz wasn’t a brother of the dead man – he was just a more distant relative. So it wasn’t clear if he had the same obligations as a brother would have had.
• Ruth was a foreigner (from Moab), and the laws about kinsman redeemers didn’t specifically say anything about what to do with foreign widows.

At the end of chapter 2, we’re left wondering if this little detail is going to end up meaning anything in the end.

And then Naomi hatches a plan. The plan was bold and simple. The plan was simple.

First, that Ruth would prepare herself by washing herself and anointing herself with perfume, and putting on her best clothes. These actions would symbolize moving from mourning to a state of readiness for a new chapter in her life.

Secondly, Ruth would carefully plan the timing of her approach. She would wait until Boaz finished eating and drinking at the threshing floor. The threshing floor was where grain was separated from chaff, and landowners would often sleep there to protect their harvest. The timing was crucial – she was to wait until he was in “good spirits” after his meal.

Then, Ruth would make her move. She would observe where he lay. She would approach him quietly after he’s asleep. She would uncover his feet and lie down in the place normally reserved for a wife. She would be saying to him, basically, that she wanted to be his wife.

This was not a seductive act. By taking these actions, Ruth was making a culturally understood, non-verbal request for protection and marriage. She was working within the cultural norms while giving Boaz the opportunity to act as kinsman-redeemer. It was bold. It was risky. And Ruth did it.

We just read the story, so you know how things turned out, but imagine how both Naomi and Ruth must have felt. Picture Naomi, filled with anticipation, anxiously waiting to find out what transpired. Picture Ruth quietly entering the threshing floor to carry out her plan. Imagine Boaz waking up in the middle of the night, trying to figure out who this was.

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