“I know someone you should meet!  He has a great personality, I just know you would like each other.” We all have that relative or best friend who has the perfect person in mind for us to meet, right?  Our first response might be to roll our eyes at someone interfering in our lives in this way—especially a mom or grandma.  It’s awkward, at best. We feel uncomfortable with something this personal even with a best friend, thinking I can get my own dates, thank you.  But as we think about it from their perspective, these loved ones are only wanting the best for us!  Proceed with caution. (Smiling)

Such is the case with Naomi who loves her young, widowed daughter-in-law dearly.  Naomi is now on a mission.  Naomi sees a man who could be a good husband for Ruth. She selected Boaz, a relative and a good-hearted man, to be that someone who would care for Ruth, possibly even marry her, becoming her guardian-redeemer according to custom. Ruth diligently followed Naomi’s instructions and lay at the feet of Boaz at night as a servant would. Ruth’s loyalty met with Boaz’s approval.  Both Ruth and Boaz were persons of high moral integrity who selflessly honored the customs and traditions of their people.  This is a love story for the ages!

Ruth 3

Ruth and Boaz at the Threshing Floor

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. ² Now Boaz, with whose women you have worked, is a relative of ours. Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. ³ 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. ⁴ 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.”

⁵ “I will do whatever you say,” Ruth answered. ⁶ So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do.

⁷ When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down. ⁸ In the middle of the night something startled the man; he turned—and there was a woman lying at his feet!

⁹ “Who are you?” he asked.

“I am your servant Ruth,” she said. “Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family.”

¹⁰ “The Lord bless you, my daughter,” he replied. “This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. ¹¹ And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All the people of my town know that you are a woman of noble character. ¹² Although it is true that I am a guardian-redeemer of our family, there is another who is more closely related than I. ¹³ Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to do his duty as your guardian-redeemer, good; let him redeem you. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives I will do it. Lie here until morning.”

¹⁴ So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anyone could be recognized; and he said, “No one must know that a woman came to the threshing floor.”

¹⁵ He also said, “Bring me the shawl you are wearing and hold it out.” When she did so, he poured into it six measures of barley and placed the bundle on her. Then he went back to town.

¹⁶ When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, “How did it go, my daughter?”

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

¹⁸ Then Naomi said, “Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

It occurs to me that Naomi seems to be less bitter in grief and has turned a corner in her life.  She wants the best for her daughter-in-law who has never left her side. Ruth was loyal because she knew the grief and uncertainties as she, too, suffered as a widow. Ruth and Naomi have been “grief partners” sharing the emptiness of the passing of husbands who they loved and on whom they depended. Could it be that both now depend solely on God in their grief?  When we come to the end of ourselves, turning to God who we know loves and cares deeply for us is the best move to make.  Faith means knowing our God will supply all we need in all ways.

Was it really Naomi who set the wheels in motion for Ruth and Boaz to have a relationship?  No, God settled this before they left Moab. God knows what we are currently going through and knows what lies ahead for us.  God is sovereign and His ways are always the best for us. Even in our trials of suffering, God uses our circumstances to transform us into all we were created to be.  Praying, asking God to change us in the circumstance as opposed to consistently begging God to change our circumstance speeds up our growing faith process and deepens our intimate relationship with God, the Father, Jesus who saved us, and His Holy Spirit who guides us to all Truth.

Naomi returned to her hometown physically but spiritually she came home to God who renewed her faith and restored her brokenness with hope for the future. God does that with his beloved who trust Him. I know for I am one of His Beloved who loves and trusts God, too. 

Pause to prayerfully considered—

Upon returning to faith, trust and hope in God, Naomi enters the work of God, guiding Ruth with good counsel regarding Boaz.  God’s plan is obvious to us reading the story after all was said and done for us; but wouldn’t be awesome and wise to realize right now that this same God is also at work in our daily lives, too? Stop and give God praise…I am!  God is aways at work in our lives. When we truly focus our hearts with minds ready to listen with understanding we will know Him more with deeper realization of how much God loves and cares for us.

God loved Naomi in her bitter grief and in her renewed hope.  God loved Ruth who adored Naomi and her God. Now God is her God, too. God gives hope and security to both who “came home” to Him.

There were other men who would gladly have married Ruth, but they could not have redeemed her. Only a relative could do that, and Boaz was that relative. Since Naomi knew that Boaz would be using the threshing floor that night and staying there to guard his grain, she instructed Ruth to prepare herself to meet him. Ruth made careful preparations before she presented herself to Boaz.

Consider this thought—

“She was to put off the garments of a sorrowing widow and dress for a wedding (Isaiah 61:1–3). Ruth probably didn’t have a large wardrobe, but she would have one special garment for festive occasions. Naomi had the faith to believe that Ruth would soon be going to a wedding! Salvation is pictured as a change of clothes (Luke 15:22; see also Isaiah 61:10), and Christian living means taking off the “grave clothes” of the old life and putting on the “grace clothes” of the new life (Col. 3:1–17; John 11:44). We can’t come into God’s presence in our own righteousness, for “all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). We can only come in the righteousness of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21), “by which He made us accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians. 1:6)—Wiersbe Study Bible

Jesus Christ—We call Him our Redeemer and Lord.  God calls us His Beloved.

Lord, God,

Thank you for your forgiveness of sins that cleanses and restores our brokenness and give us new life with renewed hope! I stand in awe of you today…again.

In Jesus Name, Amen