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How do we provide for our families? We work, we save. How do we provide for our future? Pension, savings. How do we provide for our children? We teach them, encourage them to work hard at school, encourage them to marry well, etc...
Provision is a big issue in the book of Ruth, Chapter 1 was full of gloom, mourning and emptiness as Elimelek and family went in search of provision but met death and destitution. Then last week we saw, in Chapter 2, the wonderful provision of food, protection, and security for Ruth in the fields of Boaz, but the chapter ends on a worrying note; (23)"So, Ruth stayed close to the women of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law." Did you spot it?
The harvests are finishing, there will be no more fields in which to glean, no gleanings means no food. As chapter 3 opens the future is still very unclear for Ruth and Naomi, God in his loving kindness has provided through Boaz but will they trust him to provide again, and if so how will he do it?
1. Failure of Faith isn’t fatal to Faith (1-6)
What was Naomi like in chapter 1? Bitter, defeated, unsure who God was, facing a bleak
future. In Chapter 2 who was it who takes the initiative? Ruth, the Moabitess, acts on
the law’s provision.
But now Naomi is transformed and she (1)acts; "My daughter, I must find a home for you, where you will be well provided for." Naomi wants to take on the problem that Ruth is homeless and faces a bleak future. Her proposal is to our minds quite surprising.
(2-4)Do you see what the plan is? Wash perfume yourself, put on your best clothes - can you picture the scene. Candles round the floor, Whitney Houston’s ‘I will always love you’ quietly playing in the background, the little black Versace dress, the subtle scent of Chanel No 5 hanging in the air and Ruth looking ravishing after a long afternoon choosing what to wear and relaxing in a long hot bath.
Well we need to get all those images out of our minds if we are to understand this. Naomi is not plotting a romantic seduction. The setting is what? The threshing floor, a dusty dirty large open area, there are no candles or music just a pile of grain and the other workers. And as for the perfume and washing it was to cover the smell of the bodies’ natural odours in the heat. And the little black dress was nothing of the sort it was a large outer cloak.
But it is significant - Naomi is proposing that Ruth puts off the apparel of a widow in mourning, signalling that she is ready to live again, to marry again. This is not some sordid seduction, it is a proposal and Boaz recognises it as such.
Naomi and Ruth are both acting on faith, they have no right to expect this provision but they are trusting in the character of Boaz that he will be a kinsman redeemer to them. That he will show loving kindness beyond what duty demands. They are trusting in God as Ruth readies herself and leaves for the threshing floor. But how will Boaz react to such a request?
Naomi is no longer the bitter, hopeless, empty character of chapter 1 she now acts taking the initiative. Her faith is renewed when she hears whose field Ruth was working in, how God has provided. 2:20 "The LORD bless him!" Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. "He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead." She added, "That man is our close relative; he is one of our family guardians."
Failure of faith isn’t fatal to faith. Maybe you need to hear that this evening, doubting, questioning does not mean we are abandoned and rejected by God.
2. Faith is acting on what we know while trusting God with what we don’t (7-9)
As Ruth goes down to the threshing floor pursuing provision, there is a lot in the balance
- will her and Naomi’s faith be met with action by Boaz? Will she be given rest, provision
and a future or be left to carry on a poor widow with little hope?
As the second scene begins Boaz settles down to sleep, content but tired after a hard days work. But sometime in the night something startled him, his feet are cold, he rolls over and there at his feet is a woman. What a way to wake up! Naturally in the dark he asks who it is.
"I am your servant Ruth," she said. "Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a family guardian." It’s an odd request isn’t it, but Boaz knows exactly what it means, Ruth isn’t just asking him to budge over and give her a bit more of the duvet! She is asking him to provide for her, to marry her, to give her a hope and a future.
Her request is reminiscent of Boaz’ prayer of blessing in 2:12 "May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge." That connection becomes even clearer when we realise that wing and garment are the same word. Ruth is asking Boaz to fulfil his prayer of blessing, to be the conduit of God’s blessing, to be the answer to the prayer he prayed. To be the rich reward of the Lord, to be the provider of God’s protection.
It is a phenomenal request. Marry me? Provide for me? We see Ruth and Naomi’s faith in God as they act on what they know and trust God for the rest. But Boaz is under no obligation to do this so the question is will he undertake such a costly task?
3. God’s people reflect God’s character
Both Naomi’s plan and Ruth’s actions and words are audacious aren’t they? They were
incredibly risky - Boaz could easily have misinterpreted Ruth’s actions, after all the
time of the Judges was one of amorality. But Boaz had proven himself to be one who loved
God and through whom God was showing his ‘hesed’ love.
How does Ruth describe Boaz? "family guardian" or "kinsman redeemer", and it is the redemption theme that Boaz picks up. He can redeem her from poverty and provide a secure future, buying back all the family land and maintaining the family line, and he is willing to do so even though it will be costly for him.
But there is a problem, what is it? "there is another who is more closely related than I." Boaz would love to marry Ruth, he is willing to redeem her a fact made clear by the repetition of the idea in(13) and provide the rest, future, and redemption needed. But as a righteous man he will follow God’s law even when it poses a problem. He will act by faith, following the revealed will of God which he finds in the word of God while he, like Ruth and Naomi, trusts God to do the rest.
As a sign of his willingness to undertake the provision he sends her back in the morning with grain, refusing to let Naomi remain empty but giving her hope. As Naomi and Ruth sit down to breakfast there is expectant hope and patient faithfulness waiting for God to provide.
God provides for his people through those who love what he loves. God is a gracious and compassionate God, he is a redeeming God. God is in the business of gathering the foreigner, the broken, the helpless and the destitute of redeeming them and providing refuge for them under his wings and he does so through the actions of those who model themselves on their God.
Boaz will undertake such an expensive and costly redemption because he is like God, he is will to redeem and to provide hope and a future.
In his actions Boaz provides a glimpse of what God will do in Christ when he meets the full redemption price for us, when he will pay the price to make us one of his people. And did you notice how Ruth is described in the chapter? In chapters 1 and 2 what is emphasized is that Ruth is a foreigner, but here we see how Ruth considers herself - she is one of God’s people. God redeems a foreigner for himself and uses her faith in his great plan for salvation to redeem for himself a people from all nations, tribes and tongues.