Ruth and Boaz: The Redeemer

Midnight on a threshing floor outside Bethlehem. The harvest is in. A man wakes with a start in the dark, and realises someone is lying at his feet.

The barley and wheat harvests are over. Ruth, the young widow from Moab, has spent weeks gleaning in the fields of Boaz, a kind and respected relative of her mother-in-law Naomi. And Naomi has been thinking. “My daughter,” she says, “shouldn't I find you a home, where you'll be settled and cared for? Boaz is our relative. Tonight he'll be winnowing barley on the threshing floor.” Then she tells Ruth what to do. Wash, put on perfume and your best clothes, and go down to the threshing floor. Notice where he lies down. Then go, uncover his feet, and lie down there. “He will tell you what to do.” Ruth answers simply. “I will do everything you say.”

So Ruth goes down in the dark. Boaz eats and drinks, and in good spirits he lies down at the far end of the grain pile. Ruth comes quietly, uncovers his feet, and lies down. At midnight Boaz stirs, turns over, and there is a woman lying at his feet. “Who are you?” “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread the corner of your garment over me, for you are a redeemer.” It is a bold request, and a respectful one. Most readers understand it as a proposal of marriage. Earlier, Boaz had prayed that Ruth would find refuge under God's wings. The Hebrew word for wings can also mean the corner of a garment. Ruth is asking Boaz to become the answer to his own prayer.

Boaz is moved. “The Lord bless you, my daughter. This kindness is even greater than the first. You haven't gone after younger men, rich or poor. Now don't be afraid. I will do all you ask. Everyone in town knows you are a woman of worth.” But there's a problem. “It's true that I am a redeemer. But there is another relative who is closer than I am. Stay here tonight. In the morning, if he will redeem you, good. If not, as surely as the Lord lives, I will do it.” Before dawn, Ruth gets up. Boaz pours six measures of barley into her shawl and sends her home. Naomi hears the whole story and smiles. “Wait, my daughter. That man won't rest until the matter is settled today.”

Boaz goes straight up to the town gate and sits down. And along comes the very relative he spoke of. The book never gives his name. Boaz calls out something like, “Hey, so-and-so! Come over here and sit down.” Then he gathers ten of the town's elders as witnesses. “Naomi is selling the piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech,” Boaz says. “You have the first right to buy it back. If you will redeem it, say so. If not, tell me, because I'm next in line.” “I'll redeem it.” Then Boaz adds, “On the day you buy the field from Naomi, you also take on Ruth the Moabite, the dead man's widow, to keep his name alive on his land.” The man backs away fast. “Then I can't redeem it. I might endanger my own inheritance. I can't do it.” And he pulls off his sandal and hands it to Boaz.

Boaz turns to the elders and all the people. “You are witnesses today. I have bought from Naomi everything that belonged to Elimelech and his sons. And I have also taken Ruth the Moabite to be my wife, so that the dead man's name will not disappear.” “We are witnesses,” they answer, and they bless him. “May the Lord make this woman like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel.” So Boaz marries Ruth, and the Lord gives her a son. The women of Bethlehem gather around Naomi. “Praise the Lord, who has not left you without a redeemer today! This child will renew your life and care for you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you, is better to you than seven sons.” Naomi takes the baby in her arms and cares for him. The neighbours name him Obed. Obed became the father of Jesse, and Jesse became the father of David, Israel's greatest king. The woman who came home empty is full again.

The sandal was the paperwork. The book of Ruth pauses to explain it, because even by the time the story was written down, the custom was old. In earlier times in Israel, it says, when people settled a matter of redeeming or exchanging property, one man pulled off his sandal and gave it to the other. And it all happened at the town gate. In ancient Israel the gate was much more than a doorway. It was where the elders sat, where people met, and where business and legal cases were settled in public, in front of witnesses.

Ruth and Boaz. You'll find it in the book of Ruth, chapters 3 and 4. A foreign widow, a generous redeemer, and a grandmother holding a baby who would be the grandfather of King David. Matthew's Gospel names Ruth in the family line of Jesus. So here's something to think about. Where have you seen God quietly at work through ordinary kindness?