A Modest Proposal

In the 2021 film Dune, there's a scene where a foreign ruler from another planet and a local leader meet for the first time. After eyeing each other up, the local man spits in the direction of the ruler. One of the ruler's associates takes great offence until it's explained that, because water is so rare on the local man's home planet, spitting at someone—giving up water for them—is one of the greatest signs of honour you can show.

Reading the Bible can sometimes feel like we're travelling to another planet. As we turn again to the book of Ruth, we are reading about people who lived at a distance of 10,000 km and 3,000 years from us. The little town of Bethlehem can seem like a totally different world from ours. And there are some customs and practices in this culture, as strange to us as spitting at a stranger, that we need to understand if the actions of the people in this chapter are going to make sense to us.

So that's where we're going to begin today. Not by jumping right into Ruth chapter 3, but looking at the background to some of the cultural practices we see in this chapter. There are three particular practices or understandings that, when we put them together, really shape Naomi and Ruth's situation, and we have to understand these practices in order to understand what's actually going on here in this chapter.

1. The Background

Offspring

The piece of background is connected to the priority of offspring. In this time in history and place in the world, having children who perpetuated your name after you were dead was a really big deal. Maybe one of the biggest deals.

Offspring were a big deal for a few reasons. First, if you'll remember from our time in Ecclesiastes, the people of Israel at this stage had no certain hope beyond the grave. And so the next best thing for them was having an heir, a male heir, who would carry on their name after them after they had died.

Second, God had promised Abraham that his offspring would be like the stars in the sky or the sand on the seashore. Having babies who had babies was the way that you participated in this unfolding promise of God.

Third, God had told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. And time and time again, He'd promised Israel that when they obeyed Him, He'd bless them so they could do exactly that. For them to do well as a nation meant that they were multiplying and having lots of babies (Deut 6:3).

For these and further reasons, offspring really mattered. To be left without offspring, especially a male heir, was a huge tragedy.

+Levirate Marriage

This leads right into the second piece of background here, which is the ancient Israelite practice we call "levirate marriage." "Levir" comes from a word for "brother-in-law," and so "levirate marriage" refers to the law that said that if a man died before having a son, his brother was supposed to marry his widow and produce a male heir who would be counted as the son of the dead man, carrying on his name and inheritance (Deut 25:5-7).

The surviving brother wasn't forced into this—there was a way to opt out—but the strong sense is that this is what a good man would do, even though it was a significant risk. It was a risk because who knows whether he'd marry his brother's widow and end up having all girls, or maybe just one son who wouldn't even count as his own. Having his own name be carried on became more of a risk, or at least an act of trust. But this practice shows us, at the very least, how important offspring and inheritance were to these people.

+Land Redemption

Connected to a man's name was also the land that belonged to him. See, the land of Israel was divided up by tribe and clan and family, and the land was supposed to stay within the tribal divisions that God had given to the people. This allowed families and clans to live together and build long-term, stable relationships and have a good inheritance to pass on to their children after them.

So Leviticus 25 describes a process called redemption. Verse 25 says, “If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold.”

The idea is that this man's land was in danger of being lost to the family, and so his closest relative will come and buy it back, "redeeming" it and making sure it stays in the family. That's what family did.

=Naomi & Ruth's Situation

So, with these three practices in our minds, we can get a better sense of Naomi & Ruth's situation. Naomi's husband and sons have died, meaning that this whole branch of the family is in danger of being gone forever—totally erased from the story of God and His people. That's just about the worst thing that could happen to anybody. That's just about the worst thing that could happen to Naomi.

We need to understand this. Ruth was a Moabite who didn't have the same level of skin in the game as Naomi. Naomi, as an Israelite, wore the shame of being a widowed and childless and essentially cursed daughter of Abraham. And her advanced years mean that there's little she can do to fix this.

Naomi's last claim to anything is the land that belonged to her husband Elimelech. But neither she nor Ruth have the resources or the ability to work or manage that land well. They need to survive, and so, as becomes very clear next week, they're going to have to sell that land.

So think of what Naomi needs. She needs a close relative who will buy their land to keep it in the family. She also needs a close relative who will marry Ruth and produce an heir for Ruth's dead husband, which also means an heir for Naomi's dead husband.

As best as we can understand, in situations like Ruth's, these two roles went together as one. In their approach to case law, the people had put together that when a man died and left a childless widow and land, his closest relative—the redeemer—would both buy the land and marry the widow. Wife and land went together.

And the man who took care of both was called a redeemer.

Naomi needs a redeemer. And such a redeemer has seemed to surface: a man we met in the last chapter named Boaz (Ruth 2:21). He's a worthy man, one of their close relatives, and by God's good design, Ruth has been working in his fields. As far as Naomi is concerned, the best thing that could happen is for Boaz to marry Ruth. Keep the land in the family, provide an heir for the dead men, and provide a solid future for both Ruth and Naomi.

But there are a lot of things that could get in the way of all of this happening. Maybe Boaz doesn't want to buy the land and take on responsibility for managing it. Maybe he's not interested in taking on the risk involved in levirate marriage. Maybe he's not that interested in marrying a Moabite, a woman from people who didn't exactly have the best reputation in Israel. And if you read through Numbers 22-25, you'll figure out why.

Maybe he sees Ruth just as a charity project. He's had up to three months here to make overtures towards her, and he's done nothing.

And what about Ruth? There's a big age gap between Ruth and Boaz. Maybe Ruth is not interested in marrying an older man. Maybe she wants someone with her own age and energy levels. Maybe she'd prefer a few more years of marriage before having to care for an older husband and then getting widowed a second time.

Most modern retellings of the story of Ruth almost all assume that Ruth and Boaz have the hots for each other, but we haven't been told anything like that so far. We have no idea what's going on in their heads and hearts, and it's likely that neither did Naomi.

So what's Naomi to do? She could do nothing. Just wait for Boaz to make the move, if he wants to make one. We might expect that to happen, given how passive Naomi seemed in the last chapter.

But instead, Naomi decides to take action. Maybe she knows that even good men can be a little clueless sometimes. Wives, you know this. You know that one of the ways you serve as your husband's helper is to notice things that he misses. "Honey, have you thought about that?"

There's a problem here, though. Careful readers of Scripture will have noticed that there is a precedent to this situation. This is not the first time in the story of the Bible that we've seen a situation like this. This isn't the first time in the Bible that we've seen a man have two sons die, and one of their widows—a non-Israelite—be sent back to her father's house, only to decide to take matters into her own hands to secure a male heir for herself.

That woman was Tamar, daughter-in-law of Judah, who is the ancestor of Elimelech and Boaz. Tamar waited around for another son to marry, and when that didn't happen, she took matters into her own hands, disguising herself as a prostitute and obtaining offspring from Judah himself. She gave birth to twin boys, one of whom Boaz himself was descended from.

2. The Plan (vv. 1-5)

We can't help but have that story in the back of our minds as we read the plan that Naomi thought out to solve her and Ruth's situation, which we finally turn to here in chapter 3. “Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, ‘My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you?"

We shouldn't blow past this. Naomi's great hope for her daughters-in-law, going back to chapter 1, is that they'd find rest, a place to settle, in the house of a husband. She really does want to care for Ruth.

So, verse 2, "Is not Boaz our relative, with whose young women you were? See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. 3 Wash therefore and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. 4 But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do’” (Ruth 3:1–4).

We don't know where Naomi picked up this little bit of news about Boaz's schedule, but we do know that winnowing the harvest was a big deal to these people. If the harvest was good, they'd be in good spirits and would celebrate with a big party after which they'd spend the night camping out at the threshing floor.

What this means is that Ruth has this one night where she can find Boaz both alone and in a really good mood. So, Naomi continues in verse 3: make yourself look nice. "Wash and anoint yourself" might have been the ancient equivalent of getting your hair done and putting on lipstick. Sneak down there so nobody knows it’s you until the party is over, she says in verse 3. Wait until he's in a great mood after eating and drinking. Watch where he lies down. Then go uncover his feet and do what he tells you.

The parallels here with Tamar's story keep growing. Boaz, like Judah, is an older man, away from his home to deal with agricultural business. Ruth, like Tamar, is going to dress up and hide her identity and find a chance to get alone with him.

If we were reading this for the first time, we might be thinking, "Oh, no, not again. The story repeats." And in fact, many readers of Ruth have thought that this is what's happening here. I've heard it suggested many times that Naomi is basically telling Ruth to go do with Boaz what Tamar did with Judah. Skip the marriage part and just get pregnant.

And there's not much doubt we're supposed to have those questions in the back of our minds. There is this kind of "what's going on here?" tension in this story.

But we also can't miss the major differences between these stories. We can't miss that Naomi doesn't tell Ruth to do anything inappropriate with or to Boaz.

Many readers of Scripture miss this because they assume that the Biblical authors were a little too embarrassed to just come out and tell us directly what Naomi really meant or what Ruth really did. They had to use phrases like "uncover his feet," which we should understand is a wink-wink code phrase for something inappropriate.

The big problem with this assumption is that it's totally stupid. Because, as we've seen over and over again as we've worked our way through the Bible, the Biblical authors had no problem using straightforward language to tell us about all of the awkward, embarrassing, inappropriate things people did. Read Genesis 38 and see how Judah and Tamar talk to each other. Read Genesis 19, which tells us about where the Moabites came from. No code words used.

The Bible doesn't sensationalize these stories, but it doesn't sanitize them either. If Naomi had told Ruth to do something inappropriate that night, we'd just read about it.

Instead, what we read here is a literal instruction based on basic physiology. When you're sleeping, your feet play a key role in regulating your body temperature. Uncovering Boaz’s feet means that when the temperature drops, which it does in that part of the world after the sun goes down, Boaz is going to wake up because he's going to feel cold.

Which gives him and Ruth an opportunity to talk without anybody else listening. So that Ruth can pitch the plan to Boaz without anybody hearing. So that Boaz isn't publicly embarrassed for not thinking it up himself. So that if Boaz says "no," nobody gets embarrassed or shamed. So that if Boaz says "yes," he can be the one to go and put the plan into action, and Ruth isn't the one taking public initiative.

See, this whole plan is designed to protect Boaz’s reputation and honour in that culture. In that culture, Ruth couldn't just go knock on his door and chat with him. He's got to take the lead. Especially on something as major as getting married.

Even in our highly feminized culture, it's still the guy who asks the girl to marry him almost all of the time. And if Boaz needs a little nudge, Naomi's plan means he gets the nudge in private so as not to embarrass either of them.

Still, all that being said, Ruth and Boaz are going to be alone together after dark. That kind of situation is filled with a certain kind of tension. Ruth wasn't supposed to go into another field in broad daylight to avoid being taken advantage of by other men. And here she is, going to be alone at night with Boaz. We should be wondering: will the Judah and Tamar story repeat? What kind of man is Boaz? What kind of woman is Ruth?

We're about to find out. But before we do, don't miss Ruth's submission in verse 5. “And she replied, ‘All that you say I will do’” (Ruth 3:5).

This story is not about Ruth the proto-feminist marching out to get the guy for herself. This is about Ruth fulfilling her commitment to care for Naomi. If marrying Boaz is the best way of doing that, then so be it. And off she goes to put the plan into action.

3. Putting the Plan into Action (vv. 6-15)

Ruth's Courage (vv. 6-9)

Verse 6 continues the note of submission by saying that Ruth "did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her" (Ruth 3:6). Ruth waits for just the right time, like she was told: “And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain." It was a big harvest. He's got lots of reasons to be happy. He's got lots of reserves to be generous.

Verse 7 goes on: "Then she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down” (Ruth 3:7). Can you imagine how hard Ruth's heart would have been beating at this point? This is a gutsy girl. This is courage. I wonder if she tried to talk herself out of it. We don't know. All we know is that she did what Naomi said, and now she's just lying there, waiting.

Verse 8: “At midnight the man was startled and turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet!” (Ruth 3:8). He wakes up because of his cold feet, remember? And look, there's a woman at his feet! The word "woman" captures the sense that he doesn't know who this is. So he asks the obvious question: "Who are you?" (v. 9).

Ruth answers with her name. And at this point, she goes off-script. Remember that Naomi had just said that "he will tell you what to do" (v. 4). Ruth, either from nerves, or because she really doesn't want him to misunderstand what's going on, blurts out what she hopes for: “Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer’” (Ruth 3:9b).

I'm so glad that Ruth couldn't hold this in, because what she says here is so beautiful. "Spread your wings over your servant."

Do those words sound familiar at all?

Remember Boaz's words to Ruth in the last chapter? “The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” (Ruth 2:12).

This idea of taking refuge under wings is a word picture that we find a few times in the Bible that portrays God as a mother bird, like a hen, and we are like little chicks coming in close for safety and protection. Boaz knew that Ruth had come to seek shelter under the wings of God, and he gave her a spoken blessing along the lines of, "May God take care of you as you do that."

So what's Ruth saying here to Boaz as she repeats his words back to him, asking him to spread his wings over her? She's essentially asking him to be the answer to his own prayers. "You wanted God to take care of me? You do it."

But there's more, because the way she wants Boaz to care for her is unmistakable. See, there's a wonderful double entendre here in the Hebrew language. The word for "wings" is also the exact same word as "corners of a garment."

So at the same time, Ruth is also saying, "spread the corner of your garment over me." And that's significant because that exact same phrase is used in Ezekiel 16:8 to speak about marrying someone. Apparently, it was a custom in the ancient world, and even some parts of the eastern world today, that a man putting his garment on a woman was a claim to marriage.

I mean, some of this is pretty obvious. When a girl starts wearing a guy's jacket, they're serious. And in the ancient world, unburdened by modern dating practices, "cover me with the corner of your garment" is a way of saying "please put a ring on my finger."

Can you imagine what was going on in Ruth's heart and mind at this point? She's just asked Boaz to basically re-write his life story for her. If he refuses, how can she ever show her face around him again? Maybe that's why Naomi had her wait until the harvest is over.

Ruth has put it all on the line. She's put her whole self into his hands. She's entirely at his mercy now.

And what is Boaz going to do? How those milliseconds must have felt like hours as Ruth waited for his reply.

Boaz's Response (vv. 10-11)

And here it comes in verse 10: “And he said, ‘May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich’” (Ruth 3:10).

Once again, he blesses her. And then he praises her again, telling her that this last act of kindness is greater than the first. The word for "kindness" here means more than just being nice—it's the rich word חֶ֫סֶד (hesed) that describes loyal, steadfast love.

The first act of kindness or steadfast love that Boaz is talking about is what he first praised Ruth for back in chapter 2—specifically, how she left her father and mother and native land and came to a people she did not know to care for Naomi.

If that's her first act of steadfast love, then what's the last act of steadfast love? Boaz tells us—it's Ruth seeking marriage from him instead of going after younger men.

Ruth was young and could have sought marriage with someone her age. Instead, she shows another act of steadfast love to Naomi by following her directions to seek marriage with Boaz. Because, like we've seen, this is going to give Naomi's dead husband an heir and keep his land in the family.

And Boaz is saying: Ruth, by seeking marriage with me, you are showing greater steadfast love to Naomi than you did when you first left Moab to move to Israel with her.

This really shatters our image of Ruth and Boaz as star-struck lovers who can't wait to spend the rest of their lives together. Boaz thinks that Ruth marrying an older man like him was a sacrifice, a sacrifice greater than leaving her home in the first place.

Now maybe Boaz is just being overly modest. He didn't think he was the greatest catch. Maybe that's why he didn't pursue Ruth sooner—he assumed she would want someone her age.

But now that she's asked, he's not going to leave her dangling. Verse 11: “And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman” (Ruth 3:11).

Boaz was a worthy man, we learned last week. This word "worthy" is a lot like when we say someone is a really "solid" person. There's real substance to them.

Boaz had this reputation. And in just three months or so, this has also become Ruth's reputation. Everybody knows that she's not a flake. She's a solid woman of worth, which by the way is the only time in the Bible that a woman is referred to this way. And that's what Boaz sees. Not just a Moabite. Not just a foreigner. A worthy woman. And on the basis of that reputation, Boaz tells Ruth he will marry her.

Notice that we still don't know if Boaz "liked" Ruth. We have no idea if he had "fallen in love" with her or not. Apparently, whether he did or not isn't what really matters. What mattered was her reputation. He was willing to marry her, not based on feelings, but on her known character.

Plot Twist (vv. 12-14)

And we're almost ready to breathe a sigh of relief. That went well, didn't it? But then Boaz reveals a plot twist in verse 12: he is one of her redeemers, but he's not the only one or the closest one. There is another relative who gets priority according to the law.

I wonder if Ruth's heart sunk at this news. She was willing to marry Boaz because he was a worthy man, but who is this other guy? What if she's just given him this idea and she's going to be forced into a marriage she doesn't want? That would be awful. But there's nothing she can do about it now. All Ruth can do is hold on to Boaz’s words in verse 13: “Remain tonight, and in the morning, if he will redeem you, good; let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then, as the Lord lives, I will redeem you’” (Ruth 3:13).

And so Ruth lays down at Boaz’s feet (verse 14). It would have been far too dangerous for her to walk home in the dark, and Boaz’s feet are the safest place for her. I doubt Ruth got much sleep that night, but the text is very clear that Ruth and Boaz did nothing inappropriate that night.

Which is huge, because Boaz is redeeming not just Ruth but the reputation of his whole tribe by re-enacting what his ancestor Judah should have done in that situation. He treats Ruth with absolute respect and purity. Against expectations, against the patterns of their ancestors, they both act worthily even when it's just the two of them alone.

4. Waiting (v. 14-18)

In the morning, they get up before it's bright, and he makes sure that Ruth's presence is kept a secret—in order to protect the reputations of everybody involved. Then he shows more generosity to Ruth, inviting her near and pouring six measures of barley into her garment.

This is a way of showing his intention to provide for her, and it also gives her an alibi if anybody sees her on her way home: she was just out getting some fresh grain, right?

Ruth comes home and tells Naomi everything. It's helpful to remember that they weren't truly alone that night—Ruth had the accountability of Naomi knowing everything. She shows her the latest example of Boaz’s generous heart. And Naomi's words close this chapter: “Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today” (Ruth 3:18).

And so they waited. They had no way to text Boaz: "Hey, how's it going? Any progress?" They had no Twitter feed from Bethlehem town council to stay up-to-date on the proceedings at the town gate. With their whole futures in the balance, these two women just wait.

But they wait in hope, because a promise had been made. “As the Lord lives, I will redeem you” (Ruth 3:13).

5. Reflections

And that's where we leave them until next week. Ruth and Naomi aren't the only ones who want to know how this is going to turn out. We're also waiting.

But while we wait, we can reflect on this chapter. There's a lot here to meditate on. There's a lot of wisdom for relationships that we've seen. Even though Ruth and Boaz’s situation is very unique, the way they conduct themselves, the things they pay attention to, and the wisdom they display set a big example for dating and engaged couples today.

1. Being the answer to your own prayers

What I want us to think about, just a little bit more, is the way that God has worked through people all throughout this book. And in this chapter specifically, Ruth invites Boaz to be the answer to his own prayers by doing for her what he asked God to do for her the first time they met.

When we see people in a bad situation, how easy is it to just send them "thoughts and prayers" and leave it at that? The book of James highlights how foolish this is when it says, “15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” (James 2:15–16).

If Boaz says, "May the Lord reward you!" to Ruth, but he's not willing to be a part of that rewarding process himself, what good is that?

Maybe you're the kind of person that tends to spread yourself too thin in this regard, and you need to be reminded that you're not God. You can't be everything to everybody.

But we all can be something to somebody. So look around you. Maybe literally here this morning. Maybe in your family, your workplace, this town. Do you see someone who is lonely and needs a friend? Do you see someone who is struggling and needs help? Do you see an issue that needs dealing with?

Might God have you do more than just pray about it? Could some of these needs represent the good works that God has prepared for you to walk in?

I love my wife for many reasons, and one of them is that when she sees a need, her default knee-jerk reaction is to think, "What can I do to help meet that need?" Some of us, like Boaz, need a little prodding sometimes. But do you think we could all go into our week with our hands open, asking the Lord to give us wisdom and willingness as we serve others in His name?

2. Christ, the True and Better Boaz

Of course, how could we stop there? How could we look at Boaz and see just an example for us to follow? How can we not miss the many obvious parallels between Boaz and Jesus, our redeemer, who has bought us back from the slavery of sin?

We're going to dive a lot deeper into this truth next week, when we'll actually watch Boaz redeem Ruth and consider how it shows us more of how Christ redeemed us.

But don't miss that's where this is heading.

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4–5).

Jesus is not just the true Boaz but He's the better Boaz because he didn't need anybody to suggest the idea to Him. "As the Lord lives, I will redeem you" are words that, as it were, He had spoken before time began (2 Tim 1:9). He wants to save us. He wants to invite us into His family, to share his inheritance with us.

That's what Christmas is all about. Nobody had to twist Jesus' arm to come and be born in a manger like this. He did it for you because He wanted to.

Whoever you are this morning, rejoice and rest in that good news.