Chapter Three
v.1 “Then Naomi her mother in law said to her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee…?” Here we see that the pleasant aspect of our Christian lives is playing a useful, if advisory, part. Ruth’s clinging to Naomi eventually brings Naomi to seek rest for Ruth. In other words, the Christianity which pertains to us brings the habit of good works into a right relationship with the Lord. As our Christianity is nourished by what our good habits can glean under the bountiful providence of Boaz, so we become established, and we seek rest for Ruth, that she may become established with us. So we turn to Boaz as the answer (v.2) to all our problems, for He is of our kinsman. “He is threshing barley tonight in the threshing floor.” We are looking for an opportune moment to present Ruth to Him, and the moment that we seek the opportunity, it presents itself! We are to grasp the bull by the horns, as we speak, and do it tonight for even tomorrow may be too late. We have gleaned all we can, the harvest was double what we were led to expect, and surely the Lord will be in the threshing floor now, if only we move tonight.
v.3 Shyly and slyly we move to present Ruth to Him. She is washed and dressed and instructed in what to do, for our customs are as foreign to her as she is to them. She must wait till after the supper, till the Lord Jesus is satisfied and shows it. And then we slide her into the place of death, (v.4) as it is written, “Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” And she is to reveal only His feet, to align herself with the way He walked, and then to follow His commandments. (v.5) Ruth is seen to be both perfectly willing and perfectly obedient, (v.6) and is seen to be in subjection to our Christian way of life. (v.7) Now Boaz is not dead but living today, and we see that the scripture is fulfilled, “He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied,” for in the place of the first threshing is the fruit of the corn of wheat that fell into the ground and died, and He has eaten and drunk and His heart is merry. And it is to that place that Ruth now comes softly, and uncovers His feet, and lies down.
v.8 “And it came to pass at midnight.” There is no immediate response from the Lord to our prayers, but we are to be content to wait on Him, and in our midnight hour if we wait patiently He will turn and notice Ruth. What moves Him is the fear that we may not wait till after midnight.
v.9 Now it is Ruth’s turn to respond. What of her proud wild beauty now? Will it cause her to withdraw from Him? No, for Ruth responds exactly right. She is willing to let her beauty be in subjection to Boaz, saying to Him, “Cover me with your skirt.” Is this our attitude to the Moabitish beauty we have acquired? Will we bring it to Boaz? Are we willing to let it go into the place of death? Will we let all our self-righteousness die at His feet, to be covered with the righteousness of Christ? We may not think it is necessary to go to all this trouble, (v.10) but we see from Ruth it is the only way to get the blessing. If our Ruth yearns to be united with young men she will miss the blessing entirely and all the fruit will be lost forever. But if we bring her to Boaz, and lay her down at His feet, then the end result will be only the greatest blessing.
v.11 Boaz will do the right thing by us, if Ruth is truly a noble character, (v.12) but we must remember that she is still an alien, and there is a kinsman nearer than Boaz who has a perfect right to her. Who is the nearer kinsman, that is the question, and who will she eventually belong to? Theses questions must await (v.13) until the dawn.
v.14 “So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anyone could be recognized;” At the moment Ruth cannot see His beauty nor He her beauty, but all that has been said and done is a secret transaction, for He does not wish it to be known that a woman came into the threshing floor. But before she leaves she is already laden (v.15) with the riches of His grace and bounty, and the veil that she has used to cover her loveliness becomes the means of her richest reward so far. It is no longer a matter of an ephah of barley gleaned by effort in the noon-day sun, but six bushels of barley. Indeed, though we were insistent on the instruction of Ruth, we could hardly expect such stupendous results would follow so soon. Could this be our Moabitish beauty returning to us from the threshing floor, laden with the riches of blessing and sustenance, using her veil to bring back this abundance? Our Christian life, so suddenly enriched, is marked by astonishment at the result. Ruth transformed, and all by lying at the feet of Boaz until the morning! Incredible. But nevertheless true. And Ruth brings us good news, (v.16) as she tells all that the man had done to her, and (v.17) shows us the largeness of the blessing and the reason for it as explained to her by Boaz. Then Naomi says, (v.18) “Sit still, my daughter,” and leave it to Boaz, for Naomi has found new faith in the kinsman who is all the time becoming nearer to her. Thus we can see that having taken all the steps and done what we knew needed to be done, we must sit back in faith and patiently await the outcome, trusting in the Lord Jesus to swiftly conclude the matter and finish the thing in the light of the resurrection day.
It is necessary to sit back a little at this point, for there is a kinsman nearer than Boaz, and if Ruth would suit the other kinsman and he should lay claim to her, we are left with only an experience without fruit, and sustenance without a happy ending in our own lives. It is here that faith in our Lord Jesus must be displayed by sitting still and leaving to Him the whole affair which we shall see in the next chapter.
