Elimelech and His Family Go to Moab

Love’s Request August 26, 2015

Ruth 3 Page 1

Elimelech and his family go to Moab

Ruth converts

Naomi returns home with her daughter-in-law – Ruth

No prospects, destitute

The only thing Naomi and Ruth have is the Lord

Ruth takes responsibility since Naomi is wallowing in self pity

Ruth ventures out to change the situation

Ruth meets Boaz, the Lord of the Harvest

Boaz provides

God works to bring the family home

______

Needs for the family, but only in his fields

Protection

Day-to-day needs

All Ruth had to do is______

Boaz knows the whole story

Ruth, a Gentile, reports back to Naomi, a Jew, what the Lord of the Harvest has done for her

Naomi blesses the Lord, gets off her pity pot and begins to move into good Jewish mother mode

He is a close relative

Ruth will see him everyday

Their future is secure______

A period of time has gone by since the events of Chapter Two

Naomi has been doing a bit of research

Naomi is also a good Jewish mother as such is all about making sure there is a proper husband for Ruth

What better than to secure the future with a goel, a______

Ruth 3:1–5

Naomi is now getting down to business

In her culture, it is______to find the appropriate husband for Ruth

She is now operating from faith

Naomi actually prayed for this back in Chapter One

Ruth 1:8–9

And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the LORD deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me. “May the LORD grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband.” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.

Based on what took place further in Chapter One, Ruth is in her mother’s house

Naomi now gets it

She wants security for Ruth beyond the harvest

Boaz is a kinsman, Naomi is familiar with Deuteronomy 25

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Deuteronomy 25:5–10

When brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall assume the name of his dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. But if the man does not desire to take his brother’s wife, then his brother’s wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel; he is not willing to perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.’ Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak to him. And if he persists and says, ‘I do not desire to take her,’ then his brother’s wife shall come to him in the sight of the elders, and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face; and she shall declare, ‘Thus it is done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.’ In Israel his name shall be called, ‘The house of him whose sandal is removed.’

Naomi is fully up to speed on this and she intends to make use of the law on behalf of Ruth

This will also have the impact of carrying on the lineage of her lost son who died without any children.

Remember, the duties of the kinsman redeemer

Five Requirements for the Kinsman Redeemer

Near kinsman and blood relative

______to pay the price

______to pay the price

Must be free himself

Must have the price of redemption

So Naomi tells Ruth to get______

Put on her best because you have a task to accomplish

You know that guy you have been seeing everyday since March, well it is time to______

And you will be the one doing the asking

We will find out through this story that Boaz is actually number two in line, he is not the first in line

But Boaz has a relationship now with Ruth

He has seen her everyday since March, and it is now July towards the end of the wheat harvest

Ruth has been working in the fields all day

She needs to clean up in order to go see the Lord of the Harvest

We too need to clean up in coming to the Lord, and______that for us

Titus 3:5

He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit…

The next instruction is to______, make yourself smell nice

We too must be anointed, and again, ______does it for us.

1 John 2:20

But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know.

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John 14:16–17

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”

By the way, Naomi is also a widow

She also has a claim for redemption, but she is______in favor of Ruth

When the next instruction is received, we would take it to mean your best clothes, for Ruth, itmeans to not dress in______Dress differently

Naomi is also saying,stop______, get on with your life

Go to the threshing floor

The threshing floor was not the floor of a warehouse

Normally, it was out in the open, probably on a hill top

A hard place to hide

This was a time of rejoicing as most of the hard work was done

Normally, work would be done on the floor, then celebration, then the owner or others would sleep with the grain to prevent theft

Ruth is to make her way to the floor, hide until everyone goes to sleep, and then lay down at the feet of Boaz and uncover his feet

This would wake him up later in the evening when he______.

This sounds pretty forward, it is much more than that, she will be asking for______by this act

Why uncover his feet?

Seems strange

It is a______

In the Middle East, authority was in the hem of the garment

The nature of tsitsit is illuminated by the literature and art of the ancient Near East, which shows that the hem was ornate in comparison with the rest of the outer robe. The more important the individual, the more elaborate the embroidery of his hem. Its significance lies not in its artistry but in its symbolism as an extension of its owner’s person and authority. Its use isbest illustrated by the Akkadian sissikta, batāqu, “to cut off the hem.” For example, an exorcist pronounces an incantation over the detached hem of his patient’s garment; a husband who cuts off the hem of his wife’s robe thereby divorces her.

A reflex of this practice is found in the Bible in what heretofore was a puzzling dialogue. King Saul has pursued Davidinto the Judean hills. Saul enters a cave and removes his cloak to relieve himself, unaware that David and his men are hiding in the cave. David sneaks up on the unsuspecting Saul and cuts off the hem from his cloak. The text then relates that “afterward David reproached himself for cutting off part of the hem of Saul’s cloak. He said to his men, ‘The LORD forbid thatI should do such a thing.’” When Saul realizes what David has done, he responds: “I know now that you will become king” (1 Sam. 24:6, 20). What was the reason for David’s remorse and for Saul’s response? The answer rests in the meaning of the hem: It was an extension of Saul’s person and authority. David felt remorse in taking it because God had notso ordered. Saul, however, regarded it as a sign from God that his authority had been transferred to David: He was now cut off from the throne.

Jacob Milgrom, Numbers, The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990), 410.

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Exodus 28:33–34

“You shall make on its hem pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet material, all around on its hem, and bells of gold between them all around: a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, all around on the hem of the robe.”

Matthew 14:35–36

And when the men of that place recognized Him, they sent word into all that surrounding district and brought to Him all who were sick; and they implored Him that they might just touch the fringe of His cloak; and as many as touched it were cured.

The hem of Boaz garment signified______, by uncovering his feet and then asking him to cover her with his hem, Ruth is telling Boaz, she wishes to come under thatauthority…she is asking him to______.

Ruth does everything her mother-in-law asked her to do. And she adds to it.

They have seen each other everyday

Boaz has already expressed interest

Ruth is encouraging that interest

Ruth 3:6–13

Ruth follows the instructions given to her to the letter

If this is her chance for marriage, she obviously wants it

This is all going to take place in the open in a______.

Instead of insisting on her rights publicly, she is going to do so privately so he can privately accept or reject

This also maybe due to the standing that Ruth has in the community

She is from Moab, she is not Jewish

She is a Gentile who is now following the Law

Ruth’s position beyond the man’s feet was uncompromising, a place of submission and of petition, which suits her purpose for being here. Boaz esteems her for her sterling character (10, 11), for his phrase for her excellence (11) is that which describes the virtuous woman in Proverbs 31:10.

James E. Rosscup, An Exposition on Prayer in the Bible: Igniting the Fuel to Flame Our Communication with God (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2008), 401.

According to the Law of Moses, Ruth was entitled to call upon the next of kin to fulfill the various responsibilities of a kinsman-redeemer. This included getting her pregnant so that she could have a son in her dead husband’s name, and thus the line would continue. What she was asking Boaz to do was to fulfill his obligation as the kinsman-redeemer, and by creepingsoftly to the resting place of Boaz, she was making a legal claim in the approved manner of the time.

Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Ariel’s Bible Commentary: The Books of Judges and Ruth, 1st ed. (San Antonio, TX: Ariel Ministries, 2006), 326.

Imagine, being in a public place, whole families would be there, kids, everyone, and someone is now sleeping at your feet who was not there earlier in the evening

In the night, based on attire, he can tell it is a woman

Is he shocked, yes

Her response could have added to that

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When she says she is his handmaid, she uses a term she has not used before, she says she is______

She is presenting herself as someone who is______

Ruth 3:9

He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth your maid. So spread your covering over your maid, for you are a close relative.”

Then came her request: spread therefore your skirt over your handmaid, or, as the Hebrew states, “spread your wing over your handmaid.” This refers to the corner of the garment, and it refers to the fact that a man spreads this over his wife, as well as himself (Deut. 22:30 [23:1 in the Hebrew text] and 27:20). It is used of God spreading His skirt over Israel in Ezekiel16:8, also in the context of marriage. So the meaning here is that she was asking Boaz to marry her.

Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Ariel’s Bible Commentary: The Books of Judges and Ruth, 1st ed. (San Antonio, TX: Ariel Ministries, 2006), 328.

Then Ruth adds the final piece, she tells Boaz that he is______

On her own initiative, she subordinated her own happiness to that of her family in providing Naomi an heir

Naomi said that Boaz is a______, she did not say to use the term______, Ruth does this and by doing so invokes all that goes with it

Ruth does not tell Boaz he is a close relative, she tells him that he is______

How does Boaz react to this?

Ruth 3:10

Then he said, “May you be blessed of the LORD, my daughter. You have shown your last kindness to be better than the first by not going after young men, whether poor or rich.”

He is not saying he is happy she picked him

He recognizes his role as a goel in all that has just been requested of him

He further knows that Ruth did not have to ask this

Her beginning kindness was her loyalty to Naomi and her willingness to forsake family and homeland and religion out of devotion to Naomi. The present kindness is that she now came to a man who was probably Naomi’s age. Her willingness to provide Naomi an heir by marrying a goellike Boaz even exceeded her very impressive kindness earlier. The evidence he provided was inasmuch as you followed not young men, whether poor or rich. This might imply that she had received marriage proposals from some of the young men but turned them down since she wanted to fulfill the obligations to her dead husband.

Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Ariel’s Bible Commentary: The Books of Judges and Ruth, 1st ed. (San Antonio, TX: Ariel Ministries, 2006), 330.

Boaz then does three things:

He______to marry her

He______her calling her a “woman of excellence.”

He will concentrate all of his efforts for her

There is someone closer than he is, he says ______and she does not have to

It is obvious that Boaz loves her, and she loves him

She came to him and he is responding to her

Page 6

John 14:21–24

“He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and MyFather will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.”

Just as Boaz wanted a closer relationship with Ruth, our heavenly Father wants a closer relationship with us

It is dark, Ruth cannot see the face of Boaz, but she hears this “Now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you whatever you ask, for all my people in the city know that you are a woman of excellence.”

Ruth 3:11

He tells her to not______

Matthew 10:29–31

“Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.”

Jesus tells us______as well

Boaz tells Ruth he will take care of it

He will do all that is needed to do

Philippians 1:6

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

Ruth 3:14–18

Boaz was concerned for the reputation of Ruth

By having her leave early it protected both of them, even though nothing had taken place

Before she leaves, Boaz provides______of barley, that is twice as much as she brought home after gleaning

Why six?

Boaz is sending a message to Naomi

God took six days to create the Earth and He did not rest until the seventh day

Boaz would not rest until this was resolved

Ruth has been promised a final redemption from her redeemer, her told______

John 14:1–3

“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”

Psalm 37:5

Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He will do it.

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Ruth 3:18

Then she said, “Wait, my daughter, until you know how the matter turns out; for the man will not rest until he has settled it today.”

Ruth was to be still and let______do what he had to do for her

Hebrews 8:1–2

Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.

Hebrews 7:25

Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

John 6:37

“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”

Next Week…the house of him whose sandal is removed

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