The Heart of Boaz, the Tenacity of Ruth (Part 5)

Things were getting very interesting when we ended Part 4. Naomi had just suggested to Ruth that after Boaz had finished working at the threshing floor, Ruth should go where Boaz was lying and “uncover his feet, and lie down” (Ruth 3:4).

This portion of scripture is very, very interesting. It has also sparked some level of controversy among biblical scholars. And here is why.

According to biblical language, “feet” is sometimes used as an idiom in reference to genitals. So when Naomi instructed Ruth to go and “uncover the feet of Boaz” was she instructing young Ruth to commit a lewd sexual act? Many scholars think NOT, and I am persuaded by their argument. The word used for feet in this context was “margeloth” and is apparently used three times in the Bible, and in all these contexts it was referring to legs, and not feet. So it is unlikely that Ruth could be suspected to have committed the sexual act in its crudest form, exposing an elderly man’s genitalia. No.

So Ruth does as instructed by her mother-in-law. She cleans up and puts on her best outfit, and goes to Boaz when he’s asleep, uncovers his legs and lies down. Old Boaz is completely unaware that he has a visitor. He’s fast asleep – I mean poor old man was tired after a long day’s work and he’s just had a few glasses of wine. But in the middle of the night, he gets startled by something.

Upon closer examination, he realizes there’s someone sleeping next to him.

“Who are you?” asks Boaz. And to his absolute amazement, she reveals her identity – “I am Ruth”. And here, Ruth says something that surprises Boaz. Ruth basically proposes marriage to Boaz. Yeah.

Ruth says to Boaz, “spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family”. Again, Ruth was not making gestures of a sexual nature here. The gesture  of covering a woman with one’s garment, as Ruth was asking Boaz, was a symbolic declaration by a man showing bold intentions of providing for his bride.

So Ruth over here is reminding Boaz of his responsibility to her family as a close relative. He is her family-redeemer as we showed and explained the meaning thereof in Part 4, and because of that, he needs to marry her. 

How does Boaz take this overture by Ruth? What's his response?

By closely examining Boaz’s response to this request, we get to see the tenacity of Ruth and the beauty of her character. Boaz says to her “this kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after younger men, whether rich or poor.” Boaz was clearly not expecting this. 

Ruth was young and beautiful. He, on the other hand, was an old man. In Boaz’s mind, Ruth is sacrificing all that she can have – a young husband, probably rich, all for the sake of preserving a very important aspect of Jewish custom.  The redemption of estate of the family of Elimelech and maintaining the land which God had lent to them. And this amazes Boaz. It humbles him, that this young woman, whom he admired greatly from the first time he saw her, has such a deep sense of responsibility and tenacity.

But that’s not the end of it. There is a little hiccup to Ruth’s request. Although Boaz is clearly enamoured with Ruth, and I am sure he wanted to marry her then and there, he remembers that there is some other dude closer to the family of Ruth than he is. And according to custom, this man has the first preference to redeeming the estate of the late Elimelech.

Boaz tells Ruth to sleep there for the night and that he will sort this out in the morning.

In the morning Boaz convenes a little council at the city gate, and they call the guardian-redeemer. When the guardian-redeemer arrives, it is asked of him if he wants to redeem the land from Naomi, in order to keep it in the family. The man says yes. He had to. I mean, that was a prime land. But Boaz has something up his sleeve. He reveals to him that if the guardian-redeemer takes the land, he must also take Ruth as a wife.

At this, the man says nah. I’ll pass. If I marry Ruth for the sake of Elimelek’s estate, this might compromise my own estate. If getting this prime land means he has to take Ruth as a wife, then that's too much for him. So he basically passes the baton to Boaz who was next in line.

And boy is Boaz overjoyed (my own impression).

Boaz redeems (or buys) the land of Naomi and by that virtue, also gets Ruth as his wife. He finally gets the young, beautiful widow of whom so many great things he had heard about. Not only that, he has had a privilege of observing her himself in the time she has worked on his field. The virtuous Ruth will at last become his wife. What a wonderful turn of events. 

“So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son” (Ruth 4:13, NIV).

And there was joy in the city of Bethlehem. Women rejoiced with Naomi, the mother-in-law of Ruth. The grieving Naomi, finally had something to celebrate. Her daughter-in-law had found solace in the arms of one of the most revered men in the city. 

As the women of the city were congratulating her, there is something here they say about Ruth that stuns and impresses me greatly. Verse 15 says “… for your daughter-in-law (Ruth), who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth”. Ruth has clearly made a huge impression on the people of Bethlehem such that they would say something like that. You have to understand that a son, a male child, meant a great deal to Jewish people of the time. Yet these women, in congratulating grandma Naomi, say of Ruth, she is "better" than seven sons!! Wow.

But still, this is not the end of the story for this couple. And this is where, for me, it truly gets exciting as we get to see the great destiny of Ruth, the Moabite and her husband, Boaz, the son of a foreign woman who used to be a prostitute. The destiny which I feel she must have been unconsciously crying for when she refused to go back to Moab:

So this little bundle of joy, the son of Ruth and Boaz, was named Obed. And Obed had a son, who was called Jesse. Jesse had a son,  yes, you guessed it ......... they named him David.

David, against all odds, would become the King of Israel. And from King David’s bloodline, our eternal King was born – The Lord, King Jesus of Nazareth.

A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

Now had Ruth turned back with Orpah, back to the land of Moab, we probably would never have heard of her. But on their way to Bethlehem, when Naomi encouraged them to go back to Moab, Ruth stood and cried, blatantly refusing to let her mother-in-law go back to Bethlehem alone. Little did she know that one day, one of her descendants, would become the saviour of the world.

Boaz, with his kind heart, and humble spirit, looked past the foreignness of Ruth. He looked past her difference. Just like how his father chose to look over the foreignness and tainted past of his mother Rahab the prostitute, Boaz looked past the foreignness of Ruth. In Ruth, Boaz saw a woman of virtue. And through him, and from his bloodline, God gave Jesus, His son, to the world.

The Heart of Boaz, and the tenacity of Ruth. Again I say - amazing. 

(image from www.vebidoo.de)

The Heart of Boaz, the Tenacity of Ruth (Part 4)

Boaz understands rejection, prejudice and stigma. He must have grown up with it. He knows what it means to grow up being called all sorts of ugly names. Perhaps that’s what draws him so powerfully towards Ruth.

You see, Boaz’s mother used to be a prostitute. Yeah.

Before she left her life in Jericho, she made a living out of selling her body. The Bible records that when Joshua sent out 2 spies to the land of Canaan, Jericho to be specific, the 2 spies arrived at the house of one prostitute, Rahab. She took them in and hid them from the King and his soldiers. 

Had it not been for Rahab, the Israelite spies’ mission in Jericho would probably have foiled. Maybe not. We don’t know. All we know is that she plays a very central role in this portion of history by giving the spies refuge from the King of Jericho. But before she lets the two spies escape through her window, she asks them a favour. She asks that when they return together with the Israeli army to capture the city of Jericho, she and her extended family be saved from the destruction of the city.

Soon after that, the Israelites marched around the city wall for 7 days. The walls of Jericho eventually came crumbling down, but without Rahab and her family. Rahab and her family are spared from the destruction that befalls Jericho.

We are not sure of what happens to Rahab’s extended family after being saved from Jericho. However, we learn that Rahab, the prostitute, went on to live among the Israelites. Like her future daughter-in-law, she leaves everything behind to go and embrace a new way of living, with foreign peoples. There, she marries a man named Salmon, who happened to be one of the two spies that had taken refuge in her home. Between them, Rahab and Salmon produce this wonderful man, Boaz.

In Part 3 of this series we learned that the meaning of the name Boaz is “strength is within him”. Now we know where this strength comes from. Boaz had two bold parents. His mother, a former prostitute leaves everything in order to go live among the Israelites. His father, Salmon, is bold enough to overlook the tainted past of Rahab, and he grafts her into the Israeli nation.

Fast forward a couple of decades when Rahab’s son encounters Ruth.

Just like his parents, Boaz is not fazed by the foreignness of Ruth. Ruth is intriguing to Boaz. There is something about her that excites him, something that sparks immense interest in him. But he doesn't make a move, other than showing some level of favouritism towards her. We showed in the preceding chapters how he made sure that young Ruth was taken care of by his workers.

Unbeknown to Boaz, Ruth’s mother-in-law, Naomi’s mind is on overdrive, thinking what she can do to help Ruth find a husband in Boaz. Now according to Jewish culture, if a man died without a male heir, his brother would then be obligated to marry his wife. The first son that the wife bore would, by law, become heir to the deceased’s estate. If the deceased didn't have a brother, the next closest relative would be then stand to marry the man’s widow, the aim being to ensure that the estate of the deceased stayed in his family name. Such a man was called a guardian-redeemer, or family-redeemer.

So when Naomi hears that Ruth had been working in Boaz’s field and that she had found favour in the eyes of Boaz, she suddenly had a glimmer of hope, and I’ll tell you why. Boaz, was a close relative of Naomi’s late husband, Elimelech, and by default, Ruth’s husband Mahlon. And as we've just learned, according to Jewish custom, in order to preserve the estate of a son-less deceased man, a close male relative would have to marry the widow of the deceased in the hope that this secondary marriage would produce a son who would then inherit the estate of the deceased.

So Naomi is excited by this. Not only is she excited by the prospect of Ruth finding a husband who would preserve and redeem the estate of the family, but she knows that Boaz is really good man. A man of integrity and great character. Ruth would be safe in the arms of Boaz.

Naomi comes up with a plan, which if it materializes, would change the fortunes of both Ruth and her.

And this is where it gets really, really interesting. Naomi suggests to Ruth that after the day’s work, when Boaz is sleeping at the threshing floor, Ruth goes to where Boaz is sleeping and uncovers his“feet” and lie there. She tells Ruth that after this, Boaz will tell her what to do after that. Hmmm…

Let me unpack this in the next chapter.

(image from www.biblefilms.blogspot.com)