This Sunday I will continue my sermon series in the book of Ruth. Here is what I have discovered so far in Ruth 3.
HUMAN LOVE
Naomi and Ruth have returned to Bethlehem nearly destitute and with little hope. Family members have died, their money is gone, and the expectations for a good life have been shattered into pieces.
Naomi and Ruth discover that there is a relative in Bethlehem by the name of Boaz. Boaz is the kinsman-redeemer which means that he has the responsibility as the nearest kin to rescue Naomi and get her out of debt. Of course Naomi would love for Boaz to step up as her kinsman-redeemer, but Naomi is also concerned about the well being of Ruth. Naomi wants to see Ruth get married so that she is loved and taken care of. Naomi hatches an ingenious, albeit risky, plan. She tells Ruth to get dressed up and put on some perfume. Ruth is then told to go to the threshing floor around midnight, lay down at the feet of a sleeping Boaz, and wait for him to wake up. What could possibly go wrong with a plan like this? Right. Everything!
Even at this point in the story you can see glimpses of the gospel shining through. Ruth is a complete and total outsider. Not only is she an outsider, but she is from the hated land of Moab. Moab was a city that was started by Lot having an incestuous relationship with his daughter. Did that thought just make you gag? Jews did not look favorably upon the people of Moab. So we wonder, will Ruth be accepted and loved by this successful Jewish business man?
Boaz wakes up, and as you can imagine, seems startled. It’s not every day you wake up with a young woman wrapped around your feet. Will Boaz be furious? Will he make a scene and embarrass Ruth? Will he take advantage of her vulnerability for his own selfish purposes?
Boaz reveals what a godly man he truly is. Boaz praises Ruth, tells her that he will be happy to marry her, and takes on the responsibility of becoming Naomi’s kinsman-redeemer. There is an important clue in Ruth 3:10 as to what is motivating both Boaz and Ruth.
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.
The word kindness is one of many ways that the Hebrew word HESED can be translated. As I have mentioned in some of my earlier posts, HESED is a loyal love. It is not based on fleeting romantic feelings. This is a love that lasts through good and bad times.
Ruth and Boaz are not merely following their emotions. They are making decisions based on HESED love for one another. They both understand that HESED love requires sacrifice, putting the other person first, and making a commitment that lasts forever.
DIVINE LOVE
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. -Ephesians 5:31-32
The love story between Ruth and Boaz is powerful. But we need to know that it is pointing us towards a much greater love story. It points us towards a divine romance. How does it do this?
Boaz is a foreshadowing of the One true Bridegroom, Jesus Christ, who would come to earth and buy back his people from their debt of sin. Jesus would sacrifice his life on the cross and die for the sins of his people. The compassion and grace of Jesus is something that we, like Ruth, did not deserve. We were all outsiders. We were in bondage to the debt of our sins. Jesus, our Kinsman-Redeemer, stepped in when we did not deserve it and rescued us.
As a preacher, I wonder what to make of this story. How do I apply it to everyday life?
First of all, one of the things this story should do is give us a greater appreciation of the love that Jesus, our Bridegroom, has for us. We did not deserve to be brought into this covenant relationship with him. We brought nothing into this relationship but our sin and shame, yet Jesus still loved us enough to die for us on a cross.
“You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary.” -Jonathan Edwards
Secondly, it is a wonderful privilege and responsibility to know that our marriages are to reflect the beauty and grace of the gospel. The weight of this truth forces us to rethink what marriage is all about in the first place. Ruth and Boaz point the way once again. They were making decisions about their relationship based on the rock solid foundation of HESED love. They were not basing a lifetime on how buzzed their feelings made them. I will confess that I wrestle with this because I’m fairly certain that I have made romance an idol in my life. I want the feelings in my marriage to be like they were when we were dating. The problem with this is that after living for all of these years I have not found one living soul who claims that marriage is non-stop romance. I want that, I really do. Thus, the struggle. With the ebb and flow of feelings in marriage, I need to be reminded that HESED love is what will make my marriage stand the test of time.
Modern people make the painfulness of marriage even greater than it has to be, because they crush it under the weight of their almost comically impossible expectations. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ernest Becker believed that modern culture has produced a desire for what he called “apocalyptic romance.” At one time we expected marriage and family to provide love, support, and security. But for meaning in life, hope for the future, moral compass, and self-identity we looked to God and the afterlife. Today, however, our culture has taught us to believe that no one can be sure of those things, not even whether they exist. Therefore, Becker argued, something has to fill the gap, and often that something is romantic love. We look to sex and romance to give us what we use to get from faith in God. -The Meaning of Marriage by Tim Keller
Finally, I believe this story gives us tremendous hope for the future. Many times the New Testament talks about how we, the church, are the bride for Christ. We read this in Revelation 19:6-8:
6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,
“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.
7 Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready;
8 it was granted her to clothe herself
with fine linen, bright and pure
Can you see and feel the hope? We, the church, are Jesus’ bride and one day we will get to be with him in heaven. The white garments that we will wear remind us that all of our sins have been washed clean by the blood of the the Lamb. Our Savior, our Bridegroom, loved us so much that he was willing to die for us.
I am looking forward to sharing more gospel truth with you next week as I study the fourth chapter of Ruth!
MichaelWallenmeyer.com 
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