Finding a Resting Place

Intro me

War. Inflation. Political turmoil. Strikes. Social turmoil. Our world is a little crazy just now, right? Well, imagine this: imagine someone walks up to you in the street and there, just out of the blue, offers you a family ticket to a place where there’s peace, stability, security, provision, rest - a way out of this mess, a way to leave it all behind. Who wouldn’t take it?

I do like a bit of excitement in life - I was in Hamburg last week for a conference and the city has electric scooter hire as one of the main ways to get around. Scooting 22kmh in a foreign city in the dark was definitely exciting. But we have way, way way too much excitement in our world at the moment.

Who wouldn’t grab that ticket right out of their hand and wave a hasty goodbye to whoever was around and just go right now? Bye everyone!

Well, imagine there’s just such a ticket - but to get it, you have to complete a secret agent-style mission, you have to take some pretty serious risks? Would you give it a try? That’s our bible story today - an ancient drama. But it’s not just an ancient drama - it’s an invitation for us too, speaking to us about how we can find a resting place.

Let’s read together and then we’ll explore. And as we read, bear in mind this is a three thousand year old story. Three thousand years - even older than Facebook, kids. So if there’s stuff in here that’s a bit weird, a bit strange, that shouldn’t be a massive surprise. Hang on to your hats and then I’ll try and open some of it up so we can better understand.

Suzi’s reading for us this morning. Ruth chapter 3 and that’s page 269 in these blue church bibles.

Ruth 3 NIV

One day Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, I must find a home for you, where you will be well provided for. Now Boaz, with whose women you have worked, is a relative of ours. Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.” “I will do whatever you say,” Ruth answered. So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do. When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down. In the middle of the night something startled the man; he turned—and there was a woman lying at his feet! “Who are you?” he asked. “I am your servant Ruth,” she said. “Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family.” “The Lord bless you, my daughter,” he replied. “This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All the people of my town know that you are a woman of noble character. Although it is true that I am a guardian-redeemer of our family, there is another who is more closely related than I. Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to do his duty as your guardian-redeemer, good; let him redeem you. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives I will do it. Lie here until morning.” So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anyone could be recognized; and he said, “No one must know that a woman came to the threshing floor.” He also said, “Bring me the shawl you are wearing and hold it out.” When she did so, he poured into it six measures of barley and placed the bundle on her. Then he went back to town. When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, “How did it go, my daughter?” Then she told her everything Boaz had done for her and added, “He gave me these six measures of barley, saying, ‘Don’t go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’ ” Then Naomi said, “Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today.”

Thanks Suzie. Three main characters in the passage - Naomi, Ruth and Boaz - and each one gets a turn leading the action. So we’re going to navigate through the passage that way, and start with Naomi.

Naomi in some ways is the central character for this whole book. She’s an ancient Israelite who, with her husband and two sons, left their home country and went as refugees to Moab, one of the neighbouring countries, to escape a famine. There in Moab she knows joy, as her sons find wives, and then sorrow as first her husband, and then her sons pass away.

Widowed and childless, Naomi decides to head home. Her two daughters-in-law, now also widowed, have become so close they want to come with her - but she tries to turn them back: there is nothing there for them, she says. One takes her advice - but the other won’t be turned away; Where Naomi goes, she will go; where Naomi lives, she will live; Naomi’s people her people, and Naomi’s God, her God.

Two weeks back, Pat was helping us consider Naomi and Ruth’s experiences through the harvest season. There’s a glimmer of hope for the hopeless pair. There’s welcome and help for Naomi - and even for Ruth, the outsider - through this bigwig Boaz. But harvest is over. What now? Well, Naomi has a plan. But I want you to see it’s a pretty mysterious plan. And it really smells like a bit of a dubious plan, too.

Naomi has this big plan - but the more I thought about it, the more mysterious it seemed.. If the big goal is to find a home for Ruth - and the word translated “home” here has lots of the things we might associate with home tied up in it too: a place of rest, of security, of provision. If the big goal is to find a home - through Boaz - why wouldn’t Naomi, as the more direct relation, as the native Israelite, well-known in the town, welcomed back - why wouldn’t she just have a wee word herself? In the daytime, like. Or at least send him a message. “Hey Boaz, can you help us out?”

But instead Naomi sends Ruth outside the city wall, away from its protection and security, to what would be a shared place for winnowing and threshing. If you’ve never winnowed or threshed - for the record, I haven’t; I had to look this up - those terms mean separating the head of the grain from the stalk, and then separating the kernel inside the grain - the edible bit - from the husk or chaff which covered it.

It reads like no-one else is there - but remember Boaz is a wealthy land-owner. In the last chapter we saw him greet his overseer and labourers in his fields. It’s unlikely he’d be doing the hard work of winnowing and threshing himself - he’s probably there overseeing his team, at most, joining in with them. That makes sense of why Ruth would need to note the particular place where Boaz lies down - because his team is there, too.

The harvest is over and it seems like that’s something worth celebrating because there’s eating and drinking - and these places, these threshing floors were public, community facilities. It’s the end of harvest for the whole town so this is probably a wider celebration. Naomi sends Ruth to the big end-of-harvest party, not just a private meeting with Boaz. She tells Ruth to dress up, to wait until the party’s over, then to sneak up on Boaz once he’s asleep.

Why get all dressed up, then opt for secrecy and nocturnal action? What’s with the weird foot fetish? What is Naomi hoping might happen if everything goes to plan? See, it’s not so obvious to us as modern readers, but the ancient audience’s eyebrows would have been going up and up and up and Naomi keeps laying out the plan. It is filled with things that look suspect.

A woman out alone in the middle of the night, dressed all fancy? She’s not going clubbing. Hanging out at the threshing floor on a party night? That was no place for a woman - at least a woman of any repute. And that whole “uncover his feet” thing? So much ink has been spilled speculating about exactly what Naomi was asking Ruth to do - what it would mean. Pretty much all the experts agree ancient readers would be thinking of more than just Ruth sampling Boaz’s delicious eau-du-pieds, or just using an odd and subtle method to eventually disturb his night through cold toes.

Naomi doesn’t say it straight, but our author, in the narrative, is deliberately making this plan look questionable. Especially once we remember that Ruth is from Moab, a nation who, as far as these Israelites are concerned, have exactly that dubious, questionable reputation. “A nod is as good as a wink to a blind bat” as Monty Python would say. What a strange set-up.

But let’s turn our attention to Ruth. She’s been given a risky mission, no question. Now I’m a bit of a gamer - any other gamers out there? Hello friends! This makes me think Assassins’ Creed; this makes me think Metal Gear Solid. This is all about sneaking around - covert ops - hiding in the shadows, waiting for your moment.

Ruth, amongst her other gifts, is also a ninja, so it seems. She reaches the target location. She stays undiscovered, out of sight. No “alert” sound, if you know it. She IDs and tracks her target through the party. She waits until the very last party-ers standing are done, patiently lurking. Then it’s time to move in on the target.

Fun when it’s just a game - but for Ruth, this is high stakes. Given the compromising nature of the plan, the risk to Ruth’s honour involved, you could easily imagine her listening as Naomi lays out the plan, growing more and more pale as the blood drains from her face. “You what me to do what?”, she might ask. “You know what people will think, Naomi. You know what would happen if I was spotted.” Yet, verse 6 tells us, Ruth “did everything her mother-in-law-told her to do”.

Mission accomplished. And then the surprise. Having followed Naomi’s instructions word for word, step by step; having accomplished all mission objectives, rather than waiting to for Boaz, as Naomi had told her to (remember v4 - “he will tell you what to do”) when her moment comes, when Boaz is disturbed and wakes to find her there, she makes a gutsy move: needy and vulnerable, a young, poor migrant widow, in the presence of a rich, powerful, older man, she takes the initiative. In a culture where that’d be the last thing anyone expected.

Ruth 3:9 NIV

“Who are you?” he asked. “I am your servant Ruth,” she said. “Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family.”

This is her moment. The mysterious plan, the risky mission. Now the big ask. But what on earth is she on about? “Spread the corner of your garment over me?” after all this setup, is she just cold? Looking for a snuggle? No, the end of the sentence is revealing: “since you are a guardian-redeemer”.

In the Old Testament, in this era, we get a few glimpses of what she is talking about: there’s a pattern of responsibility and care designed to ensure family lines continue on family property. We’ll hear more about that next week. But it’s this pattern of care that Ruth is appealing to - and that helps us understand what’s going on with the corner of the garment.

Lots of commentators see that as a request for marriage - in Ezekiel 16:8 you get a nearly identical phrase with exactly that meaning, picturing God entering into a covenant of marriage with his people.

Ezekiel 16:8 NIV

“ ‘Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your naked body. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine.

I think that is what Ruth is after - but not all that she’s after. Because in Ruth chapter 2, just back one page, at her very first meeting with Boaz, he blesses her, prays for her. And it’s no accident that he uses the same word-picture as he prays. It’s harder for us to see that in our English translation, but underneath, we’d find exactly the same Hebrew word.

Ruth 2:12 NIV

May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

Boaz has prayed that Ruth might be richly rewarded by the LORD for her faithfulness towards Naomi - under whose wings she had come to take refuge. That word “wing” is exactly the same one that’s translated “corner of your garment” here in Ruth 3. Boaz prayed Ruth would find refuge under the LORD’s wing. Now Ruth is calling on Boaz to give her refuge under his wing - effectively to be the answer to his own prayer. She’s looking for more than a husband: she’s looking for a resting place; for peace, stability, security, provision. She’s calling on her redeemer to give her a home.

...

Naomi’s mysterious plan - Naomi’s dubious plan. Ruth’s risky mission - Ruth’s gutsy request. And so we reach our third and final character, Boaz. And with Boaz, we get a righteous response. And I think it’s at this point we can finally begin to answer some of the questions we had about Naomi’s plan.

Boaz genuinely seems surprised at Ruth’s request - in the nicest possible way. It seems like Boaz hadn’t dared presume there might be a future for him with Ruth. Even though he’s powerful, rich, honoured in the city. It looks like he’d presumed Ruth would want someone else, someone younger. And perhaps that’s why Naomi has to make the first move - because Boaz is not just rich and powerful - he’s also so humble and gentle, aware of his age - and not wanting to pressure Ruth despite his powerful position - that he’d never make the first move?

Perhaps we can understand some of the secrecy, too? Is Naomi looking for a private moment, where speaking to Boaz in front of others might instead have pressured him to do something he didn’t really want to? Or lead to a public rejection of Ruth which could have put her in an even worse situation? Maybe we can see how Naomi might want a private place for this high-stakes conversation?

And I think we can answer my biggest question: why does our author give us such a dubious-looking set-up, making us expect impropriety, suggesting again and again that something immoral is about to happen? I think it’s so this dramatic moment, this turning point, shines all the brighter in contrast; so it is laid out in bold and underlined for us.

In the middle of the night, despite secrecy and suggestion, there’s nothing with even the slightest whiff of darkness to be found here. Ruth is shown, again, to be above reproach, making a righteous request. Boaz is shown, again, to be above reproach, delivering the righteous response. I think that’s what our author wants to stand out for us.

Boaz will do it. He will do all Ruth asks. And he will do it right. Even the twist of there being a nearer relative is just one more way to show us that Boaz will do it right.

...

Ok, nice story. So what?

I don’t think it teaches us to make cunning plans in suspicious circumstances like Naomi. Or to make gutsy moves on risky missions like Ruth. Or even to righteously redeem like Boaz. For the avoidance of doubt, it’s definitely not dating advice. So what’s this got to say to us today?

Here’s what I think:

like Ruth, we all need a home. And by that, I mean the bigger sense of home: we all long for a resting place - for peace, security, provision. Like that ticket we were talking about at the beginning - we all want that ticket. And just like Ruth, we can’t write that ticket for ourselves - no matter how we try. Ruth worked hard in the field gleaning - but it’s no resting place for her. We know the security we can make for ourselves is only an illusion - perhaps now more than ever, we know that. We know peace in our hearts is fleeting, hard to hold onto for even an hour, not something we can earn or buy. We are not at rest.

Yet like Ruth, we have a righteous redeemer. He is too gentle to force himself on us, but he stands ready to do for us all we ask, to take us into his care, to bring us safe to that resting place. There’s no plot twist which could stop him and he won’t rest until it’s settled. He places the lonely in families - in His family, as his children. He calls the church his bride, and invites each one of us to become part of that.

There’s one huge gap between this story and ours: Ruth, our narrator wants us to know, is worth it. She’s worthy. Righteous as opportunity for wrong abounds and blameless as suggestions of evil swirl around in the night. Honoured by a whole town for her noble character, her loving kindness and faithfulness on display in her life for all to see.

That’s not me. That’s not you.

If our hope for a resting place, our hope for redemption rests on us being worthy of it - like Ruth is - than we’re done for; hopeless.

That’s not me. That’s not you.

Imagine instead that Ruth, in the middle of the night makes her request of Boaz, but rather than him being able to declare “all the people of my town know that you are a woman of noble character”, instead he remembers she lied about her hometown; that she pushed others away to grab his grain; that she looked down on and hated the other servants… That would be our story - how would that end?

Perhaps a better place to see ourselves might be in Naomi. Perhaps we have plans - schemes to get ourselves redeemed. Perhaps those are cunning, manipulative - or just doomed to fail.

And yet there is a righteous one who has attached themselves to us - like Ruth to Naomi, even though we try and drive them off, turn them away; there is a righteous one who loves us enough to go to great lengths for us, put their honour at risk for us - to seek not just their own redemption, but ours too - like Ruth does for Naomi.

We see Jesus’ love for us pictured not just in Boaz here, but in Ruth too. The truth is he’s ready to do it all - he has already done it all. We just have to ask, and to wait: he will bring us to our resting place.

So have you asked? And will you wait?

Let me pray..