“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.” (Ruth 3:9-14)
The first question
that comes to mind with this passage is how old Boaz is. Naomi knows him, and
knows that he is a kinsman-redeemer. She was gone for ten years. She isn’t surprised
to find “that upstart” had changed, so chances are that he was established as a
man of good character when she left. That suggests to me that he was probably
at least twenty when she left, and possibly as old as forty. That means he was
thirty to fifty years old when the story took place. I’m going to suggest that
Ruth was between twenty and thirty when she arrived in Israel since she might not
have married Naomi’s son the moment he arrived in Moab ten years earlier. So,
Boaz was probably at least ten years older than Ruth, and possibly as much as
twenty years older.
In
other words, he was probably about Naomi’s age, but rather than seek him for herself,
Naomi made the wise decision to look after her daughter-in-law instead.
With that said, Boaz isn’t swept
away by the offer. He keeps his head. There are cultural details that must be
considered. The first is Ruth’s reputation. The second is the complication of
another person who had a greater right to take Ruth as his wife. This seems
more than a little odd to our modern ears. We might understand if Boaz were
discussing a competition for Ruth’s hand because Ruth was a superlative person –
wealthier, prettier, more powerful etc. If she were Helen of Troy, wars might
be fought over her, but she’s just plain Ruth, and Boaz was talking as if he
and this other fellow were going to compete who got to pay for surgery and then
take this stray dog home.
“After you, my dear Alphonse.”
“Oh no, after you.
If I were Ruth, I think I’d feel
insulted. I threw myself at his feet and he’d agreed to be my husband but now,
as the light of day approaches, he’s backing out and trying to buy my good
behavior with some grain. Maybe the real Ruth was acquainted with this sort of thing.
Or maybe she trusted him more than I would.
And again, we shift from Boaz and
Ruth to God and us. We claim a promise God has made in Scripture or pray for
something, and God seems to say, “Hold on a bit, there’s this other little
detail I need to take care of.” Or, perhaps we think He doesn’t say anything. He
may even give us a blessing but on the
matter that matters, nothing.
“Hi Mom, I’m home.”
“And…what happened?”
“Well, God said He’d take are of it,
but then He mentioned some guy named Gaston. And look. He gave me this
Scripture cards for us to memorize.”[1]
And the question is… do we wait? Do
we memorize? Or do we shrug our shoulders and call, “Next!”
[1] I’m
sorry, I’ve been listening to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for the past several days, and it’s not doing
my sense of humor any good.
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