Broken Things Unbroken

We're going on with our series on Ruth this morning. We're up to Ruth chapter three. Ruth chapter three. So we're three quarters of the way through. And last time we met, we looked at the story of Ruth meeting Boaz for the first time.

Ruth met Boaz in the open field, and she asked him if she could glean from his field. She had gone to go and pick up wheat that had fallen behind all the workers, and here she met the boss, the owner of the field, and it just so happened that it was Boaz. And he said, you can go and take whatever you want, as much as you can carry. She said to him, and Boaz, we see, goes over and beyond what is required of him when it comes to helping the poor, helping the needy. And we see a sliver, we see a snapshot of the godly character of this man Boaz in that moment.

We also see how God sovereignly guides the hand of people, especially when they are obedient to His word. And He brings about His purposes for this world through that obedience. Ruth had no idea that Boaz owned this land, and it just so happened that she met Boaz in the field that day. So that's what we discussed last time, and this week we're looking at Ruth chapter three. Well, we come to the point in the story where Naomi, the mother-in-law, decides to take things into her own hands.

She decides to play the ultimate matchmaker and tells Ruth to make herself look good, smell nice, and head over to where Boaz had been working on the threshing floor. So that's what Naomi tells Ruth. Ruth, being the woman of integrity, the woman of noble character that we've come to know in this story, does what her mum tells her to do. We saw last time that Ruth is a person of love, of abundant, faithful, merciful, gracious love, all tied into this one word. So Ruth, after putting a bit of Chanel number five on, slipping on a nice black cocktail dress and a pair of killer heels, heads over to the threshing floor.

But this whole situation stinks. This whole thing is very dodgy. In and of itself, the perfume, the makeup aren't bad. The bible actually talks of beauty as something that God has created and is beautiful and should be proud of. Beautiful women in the bible are spoken of in a positive light.

Does the bible, as some say, say that we should neglect ourselves, or women especially should neglect themselves in some way? Well, I think we can see here that beauty is to be celebrated. So in and of itself, Naomi isn't suggesting the wrong thing. But it's a context we'll see soon which is very dangerous, very careless. Naomi says to Ruth, go to the threshing floor in the evening and wait until Boaz has finished dinner and goes to sleep.

Now, if you were an Israelite in ancient Israel, you would have heard this story, you would have heard this background and would have thought, phew, that is dangerous. That is really, really perilous. What was Naomi thinking? The threshing floor was a large flat area outside of town, usually. Very flat, hard compacted ground.

And it was an area where everyone, remember these were farming communities, where everyone who had wheat would come and gather it and put it on the floor and thresh it out. We'd grab stalks of it and bash it against this hard ground so that the wheat would become separated from the stalks and the grass and the chaff. And from there, they would siphon it out more and more and get it cleaner and cleaner until they just had the wheat left. The threshing floor was the place of hard work, but it also had a particular stigma to it that we as western, modern day readers don't understand. The threshing floor was a man's domain.

It was like your modern day steel mill or your coal mine. It was dirty, it was grimy, it was sweaty, it was bloke-ish. But it was also a place of adultery and sin. Hosea nine, verse one, and a few other passages in scripture, talks of prostitutes going to the threshing floor to get clients. It was bloke-ish.

All the blokes were there. It was outside of town. No wives were around. The threshing floor was a bit of a red light district. And funnily enough, in our day and age, the red light districts are also associated with the industrial areas.

The industrial areas, say, of Brisbane or of the Gold Coast. And again, the threshing floor by itself is not a dangerous place to be, but Naomi sends Ruth to the threshing floor in the middle of the night with a lot of men there. It's like sending your daughter, age 12, to Karol Ave at 12:00 at midnight. You just don't do something like that. There's so much we can actually learn from this scene.

Naomi inadvertently does her best to destroy the whole story up until this point. Naomi did no one any favours that night. We still see Naomi struggling with doing things in her own strength, doing things without God's wisdom, without God's insight. I don't know if Naomi prayed about this plan of hers. I asked for God's guidance on how she was going to find a husband for her daughter.

But she puts in this crazy scheme and puts her loyal daughter-in-law in the worst possible situation. It's such a strong warning to us again this morning that we can never come to that ridiculous place where we decide to do things our own way. We say, well, if I just do this and this, if I just tell my husband to do this or I take my kids there, if I just invest my money like this or I choose to enjoy my free time in this way, just quickly. Making decisions and plans according to our flawed and very inept wisdom and motives. And meanwhile, we don't recognise, we don't see that we are perhaps single-handedly orchestrating a catastrophic perfect storm.

It's a reminder that we have to create a discipline. We have to create a habit of coming to God for making decisions in our lives. This was a massive decision Naomi was making. This was a massive step in their lives. And regardless, for us, whether we make big or small decisions, we have to come to God.

A small decision, in hindsight, could have actually been a massive decision. We can make a small decision here and then look back and go, well, that was actually much more important than I thought it would be. As we head into a new era, perhaps even for Narrabeen, I'm challenged by this truth. Let's make the decision to come before God with our decisions, to ask for wisdom and for guidance in our actions. We are His people, after all.

He loves us. He wants what's best for us. Let's grant God the opportunity to help out His kids by coming to Him. So Ruth heads out to the threshing floor. She looks great, and she waits until Boaz has finished his meal.

He's very wise. He's got a full tummy. He's had a few wines for good measure. The bible says that he was good in spirits. In fact, the Hebrew says that his heart was good within him.

He was happy. He was at peace. He had just done a hard day's work. He had a great big pile of grain there that he could sell, or that he could feed himself and his greater family with. But we also remember, and should remember, that Boaz was a godly man.

He was a man who loved his Lord and obeyed God's commandments. And this light, Boaz, we have to just add here, wasn't in good spirits in the sense that we understand good spirits when you've had a few wines. It doesn't mean that at all. He was content. People I've read, commentators say that he was actually drunk here, and so Naomi knew this and sent Ruth to take advantage of him.

The bible doesn't say that. He was content. He was happy, and he showed a lot of self-control. So after Boaz falls asleep, Ruth comes to the threshing floor. She sneaks around all these guys sleeping around this pile of grain. They were protecting it from robbers, from thieves, and so on. She sneaks around, tiptoes around all these sleeping bodies, finds Boaz.

She takes off his shoes and falls asleep at his feet. Later that night, something startles him. Another translation says he actually shuddered, perhaps from the cold, and he woke up. And he looked around and he saw the shape of a woman lying next to him, lying near him. Of all things, of all things, a woman at the threshing floor.

Well, what's happening here? What's happening here? It sounds a little bit weird. What is this thing with the feet? Why does he take off his shoes?

In the Middle Eastern culture, the feet is considered to be the most lowly, most humble part of the person's body. It was the part that gets dirty, that works hard, that gets scarred and gets calluses on. It's perhaps not even very nice smelling, whereas the head is a place of honour. The head is a place of honour, of respect. By uncovering Boaz's feet and lying at them, Ruth is actually indicating the attitude with which she is approaching Boaz.

She comes in humility. She comes with a fair degree of modesty. And Ruth is indicating that she has respect for this man, Boaz. She respects him. Now I can read this story and I can just think of this lady on Monday night in Q and A just going absolutely bonkers at this idea that a woman would be forced to do this, but Ruth wasn't.

I think it was just a sense of Ruth understanding what sort of person Boaz was, a wealthy man, a person of power. She comes to him with respect and with modesty and humility. But there is also a sense of sensuality in the air. Ruth is attracted to Boaz, but the twist in the story is that she will not comply with the stereotypes of the women who used to come, or who normally come, to the threshing floor.

She's not that kind of lady. She maintains her personal integrity. She retains her faithfulness to God, and she remains pure. But the scene is set. It's a perilous situation.

A woman lying next to the boss at his feet, his uncovered feet. And Boaz gets startled. He wakes up and he says, who are you? Ruth replies, I am your servant. And then she adds, spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a kinsman redeemer.

Spread the corner of your garment over me. Now, you know those really soppy chick flicks, the ones where the wives or the girlfriends, you know, they watch a really nice scene, a nice romantic comedy, and they wish that their husband or their boyfriend could be just half as charming as a hunk in the movie. You know those movies where the guys just wish that they could fake a heart attack to get out of watching a movie? Those sort of movies.

It's one of those moments. It's one of those moments. This is the part in the movie when all the girls listening to the story in ancient Israel would have gone, oh. When Ruth says to Boaz, spread the corner of your garment over me, she literally says in Hebrew, spread your wing over me. Spread your wing over me.

The amazing thing is in the ancient Middle Eastern tradition, which is actually still practised by some today, as part of the wedding ceremony, as part of the vows and the I dos and so on, the husband would pull his cloak out, his cloak around her, and it would indicate that she has come under his protection. She has come under his care. She has literally come under his wing. Ruth is essentially saying to Boaz, marry me. Marry me.

Now that is an awe moment. Ruth made herself pretty. She accentuated her beauty before going to Boaz. But the circumstances were all wrong. Naomi's plan was a crazy one.

But thankfully, Boaz and Ruth were individuals of deep faithfulness to God and His commandments. So nothing goes wrong despite a hundred things potentially going wrong. I think Ruth showed incredible courage to make her feelings towards Boaz clear, which I'm sure was very countercultural. But I know that there are people today who also say that women need to be pretty little wallflowers who sit quietly while boys take their pick. And they even go as far to say that the bible says that is how it should be.

But we're reading the bible today, aren't we? I know the bible speaks of men being leaders in romantic relationships, being leaders in marriages. I believe that is the order which God has created, but there's nothing to say that Ruth overstepped her mark. There's nothing to say that what she did was breaking God's purposes in any way. She looked super hot.

She felt confident. But at the same time, she came with humility and gentleness. And for some reason, Boaz didn't make the first move. Boaz perhaps was an older gentleman. He thought, in fact, if you read between the lines, that she wasn't interested, that he wasn't even in the race.

She said, bless you, daughter. You didn't go after the young men, whether they were rich or poor. Boaz was an old bachelor, and he thought he was out of the running. But Ruth has just shown him that he was kind of in first place. God's word may not suggest that ladies do the chasing in relationships, but it doesn't say anything about conveniently putting yourself in the way.

Ruth says, marry me. And then she adds, because you are a kinsman redeemer. Because you are a kinsman redeemer. Now this has huge, huge importance. What is the kinsman redeemer?

Well, in the days of ancient Israel, again, when a person would go bankrupt, they would be forced to sell all their land, their ancestral land that they inherited, that they passed down from generation to generation. When a person goes bankrupt, they would have to sell this. They would have no inheritance, and the only way that they could get it back was if a relative bought this land again. It needed to stay within the family. This was called the kinsman redeemer.

They would redeem this land. They would redeem the inheritance for the family. God created, in fact, a law in the bible to counteract injustices where people could just keep buying land and land and land and have a poor community, a poor marginalised community. So He creates a law regarding this kinsman redeemer. And so this was a family member who was either a brother or a cousin or an uncle or a grandfather, and these individuals would be able to buy back the land that had been sold off.

In fact, sometimes when people were bankrupt, they would sell themselves into slavery. They would sell their family members into slavery to those debtors. Again, the kinsman redeemer would be able to buy these family members back, to buy them back into the family. Elimelech, we read before, Naomi's husband, forfeited all they had when they moved to Moab to find greener pastures. He had sold off his inheritance.

He had sold off his land. There was no more land for Ruth and Naomi to come back to. No inheritance. But Boaz, we see, is a relative of Elimelech. We don't know exactly how close.

We don't know if he was a brother or an uncle or something like that. But then he realised what this meant for her and Ruth. It meant that Boaz could buy back the land of Elimelech and that he could provide for both Naomi and Ruth. That he could rescue their lives. But Boaz was under no obligation to do this.

There was no obligation from his side. There was nothing that forced him to make any contribution to the welfare of Naomi and her dead husband. Marry me, Ruth says. Marry me because you are this kinsman redeemer. While Boaz is completely blown away, this is so out of left field, He blesses Ruth, and he states just what an amazing person she is, that she didn't go after the young guys, even though she could have easily got them.

But in her humility and gentleness, she suggests that Boaz be the one to do the noble thing here. Well, Ruth could not have chosen a more noble guy, a guy with more integrity than Boaz. He immediately tells her what he will do and what he can do for her. He will go and go through this process, but he reminds her that there is someone that's actually a closer relative than he is. And that he will go to court the next day, and he will bring this person along with him and suggest that he buys back the land, that he does the redeeming.

But if he does not, he says, I will surely do this. I will surely do this. Meanwhile, Boaz tells her to sleep there until the morning, and before the sun comes up, before anyone could see what was happening, he tells her to go home, but he gives her another huge bag of grain. He wants to impress his mother-in-law, and he gives her as much grain as she can carry. What we see in the story of chapter three, the threshing floor scene, is the gracious guiding hand of God working through a perilous situation.

Have you ever had that, looking in hindsight at some things that you've done and just going, wow, if I had known better, I would not go through that again. But God was there guiding me. God was there protecting me. God somehow got me through that situation. This is very much the same thing.

Naomi did no one any favours by coming up with this plan. Ruth and Boaz, although in the trickiest, most perilous of situations, remain faithful and don't give in to the desires they had for one another, even though it would have been normal in those days. Even though she was a woman at the threshing floor, now what more do you expect? This is just what happens on the threshing floor. They remained faithful.

This Ruth, who is a new Christian, a new believer, doing what was right according to her newfound Lord and Saviour. And the story of a distinguished gentleman, a long and faithful believer of his Lord. These guys, by the grace and the mercy of God, they navigate through this perilous, dangerous situation. And Ruth is assured that she will be redeemed, that her life will be saved, that her life and her mother's life will be spared. Our Lord is so good.

He is so gracious. He is so powerful. Out of the messiest of our plans, through our sinful and deceitful motives, God can and does redeem anything for His purposes. He had a plan for Ruth and Boaz. He had a plan.

We see in this story the amazing significance of Jesus being our redeemer, of Jesus being our redeemer. Jesus once said, I didn't come to be served but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many. Jesus is saying here that He has come to redeem us from a fate far more horrific than dying of starvation. Romans three, twenty-three says, there is no difference, for we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans six, twenty-three says that this falling short, which is sin, has the wages of death.

Our falling short of God through our brokenness and our imperfection before a perfect God meant that we should have been turned away eternally from God's presence. But we are justified. We are made right with God, made as if we have never committed a single sin. By the redemption of Jesus Christ, by Jesus being our redeemer, Jesus brought us back from slavery. We had sold ourselves into slavery.

We were bankrupted. We needed to sell ourselves because we were created to serve, and we decided to serve ourselves. Jesus became our redeemer, however. He became our Boaz. Our life and death laid in His hands.

And He took up that challenge gladly. He bore the cross freely, and He paid the price ultimately. He is our redeemer.