Let’s go to Ruth 2:10–23 and pick up where we left off with Ruth’s question as to why she found such amazing favor in Boaz’s presence from him and through him from God, and let’s ask what Boaz’s answer to her question means. Ruth 2:10 says:

Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?”

Here’s his answer in Ruth 2:11. It says:

But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before.

Then he shifts and interprets her question a little differently. She’s asking, “Why have I found favor in your eyes?” but he’s also going to answer why she finds favor in God’s eyes, because I think, in his mind and in hers, they both know Boaz is the instrument of God’s favor and blessing here. So in Ruth 2:12 he says:

The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!

Under Yahweh’s Wings

Let’s take his answer in stages. Ruth asks, “Why have I found favor?” and his answer is: “Because you love Naomi and have been faithful to her. I’ve heard the story about you. I’ve seen what kind of woman you are. You’ve loved Naomi. You’ve left your own father. You’ve left your own mother. You’ve left your own gods. You’ve embraced Naomi. You’ve embraced her God.”

Now, we need to ask a theological question here. Is Boaz saying, “I bless you and God blesses you because you have earned our blessing”? There’s a faith and works issue here. Is his conception one of merit and debt and earning, sort of like an employment situation where an employee puts in a good day’s labor, does what he’s supposed to do, and now the employer is in his debt and has to pay a wage? Is that the way he’s conceiving of the blessing that’s coming to her through him, both from him and from God? It would be like her saying, “Why have I received this blessing?” and him saying, “You’ve earned it.” Is that what he’s saying? I don’t think so. There’s clues in the text as to why we’re not to think that way, and they’re given in Ruth 2:12.

As he shifts from him being the blesser to God being the blesser, he also shifts to something deeper that’s under the admirable deeds she’s done — he shifts to a place where she’s resting. Let’s read Ruth 2:12 again:

The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!

Yes, there’s the deed. God sees it. God approves of it in his mercy and God honors it. We will be rewarded according to our deeds. But there’s something deeper going on. The image in his mind is not employee and employer, nor debt and wage, nor merit. The image is of an eagle — a big, strong eagle. God is manifesting his care through Boaz and his gentlemanly, fatherly care over this young woman. What Ruth has done to find favor in this eagle’s work is to hide in him. She has taken refuge under the wings of God, under the wings of the eagle.

In You My Soul Takes Refuge

Now, the reason I feel justified in saying that there’s a causal relationship there between her hiding under the wings of God and God’s delight and blessing in her is because I find that idea almost verbatim in Psalm 57:1. It says this:

Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for (ground clause) in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge …

This is so theologically significant. You want to get the gospel. You have to get this if you want to see the foreshadowings of the glorious gospel of justification by faith. In the Old Testament, you get alerted to these kinds of arguments. It says, “Be merciful to me, O, God, be merciful to me.” And Ruth feels like she’s getting mercy from Boaz, because she says, “I’m a foreigner. I don’t deserve anything. Why are you treating me this way?”

God so delights in that kind of attitude. Why? The psalmist is calling out for mercy here in Psalm 57:1, but the psalmist doesn’t act as though mercy has no correlation with our posture before God, so he says, “Have mercy on me because,” but then he doesn’t say, “because I’ve worked so hard for you.” That wouldn’t be mercy anymore, would it? That wouldn’t be mercy. Mercy is poured out on whom? He says, “for in you my soul takes refuge.” This is the way we argue with God. This is the way we lay claim on God’s mercy. It’s not because of anything we are or anything we do except call out in desperation. That’s what we have to offer God — desperation and helplessness. That desperation says, “I’m hiding. I’m looking for a hiding place. All I’ve got to offer is fear of death and hell, and my own sin, and how wicked and unworthy I am. I’m coming to you. You’re my only hope. If you are extended and there’s a shadow there, I’ll hide there.”

If we will talk to God that way, no matter what we’ve done, all of God’s zeal for his own glory will come into play on our behalf, because what we’re saying in that moment is: “I don’t expect anything from you because of what I am, but what you are is glorious in grace and mercy and power and wisdom. I recognize it. There’s no other place to go. I don’t go to alcohol. I don’t go to sex. I don’t go to success. I don’t go to family. I don’t go to leisure. I don’t go to the stock market. I don’t go anywhere. I come to you. You’re my only hope.”

When you talk to God like that, everything in his great, self-exalting soul kicks in with infinite energy on your behalf. I think that’s the theology under this statement of her hiding under his wings. And Boaz is saying that he sees that in her and loves it. We’re going to see that. This is a great love story in chapter three, and we’re going to get into chapter three tonight even if it kills me. There’s a great love story that comes in here. This man is not just viewing her as a father, he is falling in love with her big time. She is falling in love with him too, and the clues to that are delicate, subtle, and beautiful, and they get more and more powerful and sexy as you go along. But right here he is saying, “What I love about you is you have hidden yourself in God.”

Faith Working through Love

Now, let me finish the theology of faith and works here. He said, “The reason I’m showing you favor is because you love your mother-in-law.” He said that, so I don’t want to sweep that under the rug. She has done a beautiful thing. She has given herself to this woman and left her home, and Boaz is saying, “I love that about you. I’m moved by that.”

But now we ask: What is the relationship between hiding under the wings of God, feeling unworthy, calling out for mercy, being childlike, and deeds? I would say that the relationship is one of result and evidence. In other words, when you hide under the wings of God, and you feel yourself loved, cared for, accepted, forgiven, protected, and secured, so that all the fears of your life drain away, all the greed of your life of the world drains away, and all your self-preoccupation drains away, and you’re caught up in the all-sufficiency of your eagle God, do you know what flows out of that? Love — love for people flows out of that. Freedom from self-preoccupation flows out of that. Galatians 5:6 says:

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

I think that’s a picture of the theology of love and hiding faith in this book. I think that’s the answer that she gets to her question, “Why have I found favor?” He says a couple of things. He says, “Yes, I’m favoring you, but deeper than my favor is God’s favor. And yes, I am moved by your life of love, but deeper than that, I and God are moved by your faith in God. You’re hiding under his wings.”

Oh, that the Pharisees had gotten this when Jesus said:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! Behold your house is left to you desolate (Matthew 23:37–38).

The problem with Jerusalem was that they were self-sufficient. Who wants to be a little chick? I don’t know if they only do this in the south, but we did it about 50 years ago. Every Easter we got chicks. They were purple and yellow and orange, and they didn’t have any feathers yet. They were about five days old, and my mother would give us little chicks for Easter.

They were absolutely helpless. One of the saddest days of my life was playing bus with my sister with a wheelbarrow. I was acting like the bus driver and my sister was the teacher, and my job was to get the chicks on the bus (the wheelbarrow) to school. You can see what’s going to happen. I was playing bus driver with the wheelbarrow and a little chick jumped out of the front of the wheelbarrow, and I ran over the chick and killed it — either mine or hers, I don’t remember which. We had a funeral ceremony across the street. I had this big pet cemetery where I buried my dog, my chicks, my hamsters, my guinea pigs, and my fish.

Well, who wants to be a chick? But Jesus said, “If you don’t turn and become like little children (like chicks), you’ll never have me as your savior” (Matthew 18:3). And they didn’t. Well, Ruth did. She was such a beautiful, powerful, great, strong, deep, meek, wise woman. No wonder this man was utterly captivated by her.

Accidents or Providence?

Let’s end our thoughts on chapter two by going back to Naomi. I said to you earlier on — though maybe you’ve forgotten because it’s been so long since this chapter began — that Ruth just happening to come to the field of Boaz, her kinsman, is an ambiguous statement that the author writes in that way to let you decide whether you are catching on to providence here, or whether you think accidents just happened and God’s not really running the world in detail.

I think Naomi is now given the honor in this book of answering that question in Ruth 2:20. Ruth comes back to Naomi, tells her everything that happened that day, and when she tells that it was Boaz whose field she worked in, the lights go on for Naomi, as if she was thinking, “Boaz? Oh, Boaz! Yes, I do have this relative Boaz.” Then ideas start to just tumble to her mind, hope begins to spring up, and her theology completes itself. She’s had a grand theology of the sovereignty of God. She was saying, “He sent me away full. He brought me back empty. The hand of the Lord is against me. He’s sovereign, but he’s against me.” Now, listen to the tune she is singing in Ruth 2:20:

And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.”

What’s the antecedent of the relative pronoun whose? There are two reasons I think whose refers to God rather than Boaz. So I think what she’s saying is this: “God bless you, Boaz. God bless you. May the Lord bless you, for God’s kindness, I now see, has not forsaken me, and Ruth, and Elimelech, and Chilion — the one whose lines were about to be snuffed out by Ruth having no relative to marry.”

The Lovingkindness of Yahweh

The first reason is a parallel from Genesis 24:27. I’ll just read it for you because it’ll take time to look it up. Abraham had sent his servant to go get a wife for Isaac. God, in a wonderful story of providence, gets him exactly to the brother’s house, Rebekah acts responsive, and it’s all going to work out. Genesis 24:27 says:

[The servant] said, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master. As for me, the Lord has led me in the way to the house of my master’s kinsmen.”

These are almost identical words to the passage we’re looking at. He attributes this remarkable providential guidance right to the wife of Isaac as God’s kindness not forsaking him. So I’m prone then to see similar wording here in Naomi’s words: “Blessed be Boaz by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living.” She was just walking, looking for a field where there were some sheaves, and she happened to find this field and it turned out to be Boaz’s field. When Naomi heard that story, she basically said, “This is no accident. This is the kindness of God.” And her theology was complete.

She now not only believes in a sovereign God, but she believes that in it all, he’s being kind to her. Yes, Elimelech died, and Mahlon and Chilion died. It looked as though there was nobody to marry for the widow and that the name of Chilion and Elimelech would come to an end. But now, providentially, Naomi doesn’t even think of it. Ruth found Boaz and all this hope comes to life in her heart.

I think she interprets the second reason, as I said there were two. It’s just the wording. Think about it with me for a minute. It says, “whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead.” What would it mean for Naomi to say that about Boaz? Boaz’s kindness has not forsaken the dead? That just doesn’t work. You could say, “Well, yeah, it kind of works,” but it doesn’t. Boaz is being kind to Ruth. That’s the living. And in being kind to Ruth, he is also on the brink of being kind to her father in law and her husband, but he doesn’t know that. It’s just beginning. So it would be funny to say that Boaz hasn’t forsaken his kindness to Elimelech. It just doesn’t work. But it does work well to say God looked like he had forsaken kindness to Elimelech and Chilion, but he hadn’t.

Those two reasons make me think that this is Naomi’s great recovery of faith. This is her interpretation of God’s Providence, and this is a beautiful honor to the Lord and his kindness. The conclusion of chapter two then is let’s fall on our faces before God and his mercy, like Ruth taught us. Let’s bow down. Let’s confess our unworthiness like she does. Let’s take refuge under the wings of God, like little chicks or little children. And let’s be astonished by grace — remember the words this morning about astonishment — not bitter providence. Let’s be astonished when the providence is sweet and not just when it’s bitter.

A Turn of Events

We come to chapter three now, and we have Naomi exulting over the kindness of God. We have Boaz, a man so God-saturated that he greets his employees with “Blessed be God,” and they greet him with “Blessed be God,” and we have Ruth who is a woman under the wings of God, who has learned to rest like a little eaglet under the wings of an eagle and to love at some cost to herself.

What will be now the effect of people like that? What will they do when hope has sprung up? We’re done with bitterness now. We’re done with the bitter providences. There are no more bitter providences in this book. Everything from here on out is filled with sweet providences. It’s like Job, only Job got only one chapter at the end for the turnaround, whereas here you get half the book for the turnaround. Let’s read it and see. I would call this chapter strategic righteousness.

I want you to watch for righteousness. We’re going to talk about Ruth’s righteousness, Naomi’s righteousness, and Boaz’s righteousness, and how strategic it is planned and intentional it becomes. We’ll talk about lessons from each of them. Ruth 3:1 begins:

Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you?

Isn’t this an amazing turn? I mean, Ruth was the one who said that in the last chapter — “I’ll go get some food and take care of you,” and now, Naomi is saying, “We have to get you taken care of.” Where’d that come from? It came from hope. She’s out of her depression. Depressed people can’t think about other people very much. They’re so consumed with their bitter providences that they don’t strategize or dream. They don’t think about it. They don’t plan. They just cope. They just survive. But when they get healed, when they see God over them and when they’re freed to hope again, they start taking care of people. Ruth 3:1–5 continues:

Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? Is not Boaz our relative, with whose young women you were? See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Wash therefore and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do.” And she replied, “All that you say I will do.”

That’s incredible. I can’t believe she’s telling her to do this. What in the world is going on here? Isn’t it amazing? Naomi says, “He’ll tell you what to do.” So we’re left hanging here and the reader just has to say, “I can’t believe she said that. I just can’t believe Naomi is saying this.”

The Romance of Ruth and Boaz

Ruth 3:6–8 continues:

So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her. And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. At midnight the man was startled and turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet!

Now, I remember how I struggled with this text back in 1984, wondering, is she perpendicular? Is she kind of overlapping at his feet? We’re just not told. It’s all very subtle. In Ruth 3:9, it says:

He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.”

Naomi did not tell her to say that. So this is increasingly puzzling. I mean, this woman has earned our respect and the author is testing you right now. He’s testing you to see whether you believe this is all about a very loose woman and a very conniving mother-in-law, or whether something deep, profound, and subtle is going on here. Those words were her own words, not Naomi’s words, and therefore I want to come back and say what in the world is she saying? What is that? Ruth 3:9–12 continues:

And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” 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. And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman. And now it is true that I am a redeemer. Yet there is a redeemer nearer than I.

That verse is absolutely stunning. It’s midnight. They’re under the stars. Everybody’s asleep. She’s under a blanket, washed, perfumed, and dressed in her best loose clothing, and he says, “Somebody else has a right to you first.” This is incredible. I just want to say, what a man. I don’t know whether I would praise Ruth yet. I’m a little puzzled. So I’m coming back to rescue Ruth in a minute from all of our misgivings. But right now I do want to say about Boaz, you are something else. Ruth 3:13–17 continues:

Remain tonight, and in the morning, if he will redeem you, good; let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then, as the Lord lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until the morning.” So she lay at his feet until the morning, but arose before one could recognize another. And he said, “Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.” And he said, “Bring the garment you are wearing and hold it out.” So she held it, and he measured out six measures of barley and put it on her. Then she went into the city. And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, “How did you fare, my daughter?” Then she told her all that the man had done for her, saying, “These six measures of barley he gave to me, for he said to me, ‘You must not go back empty-handed to your mother-in-law.’”

Have you ever asked the question, why didn’t he just marry Naomi? That’s kind of one of those behind-the-scenes questions that’s never answered. Boaz calls her daughter and she is Naomi’s daughter-in-law. Naomi and Boaz might be similar ages. You could solve a lot of problems here if that was the case, but that’s not part of the story, though it raises the question. She doesn’t ever address it, but he sent food to care for her because Ruth says:

These six measures of barley he gave to me, for he said to me, “You must not go back empty-handed to your mother-in-law” (Ruth 3:17).

So he really cares about Naomi, but he’s not in love with her. Then the chapter ends with Ruth 3:18, which says:

She replied, “Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today.”

Strategic Righteousness

Under the banner of strategic righteousness, let's talk about Naomi’s righteousness, Ruth’s righteousness, and Boaz’s righteousness. Let’s just take them one at a time, because I think that’s what this chapter is showing. This chapter is showing a stunning picture of doing what’s right against the American ethos of “when it feels good, do it.” Here is the lesson: These people have a law; they have standards; they have commitments and a higher vision than their bellies or their groin. They act by principle. It may not look like it on the face of it at times, but I’ll try to explain why that is. So let’s take Naomi first.

Naomi’s Righteousness

Two things that stand out about the strategy of Naomi’s righteousness. The first thing is the sheer fact that she has one, and I already alluded to this. Naomi has a strategy; she has a plan, though it puzzles the living daylights out of it. We think, “Why in the world would she do it this way?”

But let’s just think for a minute about the fact that she has one because she didn’t have any strategy before Ruth 2:20. But when the hope lit up in her life, her mind kicked in. I just want to say to you: Be hope-givers to people. If your church is languishing, or your family is languishing, or you are languishing without a life plan or without a church plan; if it just seems like you’re dead in the water, there’s a reason for that. And the reason is hopelessness. Hopeless people don’t plan. Hopeless people don’t dream.

This woman has a dream. She’s thinking, “Oh, If I could get them married Ruth would continue Elimelech’s name, I’d have a nursing home, and life would open up before us. So she began to think and strategize. She wasn’t doing any of that before she had hope. She couldn’t even think of the possibility that there was a relative out there.

Oh, I have tasted that. I just plead in my ministry over and over again, “God, continue to give me hope. Continue to help me see how big and resourceful you are.” When it looks like there are dead end streets in the ministry or things aren’t going the way you want, pray your way through those blockages to see God again. God is the source of hope in your marriage, your parenting, your church life, your professional life, and your health. He’s a God of hope. He’s called that over and over again in the Bible. Romans 15:13 says:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Hope produces love — strategies of righteousness and love. So just the sheer fact that Naomi has a strategy is a tribute to hope. Now, it’s a very odd strategy — really odd. In Ruth 3:2, she says, “Boaz is your kinsman.” That means he’s a likely candidate to be Ruth’s husband. According to the levirate law of marriage (Deuteronomy 25:5–10), if your husband doesn’t have a brother, then the next of kin would come in and marry the widow and bring up offspring for his name. Now Naomi has hope that that might happen, so she tells Ruth to go take a bath and put on some perfume and nice clothes, and then to go down there and lift up Boaz’s cloak and lie at his feet, and he’ll say what to do next. Well, I guess he will.

What kind of conversation does she expect to happen, I wonder. This is a very risky maneuver. What is it about? Is it about getting him to have sex with her because if she could get him to have sex with her then surely he’d marry her? Some women think that way. Some teenage girls think that way — “If this guy will have sex with me, maybe he’ll care about me or marry me.” Is that what’s going on here? Or is there something deeper, more subtle, and more profound going on, and we’re left without an answer? I’m not even sure where she laid down and how she did that and how this was conceived, but we’re left with a question. We’re left with a clear either-or. Either there’s going to be one passionate, illicit sexual event of intercourse here, or there’s going to be a stunning scene of purity, integrity, and self-control with some meanings that we haven’t caught onto yet. Which is it going to be? That’s where we leave Naomi.

Ruth’s Righteousness

Let’s shift over to Ruth’s strategic righteousness in Ruth 3:6–9. In Ruth 3:5, she goes down and follows the instructions of Naomi. Naomi had said, “Boaz is going to tell you what to do.” But in fact, Ruth told Boaz why she came when he woke up. She took some initiative there. She’s got her own understanding of what Naomi told her to do, and maybe they talked this through or maybe they didn’t. I don’t know whether Naomi’s understanding of her intention and Ruth’s understanding of that intention are exactly the same. They probably are, and they probably thought it through. The interpretation I’m going to suggest to you here is something that Ruth spoke to Naomi about and bounced off of her, seeking her wisdom, and then they agreed on this strategy with this meaning. What is it? Well, in Ruth 3:9 Boaz says, “Who are you?” And Ruth replies:

I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.

Now, that last phrase, “you are next of kin (a redeemer),” is crystal clear as to her intentions. It means, “I want to be your wife,” though she doesn’t say it like that. She says it indirectly, as if to say, “You’re my next of kin, get it? I want you to be my husband. I want you to fill that role for me.” It’s very clear and very powerful the way she ends that sentence. She says, “Spread your skirt over me.” Now, whether Boaz will take that as an offer of sexual relations or look for something more significant in those words will depend on his assessment of her character.

Everything we’ve read up until this point in the Bible says fornication is wrong. It’s wrong in the Old Testament and it’s wrong in the New Testament. So either this woman has had one colossal character change, or something more than meets the eye is going on here. What is going on here?

Spread Your Wings Over Your Servant

There are two things that point to a very subtle and profound act that is not an invitation for fornication. First, the only other place in the Old Testament that I could find where there’s a reference to spreading the skirt over someone in a relationship is in Ezekiel 16:8 where God is talking about his betrothed, Israel, whom he finds, as it were, a young maiden. God is picturing himself as a suitor and a potential husband. Israel is his betrothed, and this is what it says in Ezekiel 16:8. God is speaking about himself here:

When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine.

Now, yes, that’s sexual. Yes, it is. Israel, pictured as a woman, is naked and he’s got a skirt and he’s going to put it over her. There’s no doubt that this has sexual connotations, but there’s way more than that, because he says in doing this, “I entered a covenant with you, declares the Lord, and you became mine.” So he puts the sexual part of the image into a covenant-making context. God made Israel his own, and there was an unshakable covenant there so that the sweet intimacy that he was willing to talk of in sexual language between him and his bride is covenant intimacy. Now, I am inclined to think that when Ruth used language like that, she was saying something like, “I would like to be the one to whom you pledge your faithfulness and with whom you make a marriage covenant,” just like God spread his skirt over Israel and made a vow and a covenant with her. Then of course they enjoyed their sexuality in the context of the situation. Ruth is saying, “I want you to do that for me.” That’s the first reason. I think more is going on here than just sex.

God’s Kindness through Boaz

The second reason is even more subtle and remarkable. The word skirt here is the same as the word for wing back in Ruth 2:12, where Boaz said:

The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings (skirt) you have come to take refuge!”

It’s the same Hebrew word. I wish there was some way for it to come out in English, but it would be odd to talk about a skirt in Ruth 2:12. For a Hebrew reader, when they got here and heard her say, “Spread your wings (skirt) over me,” they would hear Ruth 2:12. It’s the only other place in the book where it’s used.

Let’s think about this for a minute. I’ll give you my summary sense of what I think is going on here. Previously, in the field with Boaz, Ruth had said, “Why have I found favor in your sight?” And then Boaz said, “Because you love your mother so much, and in fact what you’re finding here, Ruth, and you know, is that my kindness to you is really God’s kindness to you. He has providentially brought you to my field. He has providentially put you in my heart. I am extending his kindness to you, and the reason is because you have put yourself under his skirt, under his wings. And now I am being for you, the kindness of God. I am the skirt of God for you.”

Now, Ruth went home thinking about those words. She thought, “He said that he favored me. He was kind to me. He went out of his way to protect me from the young guys because I had taken refuge under God’s wing, or skirt. Boaz is in place of God. And so, in a sense, I’ve come under his wing.” Then she told that to Naomi and they talked about it. It’s not easy for an older man to fall in love with a younger woman. I don’t talk from my experience here, but from a recent counseling situation.

I’m 55, and I can imagine if Noël died and I fell in love with a 35-year-old woman, it would be difficult. I don’t let myself think about this too much, because that’s not healthy. It’s not good for a husband to do, but I would think of all the insecurities I would feel at that time. Good grief — my hair is thin on top. Well, there’s a man in my church that I would love to marry off to a particular woman. I wanted this to work, so I went for it. My wife has done this three times in our church. She’s arranged marriages, and they all have great marriages. I mean this American dating stuff is just for the birds, especially when you get over 40; just make it work. Just find somebody if God is calling. So anyway, I contacted both of them and talked to them and asked, “Could I talk to so and so about you?” And they said, “Well, I suppose.”

Now, he is at least 12 years older, maybe 15, and this did not work by the way. They tried it and worked on it for a few months and just had a wonderful mutual agreement that with the kids and everything else it just wasn’t right, so they are a widow and widower. But in talking with the man, I got a flavor of what it might have been like for Boaz because he said to me, “This is really awkward. I don’t know if she would want me.” On the inside I just wanted to say, “Oh, she would want you. Come on. You’re a great guy. Years don’t matter at this age, like 45 or 32 or whatever.”

But I think that way with Boaz here. The reason he doesn’t just come out and say, “You need a kinsman redeemer and I’m a kinsman redeemer, so let’s get married,” is that it’s just not that emotionally simple. That’s why this dance is going on here. I think he’s hinting to her, “You’ve come under the wings of God, and I love that about you. I am representing God in kindness to you, providing for you, and protecting you from these young guys. So I am the skirt and the wing of God.”

Boaz’s Righteousness

She went home and told Naomi about that, and Naomi said to Ruth, “How about if we try this. You’ll go down there and you’ll be ready for marriage, and you will go under that blanket and you’ll wait. And we will test to see if this man is worthy of you.” And then when he woke up, Ruth said, “Spread your wings over me,” maybe thinking, “Will he remember?” Imagine the pregnant moment of silence as he said to himself something like, “Can this really be happening? Could she have been that sensitive? Could she be reading that deeply into my soul that when I said ‘I love your taking refuge under the wings of God,’ she really could have heard me saying, ‘I want you under my wing because you’re under God’s wing.’”

And Ruth is saying to herself, “I hope I’ve got this right. I hope he meant what I think he meant because otherwise I’m inviting a man to commit a grave evil.” She said, “Stretch forth your wing and put it over me.” That moment of silence had to be one of the most powerful sexual moments imaginable. She got it and he got it. I know this is my interpretation, and I could be wrong. I just think this is probably what’s going on because of this link up between the word wing in Ruth 2:20 and Ruth 3:9 here.

At that moment, Boaz had a choice; he had lots of choices. He could have said, “She’s really not a very reliable woman offering herself to me in this way.” Or he could have said, “What a risk she’s taking to interpret my words the way I really wanted them to. And she got it. I’ve got a soulmate here of an unbelievable gift.” Or he could have said, “Let’s just do it. You’re here now and we’ll get married later.” It was midnight, they were under the stars, everybody was asleep, she was all bathed and beautifully prepared, and he’s a man.

But instead he says, “There’s a righteousness to be followed here. There is another person who has a claim on you.” Now, I’m willing to say, not only do I stand in awe of this man, but I also stand in awe of Ruth. I don’t think Ruth was a loose woman. I don’t think Naomi was a conniving mother-in-law. I think they pondered, “Here’s an older man. He’s old enough perhaps to be your father. You just don’t go up to a man old enough to be your father and say, ‘Marry me!’ And he just doesn’t go up to a young, beautiful, believing woman that all the young men want and say, ‘How about me?’”

There has to be a subtle, little dance here — like birds. Have you seen birds that dance around each other? So we’re going to take that word that he said, and we’re going to play on it tonight and see if we are right and take a big risk. Be ready to run if we are wrong. But they don’t think they’re wrong and he doesn’t prove them wrong. He is saying, “You’re a woman of worth and I’m a man of principle. I’ll get it done tomorrow morning and maybe tomorrow night it’ll be right.”

Flee Sexual Immorality

I want to leave you with that. I’m going to stop here, and I just want to say, Americans, don’t sell yourself short. Don’t buy into the lie that it’s okay when it’s late and you’re all alone, the stars are out, she’s there or he’s there, the blood is running through your body, and nobody will know except God. Do what Boaz did. Stop it until it is a covenant relationship, and God will be so pleased. The rest of this story is all about the beauty of the consummation and what it brought forth.

I’m sure it brought forth all the physical pleasures they wanted, but it also brought forth Jesus. That’s what I want my marriage to bring forth. When all the passionate orgasms are over and you get old and it’s not the same anymore, you want Jesus to have been the real issue of your marriage. You want your life to have counted for something bigger than what dogs can do.

Sexual life is a beautiful thing when it’s caught up into something big and covenant-like and there are stronger, deeper commitments than your guts. When you have a righteousness that you’re committed to, and you have laws and principles and standards that you’re committed to. Oh, how we need to breed this into our young people so that they feel a sense of nobility about it — a sense of beauty and depth and strength about it. To be chaste is a great thing in America, instead of something to be clucked at in the high school locker rooms, saying, “You’ve never done it?”

I mean, I want my daughter, my little Talitha, and my four sons, when they hear that kind of laughter and that clucking and that mockery, to just look at those people and say, “You’re a fool. You are an absolute fool. This thing called sex is so great, so big, so powerful, so precious, and so diamond-like that I house it in a magnificent box of velvet covenant, not the backseat of a car or a blanket in the lagoon.” Oh, that we might raise up generations like Boaz, who could say, “Maybe tomorrow night it will be right, but not tonight.” Let’s pray.