When the Redeemer Makes a Promise - Ruth 3:1-18 (Session 4)

Ruth chapter 3 brings the Kinsman-Redeemer theme to the center of the story.

The session begins with the law from Deuteronomy 25, which provided for a widow to be cared for by a close family member so that the family name, inheritance, and land could continue. That background becomes essential when Naomi recognizes that Boaz may be able to act as Ruth’s redeemer.

Naomi then sends Ruth to the threshing floor. Ruth approaches Boaz humbly, lies at his feet, and asks him to spread his covering over her because he is a close relative. Her request is essentially a request for Boaz to fulfill the role of kinsman-redeemer.

Boaz responds with kindness and integrity. He praises Ruth’s character, explains that another relative has the first right of redemption, and promises that if that man will not redeem her, he will.

This session explores how Boaz points toward Jesus Christ. A redeemer had to be a true kinsman. In the same way, Christ had to become fully human in order to redeem humanity. He is not a distant Savior—He became one of us so that He could serve as our mediator and Redeemer.

The chapter also emphasizes humility, submission, timing, salvation, waiting on God, and trusting His promises.

Ruth places herself at Boaz’s feet.

Boaz makes a promise.

Then Ruth has to wait.

That same pattern speaks powerfully to the Christian life. Christ has made promises to His people, including the promise that He will return. Until then, believers are called to trust Him while they wait.

Scripture: Ruth 3:1–18
Series: The Book of Ruth — An RTTB Study

Some questions discussed in this session include:

• How does God keep families together?
• Can we earn a relationship with Christ? 
• How should we approach God when talking to Him? 
• How should a couple today find a spouse? 
• What time is the best time to settle our relationship with God? 

Transcript

The Concept of the Kinsman Redeemer

Speaker 1 0:20

Welcome back to another session of Reasoning through the Bible . We've been going through the book of Ruth and finding out many , many great things and having a relationship with Christ and how he treats us and how he loves us and the things that he provides for us as well . We're starting to get introduced into this concept of a kinsman redeemer , glenn . As we go into this , I'd like to read from Deuteronomy 25 , 5 through 10 . This is where this provision takes place , given by God to the people of Israel . Let me read this here . A lot of these verses I'm going to read here are going to come to light as we go through chapters 3 and chapter 4 and finish up the book of Ruth . So reading from Deuteronomy 25 , 5 through 10, .

Speaker 1 1:08

When brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son , the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man .

Speaker 1 1:19

Her husband's brother shall go into her and take her to himself as a wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her .

Speaker 1 1:29

It shall be . The firstborn she bears shall assume the name of his dead brother , so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel . But if the man does not desire to take his brother's wife , then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate of the elders and say my husband's brother refuses to establish a name for his brother in Israel . He is not willing to perform the duty of a husband's brother to me . Then the elders of his city shall summon him and speak to him . And if he persists and says I do not desire to take her , then his brother's wife shall come to him in the sight of the elders and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face , and she shall declared thus it is done to the man who does not build up his brother's house In Israel , his name shall be called the house of him whose sandal is removed . These verses will come to mine and come to play out as we progress through this story .

Speaker 2 2:32

The question then becomes why would God's law have that in there , and what benefit does it bring to the people ?

Speaker 1 2:40

So that the family name and the inheritance of the original brother or the person that died would continue .

Speaker 2 2:49

So part of it is to keep the families together . This was the way of keeping the family together . Keeping the family together keeps the nation together , because the nation is made up of families , and if the family disintegrates , then the entire nation disintegrates , because that's what the nation is made of is families , and that's why it's such a risk in our day to tamper with the definition of what is a family . The next thing it does is it takes care of the widows , so you don't have poor people that are on the public dole , that are having to take resources from somebody else or just be compassionate to them . We don't have poor people running around . So it took care of the widow .

Speaker 2 3:33

And thirdly , when you mention inheritance , the inheritance is the land , and I know we keep repeating that over and over , but the land was so important that what this did is it kept the family , land in the family and it kept them working on the land in the nation of Israel , able to stay there and work , and that was what God's purposes were , so that one command there for man to marry his brother's widow and raise up a child after him solved all those problems . All that is a background for what we read in the story of Ruth .

Boaz and Ruth's Sacred Romance

Speaker 2 4:14

We're in Ruth , chapter three . We've learned at this point that Boaz has taken a great interest in Ruth and he's romanced her , and we brought in this idea of a sacred romance where God woos us in , just like Boaz wooed in Ruth . We have a very fun romance here going on and at the beginning of chapter three we have Naomi notices this thing and when she asks Ruth , how did you get all this and how did you bring this home ?

Speaker 1 4:43

Ruth tells her it's from Boaz , and Naomi says he's one of our closest relatives , he's one of our kinsmen , redeemer .

Speaker 2 4:51

Here we're going to read the first five verses of Ruth , chapter three . Then Naomi , her mother-in-law , said to her my daughter , shall I not seek security for you that it may be well with you Now ? Is not Boaz , our kinsman , with whom made you were ? Behold , he winnows barley at the threshing floor tonight . Wash yourself , therefore , and anoint yourself , and put on your best clothes and go down to the threshing floor , but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking . It shall be when he lies down that you shall notice the place where he lies and you shall go and uncover his feet and lie down . Then he will tell you what you shall do . She said to her all that you say I will do so . Naomi says she's going to help Ruth . She's doing just a little bit of matchmaking .

Speaker 1 5:40

Yeah , this is her plan .

Speaker 2 5:42

Mother-in-law's wouldn't be matchmakers , would they ? Maybe ? Back then they do the same thing as today , this idea of he's the kinsman redeemer , and again it brings up these benefits . Boaz was part of the extended family and therefore had the responsibility of making sure that Ruth got married and the sons were brought up .

Speaker 1 6:02

And it shows verse one , my daughter . It shows that Ruth has been brought into the family and is thought of as family , even though she was , by birth , a Moabitis .

Speaker 2 6:16

Those verses you read , stephen , back in Deuteronomy . It said that the widow was not to marry outside the family but was to marry the husband's brother . This kinsman redeemer had to be a blood relative . It couldn't be a foreigner or a stranger . Part of that is because of the inheritance . The land there had to stay in the family and if you talk about it up to the grandfather level , it was all part of the one extended family . So the widow couldn't take the land and bring in a foreigner and inherit the land . It was all attempted to keep the land together , but it also .

Speaker 2 6:53

The picture is that it had to be a kinsman . Could it be a foreigner ? What's the spiritual application with us in Christ ? Christ has to be a kinsman . He couldn't be just a spirit , he had to be a human , which , back with our , we made such a big deal about . The angel of the Lord . Christ had to be a human in order to be our redeemer . He had to be fully man in order to be our redeemer , to both be our blood sacrifice and to be our kinsman redeemer .

Speaker 1 7:23

And for people that are listening to this . If you haven't , we have a session out there talking about the angel of the Lord that goes into great detail on that , so go look that up Once you get a chance , the only one that could be our kinsman , redeemer , the wealthy man that takes notice of us and leaves presence for us is Jesus Christ .

Speaker 2 7:41

So in this passage , verse three , what does Naomi tell Ruth to do ? She gives her some instructions . In verse three , go wash yourself , anoint yourself . In other words , You're going to dress up a little bit , go to the threshing floor where Boaz is . Well , what in the world is a threshing floor , and what were they for ?

Speaker 1 8:00

Well , that's where they would , after harvesting the grain .

The Sacred Romance

Speaker 1 8:04

It would go back and at that point beat the grain or grind the grain against the rock or hard place , and that was the threshing floor , where you would thresh the grain . And uh , winnowing would then be where you would throw it up in the air and let the wind blow the chaff . But before you get to the winnowing part , you got to separate the grain out of the heads of whatever barley or wheat , whatever it is that you're threshing .

Speaker 2 8:33

They had a tool they called a winnowing fork and it sort of looked like a rake , a stick with some prongs on the end and they would beat the grain and that would separate the kernels , the kernels from the chaff Out from the head right .

Speaker 2 8:47

The part you could eat from the part you could , because this was harvest . They had large piles of grain . At the end of the day , once they had winowed this , you've got basically a year's pay sitting out there in the field in a big pile . This is the entire harvest . They would sleep out there around the pile for a couple of reasons to keep animals from getting it and to keep thieves from getting it the two-legged animals from taking it as well . So the harvesters would stay out there until they could get it loaded and stored . Naomi says you need to go do this now , tonight . Now here's a question . This was harvest time . These guys were working all day and they're busy . They're out there in the field . Why would Naomi say you need to do this now , today ? Why not wait until next week , next month , whenever ? Okay , things will settle down . Boaz will have a little more time . No , no , go today .

Speaker 1 9:50

Because the invitation was present , the provision was present , everything that Boaz had been doing had just taken place at that time and the time was right .

Speaker 2 10:03

And using the analogy is that you think Ruth noticed what Boaz was doing . He's leaving some for me . He gives me water . He gives me nice some things to dip my bread in . He gives me these things .

Speaker 1 10:14

She noticed Timing is everything and recognizing that timing is crucial and if we follow through with the analogies that you've been making , recognizing that Christ is pursuing you and inviting you and wanting you to become part of the family , that's the time that you should ask for salvation , not weeks later If you put it off till tomorrow , next week , next month , next year , it won't happen .

Speaker 2 10:46

Today is the day of salvation . 2nd Corinthians 6-2, . Behold , now is the acceptable time . Behold , now is the day of salvation . If we put off getting right with God , we might not do it . If we think we're going to do it on our deathbed , we won't . There's no more better time than right now , today . So , our listeners , if you feel that Christ has been wooing you , that the sacred romance has fallen into your lap , then I submit to you . Today is the day of salvation . Submit to Christ , because he's wooing you . He wants to have a love relationship with you and he will embrace you and shower blessings upon you For the Christians that are listening to us .

Speaker 1 11:29

This probably takes you back to the time whenever an invitation was given to you , whether it was being at a church service or whether it was by somebody else asking you , inviting you to ask Jesus into your heart to be saved , and that conviction that came that drove you to say I need to go forward and ask Christ into my heart . Now is the time that I need to admit my sin and ask for Christ into my heart . When that comes and when you're under that conviction and invitation , you know , and if a person turns away from it , that's a dangerous place to be in . To turn away whenever you're under that type of a conviction and to refuse .

Speaker 2 12:18

God can stop or at least withdraw some of his wooing . We saw that in the book of Judges . There's a point where God turns us back . The book of Ruth is this wonderful romance between these people . There was a very emotional thing at the beginning . They were crying because there was a great tragedy . Ruth comes in and says I am going to help you , your God will be my God and I'm going to stay with you until our death . She embraces God fully .

Speaker 2 12:46

The rich landowner takes oh who's this ? Young woman and leaves things for , gives her gifts , draws her in . This is a picture of us in Christ . Christians are the bride of Christ . That's what it explains . We get invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb . We start out poor . We're foreigners in a strange land , we're without hope , and Christ is our saver , our redeemer . When we go to Christ , he always has time for us , that's . The next thing is that she says to go at harvest time . He was busy . Does he speak to her in these next verses ? He always takes time . He's not too busy to focus on us being with Jesus .

Speaker 2 13:29

Is this love relationship , this sacred romance where each day we fall more and more in love ? I would always ask our listeners and even you and I , steve , if we ever thought of Jesus as this not in a human , romantic way , but in a godly way of this being a sacred romance . We talk about how God is love , and we should love Jesus with all our heart . Well , jesus asked Peter , do you love me ? The question each of us ought to ask ourselves is do we love him and do we realize that he loves us ? And does it change our life and our daily activities ? And so I submit that following Christ is a relationship that is a sacred romance . We should all learn more about Jesus and enjoy that .

Speaker 2 14:09

The other thing I tend to think of is think of two young people , 16 , 17 years old , just fell in love . Just fell in love , and they're head over heels in love . Now do you have to take somebody like that and pull them aside and say , okay , now here's the rules . You have to call them every day . I want you to make time for them and I want you to ask them how they feel and ask them what they think you are . Do you have to tell them to do this thing ? And I want you to spend at least five minutes a day with them ?

Speaker 1 14:39

No , they generally have a longing for each other . They want to be with each other .

Speaker 2 14:45

If it's the teenager in your house , it's hey , can you get off the phone ? You know it's time to go to bed , so you don't have to command them to go spend time together because they're in love . Well , Jesus is a love relationship . So in verse four , Naomi tells Ruth to go down to where they're threshing the grain and notice where Boaz is sleeping , these piles of grains . She tells them to uncover Boaz's feet . Now , what would uncover his feet do ?

Speaker 1 15:10

in verse four , Well , it's a way to show that , making herself available to him , letting him know that she's there .

Speaker 2 15:18

Well , yeah , two things . One is she waits till he's gone to sleep and she goes and uncovers his feet , and that does let them know she's there . It'll wake him up . Just from a practical standpoint . At one point in the night his feet is going to get cold and he's going to wake up , which is what happens . And another one is that the feet were considered kind of a lowly filthy part of the body . Laying at his feet is a position of submission . She's saying I'm your servant . She didn't come up to his head , she didn't even lay down beside him . She uncovered his feet , which , again , the practical standpoint is he's already asleep . It's going to wake him up . But , more importantly , she's putting herself in a position of submission Again . Do we come to Christ in demands ? Do we say , ok , jesus , my guy and your guy is going to sit around the conference room table and we're going to work out terms ?

Speaker 1 16:09

here Negotiation .

Speaker 2 16:10

We're going to negotiate terms and we'll compromise on what I'm going to give and what you're going to get . Is that the way it works ? No , no , no . How does it work ?

Speaker 1 16:20

We're to admit that we are lost , admit that we are sinners , admit that we need to have a change of mind towards God and we need to repent , which means we're seized from running away from God , turn 180 degrees back to God and lay ourselves at him and ask for salvation .

Speaker 2 16:42

Don't tell anybody . I said this but this will probably get me in trouble with some theologians . But who asked who here ? Boaz did not go down into the fields and change Ruth . He wooed her and she comes and lays at his feet .

Speaker 1 16:58

She could have walked away , which is another thing Verses one through five is Naomi's plan . Verses six through 13 is Naomi's plan , carried out by Ruth . So once again we see Ruth committing herself and yielding herself to the direction that Naomi has given , that Boaz has given earlier . We see that Ruth is very much a person that is humble , willing to yield herself and has this worshiping of the God of Israel in her heart . She definitely wants to be a part of the family .

Speaker 2 17:37

We should be like Ruth in the sense that when she rejected Moab , we reject our old ways and we fall at Jesus' feet and ask to be part of his life . So you mentioned verses 6 to 13 . Why don't you go ahead and read those ? So she this is .

Speaker 1 17:50

Ruth . So she went down to the threshing floor and did according to all her mother-in-law had commanded her . When Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was merry , he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain and she came secretly and uncovered his feet and lay down . It happened in the middle of the night that the man was startled and bent forward and , behold , a woman was lying at his feet . He said who are you ? And she answered I am Ruth , your maid .

Speaker 1 18:19

So spread your covering over your maid , for you are a close relative or a kinsman , redeemer or redeemer , verse 10, . Then he said may you be blessed of the Lord . My daughter , you have shown your last kindness to be better than the first by not going after young men , whether poor or rich . Now , my daughter , do not fear I will do for you whatever you ask for . All my people in the city know that you are a woman of excellence . Now , it is true , I am a close relative . However , there is a relative closer than I remain this night and when morning comes , if he will redeem you , good , let him redeem you , but if he does not wish to redeem you , then I will redeem you . As the Lord lives lie down until morning .

Speaker 2 19:15

So in verse six , Ruth goes to where they're threshing the grain . She watches where he lays down and goes to sleep . And he's doing what all great leaders should do he stays right there with the work . A good lesson for any leader is don't be distant . He's right there with the workers , probably out there working too . He was wealthy but he was still out there threshing grain and working all day and overseeing the work and working . So Boaz was a plain man , not so haughty that he would not go sleep in the field with the workers . He was probably working with them . So is it good for a leader to be close to the work ?

Speaker 1 19:52

Yes .

Speaker 2 19:52

A good leader identifies with the workers and shows that he's willing to work . So she , young , covers his feet . It's dark . Verses eight and nine . He asked who are you ? And the language here is just beautiful . What's her response ?

Speaker 1 20:06

She says I'm Ruth . You're made Spread your covering over your maid , for you're a close relative . So we see a progression here . So back in chapter two , verse 10 , ruth referred to herself as a foreigner . Then we saw in verse chapter two , verse 13 , she referred to herself as a maid servant . And now in chapter three , verse nine , she says I'm your maid . So we can see that this is her status , is progressing as she gets closer and closer in this relationship with Boaz .

Speaker 2 20:40

And the political language here is just so beautiful . Verse nine spread your covering over some of the translations . Spread your wings over me , and I just love that language . It's such a great picture of a husband and wife . So by uncovering his feet and asking him to cover her , she's asking him to take her under his covering . She's asking him do your duty to marry me , to redeem me . Could she have done any good work to earn the husband ?

Speaker 2 21:07

No no , had to be a kinsman redeemer that was willing to do it . Can we do any good work to earn a relationship with Jesus ?

Speaker 2 21:15

No no , all we do is lay at the feet of Christ and say I'm your servant . Now note that Boaz first found Ruth in the field and knew about her , protected her , romanced her , but Ruth made this request to be the bride . Likewise , jesus finds us . He knows about us , he gives us gifts , he romances us . We ask him to be our redeemer and he does not insist . He's a perfect gentleman . Could Ruth have claimed just any man to marry her ?

Speaker 1 21:45

No . And in verse 10 , this comes to light . We see Boaz's reaction . He's saying may you be blessed of the Lord of Yahweh , for you have shown your last kindness to you better than your first by not going after other young men , whether poor or rich . We see this picture here that Boaz is really pleased in that Ruth has chosen him from the standpoint of asking him in order to take care of her and protect her . She hasn't been distracted by somebody that could have been another rich person , another young person , another poor . Boaz is struck from the standpoint and pleased that she wants to have a relationship with him .

The Promise of Redemption

Speaker 1 22:38

Glenn , I think that Jesus is pleased and God is pleased whenever his creation comes and wants to have a relationship with him . I think it makes him happy , love conquers all and God desires love relationship .

Speaker 2 22:54

He notices her in verse 10 . He says you have not gone after a young man . He knows about Ruth just like Christ knows about us . Remember , ruth is , she's young . She's got all the desires of any young woman . I'm sure she wanted romance and he notices she was not out chasing others . She's a widow too . She's a widow .

Speaker 2 23:14

What is the common worldly wisdom on how to find a husband for a young woman ? I mean , what do they learn from the culture ? I don't even want to think about it or list it here , but there's a lot of wrong things out there . Is it a true statement that in today's culture a woman stays righteous is not immoral . That stays like Ruth did not out chasing after anybody , the first one . She sees that eventually the right man will notice .

Speaker 2 23:42

I have seen women that latch onto the first man , that bumps into him , that gives him attention and it almost always ends up bad . And I submit to the women out there the husband that's for you will notice If you stay pure , if you don't go chasing after every man that can give you attention . Yes , we want loving relationships , but be like a Ruth . Your Boaz will come along . He will notice that you've been living the right way , just like Christ notices us . With that , the message that young women are being given in our day is just not a good , righteous message . At the end of verse 11 , all my fellow townsmen know that you're a worthy woman . Do people around us notice how we act ? And in verse 12 , what does he tell ?

Speaker 1 24:27

her to do . Well , he tells her yes , I'm a close relative , but there's somebody that's actually a closer one , and that person , because he's a closer than I , he has the actual responsibility to become the redeemer .

Speaker 2 24:42

That tells me he's been thinking about it . He likes her , he's romance . He's been thinking about this . Well , he realizes what's going on . So in verse 13 , what does he tell her ? He makes a promise to her in verse 13 . What was his promise ?

Speaker 1 24:57

You stay here . I'm gonna go out and talk to the person who has the first right to redeem you , and if he doesn't want to do it , then I will step in and I will redeem you .

Speaker 2 25:09

So he basically makes a promise that he's gonna take care of this and one way or another she's gonna get married , she's gonna be redeemed , she will be redeemed , and he makes a promise to her . If this other guy doesn't wanna do it , can we trust Boaz's promise ?

Speaker 1 25:25

Yes .

Speaker 2 25:26

Can we trust Jesus' promise ?

Speaker 1 25:28

Yes .

Speaker 2 25:28

So in verse 14 , she lays there until it's almost morning . Before it's really daylight , she gets up and takes off . It's light enough to where it's safe for a woman to be traveling back to town , but not so light that it would create a scandal here . And then , in verse 15 , he gives her six measures of barley . Did she earn this , or was it a gift ? That was a gift . Christ never ceases to give us what we don't deserve . He gives and gives and gives even though we don't deserve it . Verse 18 , naomi says that Boaz will not rest until he settles the matter . You know what I think of with that . Luke , chapter 15 , if God has 100 sheep and one's lost , he's gonna leave the 99 and go after the one which is lost until he finds it .

Speaker 2 26:16

He's not gonna rest until he finds that lost sheep , just like here . Boaz is not gonna rest until he settles

Trusting God's Promise and Waiting

Speaker 2 26:23

this . And then , in verse 18 , naomi tells Ruth to wait on Boaz . What do you think was going through her mind at that point , when you got to wait ?

Speaker 2 26:31

Maybe a little bit of anxiousness Little bit anxious , maybe , thinking a little bit of butterflies in the stomach . Do we sometimes have to wait on the Lord ? We know he's told us he's gonna do something . Can we trust his promise ? He's not come through yet . We have to wait . Sometimes we have to wait , there's some butterflies in the stomach . But I submit that Boaz was trustworthy , just like Jesus is trustworthy . Has he always been good to us in the past ? Yes , and can we trust him the next time ? Absolutely . That's the story of Boaz and Ruth and the sacred romance . He's made a promise to us . He's told us that he's gonna come back and that we must wait . And sometimes the waiting , we get just a little bit anxious . But we can trust him . He's promised he's gonna come back and there's gonna be a wedding and oh , what a great day that'll be .

Speaker 2 27:20

I can't wait so there's still one more chapter in Ruth , but we'll get to that next time and the sacred romance is gonna continue and we then have great blessing and wonders that come up in chapter four . So we're gonna see that next time . On Reasoning Through the Bible MUSIC .