Cold feet

80 pounds of barley. It was a heavy engagement ring, but it would have to do on such short notice. Boaz did not know he was going to leave this party with a fiancé.

It was Ruth’s mother-in-law that had first hatched the plan. Ruth would sneak down to the threshing floor after the harvest party. She was instructed to uncover Boaz’s feet, and lie there until he woke up shivering. Naomi told her to let Boaz take the lead at that point, but Ruth called an audible. “Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.”

It was a preposterous proposal. Ruth was a widowed foreigner. The laws of levirate marriage she was referring to would grant all heirs and property to the name of the dead. Why would Boaz possibly agree to this?

First, he noticed Ruth’s kindness. She was dedicated to her mother-in-law. She wasn’t chasing after younger field hands. He had seen her heart. Second, Boaz knew himself to be part of a redeemed people. He had heard about how his God had taken penniless sojourners and made them a people and a nation.

So he said yes! And they were married, and became grandparents to king David, and great great great great great great great grandparents to king Jesus. I think Matthew alludes to their story in his genealogy to underscore the family resemblance of this god-man — radically generous, and faithful to the uttermost.

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You can read the full story of this little rendezvous in Ruth 3. Join us at Hope this Advent season as we trace through The Mothers of Jesus: a survey of the women listed in Matthew 1. Next week: Bathsheba and Mary!

Watch the sermon here.