Now we're going to be reading from the scriptures. This evening we're in the book of Ruth, and I'm going to read Ruth chapter three. Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, that is Ruth, my daughter, shall I not seek security for you, that it may be well with you? Now, Boaz, whose young women you were with, is he not our relative? In fact, he's winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Therefore, wash yourself, and anoint yourself, put on your best garment, and go down to the threshing floor. But do not make yourself known to the man, "'until he has finished eating and drinking, "'then it shall be when he lies down, "'that you shall notice the place where he lies, "'and you shall go in, uncover his feet, and lie down, "'and he will tell you what you should do.' And she said to her, "'All that you say to me, I will do.' And so she went down to the threshing floor and did according to all that her mother-in-law instructed her. And after Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was cheerful, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain and she came softly, uncovered his feet and lay down. Now it happened at midnight that the man was startled and turned himself and there a woman was lying at his feet and he said, who are you? So she answered, I am Ruth, your maidservant. Take your maidservant under your wing, for you are a close relative. Then he said, blessed are you of the Lord, my daughter, for you have shown more kindness at the end than at the beginning, in that you did not go after young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you request. For all the people of my town know that you are a virtuous woman. Now it is true that I am. a close relative. However, there is a relative closer than I. Stay this night, and in the morning it shall be that if he will perform the duty of a close relative for you, good, let him do it. But if he does not want to perform the duty for you, then I will perform the duty for you as the Lord lives. Lie down until morning. So she lay at his feet until morning and she arose before one could recognize another. Then he said, do not let it be known that the woman came to the threshing floor. Also he said, bring the shawl that is on you and hold it. And when she held it, he measured six ifas of barley and laid it on her. Then she went into the city. When she came to her mother-in-law, she said, is that you, my daughter? Then she told her all that the man had done for her. And she said, these six ifas of barley he gave me, for he said to me, do not go empty-handed to your mother-in-law. Then she said, sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will turn out. For the man will not rest until he has concluded the matter this day. This is the word of the Lord. In our teaching tonight, we read about a woman making a request to a man. And so gender is definitely at play in this text. There's a woman who makes a bold request and the man gives her all she asks. All she asks. Can you imagine that? Did you ever see your mother make a request of your father? Maybe something like, can we go camping this year? Or can we get a new refrigerator? Or could you help me with the laundry? And did you ever see your mom make a request of your father? So there's a woman making requests to a man, and he said yes. He said yes to all she asks. I've got this memory from my childhood. There was some large department store that closed. It went out of business, and it was something like a JCPenney's or like what like Kohl's would be like today. And somehow my dad knew the owner or the manager. And my dad and I were getting to tour the store after they'd already locked the doors. There were no more customers. But all of the goods were still on the shelves and on the counters and on the racks. And it was like purses and shirts, watches, plates. And I remember being in this department store. And they said, I mean, to me, I was just a kid. They said, take whatever you want. And I remember wandering up and down the aisles, looking at the display cases, and I was thinking, anything I want? Yes, yes to anything. Anything you ask, the answer is yes. It was like this woman. The man says yes to all she asks. So we see three things in our passage. First of all, we see daring hope, daring hope. Secondly, we see daring promise. A daring promise is made, and then thirdly, we see a dependable man. So, daring hope, a daring promise, and a dependable man. We'll start with a woman's daring hope. So this is verses one through seven. The text opens here with Naomi. She is the mother-in-law to Ruth, and Naomi is widowed. She's past menopause, and there's Naomi, there's also Ruth. She also is widowed, and she's an immigrant from Moab, and as you recall, Moab, for Israelites, Moab is a disreputable place. And so Naomi, the mother-in-law, She's been bitter. She's been going through a very hard season, and she's been bitter about money, bitter about losing her husband and losing her sons, and she has been bitter about God. But at this point in the narrative, I think we can say two things about Naomi. She is not as bitter as she was. She's not as bitter. but also she's not so bright, and let's look at that. She's not as bitter. Verse one, Naomi said to Ruth, my daughter, shall I not seek security for you, that it may be well with you? As we saw last week, Naomi's bitterness had begun to thaw. Her bitterness towards God starts receding. And one sign of letting go of her bitterness is her self-pity is also decreasing. Naomi starts to care about people around her. And it's striking. In the weekly diaper distribution that we have here at church, we give a pack of diapers to people who come and they need diapers, they're in need. And so we ask, not only what size diaper do they need, we also ask, how can I pray for you today? And a good number of people will say, I'm actually fine. But pray for people who are less fortunate than me. I mean, they're coming to get diapers, but they say there are people who are less fortunate. I'm concerned about them. Pray for them. Naomi, in her own pain and her own need she starts to notice the pain and the need of people around her, like Ruth. And so Naomi says, Ruth, we need to think about you. We need to think about your future. Now, in that culture, a woman needed a man, a husband, in order to have security, because a husband meant protection, a husband meant a voice, a husband meant a home, income, and even children, who would take care of you in your old age, maybe when you're widowed. And children could give you this name, an identity, even past your death. So we see that Naomi is not as bitter, but we must also say that Naomi is not so bright. She's asking, Ruth, how can we get you a husband and a good future? How can we set you up well, Ruth? Naomi, the mother-in-law, comes up with a plan, verses two through four. Naomi says, I know what to do. I know what to do. Let's connect you to Boaz because he's related. He's kin to us, and he's wealthy, and he's marriageable. So Naomi is trying to make a match for Ruth. This is an engagement story. This is an engagement story, and we all love to hear how people got engaged. This is Ruth's engagement story. But I say that Naomi is not so bright because of this. Naomi tells Ruth, freshen up, wear your best clothes, put on perfume, Your period of mourning as a widow is over, so put on fancy clothes and a fragrance." And she says, tonight is the barley winnowing and threshing. Boaz is going to be there. It's going to be a long day of work where they're out in this open, breezy place in public, the public square, somewhere that has packed ground. or paved ground, and people will be threshing the grain to loosen the husks, and then they'll be tossing the grain up, and the breeze will carry away the husks, and then the seed will just fall down. And they'll be working there all day. And she says, after they're all done, the workers are all finished, and they've eaten their supper, and everyone is just camping out by their piles of grain, just to watch over it for the night. She says, wait until the middle of the night. wait until it's dark while everyone is asleep, and they're out sleeping, they're out in the open, and she says, find Boaz in the dark while he's asleep, and while he's asleep, pull back his covers, and then lie down next to him, and then just wait to hear what he says. Now, I'm pretty sure none of you would recommend that as a good way to get a husband. Like in our modern ears, this sounds very suggestive. It sounds very forward. It sounds provocative, like pulling back his covers, lying down next to him in the dark. And it sounds that way to us as modern hearers and to the original readers in their context. The Hebrew language and the situation, it is just as suggestive, just as inadvisable. A woman uncovering a sleeping man and lying next to him, it was just as suggestive, it was just as provocative in that time and that place. And so though Naomi is less bitter, Naomi is not so bright in this, but she is bold. She is bold. Naomi says, Ruth, we need help. We need help, you need help. We need the family and legal help that comes from the Goel. Last week, I mentioned the Goel. In fact, I mispronounced it the whole time. Goel is the verb, redeem. Goel is the noun form, the kinsman redeemer. She's saying, we need the Goel, the relative, the rescuer, the kinsman redeemer, someone who's related to you, that can bring you the legal help you need, the financial help you need, the justice that you need, the family help when you are in the deepest trouble. So Naomi is bold. She says, Ruth, we need to directly ask Boaz to help us, to go out to us. We're poor, our finances are impossible, you need a man. So verse five, Ruth says, I will do it. I will do all of it. Now, maybe Ruth is just being humble here, and she's thinking, well, you know, I'm not from around here. Maybe this is how they do things in this country. Maybe this is normal. But Ruth does, just as her mother-in-law directs her, verses six and seven, there's Boaz. He's at the winnowing floor, this large area. He's got his piles, his mounds of seed on the ground. He's eaten well, he's drunk his fill, and now it's dark, he's lying on the ground, fast asleep. And Ruth's been hiding this whole time. All through the winnowing, all through them eating and drinking, all through them settling down and finally falling asleep, and now it's dark. Where has she been hiding? Has she been in a bush? Has she been hiding behind the animals? But she's been hiding and now she comes out, it's dark, she sneaks over to Boaz, verse seven, he's lying down, he's soundly asleep, she pulls back his covers and she lies down too. And she's got no idea of what is going to happen. How is Boaz going to react to this? So this is a poor woman's daring hope. Next let's look at a daring promise, a rich man's daring promise. So verses 8 through 15. Verse 8 seems to indicate that Boaz has been asleep now for quite some time. It says it's after midnight, but something suddenly wakes him up, he startles, and it says he startles, he wakes up, he turns, and there is a woman lying at his feet, and she's got this aroma, it's the fragrance that Naomi directed, and she's dressed up, and Boaz in the dark, having just woken up, he says, who are you? Now in this engagement story, Ruth gives, maybe it is the first elevator pitch in romantic history. You know what an elevator pitch is, right? You get into an elevator with an important CEO and you've got like 30 seconds while you're in the elevator to try to sell something, to promote an idea and to close the deal. According to an article on the Harvard Catalyst, an elevator pitch is a compelling introduction about who you are, what you do, and why it matters, all of that in 30 seconds. So he asks her, who are you? Verse nine, here's her elevator pitch. I am Ruth, I work for you, marry me. I'm asking you to be Goel, kinsmen redeemer to me, take me under your wing. Now, Ruth is bold, she is direct, and packed into her words, this is what's unpacked from her words, I am in great need. I am poor, I'm single, I'm an immigrant from Moab, and I am related to you by marriage. And I need you to be Goel to me. I need you to buy back our land, make me a wife and a mother. Now, put yourself in Boaz's place. You've got two possible reactions. The first possible reaction He's terrified. Maybe this is some kind of setup. And he says, he could say, get out of my bed, get out of my sight, this is too much to ask me, this is the wrong time, this is the wrong place, you're the wrong person, and this is the wrong way to ask. This is my floor, I am getting off the elevator. That's how he could have responded, and we would all understand that. The other way he could have responded, He's moved with love and determines to move the world and to do all that she asks. And he does that. He says, I will be redeemer to you. Boaz responds with that second. He says, don't be afraid, I'll do for you all that you ask, all of it, the big financial bailout, a husband and a child, I accept your offer. Now, this is a daring promise, I say, for Boaz. It's daring because this is going to cost Boaz greatly, not only financially, but also socially. Financially, it's going to cost him. The purchase of the land of Elimelech and Maelon and Chilean, it is going to take money. It is going to take some coin, and that's going to be a financial risk that he may not recoup. He may not break even with working that land, and it may end up just being a case of, well, this is just, it wasn't a financial profit, but it was just a family charity. I'm spending money to help a relative in need, and that's all that I'm gonna get from it financially. But Ruth's request also has not just financial risk, it also has social risk, great social cost to him. Ruth is an immigrant. And she is from Moab. You may remember that Moab is the nation that came from incest, incest between Abraham's nephew, Lot, sleeping drunk with his daughters. Moab was the country where women seduced Israel sexually and spiritually. And so for this man, Boaz, who had an honorable reputation for fortune and for faith, To agree to Ruth's requests, it would cost him. For him to grant this request, she might be moving up, but he will certainly be moving down. Now, let's ask why. Why does Boaz make a daring promise to her? Why does this man agree to all that she asks? Well, we've got three clues, three possible clues here in the text. It could be that he values her faith, it could be that he esteems her character, and it could be that he values his own faith. Let's just briefly go through those. He values her faith. You'll remember earlier, chapter two, verse 12, Boaz says to Ruth, you committed yourself to the God of Israel. You, Ruth, came under the shadow of his wings. You declared your loyalty to the Lord. You converted, and I highly respect that. And you'll remember, Boaz says to Ruth, I hope the Lord blesses you for that. So Boaz doesn't talk about her body. Boaz doesn't talk about her brains. Boaz dwells on her beautiful conversion to the God of Israel. He values her faith. He also esteems her character. Verse 10, he says, you have always been kind and loyal. You have always been a person who has chassad, He says, I see it, I admire it, I admire your kindness and your loyalty, not just to me, but also to your mother-in-law. That's in chapter two, verse 11. And then here, chapter three, verse 11, Boaz adds, all the people of the town know that you, Ruth, know that you are a virtuous woman. You're a woman worthy of respect. He says, we see it, we see it. So he values her faith, he esteems her character, but he also values his own faith. That's part of what's operating when he accepts her offer. Boaz is a man whose work and life, it's all of it, it centers around God. He greets his employees with a blessing from the Lord. When he's shocked, when he's just surprised, and you see the real person come out when he's surprised, when you're surprised in the middle of the night, what does he do? He prays to the Lord. He says, the Lord bless you. And when asked to be Goel to his relative, Boaz knows what that means. Boaz knows the scriptures. He knows what Deuteronomy 25 says about the kinsmen redeemer. He also knows what Leviticus says. Leviticus 25, 25. If one of your brethren becomes poor and has sold some of his possession, and if his redeeming relative, the goel, comes to redeem it, then he may redeem what his brother sold. And so in this unusual, bold encounter, a woman asks Boaz to be kinsman and redeemer. A woman asks his hand in marriage. And Boaz says yes to all she asks. Now, maybe two things that we can draw about marriage and about relationships from this. First of all, for those who are looking for someone to marry, for those who are looking for someone to marry, what we see in this is look for character, not cash. Look for someone with character, not a large account. And look for someone who shares your faith. Someone whose faith costs them something. And look for someone who is kind. Look for someone who's loyal and committed to difficult people. That's what Boaz sees in Ruth. That's what Ruth sees in Boaz. And we also see this. If you're looking for someone to marry, don't be put off by someone who will cost you. Don't be put off if that person will cost you financially or will cost you socially. Now, secondly, we also see this for those who are married. We see this, dare to make a bold request. Dare to make the same kind of direct and bold request that Ruth made. And if that happens and you're married, and when your spouse makes a bold request to you, Dare to give her all that she asks. Verse 11, Boaz says, and now my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you request. Over the years, I have had a hard time saying yes to some of my wife's requests. Long, long, long time ago, early in our marriage, one request my wife made was, When we start the day, before we leave the room, can we pray together? Simple request. She asked it infrequently. I had a very hard time saying yes to that. It wasn't until 10 or 11 years of being married that I said yes. But other things she's asked that I have a hard time saying yes to. Things like, can you help with the chores? Or when we take a walk, can you walk beside me instead of in front of me? Or when you need to tell me something, can you just come up the stairs to tell me instead of hollering it up the stairs? Or can we dance together? What we see here, when a spouse asks, here is what we are called to do. Can you give her all she asks? Even if she asks the wrong way, even if she asks at the wrong time, can you say, I will do for you all that you ask? Let me add just one more thing. This is not just for relationships, this is not just for marriage, but in prayer, this instructs us in prayer. Dare to make bold requests of your heavenly spouse. Dare to make bold, direct requests to God. Ruth came to Boaz and she asked, take me under the safety of your wing." And Ruth also is a person who came to the Lord God and asked God, take me under the shelter of your wing. The request to come under the cover of someone's wing, the way that Ruth did with Boaz and the way Ruth did with the Lord, that was a request that she made to the Lord a request that the Lord would make a lifetime commitment to her. So that was bold. Would you dare to ask the Lord God to make a lifetime commitment to you? to make covenant with you. Ezekiel 16 gives us something of the flavor of our relationship with the Lord when we're in covenant with him. The Lord says, speaking to us, when I passed by you again and looked upon you, Indeed, your time was a time of love, so I spread my wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you and you became mine, says the Lord God. We're invited in prayer to make bold requests to God. Make bold requests. to your God, you should be able to say to him, pray along the lines of Psalm 61. This is the psalmist crying out to our God, from the end of the earth, I will cry to you when my heart is overwhelmed. I will trust in the shelter of your wings. My wife has a friend, she has another friend who's another woman, and this friend makes bold, direct requests to God. Once they were, the two of them, they were looking at this terrible crisis together, and they prayed, and her friend did this. She made a bold, direct request to God. It was just so striking. She said, God, What we're asking you, we're asking, by this time tomorrow, make the change. By this time tomorrow. That's how she prayed. It was a bold, direct request to God. Now, that takes courage. It takes courage. Why? Why courage? Because we're afraid that he'll say no. And we're afraid that if he says no, we'll lose hope. And we'll think, I guess maybe you're not that kind of God. And so we don't ask God to do great things. Can you ask God something great and good? So we've looked at a daring request, a daring promise, and now we're going to finish with a dependable man. Verses 12 through 18. Boaz makes this daring promise, but there is a hitch. There's a little bit of a hiccup. Verse 12, Boaz says, I am Goel. I am the close relative, but there is a relative who's even closer to you, related even more closely to you than I am. And this is another relative who has first rights to help with the land and to marriage. And so in verses 13 and 14, Boaz says, one way or another, one way or another, we will get you married and we will get your money for the land. And there is someone else who's more closely related, who has the right to your hand and to your land. But don't worry, if he declines, I've already accepted." But Boaz says, you need to keep this a secret for now. Keep your visit secret. And perhaps part of the reason the visit needs to be kept secret is Well, for one thing, this whole thing was very, very improper. A woman sleeping by me all night. And then secondly, it needs to be kept secret because I don't want to put undue pressure on the closer relative in his choice. His choice has got to be without any of my interference. So we've got to keep this secret. Now at this point, the narrative has steered us to want the story to turn out a certain way. We want Ruth and Boaz to be together. You don't want Ruth to end up with the other guy. You want Ruth to have Boaz be her kinsman redeemer. You want Ruth to marry Boaz. So verses 14 through 15, there's some comedy here. Boaz gives her a promissory gift, a pledge. It's kind of like he gives her an engagement ring. But it's not a ring. He sends Ruth back with this huge gift to prove that he means what he says. What's the gift? The text says, depending on your translation, the text says, six ephahs of barley. The language though is uncertain. The unit is not quite certain. Ephah is kind of inferred. Commutators don't quite know what to make of it because it seems on the plain interpretation of it that it's ethos. Now, the number six, they don't have too much trouble with. Maybe there's symbolism in the number six. Six is one short of seven, which in the Bible is always the number of perfection and completion. And so maybe by six, Boaz is saying, I'll do everything needed to fulfill your request. We're just one more step from completion. So six is not mysterious, but the unit, the quantity, Plain sense is that he gives her 80 pounds of barley. I mean, it's heavy. Verse 15 says, he laid it on her back. He laid the 80 pounds on her back. 80 pounds is more than a pickup truck tire. 80 pounds is like a full-grown golden retriever, and he lays it on her back and sends her back to Naomi. Now, two points of humor here. Ruth, perhaps, Ruth might have just been a very strong woman carrying a truck tire all the way back home. One commentator says, maybe Ruth was a big, strong girl. Now, the second thing that's humorous. Sinclair Ferguson posits that this is a humorous dig at Naomi. Boaz is saying, what is going on? Whose idea was this, sending a woman at night to pull back my covers? And then he says, it was Naomi. It was Naomi. Naomi came up with this highly inadvisable, improper scheme, like dressing you up, perfuming you, sending you in the night, removing my sheets, lying next to me. I'm gonna send you back sweaty, hauling a giant sack. So verse 17, Naomi was always complaining about how she came back empty, but here, this will make you full. And she's gonna be wondering, like Ruth's showing up, like, did this go well? She's a mess. The passage begins, Naomi says, Boaz will tell you what to do, verse four. And what does Boaz tell Ruth to do? The passage ends with verse 18. He says, sit, wait, I'm gonna take care of this. Ruth, I will take care of all of this. He tells her, trust me, wait for me. And so that's what Naomi says in verse 18. Sit and wait. This man, Boaz, he will not rest until he has concluded the matter today. Boaz is a dependable man. Boaz is the dependable man. What he says, he will do this day. Now, these two wait. That's how this chapter ends. They sit and they wait. Before, they were doing all this scheming, and sending her in, waiting for the time, spying from whatever she was hiding in, and doing all this thing, and making the elevator pitch. But now they're just sitting and waiting. That's the instruction. Two poor widows waiting for the promised redemption. We are waiting to be taken under the wing of our close Redeemer. Now, that's where so many of us sit. So often, God is calling you to sit and wait. Stand still and see. the glory, the power of the Lord. He calls you to trust, he calls you to be patient. Are you good with that? To trust him, to wait patiently for him, to trust God to work on your loved one who still isn't budging or changing, to trust God to do the right thing with your wandering friend and you're so worried and concerned for them, or you're stuck, application. or maybe to trust God to work on you. It is hard to sit and wait for the Lord. It's hard to trust him. It's hard to trust the Lord as you're waiting. It's hard to sit and to not try to just do, I've gotta do something. I've gotta do something and to impatiently, inadvisably come up with some idea and some plan. And we see that, don't we, when there's something and the status of it, we can check the status of it online, whatever it is, and like over and over, we go online, we check to see has anything changed, and like nothing's changed. And then like five minutes later, we do the same thing, like this is crazy, I've gotta stop checking. But they sit there and they wait, and they're excited, because Boaz is a dependable man, that's how verse 18 ends. He will get you redeemed and married, today, one way or another, he's like that. But Boaz is a picture of the great and true kinsmen redeemer, Jesus Christ. You know, all of us, all of us are Naomi and Ruth. We're strangers, we're foreigners to the kingdom of God. All of us have amassed this huge spiritual debt that we can't claw our ways out of. We have borrowed from God and we can't pay it back. We've accumulated this catastrophic debt with God, the wages of our sin, the wages of our idiotic ideas that we acted on. We all were alienated, separated from God, and we were at odds. We were at odds with one another. We need someone who will pay all of that and take us under the shelter of his wing. We need someone who is willing to make us close relatives, even by marriage. But Boaz is a picture of the great and true kinsman redeemer, Jesus Christ, and the exorbitant cost that he absorbed spiritually, socially, personally. When Jesus saw what redemption required, Jesus got to work and he completed it fully so that on that very day, he could say on the cross, it is finished. What kind of man would do that for you? He would lose his reputation, he would lose his life. Jesus would go down so that we could move up He's the one who had his covering stripped from him, and now he covers us with his wing and the robes of his favor. And marriage, all that when you put it together, he must love you dearly. Do you see also that this Redeemer is so trustworthy? His loyal, kind love to those who do not deserve it. Look at the grace that he has to the unworthy. His kindness to those who are unworthy. The offer of the gospel is not to worthy people. It's not to people who are wanted by the rest of the world. It's not to the wealthy. His kind commitment is to redeem those who are outside. to those who make impulsive, foolish decisions, to those who ask too much and they do it at the wrong time. This big picture of how scandalously Boaz acts. By his work, a foolish mother-in-law and a foreign woman from a bad background, accesses the highest protections of God's covenant people and their law. And Boaz in this works like the ultimate immigration officer, only he's not trying to put her out of the country. He is aiming to bring her into the country, and he will even marry her if that's what it takes. And this true Boaz is Jesus Christ, who in Hebrew says, he's not ashamed. He is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters. And it was not with money that he did it. It was with his blood. Of course it took his blood to make us blood relatives. 1 Peter 1, 18, you were not redeemed. with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but you are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Do you know this trustworthy Redeemer? Have you come in by his grace and did he give you all that you dared ask? This, in many ways, is about God. What is God like? He is the kind of God who says yes when his children ask. And so this should give you a certainty when you pray. You know, there's this other part in the Bible where Jesus says, Jesus says, of his father, he says, the father will give me all that I ask him. And Jesus says, and so when you pray in my name, He will give you all that you ask. This gives you a certainty in prayer, but it also gives you a generosity when other people ask of you. Jesus has said yes to all that we ask. Can't you say yes when someone asks you? Let's pray. Lord, you said yes to all that we ask, our greatest needs. You've even said yes to things we wouldn't even dare to ask, and yet you've said yes. We're thankful for our kinsman redeemer who made the request for us, who did the work for us, and completed the work and finished it. And now we're bound to him forever. He loves us, and we love you. We thank you in Jesus' name, amen.