Sadie Hawkins Dance
Notes
Transcript
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What the heck is happening?
What the heck is happening?
This section of Scripture can be confusing or misleading. So, I’m going to do the best I can to explain some of what’s happening.
What’s happened?
Since we last left off at the end of chapter 2, we seem to see the beginnings of the fairy tale ending for this story. Ruth and Boaz meet, it seems to go well, and Naomi tells Ruth that Boaz is her kinsman redeemer.
However, by the time chapter 3 rolls around, it’s been a bit since that’s happened (the barley harvest is over) and nothing has changed
Boaz hasn’t made a move, and neither has Ruth
Therefore, Naomi decides to start moving the ball forward
Kinsman-Redeemer.
A big part of this story is understanding the roll of a kinsman redeemer
“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. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. “It shall be that the firstborn whom 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 to 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 declare, ‘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.’
Essentially, what a kinsman redeemer is is someone who could buy back something you had tragically lost.
Be it land, protection, ownership of yourself, etc. If you didn’t have a kinsman redeemer but you wanted to get something back, you were unable to get that back.
What’s happening.
Naomi tells Ruth to get dressed and prepared to show herself to Boaz
Bathe - not common
Anoint - put on perfume to smell nice
Put on a dress - Be prepared for the day
This was not “nice clothes” like some versions say, it seems much rather that it was an outer garment that she could use to stay warm when she was going to sleep outside.
Boaz was finishing up the barley harvest
He would thresh (prepare) the wheat and the barley in the threshing room, and then to avoid losing his crop to bandits or animals he would sleep in there to guard it.
He eats a nice meal, he’s had a long day, so he goes to sleep.
Ruth goes in, uncovers his feet, and lays at them.
Seems super weird.
This can seem especially weird if you don’t understand the context.
This process seemed to be something of like going down on one knee to propose.
This was incredibly uncommon - essentially unheard of - to people, but Ruth was essentially communicating to Boaz that she was at the mercy of him to say yes or no to marriage.
Boaz asks who she was because he can’t see.
Ruth asks to “Spread his covering over her” as a way of specifically asking for marriage
It’s also a reference to Ruth 2:12, when Boaz says he prays that God will cover her.
She is also kind of asking, will you be the answer to your own prayer?
Boaz responds kindly
Ruth 3:10 He says, literally, “Your act of ḥesed [display of family loyalty and devotion] is better than the first.” What Boaz has in mind by Ruth’s last ḥesed is obviously her daring appearance at the threshing floor to ask him to marry her.
he does mention that he is not the only redeemer, that he would need to check with someone else before they could be married, but he wants to marry her.
Boaz sends Ruth home after the night with some barley.
First, that is interesting because it is similar wording to chapter 1:20 when Naomi said she has returned empty-handed.
Next, it seems as though Boaz might be paying a dowry price for Ruth to the only person who cares for her, Naomi.
Boaz goes out to figure it out, and Naomi tells Ruth to wait.
Act with integrity
Act with integrity
Now that we have an idea as to what’s going on, we can look at how this applies to us, and that is that we are to act with integrity
Each character in this story acted in such a way as to love someone else, and they acted with incredible integrity.
Integrity: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.
Naomi
Naomi tries to take care of her daughter Ruth (Ruth 3:1, I want to take care of you)
It seems like she might be also trying to take care of Ruth’s future after she’s gone.
When Naomi is dead, Ruth will literally have no one left.
Ruth
Ruth follows what her mother-in-law said to the tee. She wanted to obey
She also did everything she could to privately talk about marriage, but avoid scandal.
She could have done essentially whatever she wanted, but she valued her own morals, and she valued Boaz’
She was very brave asking for marriage, but she still did it respectfully
Boaz
Boaz could have definitely taken advantage of or misread the situation, he could have scandalized ruth
He also could have attacked her and had her stoned if he misunderstood what she was doing.
He also could have not told Ruth about the other kinsman redeemer
He clearly wanted to marry Ruth, and yet he wanted to honor her and the Law.
He takes her proposal gracefully, and then tries to mitigate scandal and still take care of Ruth and Naomi by giving them barley.
They all made decisions that were filled with integrity even when they could have done anything, but they didn’t.
They chose to follow after the morals that God gave them
Can you say the same?
It’s easy to follow God when you have no obstacles in your path, but what happens when it’s easier to sin than to be holy? What will you do then?
Commit yourself to God, and don’t let anything keep you from Him!
Jesus, the better Boaz
Jesus, the better Boaz
Luke 24:13-27.
Jesus is filled in this passage, and He probably even explained it in Luke!
Ruth and Naomi looked to Boaz as their redeemer
He was supposed to be the person that could save them.
But Boaz couldn’t truly save them forever, he could solve some momentary problems.
Boaz’ redemption couldn’t compare to the redemption that we get from Christ
Remember, a kinsman redeemer is someone who could buy back something you had tragically lost.
We tragically lost our relationship, our standing with God.
We tragically lost the good things that God gave us
We could never buy it back, yet Christ paid for it.
Jesus is such a better Boaz than Boaz.
Questions
Read verses 7-16 again. How did Boaz give value to Ruth in this passage?
What are some times when it has been difficult to maintain your integrity?
What can you do to maintain your integrity when you find yourself in a difficult time?