Ruth, Who Laid Aside Her Own Righteousness

1Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, shall I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? 2Now isn’t Boaz our kinsman, with whose maidens you were? Behold, he will be winnowing barley tonight on the threshing floor. 3Therefore wash yourself, anoint yourself, get dressed, and go down to the threshing floor, but don’t make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. 4It shall be, when he lies down, that you shall note the place where he is lying. Then you shall go in, uncover his feet, and lay down. Then he will tell you what to do.” 5She said to her, “All that you say, I will do.” 6She went down to the threshing floor, and did everything that her mother-in-law told her.

Working life brings people a great many benefits. Whatever the reason, those who drop out of it are not only pushed to the margins of society but suffer many disadvantages as a result. Here in Korea, too, the economic slump has led many people to be urged into early retirement, and many families are suffering because of lost jobs. Each time word of their distress spreads, the government scrambles for measures, but it does not seem easy to help them.

So we must build up our abilities so that we are not pushed aside. Without the skills the world needs, we can neither keep our lives going nor take up God’s work. Because the working world exists to make a profit, it never treats capable people carelessly; but the moment it judges someone to be of no use, it throws them away. It is like a battlefield where we must live always on guard.

You must therefore be wise as serpents and not be deceived by the world. Wisdom lies not in trusting this dark world but in making use of it. Do not be drawn into a world that lures you with promises of everything; you must first resolve to give yourself as an instrument for extending the Kingdom of God.

Never forget this: a world that has had no peace from the very beginning cannot give eternal rest. If you live in the world with a clear understanding of the Kingdom of God and the realm of Satan, then however loudly the world applauds and however many sandcastles it builds for you, you will not be shaken.

Ruth 3:1

1Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, shall I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you?

Naomi already knew what the world was like, and that knowledge is why, in verse 1, she set out to find Ruth a place of rest. Since Ruth could not survive by begging, Naomi wanted to help her live in peace, out of reach of the world’s attacks. The means she settled on was to make Ruth the wife of Boaz.

Naomi instructed Ruth to wash, anoint herself, put on her clothes, and go down to the threshing floor. She was to wait until the man had finished eating and drinking, and when he lay down, she was to slip in under his blanket and lie there. Then, Naomi said, Boaz would tell her what to do next. Ruth found her mother-in-law’s words bewildering, yet she answered that she would do just as she was told.

Here we notice something odd in Naomi’s behavior: as a way of finding her daughter-in-law a new husband, her method hardly seems right. For a mother-in-law to tell her widowed daughter-in-law to go at night — and to a man she hardly knows — lift his blanket, and lie down is not proper conduct. Stranger still is that Ruth, recognized as a worthy woman, so readily agreed to do it. Naomi and Ruth act as though it were the most natural thing in the world, and we find them strange because their conduct lies outside the common sense of ordinary people.

In Korea, in times past, a widowed daughter-in-law was expected to avoid even meeting a man from outside the family, which is why she was kept in a separate wing of the house. Seen from that perspective, what Naomi and Ruth did is far from ordinary. But in that very different age, women had to bear sons. A woman who bore none faced a misfortune so great that it was as if her life had no worth.

In Israel, too, a family had to have an heir to pass down the inheritance allotted to its tribe. Ruth answered that she would lie at Boaz’s feet so that he would become the near kinsman, and she did as her mother had commanded. Of course, those who have no spiritual understanding might say that Ruth behaved like a prostitute.

But the Bible does not trouble to persuade a world that cannot understand all that takes place within God’s promise. Instead it declares firmly that any righteousness that cannot save souls is, in the end, human righteousness, and that human righteousness which does not obey the word is not true righteousness. Whatever we settle on and whatever direction we take, if it is not for the saving of souls, then however wise the method, it is only human righteousness.

Seen within God’s purpose, this event shows how much Ruth was willing to suffer in setting herself aside in order to live according to God’s will. Ruth believed that, having become one of his people, continuing a family’s line was righteousness; and Naomi, too, believed that raising up a line for the dead Elimelech and his son and so preserving the inheritance was the right thing, true righteousness.

Scripture records a similar event.

In Genesis, Tamar, the daughter-in-law of Judah, bears children by her father-in-law. Judah had only sons, three of them, and Tamar married Er, the eldest, becoming the eldest daughter-in-law. Sadly, her husband died young. After Er’s early death, she married his younger brother Onan under the levirate law. But Onan, unwilling to give his offspring to his brother, kept her from conceiving, and for that sin he too died. In the age of the patriarchs, continuing the line was a matter of such great importance.

The reason is that God had formed a nation through Jacob, and as that people kept their line alive, the offspring of the woman promised in Genesis 3:15, who would overcome Satan, was to be born. To Israel, an unbroken line mattered more than life itself, and because it was bound up with the unfolding of salvation, Tamar and Ruth do things that you now find impossible to understand.

When both of Tamar’s husbands, Er and Onan, had died, Judah told her to go back to her father’s house, to protect his youngest son, Shelah. There in her father’s house, Tamar waited for the time when she could raise up an heir for the family.

Genesis 49:10

10The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs. To him will the obedience of the peoples be.

This blessing Jacob gave to Judah came much later than the events of Judah and Tamar we are looking at now. Even so, Tamar, as Judah’s daughter-in-law, believed it was her duty to bear a child and carry on the family line. Then, as it happened, Tamar heard that her father-in-law was going up from Adullam to Timnah to shear his sheep. Seeing a good chance to raise up an heir, she disguised herself as a prostitute and met him. Judah took the woman by the road for a prostitute and met with her. This story does not sit well with Korean sensibilities and may be confusing, but I hope you will see Tamar here as a woman doing her best in her own way, because conceiving a child to preserve the inheritance was her duty.

By recording even so shameful an event and placing Tamar in the genealogy of Christ, the descendant of David, the Bible is telling us that all of it is true, and that, seen from the standpoint of the history of salvation, the coming Messiah is the one who rises above ethics and has the right to cover every sin.

Judah forgot about the encounter and went on with his life. About three months later, however, he heard the rumor that his daughter-in-law was pregnant. News that a daughter-in-law who was supposed to wait quietly until Shelah grew up had conceived came as a great shock to him. Convinced that she had betrayed his family and stained its honor, he ordered her brought out and burned. As she was being led away, Tamar showed the signet, the cord, and the staff Judah had given her and made known that he was the child’s father. Judah recognized the things as his own. Saying that she was more righteous than he, he admitted that the whole fault was his, because he had not given her Shelah.

That Judah judged and acted wrongly does not make it right that Tamar set out to keep the family name alive by disguising herself as a prostitute. Had she drawn a little closer to God, she would have waited patiently for his leading and his work. But with no example in Judah’s life to follow, Tamar did not know the right way, and she ended up committing a grievous sin.

Yet God gave Tamar, who had sinned in ignorance, the opportunity to repent deeply and live a life made new, and he gave her two sons, Perez and Zerah. Through that same event Judah came to see how far he, a man who belonged to God, had fallen into corruption and sin, and he made it a turning point to return to the service of the holy God. And through Perez, Tamar’s son, God gave the Savior. He lifted this event up and transformed it into one that reveals the mercy and wonderful love of the God who saves all humanity on earth.

Friends, it was because of Tamar’s self-giving and Ruth’s devotion that Jesus’ line was passed down and the long-awaited Messiah was born. Only by following Naomi and Ruth along the spiritual thread I have been tracing can we understand Ruth’s strange conduct — a widow bathing, anointing herself with oil, and slipping in to lie under Boaz’s blanket.

God, too, gave us sinners the precious blood of Jesus to grant us eternal rest. As the world sees it, could anyone understand a word that says we are saved only by being washed in the blood of a man rejected by the world and put to death on a cross?

The claim that eternal life comes only by being washed in the blood of a criminal — one they themselves killed, a prisoner they made carry a cross as proof that he was the worst of sinners — is something no explanation could ever make them understand. Yet, ironically, because this alone is the true way and the way of life, believers have received the Lord by faith and now enjoy eternal rest. Whether the world believes it or not, it is really happening.

Naomi is a woman of spiritual strength. She knew that only Boaz could redeem the inheritance she had lost, and Ruth, knowing her mother-in-law’s faith, obeyed. The rest Naomi wanted to give Ruth was not worldly comfort but the deep peace that comes after fulfilling the duty of restoring a broken line.

The rest God wants to give his people is not worldly comfort but eternal life, received and enjoyed after fulfilling the duty of bearing the fruit of Christ. Not ease and abundance in this world — what God wanted to give was eternal peace, through new life gained in Christ in place of the life that had been lost.

Ruth knew that Boaz was the man who had been prepared. And though Naomi had earnestly urged her, she knew that this would not come about unless she gave herself to it. That day she made everything ready, went to Boaz’s threshing floor, and stayed hidden out of sight until the feast was over. How many thoughts would have crowded Ruth’s mind before she slipped under his blanket? But knowing which choice was right, she lay down at his feet once Boaz had lain down. It cannot have been easy for Ruth to make up her mind, and Boaz, too, must have been badly startled when a strange woman suddenly came in under his blanket. When he asked who she was, Ruth begged him to spread the corner of his garment over his servant and become the near kinsman for their inheritance.

Here I have tried to put myself in Ruth’s place, because I can imagine how hard this was for a worthy woman, however well she understood her mother-in-law’s intent. For a worthy woman to slip under the blanket of a man she does not know, in order to preserve her husband’s inheritance, takes enormous courage. And it would be an agonizing step, impossible unless she let go of herself completely. If Boaz refused her, she could be stoned in front of many people; afraid of that, she may have wrestled with herself and wept many tears. But this was the only way to fulfill her duty, the one way to recover the family’s inheritance; and for that reason she obeyed as one prepared to die.

When I counsel the members of our church, I often recognize in them the heart Ruth had at this moment. I see people who cannot fully let go of the world, torn between God and the world; I see others who say they have taken hold of God while their feet are still planted in the world, a precarious place to stand. They know they must live according to God’s will, but in fear and trembling they cannot find the courage, and they are torn.

But when I see Ruth now living boldly by God’s will, I wonder whether she, too, came through many hard and painful trials by faith. If we, too, come through one trial at a time by faith, we will be able to live the spiritual life as readily as Ruth. She blindly obeyed the words of the mother-in-law who had made her one of God’s people, and that obedience became the blessing of being an ancestor of Jesus.

If showing God our faith is the way of blessing, then I want you, too, to show God an obedience blind to the point of foolishness. You may not be able to understand God’s will right away, and the way may seem hidden, as in a forest; but just as a path appears only when you push through the undergrowth, you will soon come to know his will. If you are not to stray from the path that God, who loves you, and those who have gone before you in the spirit are showing you, you need that kind of blind obedience.

Ruth 3:10

10He said, “You are blessed by Yahweh, my daughter. You have shown more kindness in the latter end than at the beginning, because you didn’t follow young men, whether poor or rich.

Boaz knew that, though he was much older, Ruth had chosen him not because she needed a husband, as a worldly woman might, but because she was working to recover God’s inheritance. So rather than seeing her as a woman, he recognized God’s hand at work and accepted her as one who belonged to God and was seeking to live by faith.

Now recognized as a worthy woman, Ruth will be sheltered under Boaz’s wings. And Naomi will go on praying until the whole matter is accomplished. In the same way, the Holy Spirit works for us without ceasing, and prays that at the last day we may stand in beauty as the bride of Jesus. On the day when, by the Spirit’s work, we rest under the wings of Christ, God will receive great glory through Christ.

Revelation 19:7-8

7Let us rejoice and be exceedingly glad, and let us give the glory to him. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready.” 8It was given to her that she would array herself in bright, pure, fine linen: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

The clean fine linen worn by the saints, who are to become the bride of the Lamb, is the righteous conduct they have shown by faith in this life. The righteous acts that God recognizes are not human morality but a life lived, as Ruth’s was, for the sake of the truth.

Such righteous acts bear fruit. When the saints live by the word of truth to accomplish God’s good will, the fruit of reward ripens of itself. And if, knowing they are sinners, they live a life of dying with Jesus on the cross in order to cast off the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, they will be able to reveal the glory of God through it.

1 John 1:9

9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us the sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

What 1 John 1:9 tells us, in short, is that we must repent of sin and keep away from it. May you not be like the foolish, who sin first and repent afterward; rather, may you train yourselves to think first in the Lord and to act on good judgment, so that you always live a holy life.

Ruth 3:18

18Then she said, “Wait, my daughter, until you know what will happen; for the man will not rest until he has settled this today.”

In verse 18, Naomi tells Ruth that she has done all she can and that they should now wait, for Boaz will surely not rest until he has brought the matter to completion. Interestingly, Boaz, though he had nothing to gain for himself, was working hard to find a way to help Ruth recover the inheritance. This is the blessing of God. Because God is blessing Ruth, Boaz is searching for ways to help her without even realizing it himself.

Once Ruth laid aside human righteousness, the matter of her household and of recovering the inheritance was no longer her problem; it became the problem of Boaz, who had the means to solve it. From now on her mother-in-law will pray as if her life depended on it, and Boaz will do his utmost to resolve her problem.

This is the blessing that those who are God’s have received from him, a secret the world does not know. If you abide under the wings of Christ as the word of God says, then no problem you meet in this life is yours to carry, because the Holy Spirit himself works without rest so that you, already at peace under Christ’s wings, may enter still deeper into rest. Now Ruth need only enjoy the grace of Boaz recovering her inheritance and continuing her line.

The name “Boaz” is the same as that of one of the two pillars Solomon set up in the temple, and it means “in him is strength.” So although Ruth did the good deed of showing a whole faith, the power to make that faith truly faith lay with Boaz. In the same way, our faith becomes whole only when the Lord’s power is with us.

I hope you, too, will recognize that the strength and faith you now have come from the grace of God, the sacrifice of Jesus, and the work of the Holy Spirit, and that you will walk humbly with God. Just as Ruth received wonderful blessing when she obeyed the word, God will lead his people along the path of blessing he has prepared in every detail when they give themselves fully to living in obedience to his word. Like Ruth, may you live by faith for God’s Kingdom and his righteousness, and have a beautiful testimony to share.