Ruth 3: God Provides FAITHFUL LOVE
Ruth is a love story.
Ruth, a widow in a strange land, goes into a field at harvest time, to gather grain left by the reapers. The owner of the field, who is considerably older, treats her with kindness, inviting her to share his lunch, and telling his workers to leave grain on the ground for her to pick up. In the night, they share an intimate conversation, and they conspire to arrange their own marriage. Soon after the marriage, Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law, is holding a baby named Obed. Obed becomes the father of Jesse, the father of David, king of Israel.
The Hallmark Channel—or maybe Disney—should buy the script. But maybe they would mess it up, for the love in the story makes no sense without God.
There IS romantic love in this story—this story of a man and a woman, separated by age and social status. Ruth finds herself drawn to such a righteous, caring man—a man of stature in the community, kind and generous. Boaz is surprised to find a much younger woman interested in him, and he recognizes, in this poor foreigner, noble character and strength.
Yet the love in the story is much more than romantic love. It is FAITHFUL LOVE, a love that reflects the love of God for his people.
The Hebrew language has a word that is hard to say, and even harder to translate. The word is “hesed” (chesed or hesedh—a hard, gutteral h and soft d).
“Hesed” is used 246 times in the Old Testament! The NIV often translates it as “love” or “kindness.” Other translations use “steadfast love,” but the translation depends on the context.
The word “hesed” first appears in the book of Ruth in Ruth 1:8, “Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the LORD show you kindness (hesed), as you have shown kindness (hesed) to your dead husbands and to me.’” The NIV translates “hesed” as kindness, although Naomi is also talking about love and faithfulness. Hard to translate.
“Hesed” is a word of relationship, and it implies making and keeping commitments.
For example, in Genesis 47:29-30, we read, “When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, ‘If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness (hesed) and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt, but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried.’ ‘I will do as you say,’ he said.” As a faithful son, Joseph made and kept a promise to his father; that is “hesed.”
Another example is what Jonathan said to David in 1 Samuel 20:14-15, “Show me unfailing kindness (hesed) like the LORD’s kindness (hesed) as long as I live, so that I may not be killed, and do not ever cut off your kindness (hesed) from my family—not even when the LORD has cut off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.” As his closest friend, Jonathan asked David to keep his promise of friendship, even after he was dead.
Jonathan recognized that human “hesed” is based on the “hesed” of God, as he said, “Show me hesed like the Lord’s hesed.”
Psalm 36:5-6 describes hesed as an attribute of God’s character: “Your love (hesed), LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep.” In the poetry of the psalm, “hesed” is parallel to faithfulness, just as righteousness is parallel to justice. Thus love is a rather wimpy translation, for “hesed,” implies faithful commitment.
Deuteronomy 7:9 connects hesed with the covenant God makes with his people: “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love (hesed) to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments.” God’s “hesed” is a commitment of forever-love!
And God shows “hesed” for Ruth and Naomi. Naomi we can understand, for she is an Israelite, one of God’s chosen people. But Ruth? Ruth was included in the covenant by grace, through faith. God provided the faith for her to say, “Your people will be my people, and your God my God.” Through grace, she and God were bound to each other by “hesed.”
Last week, we saw one way God showed “hesed” to Ruth and Naomi. God provided compassionate justice, by making provision for gleaning in the field. God’s “hesed” was specifically expressed through a person—a man named Boaz, who lived his life in “hesed” with God: “[Naomi said to Ruth], ‘Blessed be the man who took notice of you!’ Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. ‘The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,’ she said. ‘The LORD bless him! Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. ‘He [God] has not stopped showing his kindness (hesed) to the living and the dead.’” (Ruth 2:19-20)
Naomi, the one who was bitter against God, saw the “hesed” of God, and she had faith to hope for more. How could God, in his faithful love, provide even more?
In chapter 1, Naomi referred to God’s provision for widows. Deuteronomy 25:5-6 says, “If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.” This seems very strange to us, of course, but for widows like Naomi and Ruth, it was a way for them to be supported.
The law did not apply to Boaz, because he was not a brother to Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, nor to their son Mahlon, Ruth’s husband. By the letter of the law, Boaz had no responsibility to Ruth. But there was a higher law—the law of love, the law of “hesed,” which bound Boaz to Ruth and Naomi. That is why Boaz was feeding Ruth, and telling his workers to leave extra grain on the ground for her to pick up.
Naomi began to hope that the “hese,” the faithful love of Boaz, might be God’s way of showing “hesed” to them.
God’s love comes through people—faithful people.
Read Ruth 3:1-9.
If the scene seems risqué, it could have been. It is dark, and they are alone. Boaz has had food and wine, and he is “in good spirits.” Ruth is dressed to kill, washed and perfumed, and literally throwing herself at his feet. He is a rich, powerful man, and she is a poor, desperate woman. The power balance is all in his favor, and a lesser man would not hesitate to take advantage.
If we think women were less likely to be abused in those days, let me tell you a story, from Judges 19. (It is not a chapter you will hear in church very often.)
The story begins in Bethlehem, where Naomi lived. A Levite who lived in the hill country of Ephraim has a concubine—a live-in girlfriend—from Bethlehem. She is unfaithful, and leaves him to go back to her father’s house in Bethlehem. After 4 months, he goes after her, and he stays with her family for 4 days. On the fifth day, he persuades her to go home with him.
They get a late start, and they are forced to stop at Gibeah in Benjamin for the night. No one offers them hospitality, until finally an old man, another Levite from Ephraim, offers them lodging.
While they are eating dinner, some wicked men pound on the door, demanding that the old man put out his male guest so they can sodomize him. To avoid that, the man young man puts out his concubine, and they abuse her all night, until she dies. The man is distraught, and he cuts her body into 12 pieces, and sends them throughout Israel.
The men of Israel are incensed, and they gather to wage war against the tribe of Benjamin, where Gibeah is. The story only gets worse from there.
The conclusion of the story, the last verse of Judges, comes just before the book of Ruth in our Bibles: Judges 21:25, “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” (or, “…what was right in his own eyes.”)
But not Boaz! There was still one righteous man in Bethlehem, one man who showed “hesed” in his relationships.
Ruth hoped and prayed Boaz was that kind of man. When she said, “Spread the corner of your garment over me,” she was asking for protection, not abuse of power.
In Ruth 2:12, Boaz said to Ruth, “May the LORD repay you for what you have done [in coming to Judah with Naomi]. May you be richly rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” It was a common image in Israel; six of the Psalms talk about taking shelter in the shadow of God’s wings.
When Ruth comes to Boaz at night, she says, “Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are my kinsman-redeemer.” The Hebrew language does not have a large vocabulary, and the word for “garment” is the same as the word for “wings.” Ruth is asking Boaz to give her shelter in the shadow of his wings. She wants him to do God’s work—to give her refuge.
But it is dark, and they are alone, and Ruth is dressed and perfumed, and Boaz is a powerful man. In pulp fiction, and in so many stories, we know what comes next. The tension builds in the story, and in the minds of Boaz and Ruth.
Someone has said that integrity is what you do in the dark. Boaz is a man of integrity, a righteous man, who earlier said to his workers in the daylight, “The LORD bless you!” What does he say in the dark?
Read Ruth 3:10-18.
This is “hesed”—love committed to the good of another. Boaz respects, even admires, the desperate woman at his feet. He is concerned about her reputation. He is committed to providing for her, according to God’s covenant provision of a kinsman-redeemer. He sends her away with food for her mother-in-law, a dowry which no law required.
But what about Ruth? Boaz sees “hesed” in Ruth! “This kindness (hesed) is greater than that which you showed earlier. You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor.” The translation misses the point: Boaz was not so much affirming her kindness as her trust in God, and her trust in him. She grabbed hold of the promises of God and the righteousness she saw in Boaz, and she dared to risk it all on “hesed.”
In the story of Boaz and Ruth, God invites us to trust his faithful love.
We are like Ruth: needy, unworthy, powerless to save ourselves. God is committed to save us. How far will he go to rescue us? Romans 5:6-8 says, “At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly…God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
1 John 4:14-16 “We have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world… so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”
God’s love is more than an emotion; it is a commitment to save us, and to make us his children.
Like Ruth, our role in faithful love—our “hesed”—is to trust the faithful love of God.
Yet we also see ourselves in Boaz. God loves the world, and he is faithful and compassionate. Yet his love is expressed through people God provides—faithful people like Boaz, or like us! As 1 John 4:12 says, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” We are God’s agents!
As God’s agents, we may be able to show God’s faithful love to…
…a husband or wife
…children, parents, or relatives
…people at work, neighbors, and friends
…foreigners, outcasts, even those who are powerless and desperate
When we do that, we are providing God’s faithful love to people whom God loves as much as he loves us.
