Rest like Ruth's in Boaz

Of all the names in the Book of Ruth, Ruth is the hardest one to find the definition for. In Cranes Bible Dictionary, the name is defined as “friendship, friend, companion, beauty.” C.I. Scofield has it as “friendship or beauty.”

“Probably the best definition is the one F.W. Grant gives: ‘Satisfied,’ ” says Jordan. “He means, ‘Someone who is satisfied.’ The Hebrew word actually refers to being tended to, like a shepherd tends to the flock.

“Then you have the name Boaz. If you look at Ruth 2:1 it says, [1] And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.

“That name Boaz means ‘in him is strength; the strong one.’ Boaz is a very important character in the Bible. II Chronicles 3:17 says, [17] And he reared up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand, and the other on the left; and called the name of that on the right hand Jachin, and the name of that on the left Boaz.

“When Solomon builds the temple, he makes two pillars for you to walk through when you go in. II Chronicles 3:15 says, [15] Also he made before the house two pillars of thirty and five cubits high, and the chapiter that was on the top of each of them was five cubits.

“Isn’t that a kick in the seat of the pants? You’ve got a pillar named after you in the temple. That name Jachin means ‘God will establish; He will stablish it.’ Boaz means ‘in him is strength.’ You had to pass between those two pillars; two pillars that represented by their names the person and work of the Messiah.

“There’s no way into the presence of God except through the person and the work of Israel’s Messiah. To understand Boaz, and in order for him to be a reality, that’s what the Book of Ruth is for. Without the Book of Ruth, there’d be no Boaz. There would be no entering into the presence of God.

“So all these characters in Ruth are important, the three most important ones being Naomi, Ruth and Boaz. They’re the three that have the greatest dispensational and doctrinal typology.

“Naomi represents the nation Israel, putting her trust in her husband, and yet trusting him more than she trusts God by following him into Moab. Ruth cleaves to Israel and says, as Ruth 1:16 reports, ‘Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.’

“When Boaz is talking to her, he says in Ruth 2:12, ‘The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.’ Ruth is a Gentile who understood God’s purpose in Israel better than Israel understood her purpose, and was clinging to Naomi with a faith even Naomi didn’t have!

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Considered an infinitely charming Old Testament book, with only four chapters, 85 verses and 2,578 words, Ruth, presumed to have been written by Samuel, represents one of two books in the Bible with a woman’s name. The other, of course, is Esther. While Ruth is a Gentile who marries a Jew, Esther is a Jew who marries a Gentile.

“Both of these books are books of history, prophecy and doctrine in typology and someone once said of Ruth that it is ‘one of the richest rewards of truly knowing the scripture,’ ” says Jordan. “Heart history appeals to people who have a heart. The stories based in appeal to affections are the ones that attract people, and Ruth is that way.

“There’s always a charm in a book that is filled with typology, and the main characters in Ruth are all pictures of God’s dealings with the nation Israel, and especially in the kinsman redeemer Boaz, who is a type of Christ.

“Ruth takes place during the deep dark period of Judges, but isn’t recorded until the early reign of David because Boaz is the predecessor of David. David is in Boaz’ line and Boaz is one of those key people in the Messiah’s line and now David can be Israel’s king.

“So, in that interlude between David and Solomon, where God is teaching Israel how He’ll work on their behalf, He writes a little romance book because the first thing Israel needs when they're under all that judgment is for Him to be their Kinsman Redeemer. The first thing the Davidic covenant provides for them is a Redeemer.

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“The term ‘kinsman’ is used about a dozen times in Ruth and Unger’s Bible Handbook is the first to refer to Ruth as 'the romance of redemption.'

“When you start at the beginning of the genealogy of Christ and count down the first ten guys you come to Noah. The tenth one in Shem’s line (the line of Christ) was Abraham. Boaz is the third tenth man. Matthew 1:5 says, 'And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse.' By the way, you can go on through the Old Testament and locate those other ‘tenth men,’ finding their significance. It’s fascinating.

“Boaz has some real insightful wisdom and a determined commitment and an undeterred love for Ruth to get the job of redemption done. Again, the picture is of the Messiah. It’s Israel in ‘the time of Jacob’s trouble’ being saved by her Messiah.

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“While people used to sing at weddings, ‘Wither thou goest I will go, where thou lodgest I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people,’ not many realize that’s really a song about Ruth’s mother-in-law talking to her daughter-in-law about life after her husband’s passing.

“Ruth’s problem was she was a Moabitess. Deuteronomy 23:3 says, 'An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the LORD for ever.'

“Although Ruth believed in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, her people were to be separated by ten generations. Now Ruth wasn’t like Tamar; she wasn’t a wicked person bound by the sins of the flesh. She’s not like Rahab the harlot, the Gentile woman living in Jericho.

"Ruth is a Gentile woman who has literally cleaved herself (remember, the man or woman 'shall leave their father and mother and cleave unto each other') and married herself to the nation Israel, and yet the law says, ‘You’re condemned.’

“There’s an old saying: ‘The law of God condemns the best of us and the grace of God saves the worst of us.’ Well, if the law condemns Ruth, the Moabitess, how can she fit into the genealogy of Matthew 1? She gets in by her husband, Boaz.

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“Boaz is Ruth and Naomi’s near kinsman, so Naomi tells Ruth, ‘You need to go and tell him who you are and present yourself to him and lay claim on him as one in need, knowing he can be your redeemer.’

“As Ruth 3 tells it, ‘And now is not Boaz of our kindred, with whose maidens thou wast? Behold, he winnoweth barley to night in the threshingfloor.
[3] Wash thyself therefore, and anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon thee, and get thee down to the floor: but make not thyself known unto the man, until he shall have done eating and drinking.
[4] And it shall be, when he lieth down, that thou shalt mark the place where he shall lie, and thou shalt go in, and uncover his feet, and lay thee down; and he will tell thee what thou shalt do.’

“There’s Boaz winnowing barley. Matthew 3 talks about the Lord Jesus Christ 'whose fan is in His hand and He will thoroughly purge His floor.' He’ll take the wheat and gather it into the garner. He'll take the Believers and burn up the chafe with unquenchable fire. You have a picture of that scene in Ruth 3.

“Verse 8 says, ‘And it came to pass at midnight, that the man was afraid, and turned himself: and, behold, a woman lay at his feet.’ Midnight represents the tribulation as the dark hour of Jacob’s trouble. With the feet, there’s Israel in Revelation 12, identified as the woman that’s fled out into the wilderness, needing the redeemer.

“And Boaz said, ‘Who art thou?’ Notice she doesn’t try to cover up who she is: ‘I am Ruth thy handmaid. I’m Ruth the Moabitess.’ She acknowledges just who she is but adds, ‘I’m also your kin. I also desire to be a part of your family. And you can make it happen!’ And she lays claim on him as her kinsman redeemer and he responds.

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“Verse 11 is a wonderful statement. He says, ' I'll do everything you need done.’ In essence what he tells Ruth to do is, ‘You just sit down, trust me and I’ll go do everything that needs to be done to provide your redemption and rest.’

“You remember the Lord Jesus Christ hanging on the Cross of Calvary and He says, ‘It’s finished’? All you and I need to do is rest in what He’s done. That’s what Ruth has to do.

“I John 14 says, ‘And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.’ He became one of us; became ‘our near Kinsman.’ And while others may be kin to you, there literally may be closer than kin to you.

“You can’t redeem yourself and no one can redeem you because they just can’t—somebody who can’t redeem themselves can’t help you! That’s why religion won’t work! That’s why the prayers of the dead saints don’t do! That’s why you have to have a Kinsman Redeemer like Boaz, and that’s who the Lord Jesus Christ is. As the man Christ Jesus He’s our near kinsman and yet He’s God, thus able.

“In Luke 1, when Gabriel talks to Mary, he says that ‘the power of the highest shall overshadow thee and that holy thing which will be created in you will be called the son of the highest.’

“I know sometime people complain about that wording in the King James, saying, ‘Well, He’s not a thing; He’s a person!’ Well, I know that! They knew that! It says ‘holy thing’ because it’s emphasizing not the person, but the nature—the nature of who He is.

“And the contrast is in Isaiah 64:6 when it says, ‘But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.’ In our nature, we’re unclean. In His nature, He’s sinless, harmless, separate from sinners, pure without sin, able to be your Redeemer.

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“Ruth 1:9 says, ‘The LORD grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them; and they lifted up their voice, and wept.’

“That’s been one of those jokes--Naomi obviously thought for a woman to find rest was to get married. The idea that a married woman is going to rest is kind of interesting but the rest here is not that kind of a thing; it’s the shelter.

“It’s the provision that God provides for a wife in a marriage relationship, and Israel under the law, and in the governmental system they had, it was a tremendous position. A woman who was unmarried had to more or less fend for herself, but being married she had a covering and a provider.

“Naomi is looking for rest for Ruth. If Ruth gets rest then so does Naomi, and that’s the real quest. Ruth’s been a Bible-believer and she’s been one who has found shelter under the wings of the Lord God of Israel.

“One of the things the Kinsman Redeemer had an obligation to do was to redeem the lost inheritance; the property of a family. Keep it in the tribe. Another was to raise up a posterity to a fallen brother.

“In Scripture, a threshing floor represents judgment, so what Ruth’s literally going to do is go down to the place of judgment, the threshing floor, during the time of winnowing. The harvest is over and now it’s time to separate the chafe from the wheat. That’s what the tribulation is about for Israel, by the way.

“Ruth is at the threshing floor but she doesn’t find judgment. She finds love; she finds her redeemer. Hosea 2: 14-16: ‘Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.
[15] And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
[16] And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali.’

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“Picturewise, Ruth is in that day when the Lord is ready at the threshing floor to bring salvation to His people. What Naomi told Ruth is to go get ready to be a bride. Ruth came to Boaz and said, ‘I’m not trying to make a scene here; this is just betwixt you and me, spread your skirt over me, enter into a covenant of marriage with me.’ Why? ‘Because you’re my kinsman.’

“Now, that was an act of bravery, but mostly an act of faith. She’s asking him just to claim her and it’s a legal claim. You see, what Boaz had been looking for was a Bible-believer, too. When you read verse 10, can you just see how he’s kind of happy about what’s going on? He’s rejoicing and what he’s rejoicing in is that she wasn’t just looking for a young husband or a bunch of money.

“One of the obstacles between the two was Boaz was evidently much older than her but she wasn’t looking for a good time and a sugar-daddy. She was looking for a Bible-believer and he was too.

“Zephaniah 3:16-17 says, [16] In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack.
[17] The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.

“That’s a passage we could spend the rest of evening looking at--how the Lord rejoices over the Believing Remnant in Israel in 'the last day.' God’s going to be thrilled and rejoicing as He sees His plan and purpose fulfilled with Israel. You remember the guy on the A-Team: ‘I love it when a plan comes together.’ That’s God’s attitude.

“Isaiah 62:5 says, [5] For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.’

"That’s what Boaz is doing right there. He’s rejoicing over a bride.

Ruth 3:11 says, [11] And now, my daughter, fear not; I will do to thee all that thou requirest: for all the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman.

"Notice He’s going to do all that she needs done and He’s going to do it all by Himself. Ruth rested all that night at the feet of Boaz, resting in the fact he would do what needed to be done and promised to do. Now that’s where real rest is. I don’t know how many nights of sleep she’d had like that before, but I imagine this was a good night of sleep for her as she rested in her Kinsman’s promise.”