Tuesday, September 28, 2010

God Is At Work - The Story of Ruth Part III - A Strange Proposal, Part 11 of 31

TEXT: " 'And now, my daughter, don't be afraid. I will do for you all that you ask. All the people of my town know that you are a woman of noble character. Although it is true that I am a family guardian, there is another who is more closely related than I. Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to do his duty as your family guardian, good; let him redeem you. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives I will do it.' . . . Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat down there just as the family guardian he had mentioned came along. Boaz said, 'Come over here, my friend, and sit down.' . . . Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, 'Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Kilion and Mahlon. I have also acquired Ruth, the Moabite, Mahlon's widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from his hometown. Today you are witnesses!' " (Ruth 3:11-13, 4:1, 9-10).

IDEA: It is not possible to be too righteous.

PURPOSE: To help listeners appreciate that righteousness should be forthright but not necessarily simplistic.

Have you ever attended a wedding where the minister said to the audience, "If any of you know of any reason that this couple should not be joined in marriage, let him speak now or forever hold his peace"?

Have you ever heard anyone taking the pastor up on that challenge?

I. In the story of Ruth we have the uneasy feeling that Boaz may be too righteous for his own good.

Boaz has quickly accepted Ruth's proposal of marriage. He could have treated her as "Moabite trash" and still maintained his reputation for integrity.

Why did he quickly agree to the marriage? After all, he was awakened at midnight in a most compromising and unusual situation. Yet he commended Ruth for her actions.

He felt that Ruth was being kind and considerate of him, an older man. But more than that, the word carries the thought of "faithfulness." She had chosen to marry within the broader family for Naomi's sake and her former husband's sake. This was another display of hesed.

The community knew her and he knew her. Her reputation had neutralized all objections to her, a woman from Moab, marrying an Israelite. What she was had trumped anything negative about her past.

Boaz was a "kinsman redeemer" who was qualified to make Ruth part of the larger family.

Boaz was honest enough, however, to say that there was someone else within the clan who was more qualified than he to marry Ruth.

That man had a closer kinsman relationship to Elimelech, Naomi's husband, than Boaz had.

Evidently, in Israelite custom, this duty or privilege fell to the closest male relative and apparently in an order of priority not known to us today. (The Midrash taught that the other kinsman was Elimelech's brother and either an uncle or elder brother of Boaz.)

As an upright Israelite, Boaz bowed before the custom rather than scheme to get around it.

We sense that Boaz's integrity might bring the story to an unsatisfying conclusion.

II. Boaz's integrity frustrates the reader, but Boaz had to act by it.

He would have lost respect among the people in Bethlehem had he married Ruth without consulting the nearer kin.

His caution enhanced Ruth's legal claims in Israel. The status she would later have had come legally and not underhandedly.

Conclusion:

Is acting in integrity easy?

Does what Boaz did in another time and in another culture say anything to us today?