Tuesday, September 21, 2010

God Is At Work - The Story of Ruth Part III - A Strange Proposal, Part 6 of 31

TEXT: "One day Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to Ruth, 'My daughter, I must find a home for you where you will be well provided for. Now Boaz, with whose women you have worked, is a relative of ours. Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. Wash and perfume yourself, and put on your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don't let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.' 'I will do whatever you say,' Ruth answered. So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do. When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down. In the middle of the night something startled the man; he turned—and there was a woman lying at his feet! 'Who are you?' he asked. 'I am your servant Ruth,' she said. 'Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a family guardian.' 'The Lord bless you, my daughter,' he replied. 'This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier. You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. And now, my daughter, don't be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All the people of my town know that you are a woman of noble character' " (Ruth 3:1-11).

IDEA: Sometimes when things seem upside down to us, they may indeed by right-side up with God.

PURPOSE: To help listeners see that God honors faith however it may be expressed.

Do you remember how you became engaged? Where and how did it happen?

Do you know of any unique ways people have gotten engaged? Who planned it?

I. One the strangest proposals of marriage is recorded in the story of Ruth.

Read Ruth 3:1-11 (above). The storyteller describes how the proposal of marriage between Ruth and Boaz took place.

Ruth watched Boaz eat and drink until he was "in good spirits." He was content and at peace with himself.

She watched Boaz lie down after supper at the end of the pile of threshed grain. Why do you suppose he would sleep there?

While he was asleep, Ruth sneaked up to him, uncovered his legs and lay down herself. In the warm late spring night Boaz was apparently unaware of her presence.

At midnight he shivered, possibly because of the chilling night air, and grasping for his covering, he found someone lying by his legs.

After Ruth identified herself in the darkness, she then made the proposal of marriage to Boaz: "Spread the corner of your garment over your maidservant." That idiom means "marry me."

The gesture of a man covering a woman with his garment was a "symbolic act of a new relationship and the symbolic declaration of the husband to provide for the sustenance of his future wife."

Ezekiel 16:8, God speaking to Israel, "Later I passed by, and when I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign Lord, and you became mine."

Ruth's request echoes Boaz's earlier prayer for her in Ruth 2:12—"May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge."

The word for "garment-cover" is the same as the word for God's protective covering of her with his "wing."  (Hebrew Kanap)

Essentially Ruth asks Boaz to answer his earlier prayer for her.

II. Ruth's proposal of marriage was extraordinary by any cultural measuring stick.

In a culture in which marriages were arranged by consenting families, the woman was usually a passive pawn with no voice in the arrangement.

Here is a servant asking her boss to marry her.

Here is a Moabite making a demand of an Israelite.

Here is a woman making a proposal of marriage to a man.

Here is a poor widow making a proposal of marriage to a wealthy man.

CONCLUSION:

What seemed like a hopeless gamble worked against great odds. Why?