- The proactive humility of Ruth has much to teach those in need of a Redeemer.
When a biblical story starts off “In the days when the judges ruled,” it is going to be a tough account. The Book of Judges, as readers of Scripture know, records a time when “every man did what was right in his own eyes.” In other words, a period of moral anarchy when cycles of disobedience just go lower, then lower.
The Book of Ruth takes place during this period. Two widows, in a country where the god Chemosh was thought to rule, return to the nation where the elder widow Naomi once resided, in Bethlehem. Though Naomi was tired and depressed, Ruth knew enough to rise up and find a field where she could glean leftover grains of barley for their meager sustenance. She ends up bringing home much more than her fair share because a relative of Naomi’s family has been kind to her.
Then Naomi decides to put Ruth in the “ready position” for blessing.
The “ready position,” in modern athletics, is a stance where your feet are slightly beyond shoulder’s width, knees bent, back erect, hands out. Whether basketball, baseball, football, wrestling, volleyball, or dozens of other sports—the stance is fundamentally the same. You are prepared for whatever is about to happen.
In Naomi and Ruth’s day there was something known as the “kinsman-redeemer.” If a man died without his wife having borne children, the “kinsman-redeemer” could marry the woman to produce an heir for the deceased man, thus providing for a widow and preserving the family line.
Naomi knows that Boaz was related to her late husband and situated to be that kinsman-redeemer for her family and save both widows. Boaz has already seen Ruth in his fields and been impressed by her appearance and her work ethic. So Naomi tells Ruth to get in the ready position. The actual biblical language describing this position is fascinating:
- “Wash and anoint yourself”
- “Lie down” at his feet when he goes asleep at the threshing floor (where he is guarding his barley harvest)
- “She came softly, uncovered his feet and lay down”
- When he awakens at midnight and sees her she says: “I am Ruth, your servant”
- She continues: “Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.”
- After she goes back to Naomi she is told to “Wait…the man will not rest but will settle the matter today.”
Every serious biblical scholar on the globe knows that this “Kinsman-redeemer” foreshadows Christ in our lives. This story, and specifically this chapter, is not a bad mini-manual on how to assume the “ready position” before our Redeemer.
- Wash yourself. “Repent and be baptized.”
- Lie down at His feet. “Blessed are the poor in spirit…”
- Come softly. “Blessed are the meek…”
- Declare your servanthood. “”Have this mind among yourselves…emptied…the form of a servant”
- Spread your wings over me. In “the shadow of your wings” – a recurring metaphor in the Psalms.
- Wait. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength…”
Ruth got in the ready position before her kinsman-redeemer. From that obedience and through her family, generations later the Messiah-King would come.
We are approaching Christmas in this Advent season. Are you in a ready position before Him?
