More than Seven Sons! -- Reflections on Ruth 3:1-5, Proper 27 Year B

by John Holbert on Monday, November 4, 2024

Proper 27.  November 10, 2024.  Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17. “More Than 7 Sons!”

          Last week, our look at Ruth 1 made it clear that this Moabite woman was nothing less than a gem. She left her homeland after the death of her husband and father-in-law to accompany her bereft mother-in-law, Naomi, to Bethlehem, a city she had never seen in a country completely unknown. She did this despite Naomi’s loud insistence that she not go with her, given the immense hurdles that will confront her in Israel: widow, foreigner, woman, strike three and you are out! But in the face of all that Ruth utters one of the Bible’s great speeches, offering to Naomi her life, her past, her present, her future, and her eternity. This Ruth is one of our Scripture’s greatest figures, allowing nothing to deter her from giving her all for Naomi. She is, in short, the epitome of devotion and selfless care.

          And that portrait continues as the story moves on. In chapter 2, though it is outside of the lectionary’s choice, Ruth goes out to glean in a field of a man she does not even know, risking life and reputation by both acts. Lusty field hands are a threat, not to mention the owner of the field who has full control of his property. He might be an owner who deeply resents the reality of “gleaning,” a technical term in Israel, that means society’s outcasts—widows, orphans, foreigners— have the right to move through an already harvested field to pick up any grain missed during the harvest. It is a poor way toward survival, but Ruth, faced with a despondent and helpless Naomi, determines to go and glean.

          With wonderful serendipity, she “happens to” come to the field belonging to Boaz, an altogether delightful and apparently generous man. He sees her working in his field, and after inquiring about who she is, decides to treat her with special care. He invites her to share lunch with him and to drink water reserved for the hired workers. He even demands that his workers pull out of the stacked grain bundles some extra grain in order that Ruth be able to pick up a more significant amount. All of this she does and heads back to Naomi with a huge “glean,” such a large amount that Naomi is amazed and asks who in the world owns that field. When Ruth says his name is Boaz, Naomi immediately recognizes Boaz as “one of our nearest kin,” even though she claimed in her desperation on the Bethlehem road that she was bereft of all relations.

          So now it appears that all is set up for Ruth and Boaz to get together. But nothing happens: no cards, no emails, no gifts of candy. So Naomi, awakened from her despair, swings into action. She urges Ruth to head down to the threshing floor, where the village goes for a party after the harvest, to dress in her finest clothes, and to watch where Boaz lies down next to his heap of grain, to slip up on him unawares, to uncover his feet, and wait for him to tell her what to do. Really!? Accost a man you hardly know in his sleep, dressed to the nines, and wait for him to initiate what must be seen as a sexual encounter? What an enormous risk for the foreign widow! But we know Ruth will take such a risk and she does. But she does not quite follow all Naomi’s instructions. She certainly does find Boaz on the threshing floor, and she certainly does “uncover his feet,” a common reference to genitals in the Bible, but she does not wait for him to initiate any contact. “Spread you cloak over your maidservant for you are next of kin,” she boldly exclaims, a clear invitation for intimacy. He quickly concurs, and she lies with him all night on the threshing floor. The text is far too reticent to offer any details, though I had a student once who in a classroom sermon offered to us vast numbers of details! I trust she did not preach that particular sermon anywhere else!

          Boaz then gives to Ruth a large quantity of grain, and Ruth leaves to return to Naomi. Naomi is of course anxious to see how her plan has worked, and Ruth recounts the event but interestingly lies about what Boaz told her about the grain. I doubt seriously that Boaz was thinking of grain while lying with Ruth on the threshing floor, but I know for a fact that Ruth was thinking both of grain and her mother-in-law, since she claims that Boaz told her, “You must not go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.” As always, Ruth has Naomi in mind no matter what she is doing.

          And finally, after Boaz and Ruth marry, and Ruth has a son, the tale is concluded with crucial lines from the women of the neighborhood, who tell Naomi in no uncertain terms just what sort of woman Ruth is. They say, “Blessed be YHWH, who has not left you today without next of kin; may his name be renowned in Israel!He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher in your old age. Because your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has borne him” (Ruth 4:14-15). This is the only time in the book that the word “love” is used, and it refers to the love Ruth has borne to Naomi. In addition, the women add the claim that Ruth is worth more than seven sons, a patriarchal mouthful to be sure! The child born, we are told, is great-grandfather of King David, but that is not the key to this story. The key is Ruth and her deep devotion, her love, for Naomi; that is what drives the tale. If you want a living example of the devotion of YHWH, you need look no further than the redoubtable Ruth.