Finding Jesus in Ruth (Ruth 3)

Big Idea: We are helpless outsiders until Jesus, our divine Redeemer, pays the price to give us new life and his love.

The story of Ruth is one of the most beautiful narratives in the entire Bible. It’s rich with themes such as loyalty, kindness, humility, faithfulness, and redemption. It’s a rich tapestry of character qualities and moral lessons. It teaches us about loyalty, redemption, kindness, humility, hard work, and God's sovereignty. And, believe it or not, it teaches us a little about the meaning of Christmas too.

The story starts in Ruth 1, where a woman named Naomi experiences a famine and loses everything except her foreign daughter-in-law. Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth had nothing. They had no prospects for the future, no rights, and no hope. Ruth, a foreigner, would have faced distrust due to her allegiance to other gods. In Ruth 1, we see that God works in our darkest moments and among the most hopeless people, even when it's not clear to us.

But in Ruth 2, we found a bit of hope. God provided for Ruth and Naomi through a righteous man named Boaz and some seeming coincidences. We learned last week that God works in anxious times through God’s people and God’s providence. Even in moments when God appears to be absent, he is always present. And when things look hopeless, God is working behind the scenes for the good and happiness of his people.

Today we focus on Ruth 3. Ruth 3 is where everything changes in the story of Ruth. Chapter 3 is where the story goes from a story of gleaner and benefactor to that of potential marriage partners.

Today I want to do two things: I want to experience some of the power of the story, and then I want to show how this story connects us with Jesus.

The Story

Last week, we saw that Boaz went out of his way to help Ruth. Not only did he protect her, but he sent her home with a lot of food, probably about 35–40 pounds of barley, enough to feed Ruth and her mother for up to a week. At the end of chapter 1, Naomi and Ruth are empty. At the end of chapter 2, they’re full. Something is happening in the story.

I didn’t mention it last week, but Naomi gave Ruth an important detail about Boaz. It’s only mentioned briefly, but it’s one of the keys to the whole book. “Naomi also said to her, ‘The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers’” (Ruth 2:20). A kinsman-redeemer was a male relative who had the responsibility and right to act on behalf of a relative who was in trouble, danger, or need. A kinsman-redeemer had a few basic duties, including these two:

• If relatives became so poor that they had to sell themselves as slaves, the kinsman redeemer was responsible for purchasing their freedom (Leviticus 25:25-55).
• When a married man died without having children, the kinsman redeemer could be required to marry the widow. Any children from this marriage would legally be considered heirs of the deceased husband, ensuring his family line and property rights continued (Deuteronomy 25:5-10). This practice helped preserve the deceased man's name and legacy within the community.

You can sense a bit of hope. There were some problems as well. In Ruth's case, two things made the situation unusual:

• Boaz wasn't a brother of the dead man - he was just a more distant relative. So it wasn't clear if he had the same obligations as a brother would have had.
• Ruth was a foreigner (from Moab), and the laws about kinsman redeemers didn't specifically say anything about what to do with foreign widows.

At the end of chapter 2, we’re left wondering if this little detail is going to end up meaning anything in the end.

And then Naomi hatches a plan. The plan was bold and simple. The plan was simple.

First, that Ruth would prepare herself by washing herself and anointing herself with perfume, and putting on her best clothes. These actions would symbolize moving from mourning to a state of readiness for a new chapter in her life.

Secondly, Ruth would carefully plan the timing of her approach. She would wait until Boaz finished eating and drinking at the threshing floor. The threshing floor was where grain was separated from chaff, and landowners would often sleep there to protect their harvest. The timing was crucial - she was to wait until he was in "good spirits" after his meal.

Then, Ruth would make her move. She would observe where he lay. She would approach him quietly after he’s asleep. She would uncover his feet and lie down in the place normally reserved for a wife. She would be saying to him, basically, that she wanted to be his wife.

This was not a seductive act. By taking these actions, Ruth was making a culturally understood, non-verbal request for protection and marriage. She was working within the cultural norms while giving Boaz the opportunity to act as kinsman-redeemer. It was bold. It was risky. And Ruth did it.

We just read the story, so you know how things turned out, but imagine how both Naomi and Ruth must have felt. Picture Naomi, filled with anticipation, anxiously waiting to find out what transpired. Picture Ruth quietly entering the threshing floor to carry out her plan. Imagine Boaz waking up in the middle of the night, trying to figure out who this was.

Imagine hearing Boaz say these words:

May you be blessed by the LORD, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman. (3:10-11)

In a short time, Ruth had gone from being a Moabite outsider with nothing to a respected woman and the possible future wife of Boaz.

Things looked promising, but there was one complication. Boaz knew of someone who was an even closer relative, and he had the right of first refusal. Boaz agreed to look into things in the morning, but sent Ruth home with six measures of grain. This was a lot, probably about eighty pounds. But it’s significant that it’s six measures. Seven is the number of completeness. Six is incomplete. She’s almost there, but not quite. There’s promise, but the story still isn’t over. At the end of Ruth 3, we’re still waiting to see what happens.

What a remarkable story this is! It keeps you on the edge of your seat. It works on so many levels. You've got ancient customs mixing with personal relationships, and legal matters blending with a love story. Big themes like redemption, faithfulness, and God's guidance run through it all. The characters truly stand out—Ruth demonstrates immense bravery, while Boaz embodies honor and offers steadfast protection. The writer includes just the right details to build suspense without saying too much. When you put it all together, it's masterful storytelling at its finest.

But that’s not even the best part. The best part is how this story brings us to Jesus. The best part is how this story connects with our stories too.

How the Story Brings Us to Jesus

Here’s the really cool part of this story. This story is our story too.

Ruth embodied the ultimate outsider - a widow, foreigner, and destitute woman in ancient Israel. Without money, status, or protection, she was forced to scavenge in fields just to survive. Far from home and everything familiar, she was vulnerable to abuse with no legal recourse. Her circumstances could hardly have been worse.

And if you look at our condition in the Bible, we’re a lot like Ruth. “We need redemption because we are weak and helpless” (Tony Merida). We can’t solve our problem on our own. We’re helpless. As Tony Merida says:

In the New Testament, the need and helplessness of every one of us is clear. We are dead in sin and in need of new life (Ephesians 2:1-3; John 11). We are slaves to sin (Romans 5:12; 6:16-20, 23), unable to free ourselves and unable to serve God as we ought (Galatians 5:1, 13-15). We are alienated from God, having no fellowship with God (Ephesians 2:12-21). We are under the wrath of God, needing salvation by the grace of God (Ephesians 2:1-10). We are in the kingdom of darkness, needing to be transferred into the kingdom of light (Colossians 1:13-14). We are spiritually hungry, needing the living water and the bread of life for satisfaction (John 4; 6 – 7). We are blind, unable to see the truth of God and the glory of the Messiah (John 9). We are lost sheep, needing the Good Shepherd to rescue us (John 10).

Just like a dead person cannot make themselves alive, we cannot fix our spiritual condition by ourselves. We need God to make us spiritually alive, which He does through Jesus Christ. We need a redeemer.

So just as we find ourselves in the position of Ruth, we also see glimpses of Jesus in Boaz. To be a redeemer, you need two things: you need to be related, and you need to be willing. By taking on human flesh, He became our "brother" - close enough to redeem us, yet perfect enough to pay the full price for our salvation.

Not only is Jesus related, he was willing. He willingly offered his life to redeem all those who trust him. Just as Boaz purchased Ruth and her inheritance to rescue her from poverty and provide for her needs, Jesus purchased us with his blood to redeem us from our spiritual poverty.

Boaz points us to Christ's compassion and generosity. Just as Boaz extended kindness and protection to Ruth, a foreign outcast, Jesus offers His grace to all who are spiritually destitute. Just as Boaz redeemed Ruth from her destitution, Jesus redeems believers from their spiritual poverty and makes them his own .

All this came at a cost. It cost Boaz financially. But there was more. Any children they had would be considered heirs to Ruth's first husband. This meant the inheritance would not pass to Boaz's own name but would maintain Mahlon's family line. It came at a cost, but Boaz was happy to pay the cost.

It came at an even greater cost for Jesus. Just as Boaz gave up his wealth and accepted that any children would be considered heirs of Ruth's first husband, Jesus left His heavenly throne and sacrificed far more: he gave up heaven, took on human form, endured rejection, and ultimately offered his own life on the cross. Unlike Boaz's financial cost, Jesus paid with His very blood, bearing our sins to purchase our redemption.

The love story of Ruth 3 isn’t just a love story between two people. It’s a picture of the greatest love story that’s ever been told. As someone’s said:

The real love story in this book is not about Boaz and Ruth, though. The real love story is behind the scenes. It is the love of God for his straying sheep…
This love took its fullest shape in the coming of Jesus Christ. His love for us took him much further than a grain pile at midnight. It caused him to leave the glories of heaven and … come as a baby to Bethlehem, where he found no refuge. Unlike Ruth, there was no place of rest for Jesus in Bethlehem, no godly Boaz to protect him. Instead, he had to make do with a temporary place in a stable, before he was driven out, having to flee for his life even when he was a baby. And this love caused Jesus to abandon his eternal glory and become a servant, someone who was of no reputation, despised and rejected by men.
This same love of God took Jesus all the way to the cross. There, in the midst of a darkness far deeper than any ordinary midnight, he offered himself up for the sins of his people. There he was abandoned by God the Father, who turned aside his face because he would not and could not look upon his own Son, disfigured as he was by bearing our sin. (Ian Duguid)

Jesus stepped down from his heavenly throne to fully identify with sinners, bearing burdens far greater than any outsider like Ruth. He willingly took on our sins, sorrows, and failures, carrying the weight of our ruined lives and spiritual death to the cross, where he bore our shame and died in our place. Through this ultimate sacrifice, he offers us his name, making us children of God and granting redemption to all who trust in him.

His sacrifice was not because we earned it, but because of God’s immeasurable love and unwavering commitment to save sinners. Through Jesus’ death, anyone who believes receives eternal life. No matter how broken by sin we are, God invites us to surrender to him, become part of his family, and be clothed in Christ’s righteousness.

Ruth’s journey mirrors this redemption, pointing to themes of waiting, love, Bethlehem, and a Savior’s birth, deeply connecting her story to Christmas. This is a story that calls for a response—will you acknowledge your need, come to your Redeemer, and seek his covering of grace? We are utterly helpless without him, yet through his sacrifice, Jesus restores us and grants the gift of eternal life.

We are helpless outsiders until Jesus, our divine Redeemer, pays the price to give us new life and his love.