And Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee?
Ruth has been gleaning in Boaz's field, gathering enough for each day. Now her mother-in-law raises a larger question. Not food for tomorrow, but a settled home. The chapter turns on one word: rest. Commentators follow it in two directions. Ruth is told to seek rest, and Boaz himself will not rest until the matter is settled.
The word Naomi uses frames the whole chapter, from this verse to its last line.
Gleaning, as we have seen, is the great subject of the second chapter. Rest is the theme of the last two chapters. The opening verse of chapter 3 uses the word of Ruth: "My daughter, should I not seek rest for you?" The closing verse uses it of Boaz: "The man will not rest until he has settled the matter today."
So why did Ruth need more than the field already gave her?
Naomi is the leader here. It is her knowledge both of Boaz's kinship and of the law of Deuteronomy that guides Ruth through the hardest of all her experiences. Ruth had been gleaning food, but it had been through constant toil, and only for present needs. She was now to have rest, all her needs met, her labour over.
Naomi had once been ready to send Ruth back to Moab. The same woman now points her toward Boaz.
What a change in Naomi from her unbelief at the beginning! Back then she would have turned Ruth back to find rest in the pagan home of some Moabite husband. Would she not now be ashamed of such unbelief? Would she not shudder at the thought of her own folly, which might have ended so badly both for herself and her daughter-in-law?
But whose good is Naomi after?
She desired favour for Ruth the Moabite rather than for herself, the wife of the late Elimelech. As she said, her aim was to "seek rest" so that it might be well with the stranger from Moab in the land of promise. She also wanted Ruth to have her rightful share of the family heritage in the tribe of Judah. Naomi was not seeking her own interests. She was seeking the spiritual interests of her daughter-in-law.
Naomi gives Ruth orders. What makes them easy to obey?
Naomi commands, but her orders are never a burden, for they are the commandments of love. "My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you?" She gives her directions with her beloved Ruth's well-being in view. She also gives them because she knows the heart of Boaz… Obedience is easy for those who know that God loves them and desires only their rest and well-being. But obedience becomes hard when the soul aims to satisfy itself and to find happiness outside of Christ.
Naomi does not just wish rest for Ruth. She points to the person who can give it.
First Naomi engages her thoughts with Boaz, telling her who he is and what he is doing. She says, "he is of our kindred." She says, in effect, "He is ours, and we have a claim upon him." And we can say that Christ is ours. Has He not become flesh and lived among us? Did He not die for us? And now that He is risen, does He not call us His brothers?
So where is that rest found?
Where does Ruth find rest? At the feet of Boaz. And where does a soul find rest? At the feet of Jesus! Ruth feels Boaz is the only one in whom she can fully confide, and she goes and places herself under his wing.
Naomi asks who will give Ruth rest. The answer is a man who will not rest himself until the work is done.
Boaz undertook for Ruth, and he could not be at rest himself until he had finished the work he had taken on. In the same way our adorable Substitute undertook for us. Indeed, He so took our place that He could not be at rest Himself until He finished the work that gives us rest in the presence of God for ever.
- Rest sought. Naomi's question sets the chapter's subject. Ruth has food from gleaning, but no rest.
- Rest misplaced. Naomi once urged Ruth to look for rest in Moab; she now points her to a kinsman in the land — a turn from her earlier unbelief.
- Rest located. The answer is a person, not a provision: Boaz is "of our kindred," and Ruth ends up at his feet.
- Rest obeyed. Naomi's orders are the commandments of love. Obedience is easy for those who know they are loved.
- Rest secured. The chapter ends with the kinsman unable to rest until the work is done. He alone can win the rest Naomi sought for Ruth.
And now, is not Boaz of our kindred, with whose maidens thou wast? Behold, he is winnowing barley in the threshing-floor to-night.
Naomi builds on two facts she already knows: Boaz is family, and tonight he is at the threshing floor. Her question opens a plan, drawn from Israel's laws about relatives, to move a widowed foreign woman out of daily gleaning and into rest.
Naomi first fixes Ruth's mind on who Boaz is. Where the ESV says "our relative," older translations read "of our kindred," and that word carries a claim.
First Naomi turns Ruth's thoughts to Boaz, telling her who he is and what he is doing. She says, "he is of our kindred." She says in effect, "He is ours and we have a claim upon him." And we can say that Christ is ours. Has He not become flesh and lived among us? Did He not die for us? And now, risen, He calls us His brothers.
Two separate laws met in one man. A relative could buy back family land that had been sold, and a relative was expected to marry the childless widow so the dead man's name would continue.
All land was to return every fiftieth year to the family it had belonged to. Even so, any of the family or their relatives could buy it back, or redeem it, before that time. See Leviticus 25:23-28. Naomi, it seems, was forced to sell, and she hoped that one of her relatives would buy or redeem it… The law also laid this down: if a man died childless, his nearest relative or "brother" should marry the widow. Their firstborn son would be named after the dead man, so that his name should not perish in Israel. See Deuteronomy 25:5-10. So the close relative had a double duty.
Boaz is doing ordinary farm work. The hour he picked for it was not random.
This was done in the open air, by throwing up the grain with a shovel or a fan; the wind carried away the chaff. Boaz winnowed his barley in the evening, when there would be more wind.
The wind explains the hour. One more custom explains why Boaz would still be there at night.
Thieves love darkness rather than light. To guard the winnowed grain from them, the owner himself would sleep in the open on the threshing floor. He kept his usual clothes on, with a cloak over his feet for extra covering. In Bethlehem it seems to have been common knowledge that Boaz would do this that night. So Naomi advised Ruth to use this occasion and make a private, personal appeal to "Boaz of our kindred". She was to ask him to protect her, friendless as she was, and to take an interest in recovering the inheritance of her dead father-in-law and her husband.
Commentators differ on what the scene pictures. One view looks ahead to a night still to come.
Winnowing is a sifting process that separates the wheat from the chaff. Read Matthew 3:12. The threshing floor is Israel. A dark night of trouble is coming for them. Then the mighty One will do the work of separating among His people: "His winnowing fork is in His hand." In that coming night the believing remnant will seek the place at His feet, as Ruth did, and claim Him as their own redeemer.
Others apply the same detail to the present day.
The Lord Jesus is not occupied with the chaff today. He will deal with the chaff in judgment in a coming day. But at this moment He is occupied with His own: "He is winnowing barley." In other words, He is sanctifying the Church, so that He may present the Church to Himself without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
Ruth had spent the harvest among Boaz's young women and had received much from him. Naomi's plan reaches past the gifts to the giver.
All these blessings, however, had not satisfied her heart. They had indeed won her confidence, and drawn out her affections. But once the affections are won, only one thing satisfies the heart: having the Person who won them… It is having the Blesser, not the blessings, that satisfies the heart.
Naomi does not suggest; she directs. Ruth obeys without argument.
Naomi commands, but her orders are in no way burdensome. They are the commands of love: "My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you?" What she directs, she directs with her beloved Ruth's well-being in view. She directs it too because she knows the heart of Boaz: "Is not Boaz of our kindred?" Ruth, the woman of faith, obeys.
The plan carried real risk of rejection, and that is exactly where it is commended.
It might have seemed bold to some; it was really a believing course, with love to Ruth also… It was possible that the course Naomi directed her daughter-in-law to take might have turned the heart of the great man away from the Moabite woman completely; but God ordered otherwise according to faith, and so difficulties disappeared one after another.
- Relative — Boaz is family, and that is a claim, not a coincidence. Relationship is the ground of every request in this chapter.
- Claim — that relationship carried a double legal duty: buy back the family land, and marry the widow so the dead man's name lived on.
- Timing — Boaz winnowed at night because the evening wind carried off the chaff. He slept by the grain to guard it. Naomi knew both facts and moved.
- Picture — commentators differ on the winnowing. Some see a coming night of sifting for Israel. Others see Christ at work now with His own, not with the chaff.
- Rest — gleaning brought gifts. Only the giver brings rest, and that is where Naomi's counsel of love aimed Ruth.