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.
Wash thyself therefore, and anoint thyself, and put thy raiment upon thee, and go down to the floor; make not thyself known to the man, until he shall have done eating and drinking.
Naomi's counsel sends Ruth, washed and dressed, down to a threshing floor at night to place herself at the feet of a sleeping man. Two questions follow. What was Naomi asking for? And what do her three commands picture for anyone who wants to be close to Christ?
The timing was not random. Winnowing was evening work, and the owner stayed with his grain:
Winnowing means separating the grain from the chaff after threshing. It usually happened in the evening, because the winds that carried away the light husks sprang up at that time of day. Thieves love darkness rather than light. So to guard the winnowed grain, the owner himself would sleep out in the open on the threshing floor. He kept his usual clothes on, with a cloak over his feet for extra covering. It seems to have been common knowledge in Bethlehem that Boaz would do this that night.
Naomi was working from the law. Two rules gave a close relative both a right and a duty:
Though all land was to revert every fiftieth year to the family it had belonged to, it could be bought back, or redeemed, by any of the family or their relatives before that time. See Leviticus 25:23-28... The law also expected a man's nearest relative or "brother" to marry his widow if he died childless. See Deuteronomy 25:5-10. So the near kinsman had a double duty: to redeem the land if he was able, and to marry Mahlon's widow.
Naomi's plan looks bold. One writer says God was with that boldness:
It might have seemed bold to some; it was really a believing course, with love to Ruth in it too. But when God is with us, two things go together. On one hand there is the attractive grace of a pure life joined with reverence. On the other there is the boldness of faith, and God blesses that boldness just as much. Ruth 2 shows us the one, as the third chapter does the other.
One writer links the first command to the feet washing in John 13:
The first necessity, "wash yourself," carries our thoughts to the feet washing of John 13. Feet washing must come before heart resting... We allow the defiling influences of the world to creep in and drag our affections down to the things of the earth. If we neglect feet washing, the defilements increase. Our minds grow so clogged and our affections so dulled that communion with Christ becomes rare or unknown.
Washing only removes what is wrong. The next command adds something:
Washing is negative; it removes defilement. Anointing is positive; it leaves a sweet fragrance. We need our minds and affections cleansed from defiling influences. We also need them filled with the things of Christ, so that a fragrance of Christ is about us, suited to the company of Christ.
The third command adds one more thing. The writer uses an older wording of the verse, "put your raiment upon you":
Then Naomi says, "Put your garments on." Does this not speak of the fine linen which is the practical righteousness of the saints? If Philippians 4:8 speaks of the anointing, does not the following verse answer to the clothing — the practical righteousness? There the Apostle says, "What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things." The keyword of verse 8 is "think"; the keyword of verse 9 is "do."
One writer answers a reader who thinks he must clean himself up before coming to the Saviour:
You cannot — try what you will, you cannot make yourself one bit better, one bit more fit for the Saviour's presence. "Ah, but," you say, "Ruth was told to wash and anoint herself." Yes, but you are not, and that is the difference... Nothing can cleanse you before God, or give relief to your soul, but the precious blood of Christ. To try to improve yourself is only a snare of the devil to keep you away from the Saviour.
Naomi's instructions change once Boaz has accepted Ruth:
At the earlier stage, while Ruth was still a suitor, Naomi tells her to wash, to anoint herself, and to put her clothes on. Then she is to go down to the threshing floor where Boaz would be. But as soon as Boaz has accepted her, Naomi changes her tone and tells her to sit still. (Ruth 3:3, 18)
One writer sees the night-time threshing floor pointing to a later testing:
Is it not significant that this test was to be made at threshing time, and at night? It connects with "the great tribulation" — literally the great threshing time. Then the remnant will put forward their claim to the Kinsman whom they still recognise so dimly.
- Warranted — Naomi's plan rested on written law: the redemption of land, and the duty of a near relative to the widow.
- Wash — the first step is negative. It removes the defiling influences that dull affection and make closeness to Christ rare.
- Anoint — the second is positive: a mind filled with what is true and lovely leaves a fragrance suited to His company.
- Clothe — the third step shows. Right thinking becomes right doing, the practical righteousness others can see.
- Then still — preparation belongs to the suitor; once the kinsman has taken the case in hand, the word changes from "go down" to "sit still."