Ruth 3:5-9 (NIVUK)
5 ‘I will do whatever you say,’ Ruth answered. 6 So she went down to the threshing-floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do.
7 When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down. 8 In the middle of the night something startled the man; he turned – and there was a woman lying at his feet!
9 ‘Who are you?’ he asked.
‘I am your servant Ruth,’ she said. ‘Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family.’
By asking Boaz to cover her with the corner of his garment, Ruth is asking Boaz to care for her – in effect she is asking him to marry her. Providing an heir for a widow in order to care for them and continue the family line was a duty of a guardian-redeemer as Boaz was for Naomi. Again this reflect’s God’s compassion for his people, see Ruth 2:12 where Boaz says, ‘…May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.’ Doesn’t Jesus say something similar in Matthew 23:37, ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.’
Almighty God, thank you for your compassion, may we know the protection of being under your wings today.
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