Ruth 3:6
So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law had instructed her to do.
Sermons
Filial ObedienceJ.R. Thomson Ruth 3:5, 6














Ruth was not Naomi's daughter, yet she acted, and with good reason and great propriety, as though she had been such. What holds good, therefore, of the relationship described in this book holds good, a fortiori, of the relation between parents and children. In modern society the bonds of parental discipline are, especially among the working class, lamentably relaxed. Christian people should, in the interests alike of patriotism and religion, do all they can to strengthen these bonds. The text affords us a beautiful example of filial obedience.

I. MOTIVES to filial obedience. Gratitude should lead the child to obey the parent, to whom he owes so very much. The constraint should be the sweet constraint of love. Reason should lead to the reflection - The parent has experience of human life, in which I am necessarily lacking; is not a parent's judgment far more likely to be sound than is a child's, or even a youth's? Divine legislation commands children to obey their parents. E.g. the fifth commandment, under the old covenant; apostolical admonitions, under the new. The example of the Holy Child, Jesus!

II. The ADVANTAGES of filial obedience. Usually, obvious temporal advantages ensue upon such a course. This is proverbial and unquestionable. The satisfaction of a good conscience is a compensation not to be despised for any sacrifice of personal feeling in this matter. The approval of God is most emphatically pronounced upon those who honor and obey their parents. And this is usually followed by the confidence and admiration of fellow-men. Lessons: -

1. Expostulate with the disobedient.

2. Encourage the obedient. - T.

Uncover his feet, and lay thee down.
I. WE BEGIN WITH SOME EXPLANATORY OBSERVATIONS, FOR THE PURPOSE OF VINDICATING THE NARRATIVE FROM MISAPPREHENSION AND ABUSE.

1. We must notice the general contrariety of pastoral customs to our own which marked those ancient times in the East. What unadorned simplicity! Wearing the garments which had been worn by him during the day, he throws himself down to rest at the end of the heaps of winnowed corn, with nothing but a simple mat beneath him, and a similar covering or cloak above him. How different is all this from the dignity and reserve which would be maintained and the many artificial luxuries and comforts that would be possessed by a person of similar rank and wealth among ourselves.

2. It is a fact that, both in those times and up to this hour in the East, servants have been accustomed to lay themselves in this manner at the feet of their master. One modern traveller mentions that his Arab servants were quite in the practice of doing so with him; and, in cold evenings, of claiming the privilege, which had descended from immemorial usage, of drawing over themselves the skirts of the long mat or cloak in which his person was enveloped.

3. Moreover, it is an interesting fact bearing on the present subject, that a very prominent part of the marriage ceremony among the Orientals was for the bridegroom to throw the skirt of his robe over his bride. The act of Ruth here described was, therefore, a significant action, in which she claimed the protection of Boaz and the honourable acknowledgment of her as his wife.

4. It is further to be observed that while the whole scene proves Boaz to have been a man most pure in spirit and of sensitive virtue, the conduct of Ruth does not for one moment make him doubt or question her purity. But here our defence ceases, at least in respect to Naomi. While we vindicate her intentions, we are constrained to censure her measures; while we acquit her of designing evil, we must blame her for not "abstaining from all appearance of evil." There was too much of cunning and stratagem about the manner of the whole transaction. There was a forcing of Providence where there should have been a trustful waiting on it; a cutting of a short way to a desired issue, instead of moving in the way which God might open to her.

II. THUS EXPLAINED, THE TRANSACTION SUGGESTS SOME IMPORTANT PRACTICAL LESSONS.

1. The duty of caring for our good name. "Two things there are," saith St. , "whereof every man should be specially chary and tender — his conscience and his credit."

2. The duty of charity in our judgment of others. It will often be found to be the wisest course to form our estimate of a doubtful action by the character of the actor, and when we stand in doubt, to let love turn the scale. Persons seem to each man what he is to himself. One who suspects hypocrisy in the world is rarely transparent; the man constantly on the watch for cheating is generally dishonest; he who suspects impurity is prurient.

3. It is a first principle, in Christian morals that duty must always have the preference before inclination. What true Christian chivalry, born of faith, there was in the heart of this Bethlehem yeoman! He was not only sternly honest, but sensitively honourable, bearing his escutcheon without a sinister brand on it.

4. It is surely not unnatural to ascend in thought from Boaz to Him who, in an infinitely higher sense, is our Kinsman Redeemer, who became "bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh," and died as the propitiatory victim for our offences, in order that He might reinstate us in the Divine favour, and redeem for us the heavenly inheritance which we had lost.

(A. Thomson, D. D.)

People
Boaz, Naomi, Ruth
Places
Bethlehem
Topics
Bade, Bidden, Commanded, Floor, Grain-floor, Law, Mother-in-law, Threshing, Threshing-floor
Outline
1. By Naomi's instruction
5. Ruth lies at Boaz's feet
8. Boaz acknowledges the right of a kinsman
14. He sends her away with six measures of barley

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Ruth 3:2-14

     4524   threshing-floor

Ruth 3:4-8

     5151   feet

Library
June 23 Evening
Shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee?--RUTH 3:1. There remaineth . . . a rest to the people of God.--My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.--There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.--They . . . rest from their labours. The forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

September 4 Morning
Sit still, my daughter.--RUTH 3:18. Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted.--Be still, and know that I am God.--Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?--The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. Mary . . . sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.--Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.--In returning and
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

Whether Christ Received his Own Body and Blood?
Objection 1: It seems that Christ did not receive His own body and blood, because nothing ought to be asserted of either Christ's doings or sayings, which is not handed down by the authority of Sacred Scripture. But it is not narrated in the gospels that He ate His own body or drank His own blood. Therefore we must not assert this as a fact. Objection 2: Further, nothing can be within itself except perchance by reason of its parts, for instance. as one part is in another, as is stated in Phys. iv.
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Whether the Judicial Precepts Regarding Foreigners were Framed in a Suitable Manner?
Objection 1: It would seem that the judicial precepts regarding foreigners were not suitably framed. For Peter said (Acts 10:34,35): "In very deed I perceive that God is not a respecter of persons, but in every nation, he that feareth Him and worketh justice is acceptable to Him." But those who are acceptable to God should not be excluded from the Church of God. Therefore it is unsuitably commanded (Dt. 23:3) that "the Ammonite and the Moabite, even after the tenth generation, shall not enter into
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

Jesus' Feet Anointed in the House of a Pharisee.
(Galilee.) ^C Luke VII. 36-50. ^c 36 And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. [We learn from verse 40 that the Pharisee's name was Simon. Because the feast at Bethany was given in the house of Simon the leper, and because Jesus was anointed there also, some have been led to think that Luke is here describing this supper. See Matt. xxvi. 6-13; Mark xiv. 3-9; John xii. 1-8. But Simon the leper was not Simon the Pharisee. The name Simon was one of the most common among the Jewish
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Ruth
Goethe has characterized the book of Ruth as the loveliest little idyll that tradition has transmitted to us. Whatever be its didactic purpose--and some would prefer to think that it had little or none-it is, at any rate, a wonderful prose poem, sweet, artless, and persuasive, touched with the quaintness of an older world and fresh with the scent of the harvest fields. The love--stronger than country--of Ruth for Naomi, the gracious figure of Boaz as he moves about the fields with a word of blessing
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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