2.  She works out what John Piper calls “strategic righteousness”. It is different from passive righteousness. “By righteousness I mean a zeal for doing what is good and right—a zeal for doing what is appropriate when God is taken into account as sovereign and merciful. By strategic I mean that there is intention, purposefulness, planning. There is a passive righteousness which simply avoids evil when it presents itself. But strategic righteousness takes the initiative and dreams of how to make things right.”
People who feel like victims don’t make plans. As long as Naomi was oppressed; as long as she could only say, “The Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me,” she conceived no strategy for the future.

One of the terrible effects of depression is the inability to move purposefully and hopefully into the future. Strategies of righteousness are the overflow of hope. When Naomi awakens in 2:20 to the kindness of God, her hope comes alive and the overflow is strategic righteousness.

3.  The strategy is for Ruth to take the initiative it seems and place herself “under his skirt” and ask him to be her kinsman-redeemer.

Maybe this is more of a subtle response to his initiative though. It is clear he has heard of her and has been impressed. He has been told all about her. Look at 2:12: “May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. In Hebrew, the word here for skirt is the same as the word for wing. It’s not too much to think he, an older man, might well have been thinking what he could not say. Not just that she would be under the protection of the Lord but that she might be under his protection as well.

So, her equally subtle response – after she and Naomi have been talking about it for a month back and forth (how did he say that exactly? tell me again – every word. what do you think he meant?) is to respond by saying she would take his hint and accept his protection. It’s not unlike the situation between Emile de Becque and Nellie Forbush in South Pacific. It’s an older man and a younger woman who are attracted to each other but are uncertain about how to move forward.

Twin Soliloquies from South Pacific:

Nellie: Wonder how I’d feel
Livin’ on a hillside,
Lookin’ on an ocean,
Beautiful and still.

Emile: This is what I need,
This is what I’ve longed for.
Someone young and smilin’
Climbin’ up my hill!

Nellie: We are not alike.
Probably I’d bore him.
He’s a cultured Frenchman,
I’m a little hick.

Emile: Younger man than I,
Officers and doctors.
Probably pursue her,
She could have her pick.

Nellie: Wonder why I feel Jittery and jumpy!
I’m like a school girl
Waitin’ for a dance.

Emile: Can I ask her now?
I’m like a school boy!
What will be her answer?
Do I have a chance?

Just as an aside, “under the wing” does not just apply to redeemer-kinsman, does it? Sometimes we are called to put people under our wing. Widows, orphans, aging parents, foster children. It’s not just a phrase but sometimes a directive for us.

4.  The story all along has twists and turns with obstacles and surprises that get in the way. Now there is one more. The obstacle of the first in line. We would like to see Boaz and Ruth sprint to the altar but there is the problem of the righteous man – not a villain. It only heightens the tension, doesn’t it?

5.  And then there is another twist. Not only is Boaz an older man – maybe not ancient – but it is likely that Ruth was, to use a biblical phrase, barren. She had been married to Naomi’s son for ten years and there were no children. But even that obstacle is cleared.

6.  Here is the wonderful picture of Naomi at the end. “A son has been born to Naomi.” The story begins with her loss and ends with her gain. It begins with death and ends with birth. There are all sorts of obstacles, disappointments and sorrows along the way. In a sense, the name of the book is Ruth but the point of the story is equally that of Naomi. John Piper says, “The life of the godly is not a straight line to glory, but they get there.”

7.  But that’s not the only point of the story. In a real sense, the end of the story was the author’s purpose for writing it. It is not just about these three characters. It is the story of David’s family and for us the story of the family of Christ. It’s a bigger story than the one here with a happy ending. These three do not know that because they are in their part of the story only.

For these three there is an unimagined legacy in their ordinary life. Just the same, the ordinaries of your life have an effect you cannot know. The long and winding road of your life is not just about the here and now because it leads to something generations in the future. Don’t fall into the trap of pursuing significance or importance or even being captured by the easy phrase of making a difference in the world. The point of our lives is faithful obedience in the day to day – the ordinary.

Let me read something from John Piper:

The Glorious Work of God in History

The book of Ruth wants to teach us that God’s purpose for the life of his people is to connect us to something far greater than ourselves. God wants us to know that when we follow him, our lives always mean more than we think they do. For the Christian there is always a connection between the ordinary events of life and the stupendous work of God in history. Everything we do in obedience to God, no matter how small, is significant. It is part of a cosmic mosaic which God is painting to display the greatness of his power and wisdom to the world and to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places (Ephesians 3:10). The deep satisfaction of the Christian life is that it is not given over to trifles. Serving a widowed mother-in-law, gleaning in a field, falling in love, having a baby—for the Christian these things are all connected to eternity. They are part of something so much bigger than they seem.

So the word glory is not too strong. The life of the godly is not a straight line to glory, but they do get there—God sees to it. There is a hope for us beyond the cute baby and the happy grandmother. If there weren’t, we would be of all men most miserable. The story points forward to David. David points forward to Jesus. And Jesus points forward to the resurrection of our mortal bodies (Romans 8:23) when “death will be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

The best is yet to come. That is the unshakable truth about the life of the woman and the man who follow Christ in the obedience of faith. I say it to the young who are strong and hopeful, and I say it to the old, for whom the outer nature is quickly wasting away. The best is yet to come.