Commentaries:
Ruth 3:2 sets the stage for Boaz' role in the next chapters. Naomi, Ruth's mother-in-law, is speaking: "Now Boaz, whose young women you were with, is he not our relative? In fact, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor." Boaz is winnowing the threshed grain. Winnowing is essentially cleaning the grain by taking the threshed grain and throwing it up into the wind, which blows away the chaff while allowing the grain to fall back to the ground where it can be gathered and used. Boaz, then, is shown separating the wheat from the chaff. It is a picture of judgment.
The psalmist Asaph writes in Psalm 83:13 of Israel's enemies, "O my God, make them like the whirling dust, like the chaff before the wind!" In the same vein, Isaiah says of sinful Israelites, "Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom will ascend like dust; because they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts" (Isaiah 5:24). John the Baptist speaks of Jesus as a winnower of men: "One mightier than I is coming. . . . His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire" (Luke 3:16-17).
In this figure, the author of Ruth (who may have been Samuel) is indicating that Boaz is an able judge, one who makes righteous decisions. In the next two chapters, he will make a truly significant judgment. Taking all the evidence that is before him, he will separate the wheat from the chaff and choose to perform a service of profound consequence, to redeem the property of Elimelech, which obligates him to marry Ruth, the widow of Elimelech's heir. This not only decides Ruth's future, but also the future of his house, of Israel, and ultimately of the world.
Notice his joyful words when Ruth asks him to redeem her:
Blessed are you of the LORD, my daughter! For you have shown more kindness at the end than at the beginning, in that you did not go after young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you request, for all the people of my town know that you are a virtuous woman. (Ruth 3:10-11)
Boaz praises her "kindness," which is the Hebrew word chesed, implying "covenant loyalty." She had shown herself true to her adopted family and to Israel by choosing Boaz over a younger man. The covenant said that as a widow, she had to marry the near kinsman, and she obeyed it to the letter. Spiritually, we could say that she acted contrary to the normal course of this world (see Ephesians 2:1-3), doing what was good and right rather than following her carnal desires.
He reassures her, saying, "Do not fear" (see Luke 12:32), for he would do everything that she requested (see John 14:13-14). Then he makes another judgment: He agrees that she is virtuous. In the spiritual type, he pronounces her righteous, which redemption and justification through the blood of Christ accomplishes. And in the morning, he makes it his chief aim to make her his bride. So does Christ work to bring His church into the Family of God, judging us worthy to live eternally with Him (Ephesians 5:25-32; Revelation 19:7-9).
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Christ as Righteous Judge
