Ruth 3:10-11 Blessed Are You of the Lord!

 ”Then he said, “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 ‭NKJV‬‬

a. Blessed are you of the LORD, my daughter... you did not go after young men: Apparently, there was a considerable age difference between Ruth and Boaz. It also seems that because of this, Boaz considered himself unattractive to Ruth and had therefore ruled out any idea of a romance between them.

i. This shows something else wonderful about Boaz. He had the right to force himself upon Ruth as her goel, but he did not. He wasn’t going to just say, “There’s a woman I want, and I have her by right.” He was kind enough to not act as goel towards Ruth unless she desired it.

ii. It also shows something else wonderful about Ruth: She based her attraction to Boaz more on respect than on image or appearance. Tragically, many people fall in love with an image or an appearance, rather than with a person we can really respect.

b. I will do for you all that you request: Boaz made Naomi look brilliant in her advice to Ruth. The plan worked perfectly.

c. All the people of my town know that you are a virtuous woman: Boaz was also attracted to Ruth because of her character. We don’t really know how Ruth looked, but we do know that she was a woman of godly character.

i. Literally, Boaz called Ruth a hah-yil woman. The basic meaning behind this Hebrew word is “strength; moral strength, good quality, integrity, virtue.” This same word is used in a term for heroes in the Bible: A mighty man of valor. Just as courage and strength make a man a hero, so Ruth’s courage and strength, shown in her virtue - make her a hero, in the Proverbs 31 kind of definition of a woman of virtue.

Blessed Are You of the Lord!

When we first moved here the following spring we had a building project but needed to clear the property of trees. I had them cut down and it was a little overwhelming. The following Sunday we were visiting a new church and a couple introduced themselves and as we introduced ourselves the building project came up. Her husband asked, what time should I be there Saturday? He helped us all day moving brush and tree limbs!

I can definitely say of him, blessed are you of the Lord!

How many Christian’s do you know that you can say, blessed are you of the Lord? 

Blessings