Oct 11, 2026 · 55 min · 15 segments
Anyone can do the right thing when there's no pressure, but pressure reveals our character. A risky midnight plan becomes a test of integrity for Ruth and Boaz. In this message from Ruth 3, Pastor…
Philip MillerHost
Tim StaffordPanelist
Anyone can do the right thing when there's no pressure, but to do the right thing when the pressure's on, that takes character, doesn't it? And it's when there's pressure that we discover the kind of character that we have.
And last week, we saw with Naomi and Ruth that the pressure is getting to them.
After two months of waiting and waiting, waiting for God to move, waiting for Boaz to do something, nothing's materialized.
He's their goel, right? This concept in, in Ancient Israel, the goel was the redeemer.
Just to remind us what Levirate marriage is all about, you know, if a man died and left his widow without an heir, it was the responsibility of the deceased man's brother, if he was unmarried, to go ahead and marry the widow, provide an heir so that the clan would stay intact.
There would be someone to inherit the property and keep the social structures in place.
And if there was no brother available, then it fell to the rest of the clan, to the rest of the relatives, to find a way to redeem, to support the widow.
And nobody was obligated to do it, but someone could volunteer, and that person was called the goel, the redeemer.
And Boaz is one such eligible [laughs] receiver who could provide this service.
And as Ruth is out in the fields day after day, Boaz has been extremely kind and generous, but nothing romantic has materialized here.
And as we saw last week, Naomi has grown desperate, and she's starting to grab and control and manipulate, take things into her own hands, and she concocts a scheme.
And Naomi decides that what it's going to take is that Ruth is gonna have to go back to her Moabite ways.
Moabite women were infamous for being promiscuous, and Israelite men were known for being particularly enamored with them.
And so she tells her to bathe and perfume herself and put on her most attractive clothing, and proposition Boaz when he's happy from the wine and under the cover of darkness on the threshing floor in the middle of the night.
We would never advise our daughters to go about getting a husband this way, would we? This is not the way that God intends.
Anyone can do the right thing when there's no pressure, but to do the right thing when the pressure's on, that takes character, doesn't it? And it's when there's pressure that we discover the kind of character that we have.
And last week, we saw with Naomi and Ruth that the pressure is getting to them.
After two months of waiting and waiting, waiting for God to move, waiting for Boaz to do something, nothing's materialized.
He's their goel, right? This concept in, in Ancient Israel, the goel was the redeemer.
Just to remind us what Levirate marriage is all about, you know, if a man died and left his widow without an heir, it was the responsibility of the deceased man's brother, if he was unmarried, to go ahead and marry the widow, provide an heir so that the clan would stay intact.
There would be someone to inherit the property and keep the social structures in place.
And if there was no brother available, then it fell to the rest of the clan, to the rest of the relatives, to find a way to redeem, to support the widow.
And nobody was obligated to do it, but someone could volunteer, and that person was called the goel, the redeemer.
And Boaz is one such eligible [laughs] receiver who could provide this service.
And as Ruth is out in the fields day after day, Boaz has been extremely kind and generous, but nothing romantic has materialized here.
And as we saw last week, Naomi has grown desperate, and she's starting to grab and control and manipulate, take things into her own hands, and she concocts a scheme.
And Naomi decides that what it's going to take is that Ruth is gonna have to go back to her Moabite ways.
Moabite women were infamous for being promiscuous, and Israelite men were known for being particularly enamored with them.
And so she tells her to bathe and perfume herself and put on her most attractive clothing, and proposition Boaz when he's happy from the wine and under the cover of darkness on the threshing floor in the middle of the night.
We would never advise our daughters to go about getting a husband this way, would we? This is not the way that God intends.
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