On the Threshing Floor, I Need a Kinsman Redeemer

(On the Day of Judgement, I need Jesus)

When I was young (in my 20’s) they allowed me to teach Bible at a kid’s camp at First Baptist here in town.  I loved it.  I would teach band at Houma Jr High for my school year and then would teach Bible there. 

And I would make up my own lessons. 

And basically, what we would sing a couple of kids songs, and then we could teach different characters from the Bible in their totality through drama.  Which was awesome.

So, for example Elijah didn’t just call fire down from heaven but he got depressed and also laid down on top of a boy and bought him back to life.  And we would act all these things out. 

The entire stories.  (This is also true, one of my next-door neighbors currently was a counselor of one of these kids groups and she spoke at Momentum a couple of weeks ago and she said how life changing these Bible times were, and I’m just smiling and nodding)

6 times a day.  Over and over.  We had 500 kids enrolled.

We get to the book of Ruth, for day camp and you run into Chapter 3!

…Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.” ²¹ And Ruth the Moabite said, “Besides, he said to me, ‘You shall keep close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest.’” ²² And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, lest in another field you be assaulted.”  ²³ So she kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

Ruth 3 Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? ² Is not Boaz our relative, with whose young women you were? See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. 

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A threshing floor is a smooth, flat surface that was used in the process of harvesting grain. Before there was machinery, farmers used a threshing floor to separate the grain from the chaff. The harvested produce would be spread over the threshing floor and then animals (cattle or oxen) would be led over it, to crush and break the sheaves apart with their hooves. At times, people used sticks to beat the sheaves apart (Ruth 2:17; Isaiah 28:27). The grain would be separated from the husks, or chaff (Deuteronomy 25:4; Isaiah 28:28) and then tossed into the air so that the wind could blow the chaff away, leaving only the good, edible grain. This was called "winnowing."

The threshing floor is symbolic of judgment in the Bible.

Old Testament prophet Hosea prophesied that Israel would be "like the morning mist or like the dew that goes early away, like the chaff that swirls from the threshing floor or like smoke from a window" (Hosea 13:3). Of the nations who will come against God during the end times, the prophet Micah says "they do not know the thoughts of the Lord; they do not understand his plan, that he has gathered them as sheaves to the threshing floor." The idea is that Israel will demolish their enemies like oxen trampling grain on the threshing floor" (Micah 4:11-13). Chaff is referred to in the Psalms as a symbol of the destruction of the wicked (Psalm 1:4). Also, John the Baptist referred to Jesus as the one who would separate the good grain from the chaff with a winnowing fork, gathering the grain into his barn and burning the chaff with "unquenchable fire" (Matthew 3:12). This is a symbol of heaven and hell.

Have you ever been on a Threshing Floor? 

Where your bad far outweighs your good.

You are in ruins.

You have not followed God’s best plan for your life.

Somebody else’s bad decisions got you into this madness called a messed up life.

You are here and you are suffering consequences.

No one wants to be on a Threshing Floor, but often we find ourselves here.

But now the story gets weirder for us.

Naomi ask “Is he not our relative?” She reminded Ruth that Boaz was their family goel.

The goel – sometimes translated kinsman-redeemer – had a specifically defined role in Israel’s family life.

• The kinsman-redeemer was responsible to buy a fellow Israelite out of slavery (Leviticus 25:48).
• He was responsible to be the “avenger of blood” (Numbers 35:19).
• He was responsible to buy back family land that had been forfeited (Leviticus 25:25).
• He was responsible to carry on the family name by marrying a childless widow (Deuteronomy 25:5-10).

In this, we see that the goel, the kinsman-redeemer, was responsible to safeguard the persons, the property, and the posterity of the family. “Words from the root g’l are used with a variety of meanings in the Old Testament, but the fundamental idea is that of fulfilling one’s obligations as a kinsman.” (Morris)

His responsibility was to get you out of slavery.

He was to avenge those wrongs and make them right!!  (that sounds so good in 2022)

His responsibility was to buy back everything that the enemy had stolen.

He was responsible that generations coming behind you would be taken care of!!

And yet someone greater than Boaz gets us out of slavery, makes wrongs right, buys back

It may seem forward to us, but it was regarded as proper in that day.

So Naomi says…

³ Wash therefore and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. ⁴ But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do.” ⁵ And she replied, “All that you say I will do.”  ⁶ So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her. ⁷ And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. ⁸ At midnight the man was startled and turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet! 

⁹ He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” ¹⁰ And he said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. ¹¹ And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman. ¹² And now it is true that I am a redeemer.

Under your wing: Here, she boldly asked Boaz to take her in marriage. The phrase can also be translated as “spread the corner of your garment over me.” This was a culturally relevant way to say, “I am a widow, take me as your wife.” 

“The spreading of a skirt over a widow as a way of claiming her as a wife is attested among Arabs of early days, and Jouon says it still exists among some modern Arabs.” (Morris)  “Even to the present day, when a Jew marries a woman, he throws the skirt or end of his talith over her, to signify that he has taken her under his protection.” (Clarke)

In Ezekiel 16:8, God uses the same terminology in relation to Israel: I spread my wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you and you became Mine, says the LORD God.

Ruth’s instruction to Boaz in 3:9 (“spread your cloak”) evokes Boaz’s initial blessing of Ruth in 2:12. The word for “wings” there is the same used for “cloak” here.

There is something similar, that is, between Boaz’s action and the Lord’s.

Or, to relate the verses even more closely: one of the ways that Ruth is coming to find refuge under the Lord’s wings (2:12) is by finding refuge under Boaz’s wing (3:9).

¹⁴ So she lay at his feet until the morning, but arose before one could recognize another. And he said, “Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.” ¹⁵ And he said, “Bring the garment you are wearing and hold it out.” So she held it, and he measured out six measures of barley and put it on her. Then she went into the city. ¹⁶ And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, “How did you fare, my daughter?” Then she told her all that the man had done for her, ¹⁷ saying, “These six measures of barley he gave to me, for he said to me, ‘You must not go back empty-handed to your mother-in-law.’” ¹⁸ She replied, “Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today.”