“May Adonai reward you for what you’ve done; may you be rewarded in full by Adonai the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.”-Ruth 2:12
I wanna show you an interesting wordplay that can ONLY be seen in the original Hebrew.
Boaz tells Ruth:
“May you be rewarded in full
by Yehoveh the God of Israel
under whose wings you
have come for refuge.”
The key phrase is this one:
“under whose wings you have come for refuge”.
The Hebrew word for “wings” here is KANAPH or כָּנָף.
The usual idea is to impart an image of a mother bird stretching out her wings over her chicks to protect them from beasts of prey and bad weather.
However, there’s something more profound being communicated to us here.
But we have to take a peek at the next chapter to find out what it is.
So let’s check out these verses from Ruth Chapter 3:
“She went down to the threshing-floor
and did everything as her mother-in- law
had instructed her.
After Bo’az was through eating and drinking
and was feeling good,
he went to lie down
at the end of the pile of grain.
She stole in, uncovered his feet
and lay down.
In the middle of the night the man
was startled and turned over, and-
there was a woman lying at his feet!
He asked, “Who are you?”
and she answered,
“I’m your handmaid Rut.
Spread your robe over your handmaid,
because you are a redeeming kinsman.”
-Ruth 3:6-9
Note the last sentence where it says “spread your robe over your handmaid”?
The Hebrew word for “robe” here is the same word used for “wings” when Boaz said to Ruth “May you be rewarded in full by Yehoveh the God of Israel under whose wings you have come for refuge.”
That’s right folks.
It’s the word KANAPH.
Next, notice the part where it says “because you are a redeeming kinsman“.
The Hebrew for this term is GO-EL or גואל.
So with the Hebrew added back in what Ruth really said was…
“Spread your KANAPH over your handmaid,
because you are a GO’EL“.
This was deliberately done to draw a connection to the blessing Boaz told Ruth in Chapter 2.
The metaphor of “God’s Wings” is being connected to Boaz’s spread out robe…
This would be a sign that Ruth would take refuge under Boaz’s “wings”.
Why?
Because he was her GO’EL or kinsman redeemer.
Are you catching the inspiring significance of this?
When Ruth made the decision to follow after Naomi back to her homeland, she hardly knew anything about the God of Israel.
Her faith was pretty much the equivalent of a “mustard seed”…
But the Lord had placed enough faith inside of her to make her realize she wanted the God of Israel to be her salvation and her ultimate place of refuge.
When Ruth declared that Naomi’s God would be her God and that her people would be her people, she didn’t know it at the time but she had been chosen to be placed under the Lord’s KANAPH.
Also note that Ruth’s faith was anything but passive.
She absolutely insisted she wanted to attach herself to Naomi’s God and her people…
In spite of Naomi telling her to go back to her gods and her people…
Can you see now why a Rabbi will turn away a gentile seeking to convert Judaism?
It’s because he wants to make absolutely sure that potential converts are sincere in their convictions that they really want to be grafted into the commonwealth and people of Israel.
It is only that kind of faith that saves…
Not half-hearted lukewarm nonsense.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
” I know your deeds,
that you are neither cold nor hot.
I wish you were
either one or the other!
So, because you are lukewarm
—neither hot nor cold—
I am about to spit you
out of my mouth.”
-Revelation 3:15-16
We could also use Malachi 6:8 as a plumbline test for whatever we do when there are no clear instructions, for that passage says:
“Human being, you have already been told what is good, what Adonai demands of you- no more than to act justly, love grace and walk in purity with your God.”
When in doubt, this passage can be used to guide what we decide to do.
Ooh! That’s a great Scripture reference. Thanks for sharing.