Boaz, the Worthy Man

On an oft-forgotten exemplar of godly masculinity

Ruth in the Fields of Boaz | Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld

I recently had the privilege of preaching a sermon at the church my family and I attend just outside Chicago. It was week two in a four-week summer series on the book of Ruth. I was slotted to preach chapter 2, which narrates Boaz and Ruth’s meet cute.

This wasn’t my original intention, but Boaz’s introduction as a “worthy man” in verse 1 gave me an opening to structure the sermon around godly masculinity. A “manhood message” was not my vision or the senior pastor’s when he added me to the preaching calendar, nor was timing near the release of my book Men of Virtue. He and I talked about it and simply decided to blame the happenstance on the Holy Spirit.

I hadn’t done any study/reading on Boaz while writing the book, but preparing this sermon made me wish I had! Boaz doesn’t rank especially high on the list of manly men in scripture, but I’m completely convinced after preaching this that he deserves far more good press than he gets.

So, to that end, this article is an adapted version of the sermon I preached earlier this month.

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A Worthy Man in a Worthless Generation

If you’ve had the displeasure of reading the book of Judges recently, you’ll know that this is not a happy time in the history of the land. God has given the Law but godlessness and lawlessness prevail, with numerous examples in the book of egregious idolatry, petty warfare, and violence against women. The famous refrain of Judges serves as a summary descriptor for this era: “There was no king in Israel, and everyone did as they pleased.”

The book of Ruth, on the other hand, is a story of how the remarkable faith (of Ruth) and the ordinary faithfulness (of Boaz) prevail in this chaotic moment in history. The contrast with Judges is striking.

This is worth highlighting because, frankly, there are more than a few parallels to our own day: godlessness, chaos, political instability, uncertainty, etc. In times like this, it’s natural even for people of faith to wonder whether God is at work, whether he will live up to his promises to provide for their needs and to bless and reward their obedience.

The book of Ruth is not a guidebook for how to find a godly spouse. Nor is it a handbook for “biblical” femininity or masculinity. That being said, Ruth chapter 2 does direct our attention to the righteousness of a specific man, Boaz, along with his behavior towards a specific woman, Ruth.

At this point in the story, Naomi has just returned to Bethlehem with her Moabite daughter-in-law. Both women became widows in chapter 1 and are now returning to the land of Israel. Chapter 2, verse 1 reads:

Now Naomi had a relative of her husband’s, a worthy man of the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.

Here we meet the final main character of the book, Boaz, who is introduced as a relative of Naomi’s dead husband, a detail that will become especially relevant as the story goes on.

The phrase used to describe Boaz is ish gibor chayil, which, if you were to translate it literally, could be taken to mean he is a man of great wealth or a mighty warrior. Ish is the generic word for man/husband, and gibor often carries an the implication of being great or a mighty. The third word, chayil, likewise could refer to strength of armies or riches.

However, in the context of the story, Boaz is neither a warrior nor extravagantly wealthy. He’s just a guy who owns a field and has some servants. There are no further military connotations in the immediate context or anywhere here or elsewhere in the book. Nor do we see signs of the hyperbolic wealth attributed to other Old Testament characters like Abraham, Job, or Solomon.

In our culture and many others throughout human history, male greatness is associated with physical prowess, strength in battle, or financial success. And, to be clear, we certainly see examples of all of these in the Old Testament. But Boaz is neither remarkably wealthy, a warrior, nor an impressive physical specimen.

He’s not some great leader or king holding court. He’s the ancient equivalent of a small business owner, cultivating the land and living in a small village in Judea.

Boaz does not conjure up associations with William Wallace, Elon Musk, Bruce Wayne, or even Aragorn Son of Arathorn. What all these men have in common is also precisely what Boaz lacks in this story: something external (wealth, physical strength, intellect, competence in battle) that clearly commends them as “great” men.

Only one of these guys reminds me of Boaz

Boaz’s greatness is of a different quality. Another possible interpretation of this Hebrew phrase is that it is a reference to Boaz’s excellent and godly character. And that is why I think the ESV gets it right when it renders the phrase ish gibor chayil as “a worthy man.”

In the main section of this article, I’ll note three points (this was originally a sermon, remember?), three ways we see the “worthiness” of Boaz expressed in Ruth 2.

A Worthy Man Obeys God’s Commands

I mentioned in the introduction that the time of the Judges was lawless, characterized by violence, idolatry, and immorality.

But the area around Bethlehem and around Boaz’s field in particular was characterized by obedience to the Law. This is evidenced by the fact that the corners of the fields and the dropped crops are left for the vulnerable, a clear provision of the Torah found in such texts as Leviticus 19 and Deuteronomy 22.

In Leviticus, the commandment reads:

When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.

And, wouldn’t you know it? Our protagonist Ruth is both poor and a foreigner. So, for readers/listeners who know Torah, this is the obvious background for what we read in Ruth 2:2 and following:

Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” So she set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech.

Please note that Ruth is not going out looking for a husband. She’s going out looking for food, hoping that these Israelite farmers will follow the law God has given. Indeed, her well-being is dependent upon their obedience to this law.

Happily, she finds her way into the field of a man who is attentive to the teaching of Israel’s god. Something far from assured in the time of the Judges. We get our first hints of this when Boaz greets the men in his field in v. 4:

And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. And he said to the reapers, “The LORD be with you!” And they answered, “The LORD bless you.”

This may seem like a small detail, but the fact that he greets these men invoking the name of Israel’s God – יהוה, all caps “LORD” in our modern English Bibles – signals clearly to us that this man sees his life as lived before Adonai.

But Boaz does more than give lip service to God. He obeys God’s commands, and this to his own financial disadvantage. A quick application here is that a worthy man like Boaz is not a pure capitalist trying to maximize efficiency and the bottom line. When it comes to harvesting fields, at least, this was disallowed under Jewish law. There was a required safety net for the poor, widows, and foreigners – people who would otherwise struggle to make ends meet or even have food to eat.

Boaz’s attentiveness to Torah goes further than this.

In v. 5 we read:

Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?” And the servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, “She is the young Moabite woman, who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab.

I mentioned already that Boaz was a relative of Elimelech, Naomi’s late husband and Ruth’s father-in-law. This is relevant because of various laws in the Torah that, taken together, are called the “law of the kinsman redeemer.” The most well-known of these laws teaches that, if a woman is left a widow, it falls to her dead husband’s nearest relative to offer to take the widow as his wife (if he is willing).

The reason for this was twofold: first it gave a legal guarantee that the family name of the man who died could be carried on, and that his possessions couldn’t be swooped in and claimed by the highest bidder feigning affection for his widow. For the woman, it also gave the opportunity for a new start with a man whom she knew and (hopefully) trusted, instead of leaving her vulnerable to the predatory advances of someone who could see her position as a widow as an opportunity for himself.

The circumstances are different, but we actually see this dynamic in Homer’s The Odyssey, which was written in a different part of the Mediterranean basin but at a similar time to the book of Ruth.

When Odysseus is presumed dead after not returning from the Trojan War, his wife Penelope is targeted by numerous “suitors,” the most prominent of whom is Antinous, a very creepy and opportunistic dude.

But these guys are not concerned about Penelope. They just want to take Odysseus’ throne and plunder his estate, which they would become legally entitled to if they marry his widow. This is also made even clearer by the fact that the suitors are plotting to murder Odysseus’ heir, Telemachus.

A recent example of predatory, opportunistic, self-seeking masculinity

So, if you find yourself in a movie theater in the near future distressed at the plight of Anne Hathaway’s Penelope and Tom Holland’s Telemachus as they’re being stalked by Robert Pattison’s Antinous – just remember: This all could have been avoided if only they had a law of the kinsman redeemer.

Joking aside, it can be easy for us to think of the Old Testament Torah only as the burdensome and oppressive thing designed to make people miserable with its impossible commands. But this is not how people in Ruth’s day would have thought about laws like this.

Both of these Torah principles, the gleaning in fields and the law of the kinsman redeemer were there to protect the interest of people like Ruth and Naomi. And we see Boaz in this passage going above and beyond in his obedience to these laws (e.g. making sure the men don’t rebuke her, inviting her to drink their water, etc.).

Boaz is not an especially imposing presence by the masculine standards of his day or ours, but his obedience to God sets him apart as a “worthy” man in his day. The application for men and young men today is this: seek godliness, not masculinity. In our moment, there is much confusion and lack of direction for men and boys in particular. The so-called manosphere and manfluencers target young men to great effect, telling them that they need to reclaim their masculine virility.

Boaz shows us something different, which brings me to our next point.

A Worthy Man Uses Power in Service of Others

Immediately after learning of his family connection to this young woman, Boaz does everything in his power to ensure her safety and comfort:

Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.”

Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.”

Some of us might get uneasy when stories or conversations turn towards the unique vulnerabilities of women in this broken and fallen world – and the unique capacities of men to provide and offer help and care for the women in their lives.

In this story, Ruth is three times vulnerable: first as a woman, then a young widow, and finally as a foreigner. Boaz is especially attentive to these vulnerabilities, and he works to ensure that Ruth does not become a victim of violence and harassment, sexual or otherwise. He not only charges his men about this, but also goes out of his way to put Ruth at ease by telling her that he has charged them not to harass her.

In the ancient world, women’s physical and social disadvantages meant they were, generally speaking, more dependent on the provision and protection of the men in their lives than women are today. Indeed, the disparity of strength (physical, cultural, and otherwise) between men and women was far more obvious to them than to us. It might be easy for us in our modern world to look at this story and see these dynamics as patronizing or even patriarchal. But this is precisely the opposite of such Torah provisions’ intended purpose. The legal and cultural circumstances of their day put Boaz in a position where he can use his power and influence, such as it was, to serve and care for two women in need.

In this case, it is a man using his power to serve a woman, but it’s important to remember that the path from strength to vulnerability – from helper to help-ee – does not always run from male to female. We have examples in scripture of women using their power, influence, or savvy to serve and help the men in their lives. Rahab provides assistance to the spies in the land in a vulnerable moment during the Canaanite conquest. Esther uses her power as queen to help the Jewish nation during their time of exile. And it is women in the gospels who give of their financial resources to support the ministry of Jesus.

That being said – for reasons we may not fully understand and because of the mysterious wisdom of God in creation – he has designed our bodies such that there will be a discernible pattern in men and women’s relationships. Men will more often be in a position of strength and able to offer help to others, and women will sometimes, and relatively speaking more often than men, find themselves in a position of vulnerability and in need of help from others. This is not prescriptive in all cases, of course. But the embodied difference between men and women will skew the data set in this direction.

What this means for Christian boys and men (as well as those raising or discipling them) is this: The strength men have been given as individuals and as a group has been given by God as a gift to you so that men can themselves become a gift to others.

Men, whatever power, physical strength, financial resources, social influence, work connections, independence you have been blessed with by God – you have been so blessed so you can be a blessing.

Boaz is a helpful model of this principle because he’s not just on the lookout for battles to fight. He’s on the lookout for people to serve. Ordinary faithfulness looks like making an honest living and then, as God allows, using your resources to bless others.

This also means when we see Christians or professing Christians in power, or even Christian leaders using their influence to take advantage of, oppress, or otherwise mistreat the vulnerable – this is not Christianity. This is neo-paganism. Christian power is not power wielded over others. It is power wielded in service of others. And this is a relevant word for men no matter what you believe about men and women’s roles in the home or in society or in the church. What is clear from scripture is that the call of Christian men, as it is for all Christians, is first and foremost a call to love and to serve others.

And Boaz, the worthy man, models this beautifully.

A Worthy Man Seeks His Reward from God

There is nothing flashy or self-important about Boaz’s behavior here. Note what he says to Ruth in v. 11–12:

All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. The LORD repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.

Notice what Boaz doesn’t say: “You’re lucky that you have a big, strong, worthy man like me here to take care of you.” In fact, he doesn’t take any credit at all. Though he is the channel of Ruth’s provision, he says it is under the Lord, the God of Israel, that she has taken refuge.

A worthy man does not serve others simply to curry their favor or to procure some reward from them in return. Knowing how the Book of Ruth ends, a cynical reader may think that Boaz is only doing all this because he wants Ruth to fall in love with him. This would be an incorrect assumption. Boaz does not do what he does in Ruth 2 because of romantic self-interest.

First, when Boaz addresses her in v. 8, he calls her “daughter,” which is, you know, probably not the way you would address someone you were romantically interested in. This highlights the fact that there was likely a significant age gap between Ruth and Boaz. That might make us a little bit uncomfortable or even nervous, but what’s interesting about this story is that there’s clearly nothing predatory about Boaz’s actions. In fact, in Ruth 3, it is Ruth (with some encouragement from Naomi) who makes the first romantic move towards Boaz. When she makes that move, Boaz is surprised and caught off guard. Another detail that suggests he wasn’t secretly hoping she would be interested.

For these and other reasons I won’t get into here, I’m convinced there is no ulterior romantic motive on Boaz’s part in chapter 2. He does what he does for Ruth out of a sincere concern for hers and Naomi’s well-being, as well as a desire to please God and obey Torah. This is further underscored by the unassuming way he deflects attention away from himself and towards God in his words to Ruth.

It is the LORD who he says will repay Ruth for her kindness to Naomi. And we can surmise he would also say it is the LORD who will repay him for his kindness to Ruth. Is it wrong for a man to try to get the attention of a woman he’s romantically interested in? Of course not. But it’s worth noting that this is not what Boaz is doing here. Kindness is worth extending to others regardless of the benefit we may or may not receive back from them. And we can be sure that no good deed done in obedience to God will go unrewarded by God.

Boaz’s actions give us a positive example of Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount that we should beware of doing our righteous deeds before others in order to be seen by them. Do not aggrandize yourself through your obedience to God.

Conclusion

Ruth 2 gives a worthy example of godly manhood in Boaz. His worthiness is not that of the warrior or the king but of the ordinary faithfulness of everyday men who are looking not for battles to fight but people to serve.

And it is this final reminder that I want to leave us with. Whether you’re a man or a woman – some of us will be in a position at this season in our lives where we, like Boaz, can in our ordinary obedience to God be a source of encouragement and blessing to others.

Others of us will be on the opposite side of that equation. We find ourselves in a season, like Ruth, where we are the one in need, holding on to faith in difficult circumstances.

No matter your circumstance, throw your lot in with God. Let your ordinary obedience be a channel of blessing to those around you. Or, let the faithfulness of worthy men and worthy women around you be a channel of God’s blessing to you.

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You can also listen to the sermon here or watch it here.