GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
RUTH 4:7-8
7 (Now in former times it was the custom in Israel concerning redeeming and the exchange of property, that to finalize everything a man took off his sandal, and gave it to his neighbor. This was the legalizing such things in Israel.) 8 So when the closer kinsman-redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it for yourself,” he also took off his sandal.
This remarkable passage tells us something about when Ruth was written. Besides the evidence of the final verse, which places the authorship of Ruth after the time when King David took the throne (about 1010 BC), the verses before us also tell us that customs had changed enough that the removal of the sandal had to be explained.
The sandal symbolized possession. While this is clear from Psalm 60:8 “Moab is my washbasin, upon Edom I toss my sandal” (see also Psalm 108:9), it is more fully explained in the Law of Moses (Deuteronomy 25:5-10). Let’s quickly run through that passage verse by verse:
5 If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her.
The duty was conceiving a son to carry on the line.
6 The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.
The subsequent children would be the sons of the surviving brother.
7 However, if a man does not want to marry his brother’s wife, she shall go to the elders at the town gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to carry on his brother’s name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me.”
A brother could refuse. Presumably there could be many reasons for this, not the least of which would be the potential jealousy of his wife if he were already married (Leviticus 18:18).
8 Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, “I do not want to marry her,”
Here the law reminds us of Jesus’ stages of church discipline in Matthew 18.
9 his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals, spit in his face and say, “This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother’s family line.”
He could not be forced, but he could be exposed as a man who would not carry out his lawful duty.
10 That man’s line shall be known in Israel as The Family of the Unsandaled.
The stigma of the refusal would follow the man for the rest of his life. Luther comments:
“The law that a man should take the wife left behind by his brother and raise up seed for the deceased brother was established for a very good reason. First, as the text sets forth, households should not die out but should be multiplied; this concerns the fostering and enlarging of the commonwealth. Secondly, in this way God provides for widows… to sustain and support them…. He enforces this charity, however, by means of an outstanding disgrace. Such a man is to be called shoeless, and people are to spit out before him: “Fie on you!” He deserves the contempt of all. They are to spit on the ground and say, “You have a ‘Fie on you!’ coming!” because he does not cultivate or increase the commonwealth in which he sojourns and whose laws he enjoys. His bared foot is to be a sign of shame and a cause of unending denunciation. He deserves to be naked of foot, that is, without household and dependents, which are denoted by foot covering; for through this one deed he makes himself naked of foot in his obligation to sustain the household of his brother. Thus the sign is similar to the deed in which he sins.” (LW Volume 9).
Had the severity of the law diminished? Did the other kinsman see himself being released from his obligation by Boaz’ willingness to marry Ruth? Perhaps. But notice that these men of Bethlehem behave so much differently from the Levite who left Bethlehem seeking his fortune in Judges 17:7-8. As soon as a better paying position came along, he abandoned the family he had been serving and left with the band of wandering Danites (Judges 18:19-20). But Boaz saw things differently. He knew he had been blessed by God, but he also saw his responsibility to Ruth and Naomi. He made the godly choice of fulfilling his responsibility. Certainly, that was a choice that would change his life. But God makes changes in our lives all the time—and it is often through such changes that God brings us different blessings, bigger blessings, and new paths that open up to the spread of the gospel in the world. By acting according to the will of God, Boaz did what pleased God, even at this dark time when Israel had no king, and everyone just did whatever pleased him.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota