G'day everyone, Dave here.

Welcome to Stories of a Faithful God for Kids, the podcast where we discover

just how great and good God is.

Have you ever noticed how different situations need

different types of saviors?

Like, if you're a prince and an evil witch has magically turned you into a frog.

Then the saviour you need is a really weird princess who just

happens to like kissing frogs.

That actually happened to me the other day, uh, no, no, no,

just kidding, just kidding.

But if you're stuck in a house on fire, some strange frog kissing princess is

probably not going to be able to help you.

What you need is a firefighter.

But if you're in the surf and you're drowning, you don't need a firefighter

to come and spray his hose on you.

That'd be nuts.

What you need is a lifeguard.

Different situations need different types of saviors.

But there are some things that all saviors need to have.

They all need to be good.

They all need to be faithful.

If they're not good, they won't care that you need to be saved.

If they're not faithful, they won't put any energy into saving you.

A savior who isn't good and isn't faithful is no savior at all.

In today's story, there's a savior and someone asks that savior to marry them.

They don't get down on one knee and hold up a ring.

The way they go about it is totally weird.

It's almost as weird as kissing a frog.

The question is, will the savior save?

Is he good?

Is he faithful?

Get ready for our next episode of Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

At the end of our last episode, everything seemed happy.

Ruth and Naomi were back in Bethlehem.

They had heaps of food because God made the food grow.

God had made Ruth a hard worker, and he made Boaz a kind man.

Ruth and Naomi were safe and well fed.

But, there is a problem.

Every family in Israel has been given a piece of land by God to grow food on.

It was meant to be their family's forever.

It got passed from father to his son, to his son, to his son.

The women would marry the men and they'd all share the food from that land,

then pass it on to their children.

The problem is, Naomi's husband, Elimelech, died.

Normally, that would just mean the land passed to his sons, but do

you remember back in Chapter 1, Elimelech's two sons died as well?

Normally, that would mean that if Naomi got remarried, her first son of the next

marriage could have Elimelech's land.

Naomi's too old to have children.

There is Ruth, but back in Chapter 1, Naomi had basically said to Ruth that if

she came back to Israel, there'd be no chance anyone would want to marry her.

She thought that God would put a stop to it.

That means Elimelech's family could completely die out.

There'd be no more children, no more grandchildren.

The land would be given to someone else to bless them.

But this family would be gone forever.

God was really, really kind to Ruth and Naomi.

And it's got Naomi thinking, maybe there is a chance.

Maybe God would let Ruth get married.

And, there's someone who's the right person to marry Ruth.

Someone whose job it is to save both Elimelech's family and his land.

It's meant to be done by someone who's a close relative, so that the

land still stays in the wider family.

A close relative, like Boaz.

But would Boaz say yes?

Would he save them?

Will he be good and faithful?

He doesn't absolutely have to save them, and he hasn't asked Ruth to marry

him yet, but maybe he doesn't want to.

Well, Naomi comes up with a plan to give it the best chance

possible that he'd say yes.

She says to Ruth in chapter 3 verse 1.

My daughter, I must find a suitable home for you, that would be good for you.

Then she explains that Boaz is their close relative, one of the

people who's meant to save them.

She tells Ruth that Boaz will be working that evening, out at a

place called the Threshing Floor.

That's basically where they get the grain out of the husks so

that they can eat the grain.

And here's what Ruth's gotta do.

Naomi says she should get all dressed up, wash, and put on perfume.

She wants her to look and smell her best.

Okay, I kinda get that.

Especially if you're thinking about a first date.

You might want to make a bit of an impression.

That's when it gets a little bit weird though.

Let me read it to you and you see what you think.

In verse 3, Ruth tells Naomi to go down to the threshing floor,

but don't let him see you until he's finished eating and drinking.

Then he will lie down.

Watch him so that you will know the place where he lies down.

Go there and lift the cover off his feet and lie down.

He will tell you what you should do.

Um, say what now?

Spy on him while he's eating and drinking.

Wait until he lies down to go to sleep.

Go and lie down near his feet.

Lift the cover off his feet and Then just wait for him to tell you what to do.

Right.

I bet you didn't believe me when I said this was gonna be almost

as weird as kissing a frog.

Boaz has been out working in the field all day.

He's sweating a lot.

His feet are gonna stink.

I think most women would want to be as far away from his stinky

feet as it's possible to get.

And yet, Ruth is going to take the bed cover off his feet

and lie down next to them.

And somehow, Naomi is hoping that this will lead to Ruth

and Boaz getting married.

I sure hope Ruth doesn't vomit.

It's worth saying that, much more important than stinky feet, this could

actually be really dangerous for Ruth.

She's going out in the dark.

She's going to wake Boaz up in the dark.

If he's a bad man, he could be really mean to her.

No one would see them.

If she told people the next day that Boaz had been really mean, it's likely

that no one would actually believe her.

Especially, because she's not an Israelite, she's from Moab.

Well, Ruth's brave.

She says to Naomi, I will do everything you say.

So she washes, she puts on perfume, puts on her best clothes, and

heads out to the threshing floor.

She sees Boaz eating and drinking, and then go and lie down and fall asleep.

She's gotta watch that part really closely, because remember.

They don't have any electric lights, it's going to be really dark, and this

would all be super awkward if she ends up lying next to the wrong man's feet.

Once he's lying down and probably asleep, Ruth creeps in, uncovers his feet,

and lies down at his feet.

So far, so stinky.

I mean, I mean, so far, so good.

About midnight, Boaz suddenly wakes up.

Maybe because his feet are cold.

And you know what it's like when you wake up in the middle of the night.

You're not really sure what time it is.

You don't always know what woke you up.

And you can't look around in the dark to remind yourself where you are.

Well, imagine doing that and finding a woman lying down by your feet.

Boaz is completely shocked.

Who are you?

he asks.

She tells him, and then she asks the really important question.

She doesn't say, Oh, Smoochie Woochie, I think you're really cute.

Will you make me the happiest woman in the world by becoming my hubby wubby?

No, um, just no.

No, she asks for his protection.

She wants him to protect her like a husband should protect his wife.

She wants him to protect her family.

She wants him to protect the family land as well.

And she reminds him that, because he's a close relative, That's kind of his job.

This is the dangerous moment.

This is where we find out how Boaz will respond.

Remember it's dark?

Boaz could be really mean.

Probably no one will notice or care.

Except, that's not the sort of man Boaz is.

He's not the sort of guy who thinks, hmm, I could get away with anything here.

No, he's a good man.

And as he replies, we find out just how good he is.

For starters, he's amazed that Ruth would even think about marrying him.

He isn't as young as her, he's an older guy.

And he's amazed that she would even consider it.

He thinks it's really kind.

He says in verse 10, The Lord bless you, my daughter.

Your kindness to me is greater than the kindness you showed

to Naomi in the beginning.

You didn't look for a young man to marry, either rich or poor.

And then we find out, he's not just a good man.

He's a faithful man.

He knows his role as a guy who's meant to help this family.

In fact, if you think about it, he has been helping them

all through the last chapter.

And even though he really likes the idea of marrying Ruth, even though

he thinks that'd be super awesome, he knows that there's actually someone

who's an even closer relative.

Someone else who's first in line to buy the family land.

and to marry Ruth.

And because he's so good and faithful, he's willing to let that man make

his decision first, even though that might mean that he, Boaz, misses out.

In verse 11 he says, Now my daughter, don't be afraid.

I will do everything you ask.

All the people in our town know you're a very good woman.

And it's true, I am a relative who is to take care of you.

But there is a man who's a closer relative to you than I. But stay here tonight.

In the morning we will see if he will take care of you.

If he decides to take care of you, that is fine.

If he refuses to take care of you, I myself will marry you.

Then I will buy back Elimelech's land for you.

As surely as the Lord lives, I promise to do this.

So, lie here until morning.

So even though Boaz might not be the one who ends up with the land

and the wife, he's still gonna make sure that it gets sorted out.

He'll still continue to look after Ruth and Naomi.

He'll still be good and faithful in making sure that they get saved, even

though that might mean he'll miss out.

That's the kind of saviour you want.

One who's so good.

He doesn't think first about looking after himself and caring for himself,

but he thinks about caring for others.

When good and faithful firefighters run into a burning building,

they put themselves in danger so they can save others.

When good and faithful lifeguards go out into the surf, they put

themselves in danger to save others.

And the best saviour in the world, King Jesus, the most good and faithful

saviour in the world, he gave up the most in order to save people.

He was sitting in heaven, equal with God his father.

And yet he became human.

Not only that, he became a hated human.

And he even went to be killed on a cross.

He's so good.

He wanted to save people, so that they would know and

believe how great his father is.

He's so faithful.

God the Father sent him to save people and Jesus did the job he was sent to do.

Boaz is good and faithful in a wonderful, little way.

He reminds us how good it is to have such a good and faithful saviour.

He points us to the best good and faithful saviour, our saviour Jesus Christ.

Back in Bethlehem, the sun's coming up.

Boaz doesn't want Ruth to go back to Naomi empty handed, so he gives her

a huge amount of grain to take home.

When she gets home, in verse 16 Naomi asks, How did you do, my daughter?

So Ruth told Naomi everything that Boaz did for her.

She said, Boaz gave me these six portions of barley.

He said, you must not go home without a gift for your mother in law.

Naomi answered, Ruth, my daughter, wait until you hear what happens.

Boaz will not rest until he's finished doing what he should do this day.

She trusts his goodness and faithfulness.

So what's going to happen?

Will this other family member be as good and faithful as Boaz?

Will he buy the land and marry Ruth?

Will Boaz miss out?

Well, that's a story for next time.

Hi again.

I hope you enjoyed this episode.

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You heard me.

It's totally free.

You can actually click on the link in the show notes, watch the episode, and

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There's a link for the club in the show notes as well.

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Keep trusting Jesus.

Bye for now.