Ruth Exposed
And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Genesis 2:25 NASB
Naked – The Hebrew word of “naked” is ‘arom. While it often describes nudity, in the Genesis account it has a much deeper meaning. The word itself is derived from the verb, ‘ur, “to be exposed.” In this verse, the meaning is not simply to be without clothes. It is to be without anything covering, that is, to be without something hidden, to be fully transparent. In essence, this verse says that the man and the woman were completely open to each other and in that openness they experienced nothing to be ashamed of. This is the true goal of relationship. It is what God intended between male and female and it is what He intended in our relationship with Him.
Transparency requires vulnerability. That is the real issue for us. As much as we long for relationships that allow us to be fully seen, we fear the consequent vulnerability, especially when we are not innocent. We have things we wish to hide and these things often motivate us to cover up some part of our identity. The desire to be known for who we really are stands in conflict with the fear of being rejected for who we are.
The solution to this conflict often comes from outside. We experience validation, recognition and acceptance from another before we feel safe enough to allow the transparency we desperately need. In the Bible, the actions of Boaz demonstrate how essential and powerful this validation really is.
“When Boaz speaks to Ruth for the first time, the verse introduces his words as follows: ‘And Boaz said to Ruth’ (2:8). This is the first time since Ruth arrived in Bethlehem that she is termed ‘Ruth’ without the modifying ‘Moabite.’ The narrator’s formulation suggests that Boaz does not speak to Ruth as a Moabite or an unidentified young woman. This is because Boaz sees Ruth as Ruth, not as Moabite, not as an appendage of Naomi, but simply as Ruth, a subject who has both a name and an identity.”[1]
As a result of Boaz’ recognition, Ruth is redeemed from two very important psychological debts. The first is her previous cultural identity. Ruth’s identification as a Moabite has prevented her from finding acceptance in Bethlehem. Despite her declaration of fidelity to Israel, she has never been released from her past. The people of Bethlehem, even her own mother-in-law, view her according to their perceptions of her origin. She is not a person. She is the summation of everything they find unacceptable in her culture of origin. Boaz sweeps all this away by seeing her as she is now.
The second psychological debt the Boaz removes is Ruth’s personal anonymity. Until Boaz speaks directly to Ruth, she is nothing more than an unknown stranger. She has no personal identity. She has no name among the people of Bethlehem. Boaz changes all that. He gives her personal recognition. He sees her. It is enough for her to fall down before him, expressing shocked gratitude. “Why have I found favor in your eyes?” Ruth has come to expect rejection. Boaz explodes her fortress of despair. She is ‘arom before him—vulnerable, validated, valued. An outsider changes her life; something she could not do on her own.
How many Ruths have you encountered, wounded egos desperate for someone to see them as they are, not as a product of their past or a stranger in the midst but as a valued person with a name, an identity of their own? How many have you redeemed from the hell of anonymity through a simple act of recognition? Or have you sent them on their way, nameless collections of your stereotyped evaluation?
Topical Index: Ruth, Genesis 2:25, naked, ‘arom, transparency, identity
[1] Yael Ziegler, Ruth, p. 202.
To answer your question, Skip: plenty! I reject what and who I fear. I reject by denigration: I attempt to make them LESS THAN, in an attempt to make me MORE. God help me!
We are so scary to each other: – we fear each other as we fear ourselves. I cannot accept another until I can accept myself. Boaz acts with an easy self assurance. He gives us room to like him because he likes himself, and shares that like. I am commanded to love God, myself and others. Perfect love casts out fear. I cannot love others if I am not loving myself first, and I cannot accept myself unconditionally until I accept the acceptance of heaven. To the extent that I am rejecting others, then, is the measure of my own self rejection because I am refusing the acceptance of heaven. I have to be vulnerable before YHVH first. My tacit, hidden rebellion shows up in the fruit. I can see how far I am from the humility and vulnerability required to accept the love of heaven and, therefore, myself when I see the extent that I am still not able to accept others for who they are without fear, either. Still so far to go!
Powerful words Laurita…especially in tandem with Skip’s.
I suspect we can all learn from this message today…I know I can.
Thanks.
Thanks for this. I am on the same journey with the same obstacles and the same failures.
In the bible the one naming has the power and authority over the one being named. I saw this played out this week. I’m in training with a bunch of “tough” truck drivers. We all ride together in a van since we are all from out of town. The appointed driver was more experienced than most of the rest, a big talker and always cutting up. I attributed that to either the pressure of the loneliness of truck driving, a big ego or both. From the drivers seat he dished out a bunch of “humorous” one liners, most deprecating to the rest of the passengers. Manliness missed used for sure.
Then he proceeded to name everyone with a self appointed nick name that reflected how he saw each of the other individuals. People accepted them and used them in obedience to the one in charge.
I never acknowledged that given nick name. It annoyed the name giver. After repeated calls to me with my nick name, he got in my face and asked if I was deaf. I looked him dead in the eye and said, “I have no idea who you are talking to!” My eyes stayed steady on his. He did look away first. He tried a few times again later to get my attention with his assigned nick name. I never acknowledged him unless he used my real name and I doubt he even knew it.
He eventually stopped. I called him by his real name from the beginning until he left.
Giving false names can produce undesired consequences. Perhaps this is reflected in Adam’s naming of Ha’vah as Skip has mentioned. Power and control used to deflect attention away from ones own deficiencies.
Great story Michael! Great example…and I applaud your decision to not back down to the “bully.”
I’m ashamed to say that my initial reaction was to smile and imagine that I would have enjoyed watching the whole scenario.
I wish I had initially wanted to pray for the man. That came later…after some conviction.
Still growing. 🙂
Sounds like Trump!
LOL. Yes, it does sound like Trump.
I call him our triple 0 (“0 0 0”) Our Only Option.
What a tough spot to be in.
Total Transparency
He knows my name
He knows my every thought
He sees each tear that falls
And He hears me when I call
This is what Christianity is: “relationship.” Not religion, not rote ritual, not a code or a creed or a cause, but Christ.
We are Ruth (honestly) and the crucified, buried and resurrected Messiah is our heavenly Boaz. Without the intervention and intercession of our Near-Kinsman Redeemer, Ruth (we who are HIs) would have a bleak future. All we like sheep have gone astray, and without our (always) Good Shepherd to lead us, we would remain half-starved, wandering, clueless sheep.
Now I belong to Jesus
Jesus belongs to me
Not for the years of time alone
But for eternity.
~ Because YOU have been purchased [redeemed] with a price ~ (1 Corinthians 6.20)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeNA1NoJJH4
In the Bible, the actions of Boaz demonstrate how essential and powerful this validation really is.
and the opposite is truly powerful as well. I noticed in gen. 2 and 3 how it always refers to God as “YHWH Elohim”, YHWH being the name associated with the “hands on” relationship of God with man and His creation. I also noticed that the conversation between eve and the serpent is devoid of that Name. I wonder how we would do if we stopped measuring others by their “education” or the employment they are presently engaged in, all which seem to become a point of evaluation by our own standard, and begin to actually engage with others based on love of the person, not on what they “do”.
TRUST NOT ON THE ARM OF THE FLESH…
What did we learn as children: Sticks and stones shall break my bones but words shall never harm me.
Unfortunately when this is concerned with me, my abilities etc. it is words that do the most damage and it is even sometimes ignited out of hell as we in anger respond and curse instead of forgive and pray.
Being vulnerable is when we trust on ourselves instead of the power of God as when he is with me who can be against me…
Is it not our weakness that makes God strong in us and when we humble in our weakness His will is done…
Then Paul comes and claims For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
How different is this from being vulnerable. No longer something we can see but power and control measures which we actually need to rely on to survive…
Michael your actions took guts, was the nick naming stopped or did it continue? Do not answer…
The reality is we resolve our conflict but the conflict in others we seldom know or even try to resolve is this not what Boaz identified as a weakness in Ruth and used it to an advantage… How does YHVH want us to react?
Most interesting post. We do not naturally look deeply into those we meet. Outward appearances are what we see first and sometimes those are the things we really need to see to avoid danger. No excuse for not living life as it comes.
We need to be aware of life and others as we come in contact with them. God gives us an innate ability to sense things and we need to be free enough to use this gift. We need to live each moment as it comes and trust that God has our backs no matter the outcome. I would call this a part of faith.
I would like to meet both Boaz and Ruth. I would have loved to have been able to watch this chapter in the Bible play out. They both seem like remarkable people but I bet they did not see themselves that way. They were both living their lives doing what they felt led to do and God crossed their paths!
I have been so blessed in meeting so many people from so many walks in life. I am careful but open and have learned much in the process. Life is for the living. I should say that this is filled with choices both good and bad. That innate ability also guides us here and we need to be master of our choices and willing to learn when we mess that up. God is always teaching his children.
I see this all the time. Paths crossing at appropriate times. Not always good happenings but always with a purpose in mind. Are we open to always learning no matter the timing?
“It is enough for her to fall down ( שָׁחָה / shachah) before him, expressing shocked gratitude.”
שָׁחָה / shachah , another word that can be translated as “worship” – worship , bow , bow down , obeisance , reverence, fall down themselves, prostrate, stoop , crouch…
Did not mean that Ruth WORSHIPED Boaz, but it was an act of her being overwhelmed by gratitude to Boaz, for acknowledging her as a person, extending such abounding kindness/ grace and hospitality towards her. Ruth was indeed vulnerable, as a Moabite and a widow.
On the other hand, she has demonstrated herself as a woman unafraid of hard labour, gleaning from the ground to support her mother in law Noami.
For that reason as well as going back with Naomi to a strange land, YHWH looked upon her with chesed and blessed her.
.
Without venturing into politics, I’d suggest that failing to see people who are not “like us” is at the heart of many of our problems in America today. Until I can truly look at someone whose skin color, whose accent, whose very name isn’t similar to mine, I will be prone to discrimination, even if unintentionally.
But when I look at each man, woman, and child as a person created, loved, and valued by the LORD, I open those doors of vulnerabikty, enabling communication previously unavailable. They are no longer personally anonymous. And neither am I.
Thanjs, Skip. Great word, on so many levels.
I’ve experienced being an appendage of someone else. This is partly because that person and others like this person are my rear and side guards. They protect me from the wolves in sheep’s clothing. This positioning/posturing makes it hard for a newly encountered person to see me for who I am; to see my skills or giftings; and discover my interests. We are all somebody special, yet tainted by our past sins and/or associations. We need a Boaz to see us as YHVH sees us, and to draw us out and free us from preconceived ideas and labels. No one is fully perfect; we are all in a state of growing into what God created us to become and do. Transparency is risky business. Wolves use our past struggles against us; sometimes it can be brutal. We often feel the need to test who we can be transparent with. Little by little we can be more and more transparent if the environment is found to be safe. It is then we begin to blossom and grow.
Beth, that is so true and well expressed, from “Transparency is risky business” ….I can personally testify to that.
One’s transparency becomes vulnerable to an abuser.
Thank you! Shalom!