Clear Intentions
Is not Boaz our relative, with whose young women you were? See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. Wash therefore and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do." And she replied, "All that you say I will do." Ruth 3:2-5 (ESV)
It is a fact that, both in those times and up to this hour in the East, servants have been accustomed to lay themselves in this manner at the feet of their master. One modern traveler mentions that his Arab servants were quite in the practice of doing so with him and, in cold evenings, of claiming the privilege, which had descended from immemorial usage, of drawing over themselves the skirts of the long mat or cloak in which his person was enveloped.
A. Thomson, D. D.
Ruth would make her intentions clear in a way that minimized gossip and innuendos, exposing her vulnerability.
In the New Testament, Matthew 10:16 tells us we should balance being wise and innocent. It says this: "Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves."
Ruth and Naomi seemed to understand this, and so should I.
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