Spellbinding
Spellbinding
Ruth 3:8-10
At midnight the man was startled and turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet! He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” And he said, “May you be blessed by the LORD, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich.”
This really is a Cinderella story after all, isn’t it? Right on down to the clock striking twelve. Except in this scriptural version, the striking of midnight marks the beginning of the spell, not the ending.
Spellbinding. That’s the word I’d use to approach this romance. These pages are filled with enchantment, immersed in symbolism and deep spiritual meaning, each word like a whisper of something forgotten but suddenly remembered, almost like a dream. In fact, a dream has that enchanting quality to it, because it often seems more real than reality, which is why bad dreams can make us depressed the whole next day and good dreams can leave us wanting more. The Book of Ruth is that sort of story. A dreamlike one. A sequence of very real, historical moments drenched in deep allegorical meaning. C.S. Lewis might’ve called the aura permeating this chapter, “deep magic,” but I’ll refer to it as divine fantasy: a story too true to be called a fairytale, yet too fantastic to be called mere history. Like a dream in God’s mind that we’re momentarily let into.
Fall under the spell with me, friend. The clock strikes midnight. 12 a.m. Twelve, a significant biblical clue. Twelve, the number of a new family and a new nation and a new covenant. Twelve sons of Abraham and twelve apostles. Ah, but 12:00 a.m.—the first breath of a new morning. A brand-new beginning. The perfection of God’s timing in this world. Not 11:59 p.m., nor 12:01 a.m.. Not a minute early or a minute late. Right on time, as soon as one night ends and a fresh morning begins, Almighty God awakens Boaz to a love he’s been missing. But wait—there’s one more thing. Why does Boaz wake up at this time? Because Ruth took off his sandals and now he’s got cold feet. Ha! Cold feet indeed! For it wasn’t Boaz’s craftiness that led Ruth here, but Naomi’s.