Ruth 3: 14
"... Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor ..."
Boaz is an honorable man, with high personal standards, as we are told at his first introduction (in 2:1) and is proving it here in protecting Ruth's reputation. He is older than she is, probably of her father-in-law Elimelek's generation.
V. 18
"... The man will not rest until he has settled it today."
Boaz' concern and protection for Ruth shows that he will be responsive to her initiative in choosing him to perform the responsibility of levirate marriage to her.
Naomi has recognized this, and assures her that Boaz will not let any grass grow under his feet, but will take care of the matter immediately.
4: 10
"... In order to raise up the name of the deceased on his inheritance, so that the name of the deceased may not be cut off from his brothers or from the court of his birth place; you are witnesses today."
Levirate marriage was to assign the first son as to be the son of the man who had died, here that would be Mahlon, who Ruth had married.
V. 21
... and Boaz begat Obed.
But the genealogical record shows the actual, biological father to the boy, which was Boaz, not Mahlon.
Boaz was willing to be Ruth's kinsman-redeemer, and fully intended to allow his son to be considered as Mahlon's son. God determined, however, that the actual bloodline be recorded, as this is the bloodline into which His own Son will be born, physically.
We are given Jesus' ancestry through His mother Mary, His actual bloodline, in Luke. Matthew gives us His legal lineage through Joseph, whose royal line gave Him the legal right and authority to claim David's throne.
Both Mary and Joseph are descended from King David, Obed's grandson.
And this foreign woman is named in Jesus's genealogy, as well as another foreign woman, Rahab, who was Boaz' grandmother.
The Israelites were warned not to marry foreign women, because these foreigners would draw them away from the Lord God to honor and worship the other gods who demand awful stuff.
But both of these women abandoned those shameful deities, recognizing how far superior our real God is over them, over any other. They assimilated into the culture and religion of Israel, and didn't try to bring their old cultures in. This is the only way God could accept them.
God wants everyone everywhere to recognize Him as the only God over the Universe; anything else that is worshiped or honored instead are false idols, and the only power they would have would be through demons.
O my Father, thank You for revealing Yourself to us. You want to be known. And You know me. You know every detail of who I am, down to the molecules and cells, and every hair counted.
As You know me, You also want me to know You, as much as possible. You are eternal, and I am temporal: in this state I am very limited in how much I am able to understand Who You are, Father, and what I know so far overwhelms me!
I am looking forward to being fully redeemed, to see You face-to-face, and to get to know you throughout all future eternity. I think I will never come to the end of knowing Who You are, my Lord and my God and my King.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
