A Woman of Noble Character
The whole town knows what Ruth is, and Boaz says so before he says anything else.
Ruth 3:11NIV
Ruth 3:11. It is the middle of the night on a threshing floor and a Moabite widow has just asked a man to marry her. Boaz's first response is not embarrassment or hesitation. He tells her not to be afraid, that he will do everything she asks, because all the people of the town know that she is a woman of noble character.
That phrase is the same one used in Proverbs 31:10 for the wife of noble character. In the Hebrew Bible, Ruth follows Proverbs, and readers have long noticed that the poem about a valiant woman is answered by a story about one.
Ruth's nobility was not a matter of birth or wealth. She was a foreigner with nothing. Her character was built from loyalty, hard work and a willingness to take refuge in the God of Israel. And it had been noticed. Her reputation reached Boaz before her request did.
Character is what people know about you when you are not in the room. It is built in barley fields, not on threshing floors. Build it there, quietly, and let it speak when the moment comes.
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