Who Plants the Grass First?

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 8
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Scripture teaches us that the man is the one who is to initiate a courtship. We have the perfect, divine example of this in Eph. 5:2525Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; (Ephesians 5:25); "Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it". Another has pointed out that "love, in the right sense, begins in the heart of the man, and then he courts the girl he loves.”
Let's consider the story of Ruth. Her heart, as well as that of her mother-in-law, Naomi, obviously desired that Boaz would take notice of her and would want her for his wife. Yet when Ruth seems unsure of how to approach Boaz, Naomi wisely tells her to "Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall: for the man will not be in rest, until he have finished the thing this day" (Ruth 3:1818Then said she, Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall: for the man will not be in rest, until he have finished the thing this day. (Ruth 3:18)). You see, it was Boaz' responsibility as the man to initiate a courtship with Ruth as a result of the love he felt for her. Ruth, as Naomi pointed out, would have been out of place to try to initiate a relationship with Boaz (We might note here, that perhaps that was what happened in Moab. Maybe the women in that land did initiate romantic relationships with men... but it was not of God).