We human folk have an appetite for “fixing” things, even other human beings. And we know where that appetite comes from — our fallen, sinful nature. But maybe sometimes it is not from our fallenness. Maybe sometimes it’s from our redeemed nature. Entirely for good. Entirely from God. Case in point: Boaz who fixed, finagled, and manipulated more than a little bit, and I praise him for it. I believe the Lord did, too.
My husband Bill is one kind of fixer. Call him Mr. Fix-it, at least around the house and yard. He’s quick to do small repairs and troubleshoot household and lawn problems. I’m glad he can fix things and glad our three sons followed in his footsteps, not mine. I’m a half-wit-know-nothing about repair stuff. My four fellows are do-it-yourself guys.
My Missouri friend Brie was also a DIY fixer. She installed her kitchen garbage disposal and washing machine, repaired leaky toilets and broken furniture, slapped goop on sheetrock to repair, sand, and paint. She did all sorts of fix-it stuff around the house. Her husband could talk the talk, but he couldn’t or wouldn’t fix things. Of course, he didn’t need to. He had Brie.
But I’m another kind of fixer, which I think many of us females are. Maybe I’m wrong about this, but I think we women try to fix broken people, mangled relationships, and tangled situations. Maybe that’s partly because of our compassion and partly because of our need to control. In any case, we are helpers and fixers, and we need to help and fix. Sometimes, I must confess that devolves into finagling, even manipulating — or at least trying to.
Jeanette, a writer acquaintance, recently confessed: “I’m a champion finagler, schemer,
and manipulator.”
Me, too, sometimes. And like Jeanette, I’m ashamed of it. Because as she said, “It’s usually
not Christlike.”
I also agree with something else Jeanette confessed: “My finagling is rooted in fear and worry.”
And there it is. Fear and worry may be the root of it, at least for Jeanette and me. And for many of us — male or female. You see, finagling is not just a female art; it’s a human art!
Nowhere is this more evident than in Scripture. Think about it. There’s Jacob, top-dog schemer and manipulator. Or Sarah, whose plot to cure childlessness birthed a whole tribe of enemy Ishmaelites. And what about David? His lustful contrivances with Bathsheba resulted in both adultery and murder. Or Judas’ horrible ploy, Tamar who tricked her father-in-law into fornication to secure her family line, and Haman whose anti-semitism conspired to destroy the Jewish race in Persia’s 120 provinces. There are Lot’s daughters, Joseph’s brothers, Elijah’s greedy servant Gehazi, Ananias and Sapphira. And never forget Herodias. When her “opportunity came” to raise the head of John the Baptist on a platter, she finagled a way to do it (Mark 6:21).
So many machinations, so much finagling spawned by not only fear and worry, but also by lust, greed, envy, and hatred. The Bible does not spare the details, and when you think about it, we should be glad. These are lessons for us as Paul said. Biblical men and women are our “examples,” and their stories are written for our instruction (1 Corinthians 10:11). And as he said to Timothy, this Word is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). We must be warned. We must learn and be trained, and we must avoid.
On the other hand, we can embrace another kind of fixing and finagling. I’m going back to Boaz. I treasure Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz and their remarkable story with its tragedy and heartbreak and happy ending. Boaz is a gentleman, a smart and savvy fixer and a godly one. I’m so glad the Lord gave us the grand story of these two good women and one good man who fixed, finagled, and manipulated for good, for righteousness, for love, for holiness, and for the lineage of our Savior.
I put Boaz at the top of that list. Without his courage and savvy and undisguised love, no kinsman-redeemer would have rescued the destitute Naomi, no lineage of Jesus that included a Moabite, God-loving woman named Ruth. Boaz arranged it, but not just to reward and satisfy himself. He blessed all of us children of the Lord through his and Ruth’s lineage. The Savior, the Promised One, our Redeemer, our salvation.
In case you are unconvinced fixing and finagling may be God-directed, here’s my argument. Two “rare” cases stand out to me: the Old Testament Ruth-Naomi-Boaz example, and the New Testament Paul-Onesimus-Philemon one. For now, I’ll leave the New Testament alone. I will write about that one another time,
a truly engaging story in twenty-five verses. Paul was the masterful fixer, although the book of Philemon ends without knowing for certain if Paul got what he wanted. Nice plot twist, Paul. Sort of a biblical cliffhanger I’ll return to another time.
Let me say that fixing things, including people, is sometimes thoroughly biblical. Jesus did it regularly. He worked out untenable situations including food and storms. He chased away unscrupulous moneychangers. He comforted the grieving. He wept over the unconcerned. He warned hypocrites, defied enemies, forgave sins, cast out demons, cured illnesses, raised the dead.
But His consummate work came at the Place of the Skull where He cried out, “It is finished.” There, we were ransomed, redeemed, rescued “with the precious blood of Christ…a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19). In triumph, He defied death and walked out of the tomb alive to secure mankind’s salvation. Jesus and the Father arranged it all. They orchestrated our salvation, engineered it, fixed it, finagled it. Call it what you will, they found a way!
What about Boaz? He also found a way, a way to protect Ruth, provide for her and Naomi, and establish a lineage. It took some “arranging,” some fixing, but he did it. “Leave some for her,” he said at the first, and the reapers did. He covered her with his influence and power and protected her from scandal, fixing what could have been a gossip issue. He maneuvered his “other relative” into declining to serve as redeemer. Of course, if you read the story closely, Naomi and Ruth did some finagling as well, but I’ll not go there this time.
I’ve wondered if Boaz knew Moses’ words in Deuteronomy 1:30-33, where he recounted what the Lord God had done for His people. Maybe he did and was spurred to act in unusual shrewdness and cleverness.
Maybe Moses galvanized Boaz to make Ruth his wife. I believe he counted on being carried by the Lord and being shown the way to go. I see both his deep trust in the Lord our God and his human ingenuity. As Jesus urged later, be wise as serpents, harmless as doves. Boaz was. His plan was not deceitful or ungodly. He simply gave his relative a way to dodge the kinsman responsibility, and the relative ducked and ran.
That’s it. I’m not pushing you to fix, finagle, and maneuver, nor am I justifying it. I am simply saying Boaz did it, God intended it, and I’m glad…for all of us.
About the Writer: Brenda Evans lives and writes in Ashland, Kentucky. You may reach her at beejayevans@windstream.net.
