Let us turn and fix our eyes on Jesus in this season, our Kinsman Redeemer and wonder at God’s plan of redemption.
Christ is our Kinsman Redeemer and in the Book of Ruth, we see this displayed as a foreshadowing of the gospel.
God’s redemption plan unfolds before our very eyes as we read this book.
The Book of Ruth is appropriately a love story, how we see God’s love for us, His bride, reflected in this book!
First Mention
In Genesis 48.13-19 we see Ephraim and Mannaseh together, being blessed by Jacob, but Jacob, instead of blessing the oldest brother Mannaseh, blesses Ephraim, the younger first.
When giving the blessing, Jacob crosses his hands, which is protested by Joseph.
But this is the first mention of a type and shadow of Jesus, giving us the blessing of eternal life at the cross.
Remember, that the first will be last and the last will be first, in the case of Ruth, a gentile widow was chosen as his bride.
Naomi represented Israel, Ruth, the gentile bride and Boaz, the Lord of the Harvest, sound familiar?
Ruth (Gentile) does not replace Naomi (Israel), but learns Boaz’s (the Redeemer’s) ways through Naomi (Israel).
I know I certainly appreciate looking at things from a Hebrew perspective and learning about God from that angle, as Gentile believers there is always something we can learn from the culture that Jesus came from.
In order to bring Ruth, a Moabitess, (the Bride) to Naomi (Israel) Naomi had to be exiled from Israel.
In this light we pray for Israel to return to the Lord and rejoice when any of their people return to Him, believing in Jesus as their Redeemer.
What the law could never do, Jesus could, bringing all to salvation through grace.
In Biblical times the role of the kinsman redeemer was set out in Deuteronomy 25.5-10.:
The responsibility of the kinsman redeemer was for the nearest relative to marry the wife of their relative (usually their brother), if they had died and not had children, so that the family name would continue.
In Ruth 3.9 Ruth says to Boaz, “Take your servant under your wing, for you are a close relative,” identifying him as her kinsman redeemer.
Earlier, in Ruth 2.12, Boaz says to Ruth, “May the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge, reward you fully for what you have done.”
Ruth lay at Boaz’s feet, under the covering of his cloak.
As we stay at the feet of Jesus, we are covered by His redemption
Psalm 91.1 tells us that, “Those who dwell in the shelter of the Most High El Elyon will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
This I declare about the Lord; He alone is my refuge, my place of safety, my God in whom I trust.
He shall cover you with His feathers and under His wings you shall take refuge.”
We are covered by Him under His wings, our debt is paid and our sin is covered.
In John 6.36 Jesus promises, “All that the Father gives ne will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out.”
We have a home and a refuge with Him forever, all are welcomed into His presence.
In Matthew 23.37, Jesus said “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
It is not a lack willingness on His part, but what is our response to His invitation?
Ruth, Naomi & Boaz
Each of these three names carry a meaning in the Hebrew language.
Sweet Naomi
We start of with being introduced to Naomi, whose name means “Sweet”, but on the death of her husband and children renames herself, Marah, which means “Bitter.”
At the end of the Book of Ruth, we see that sweetness being restored, as bitterness is turned to sweetness.
Jesus can do that for every one of us through redemption.
This is not just a one-time occurrence, but throughout our lives, through circumstances, we all encounter opportunities for bitterness to creep in, but as we hold onto Jesus, in the shadow of the Almighty, He can turn our bitter experiences to sweetness.
I can personally remember at least two times when this has happened to me, be it the decision to love and trust those around me and engage again with others, or to forgive and move on, He gives us the grace to do it.
Obedience Brings Blessing
Ruth and Boaz’s obedience to Naomi and her God, brought blessing to their family and the world.
Ruth and Naomi’s obedience made a bitter situation sweet.
Our bitter situations and experiences can also be made sweet through grace.
Our obedience produces fruitfulness and we need to keep a tender heart in difficult and painful situations, until we are restored.
It may seem a long way off or even impossible at the time or even for years after, but Jesus can redeem it!
There is nothing and no-one that He can’t redeem, so come under the shelter of His wings and be comforted.
Have you been betrayed or wounded, suffered loss?
He will comfort and restore you.
Invite Him in, He says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if anyone answers I will come in and eat with Him and him with Me.” (Revelation 3.20)
We are in a redemptive relationship with Him, He is our security and protection.
We have opportunities in our life to become bitter, but when we are vulnerable and trust in Him, in childlike faith, Jesus can bring us through them when we walk with Him.
We are not forsaken, but married to Jesus, our Go’el.
A Woman of Valour
The name Ruth means ‘striking beauty and this book links her to Proverbs 31 as an “Ishit Kyle”,
A woman of valour.
In Jewish marriage at Shabbat (Sabbath) a man sings Proverbs 31.10-31 over his wife and they sing blessings over one another, “A virtuous wife who can find?”
We find Ruth to be a woman of valour and a striking beauty, a woman of outstanding virtue.
The Qualifications of a Kinsman Redeemer
- A redeemer had to be a blood relative
- He must be able – he must have the resources and be willing to redeem.
- To be an avenger of blood – to be prepared to avenge a murdered kinsman by marrying their widow.
- To be prepared to buy the inheritance of property and to marry the widow, so that the family name would not b blotted out.
- Jesus is the avenger of our blood so that our names will not be blotted out; that is Satan’s plan, to kill steal and destroy and to blot our names out of the Book of Life.
Is our name written in the Book of Life, or blotted out?
The Responsibilities of a Kinsman Redeemer
- To restore a lost inheritance – to restore the bride and the creation to humanity.
- To restore dominion and reclaim what is lost – lost creation, fallen humanity and the redemption of our bodies.
- To redeem from slavery – we are redeemed from slavery to sin.
- To avenge a wrongful death – in Numbers 35.10.12 & 17, God establishes cities of refuge from the avenger.
- Jesus avenges the murderer, the one who comes to kill, steal and destroy.
Boaz’s Provision as a Kinsman Redeemer
- Protection – from assailants – attacks on single women were common.
- Inclusion – acceptance in the family, even though Ruth was a gentile.
- Provision – he provided her with water, food and the permission to glean.
- Hospitality – he invited her to join his workers.
- Awareness – he was aware of her state and her needs.
Jesus extends this to us, He is a source of blessing, acceptance, comfort, generosity and gentleness to us.
A Man of Valour
And then we find that Boaz, our foreshadowing of Jesus and a picture of the Messiah is also, a powerful man of great valour, an “Ish Gibbor”.
His name means “in Him is strength” and carries the strength to redeem and “He will establish”.
Psalm 96.6 says, “Strength and majesty are before Him, strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.”
The Kinsman Redeemer Chooses the Woman of Valour as His Bride
In Ruth 3.9, Ruth asks Boaz to spread his covering (canaph) or corner over her, saying I am your handmaid, you are my Go’el (kinsman redeemer).
Boaz praises her conduct in choosing him, he comforts her and promises to answer her request.
He promises to take care of everything, and to rest until morning.
We are in the resting period, waiting for Jesus’s return, while we His bride, His body, His church rest under His covering.
And so, we see that the Man of Valour marries the Woman of Valour.
Who has more valour than Jesus?
Who but His bride should have more virtue, valour and beauty?
He builds and establishes these qualities in us.
We become hardworking people of principle.
We need not fear, but must trust Him; the cowardly cannot enter the Kingdom of God, but take refuge in Him.
He saw us before we saw Him, before the foundation of the world, just as Boaz saw Ruth, just as God saw Mary and regarded her low estate, but chose to lift her up to bear the Son of God.
He regarded us in our low estate.
God saw Mary as a worthy candidate to bear the messenger of salvation and He sees us as worthy candidates of salvation, to become His bride and be His body, part of and participants in a noble plan, His mission of salvation to all the nations, Jew and gentile.
A New Family is Formed
Boaz became part of Jesus’s bloodline, through obedience, in marrying Ruth, he became the father of Obed, who was the father of Jesse, the father of King David.
Our marriage to Jesus, as the bride of Christ brings us back to Him.
He restores the dominion given to Adam and Eve, to His church, creating a new, restored humanity.
Jesus is our heavenly “Boaz”.
He put on flesh and became human so that He could be in our bloodline, so that He could redeem us.
We have a new ancestor (1 Peter 1.18-19), through our elder brother, Jesus, we come into a new ancestral line, in the family of God.
We have a new bloodline and a new family, free from our old Adam tendencies and ties to sin.
We are brought into holiness, set free to live a life free from bondage to sin.
We take on His name when we are joined to Him, just as in marriage, we are married into a new family, a new life, married to our Lamb and expect to produce inheritors of His kingdom.
As the hymn says, “The King of Love my Shepherd is, His goodness faileth never.’
The Deliverance of Persons & Property
We are delivered from the fear of death.
Revelation 5.9 – He is worthy to redeem us through His death, the price is paid through His blood.
Romans 6.23 – The wages of sin is death.
Jesus Buys Us Back
Ruth gave her freedom to Naomi when she chose to follow her back to the promised land, saying “Do not ask me to leave you, or forsake you, your people shall be my people and your God, my God.” Ruth 1.16
1 Peter 1.18-19 says – We are not redeemed by corruptible things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and spot, foreordained before the foundation of the world, so that our faith and hope is in God.
The word redeem means to go to the slave market and buy back.
To redeem the impoverished brother from bondage.
What can we give Him? Our life and freedom.
We become slaves who choose to follow their Master.
He came to seek and save that which was lost and to restore that which was stolen.
The devil and circumstances will try to steal God’s blessing and promises from our lives, but we enforce victory over the devil.
The authority of God’s redemption rules over our whole life, don’t accept Satan trying to plant his flag or sow his seed, where God’s banner of victory is!
The kingdom of God is seized, taken hold, of by those with violent hands, not sleepy and passive, but wide awake and alert, so let’s be violent in laying hold of our inherited promises!
God saves us to the utmost, the whole property is saved, bought back and redeemed on the cross.
We can lay claim on the promise that our Kinsman Redeemer has purchased for us.
He Purchased us to be His Wife
We are married to the Kinsman Redeemer and expect to receive His blessings.
Jesus loves to care for His bride and promises to take excellent care of us.
In Ruth 4.15 Naomi’s neighbours say to her, “He shall be a restorer of your life and a nourisher of your old age.”
The Kinsman Redeemer is the restorer of your life.
Restoration, nourishment and blessing are the fruit of marriage to the Kinsman Redeemer and it is a relationship of great blessing, which blesses not only ourselves, but others.
We are corporately and individually married to Him.
Throw the Shoe & Claim the Ground!
Just as God told Joshua that everywhere his foot would tread, to claim the ground, we are to claim the blessings that the devil is trying to hold back, to stop us from receiving.
“Throw my shoe over Edom” Psalm 60.8
Moab, Edom and Philistia represent the world, the flesh and the devil.
Moab is my washpot; over Edom I will cast my shoe; Philistia will shout in triumph because of Me.”
- Want, sickness and fear are three enemies that Jesus has overcome and we are to take steps against the devil.
We are to spit in the devil’s face, show him contempt and take steps forward in faith.
Jesus paid for everything; for person and for property, to bring an end to the legal jurisdiction of the enemy.
The jurisdiction of the task-master, Satan, is legally ended!
God is our everything, our provider, our healer and our guide and we are to lay claim on all that the Kinsman Redeemer has provided for us.
Identified in His Death
We are redeemed from the curse of the law (Deuteronomy 21.23, Galatians 3.13)
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree”, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
We are identified with Him in His death, burial and resurrection and living with Him, raised together, sitting in the heavenly places with Him.
Jesus tells us, I made you, I bought you and you’re mine!
The Restoration of Our Inheritance
Jesus is the Life-Giver, Satan is the life-taker.
Jesus came to destroy his power and gain victory over death.
He became human to qualify as a kinsman redeemer and restore the lost inheritance, intended for us by God.
He came to restore our original purpose, as it was with Adam and Eve, fellowship with God.
The Sandal Covenant
Boaz was generous and kind, willing to help his family, by offering provision and protection.
Boaz had recognized Ruth’s love, loyalty and hardworking nature.
She wasn’t a scrounger or a shirker, but willing to work by gleaning in the fields.
My own mum used to tell us that as the youngest of nine children, she used to go out, in the fields near her home in Baddesley, England, she used to go out gleaning.
So, Boaz resolves to fulfill his familial responsibility in becoming her kinsman redeemer.
Through his commitment to family and compassion, they were both blessed.
Joshua institutes the Sandal Covenant in Deuteronomy 11.24, “Every place your foot shall tread, you shall possess the land.”
If the kinsman redeemer refuses to redeem them it shows that they are not prepared to help their own family and are selfish, the woman says, “You have no more part of me,” by removing their shoe.
But Jesus shares and imparts His inheritance with us, His children.
He left heaven’s comfort to save us and put everything on the line through becoming obedient to death.
Mahlon didn’t want to share the inheritance he would pass down to his own children and so Boaz fulfilled the responsibility.
The Priesthood of Jesus
The robe of Boaz is likened to the seamless robe of Jesus, which was not torn by the soldiers and the fulness of redemption.
They refused to tear the robe because it carried value as a whole garment and was connected to someone who had godly authority.
They recognized that He was innocent, godly and sent from God.
The fulness of His garment, His covering, extends to us.
The robe was never torn, but that day the temple curtain was torn as Jesus was on the cross, symbolizing the end of the priesthood of man and the beginning of the priesthood of Jesus, signaling that fulness had come, redemption at the cross and the priesthood of Jesus was instituted forever.
Grafted into His Kingdom
All this occurred in approximately 1,100 BC and since then God has been calling people from every tribe, tongue and nation to be grafted into His Kingdom, you and me and many more, He will bring the fulness of His harvest in!
Unmerited favour is given through grace to those who are undeserving.
Ruth was a Moabite woman, from a pagan nation, of idol worshipers who worshiped Chemosh, the “abomination of Moab.”
They were a nation in rebellion against God and Ruth was chosen out of this background.
God chooses to redeem us and call us out of every background and into a new way of life.
Mahlon, the first potential kinsman redeemer for Ruth says, “It will ruin me!” (Ruth 4.6)
Jesus takes on all our sin, all the world’s sin.
He can cure and redeem it without it ruining Him.
The world does not change Him, but He changes and transforms the world and redeems our mess and restores our lives back to the original blueprint.
He leads us forward into life and victory.
He has the map and lights the way, He is not lost, but knows where we need to go.
The law made nothing perfect (Hebrews 7.18-19).
Christ is our better hope and a better promise, which brings us back into the original plan of God – The Lamb slain before the foundation of the world!
Our transformation shines radiant hope into a world lost in sin.
Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost and He brings us into fruitfulness that changes lives.
Job 19.25
For I know that my redeemer lives, and that He shall stand at the last day upon the earth.
Very comprehensive.