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REVIEW
• The book of Ruth takes place “when the judges ruled” (1:1).
• Elimelech and Naomi move from Bethlehem (“house of bread”) to Moab to escape a famine.
• Elimelech and Naomi’s two sons, Mahlon and Kilion, die in Moab.
• Mahlon and Kilion had married Moabite women, Ruth and Orpah.
• When the famine in Judah ends, Naomi returns to Bethlehem with Ruth.
• Naomi: “I’m empty; I’m bitter.”
• Ruth gleans in Boaz’s field. He is one of Naomi’s kinsman-redeemers. He shows Ruth kindness.
• At the end of the harvest, Naomi plays matchmaker. She urges Ruth to ask Boaz to marry her.
• Boaz is willing to marry Ruth, but there is a kinsman nearer than him.
[Read Ruth 4]
THE GROUND AND THE GIRL
“Naomi…is selling the piece of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech” (4:1 NIV). “Naomi…sold the piece of land” (NKJV).
Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi and from Ruth the Moabitess, you acquire the dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property” (Ruth 4:5).
Two ancient practices are mentioned in this verse:
• REDEMPTION of land
“‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants. Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land.
“‘If one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells some of his property, his nearest relative is to come and redeem what his countryman has sold. If, however, a man has no one to redeem it for him but he himself prospers and acquires sufficient means to redeem it, he is to determine the value for the years since he sold it and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it; he can then go back to his own property. But if he does not acquire the means to repay him, what he sold will remain in the possession of the buyer until the Year of Jubilee. It will be returned in the Jubilee, and he can then go back to his property”’ (Leviticus 25:23-28; cf. Jeremiah 32:1-15).
• LEVIRATE marriage
If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.
However, if a man does not want to marry his brother’s wife, she shall go to the elders at the town gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to carry on his brother’s name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me.” Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, “I do not want to marry her,” his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals, spit in his face and say, “This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother’s family line.” That man’s line shall be known in Israel as The Family of the Unsandaled (Deuteronomy 25:5-10; cf. Matthew 22:23-28).
Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. But Er, Judah’s firstborn was wicked in the LORD’s sight; so the LORD put him to death. Then Judah said to Onan, “Lie with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother” (Genesis 38:6-8).
Why did the nearer kinsman changed his mind about redeeming the land? Because Boaz added that the person who redeems the land should also marry Ruth. The nearer kinsman obviously didn’t feel obligated to marry Ruth. Perhaps because she was a Moabitess; perhaps because he wasn’t Mahlon’s brother-in-law. It seems that Boaz is going above and beyond what the law required. There was nothing for the nearer kinsman to gain if he also married Ruth. If he has a son by Ruth, the child would be Mahlon’s heir and receive the land as his inheritance.
A FAMOUS FAMILY
“May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem” (Ruth 4:11).
“May he [Obed] become famous throughout Israel!” (Ruth 4:14).
• The marriage of Boaz and Ruth led to the birth of KING DAVID.
Now David was the son of an Ephrathite named Jesse, who was from Bethlehem in Judah (1 Samuel 17:12).
• The marriage of Boaz and Ruth led to the birth of the KING OF KINGS.
“Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever” (2 Samuel 7:14).
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times” (Micah 5:2; cf. Matthew 2:3-6).
“You will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:31-32).
“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11).
…his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendent of David (Romans 1:3).
A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1).
OUR KINSMAN-REDEEMER
Charles Haddon Spurgeon described Jesus as “our glorious Boaz.”
• Like Boaz, Jesus became our NEAR KINSMAN.
How? Through His INCARNATION.
• Like Boaz, Jesus was WILLING to redeem us.
Why? Because of His great LOVE.
• Like Boaz, Jesus paid the PRICE to redeem us.
What? His own LIFE.
AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER
Naomi said she had come home empty-handed. Now she holds a grandson in her arms. And little does she know that this baby boy will be an ancestor of David and, ultimately, Jesus Christ.
The happy ending wasn’t the result of good luck; it was the product of God’s sovereign will.
• “So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning” (1:22). Naomi returned to Bethlehem at the right time with the right person.
• When Ruth went to gather grain she “happened” to go to a field belonging to Boaz (2:3). Just good luck?
• Boaz noticed Ruth in his field, possibly as she was leaving to go to another field. Was it a chance encounter?
• “Now Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there, and behold, the close relative of whom Boaz spoke was passing by…” (4:1). Was it a coincidence?
• Ruth 4:20 and Matthew 1:5 state that Salmon was the father of Boaz. Who was the wife of Salmon? Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute from Jericho who converted to the God of Israel (cf. Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25). (There may be gaps in the genealogies of Ruth and Matthew.) Perhaps part of the reason why Boaz was willing to marry a Moabite woman was because his ancestor Salmon had married a Canaanite woman.
• “The LORD enabled Ruth to conceive, and she gave birth to a son” (4:13). She had not been able to have children during her marriage to Mahlon.
• If Boaz and Ruth had not married, would King David had been born?
There will be a HAPPY ENDING for every child of God.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified [and they will live happily ever after!] (Romans 8:28-30).
