Ruth has come all the way from the land of Moab into the heart and home of Boaz. And we who were one time strangers, far from God, without hope in the world, are now sealed in the heart and home of Jesus. We today have been redeemed into the family of God, and one of these days we are going to live in His home. What a glorious prospect we have of someday being with Him.
Boaz has had to sit back and wait for Ruth to claim him as her kinsman redeemer, and Christ like Boaz, is not free to move on your behalf until you claim him as your kinsman redeemer.
Christ died on the cross for you; he went to the grave for you; and even today he stands at the door of all people and knocks, saying in Revelation 3:20, “I stand at the door and knock: if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him, and eat with him, and he with me”.
Notice he doesn’t crash the door, we have to invite Him in, take the gift of eternal life by faith. Ruth gave Boaz permission and now she waits for him to do what he can do to redeem her. Boaz loves her and wants to redeem her, and the message we are to give to the world is that Jesus loves us too and wants to redeem us. Our story with God is a romance just like it was for Ruth and Boaz.
Boaz goes to the city gate because that is where all town business took place. I don’t know how it was in Canada years ago, but in the states just about every town in history was originally built around the court house or city hall in the center of town usually surrounded by a large town square. In Israel it was similar but it was the city gate that served as this center.
Boaz knows if he goes to the gate many of the town elders will be mulling around, and the chances of this other redeemer wandering by is very great. And of course he does and Boaz asks him to sit with him. Notice the man’s name is never mentioned, this is very common in the Bible when someone does something that God is not pleased with. You can bet if had redeemed Ruth his name would be glorified. In fact the actual term Boaz uses here when he calls him would be equivalent to us saying hey “Mr. So and So”. I’m sure Boaz knew his name, so it’s interesting that he uses this term.
Now the ten elders that he gathered were likely the judges of the town who would spend most of their time at the gate, the court, and now court is in session and Boaz makes his case with an interesting strategy. Even though for him this is all about Ruth, he doesn’t even mention her at first, he only mentions the land.
Now the man accepts the offer to redeem the land for Naomi because there would have been a certain amount of disgrace if he had not. At this point Boaz has an inner “DOH” and his heart probably sank. But he was prepared for this and then he plays his next card and let’s the man know there’s a catch.
Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you Ruth the Moabitess is included in the deal, you have to redeem or marry her too. Notice he makes sure the man knows she is from Moab. Now there is a law in the land that comes from Deuteronomy 23, “An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord”. That means that if this man brought Ruth into the congregation of the Lord, it would jeopardize his own property. Not only that, he probably already has sons, so if he had any more with Ruth that would affect what his current children would get.
Now the law of Levirate marriage said that if your brother’s wife was widowed without a son, you had to marry her and give her children to carry on your brother’s name. Obviously neither Boaz or this other man were brothers of Ruth’s husband so they were not required to take Ruth as a wife. The land yes, but not the widow. If this man would have only known what this could have done for his name throughout history he may have reconsidered marrying Ruth, but as it stands his name is never even mentioned.
Well needless to say Boaz is relieved. But something we often miss when reading this story is the action that this other man does when he gives the redeemer rights to Boaz. In verse 7 we see how the man is stuck in the past and the Law when he gives Boaz his sandal. This was archaic even for that time. You see just like Boaz represents Jesus, this man I believe represents the Mosaic Law. It is love that redeems, not the Law.
The truth is that this man is very true to the letter of the Law and it is actually Boaz who is breaking it. But didn’t Jesus break most of the laws too. Like Jesus, Boaz is breaking the Mosaic Law by taking Ruth into the family of God, but he like Jesus, is also fulfilling the Law of love that trumps all the other old laws. Jesus said the new law is to love God and love others, in this all the law is fulfilled. This is why Boaz and Ruth are blessed rather than cursed and why the line of Jesus comes through them.
This little book is so awesome because it shows that even way back before Jesus, God still saw love as more important than the laws. Why did God give the Law to Moses and Israel then? Because they were not loving Him. All he wanted was for His people to love him and thus live for Him. The Mosaic Law was given a long time after man was on the earth. God had to give it because throughout history from the Garden of Eden, the people would not love Him or each other the way he wanted them to. The Law was never given to redeem them, but to show them how far they were from what he truly wanted them to be.
Why do we need laws today? Is it not simply because the law of love is not lived out by everyone. Laws are simply put in place to protect people from the lack of real love in the world. Should we really need a law against murder, or stealing, or really anything that hurts another? Think about it, if everyone loved each other and God like the Bible indicates, would there be any need for laws. Will there be laws in Heaven? What would we need to be protected from there.
But what our culture and really all cultures through history have done is say that if you keep the laws, you are a good person and accepted by God. This is absolutely not true. You cannot be redeemed by God for keeping the Ten Commandments. Should you keep them, absolutely, that is Jesus’ and Paul’s point. But they also make it very clear that keeping the Law is not what saves you. It just helps keep the world under control.
The bible is very clear that the Law without love is useless. Notice it wasn’t even the Laws that kept them right with God in ancient Israel, it was the sacrifices that pointed to Christ.
Like the other kinsman, the Law is not able to redeem us. The Law would have to lower its standards if it saved us. People talk about keeping the commandments. Some will say “my religion is keeping the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount”. They believe being a good person and doing your best is the way to be accepted by God.
We have to ask them, how are you doing with that? You never lied, you never stole anything, you never looked another with lust, you never had hatred in your heart and are therefore guilty of murder? They will respond, “well no, but I do my best and for the most part I have kept them with some minor mistakes”. Notice nowhere in the Bible does it say you shall try to keep these commands, it says you shall keep them.
Why can’t the other redeemer redeem, why can’t the Law redeem? Because there is no love, only love can redeem and only Jesus has satisfied all the requirements of the Law so that he can redeem us.
So off goes shoeless Joe, never to be heard of again. There’s an interesting little verse in Galatians 6 verse 15 that says, “Stand… with your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace”. It doesn’t say with your bare feet ready for the Law.
Now notice what comes next after the transaction takes place. Nobody is condemning Boaz for going against the Law and taking this Moabite wife. They saw that Ruth was virtuous, that even though she was a Moabite she had sacrificially loved one of their own and gave her life over to the God of Israel.
Boaz sacrificially loves Ruth by being willing to break the ritualistic Law, while the other guy was not. Now this is going to sound kind of old fashioned, and I never would have said anything like this ten years ago, but I find that women are often out chasing after men to marry. Often they are seeking good looks, money or youth. The biblical model is that the men do the chasing. God chose a wife for Adam and ever since then, throughout the bible the man or the man’s family has gone and sought a wife. The women are responders to the man’s invitation. I know that sounds archaic, but it is the biblical model.
The man is to leave mother and father and love his wife sacrificially. He instructed men to love their wives, he instructed women to respect their husbands. If a man really loves a woman she will respond, if he treats her harshly and cruelly, she will grow cold toward him. Often we think it’s a stereotype, but in my experience it’s true that in the majority of marital problems the man is primarily to blame. The man is given the responsibility of his wife, and the family and often he is not being the sacrificial lover he needs to be. Women don’t need to chase, they need to rest in God and then respond to the man that most resembles Jesus, who chooses her because he wants to give his life for her.
And women I think you would find that no matter what he has beyond that, the ugliest, poorest man who treats you like a gift, and is willing to give you all he has from the inside out will ultimately start to look pretty good compared to the rich pretty boy who cares more about himself than you.
Jesus came to the earth and chose us and we as his bride are to fall at His feet, receive him, respond to him, and get to know him deeply. He shows us what real love is and we don’t have to accept any imposters.
Should we do relationships and marriage the old fashioned, outdated, Biblical way? Recently one of the stars of the show the “Bachelor” took a vocal stance as a born again virgin after he became a Christian when he finished college were he was not a virgin.
A former bachelorette criticized him basically saying how can you really know if you have met the right person if you don’t sleep with them. Well, our culture even in the church agrees with her. 80 percent of unmarried born again young adults say they have been sexually active. Of course if we see this as one of the most important attributes of a relationship, it’s no wonder the majority of relationships don’t last.
Even Dr. Phil who to my knowledge is not necessarily a Christian, says “how’s our unbiblical approach to sex working for us?” North America leads the world in teenage pregnancy with one out of three girls becoming pregnant before the age of twenty, 81% percent of those are not married. 40% of all births in North America take place outside of marriage. Pornography in America makes more money – get this – than Apple, Microsoft, eBay, Amazon, Yahoo, Google, and Netflix combined. And more and more women are accessing it, likely because they want to know how to get a man. And we lead the world in divorce rate and that’s with 20% fewer people getting married than 50 years ago.
We might see the biblical way of doing things as out of date and not realistic, I don’t think any of our wives came and laid at our feet saying “I am your servant, please redeem me”, but that doesn’t mean that His way isn’t the best way that our creator devised for the way he made us. What has really changed that we think today we have better ways?
Well the end of this chapter usually gets skipped over, but I think we can take a couple things away from it. After at least ten years of marriage with her husband Mahlon, Ruth was unable to conceive, but the Lord blesses her and Naomi by giving her a child with Boaz right away, all of this was in His plan, and it works out way better than the plan that this family originally had for itself.
Look at how the elders respond to the coming together of Boaz and Ruth, this is very prophetic. May he make this woman like Rachel and Leah who built up the house of Israel. Ruth certainly gets that honour as the grandmother of King David. Boaz definitely becomes renowned in Bethlehem even generations later through the birth of Jesus.
Then they mention the marriage of Judah’s son Onan and Tamar who gave birth to Perez who we see at the end of the chapter is the great, great, great, great, grandfather of Boaz. And what’s significant about that and what gives these elders such hope is that the marriage of Onan and Tamar was also a levirate marriage where a brother had to redeem his dead, sinful brother’s wife to keep the lineage of Jesus going.
Ruth’s child’s name is Obed which means servant or worshipper. Notice those two words are basically considered the same in that language. The women say to Naomi that even though you lost all your sons, this grandson shall be to you a restorer of life. How true that was as Jesus comes along down the line.
They also say that he is worth more than seven sons to you. The number seven of course referring to perfection or completion. So this grandson is worth more than the perfect number of sons because he would eventually lead to the perfect son of God.
Do you see how all these congratulations are prophecies as well, probably without them even knowing what they were really saying.
Now I know genealogies are never that fun to read, but do you know how important this one is? This ending of the book of Ruth is one of the most crucial passages in all Scripture because without this genealogy we would not have a written connection between the tribe of Judah and the family of David. It only occurs here.
Let me just close with another parallel between Boaz and Jesus. A redeemer had to meet at least five requirements. He had to be a near relative, he had to be willing to redeem, he had to be able to redeem, he must be free himself, and he must have the price of redemption.
The first one of these is most amazing to me. Jesus had to be near, he had to be one of us. This is the sole reason Jesus came to earth as a man. Listen to Hebrews 2:14-18, “Since therefore the children share in the flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”
And in Hebrews 5:2, “He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness.” He knows what it’s like to be human, he was born to a woman under the Law and took upon himself full humanity. He made himself like us so he could redeem us.
So he qualifies on the first point, and of course he is willing and he was free to do it. Jesus did not have to follow through, he was still God, yet he loved us and freely without cause chose “for the joy set before him to endure the cross, despising the shame”. This was not suicide, but he was willing to die for us.
Years ago there was a fire in a boarding house in Texas. A woman ran through the lines into the burning building, it collapsed and she died. The newspaper headline read, “Poor wretch dies: suicide”. Later the paper had to write an apology because it found that in a back room of the building was a little iron bed with the remains of her baby. It wasn’t suicide, she loved her baby and died trying to rescue it.
Jesus was also able, in fact he was the only one that was able to redeem us. Hebrews 7:25, “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” His perfect obedience to the Father made Jesus the only acceptable sacrifice that could save us. This was proved by his resurrection so that we can say with Job that “I know my redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth”.
We stand here today and we thank God for Ruth and Boaz whom God used to give us our redeemer Jesus Christ. And folks you never know when God will use you without you even knowing the future outcome if you are obedient to Him. He loves you and wants to show his love by using you so that you can experience His joy.
