Here Comes the Bride
Ruth Series
Chuck Sligh
September 1, 2013
TEXT: Read the whole chapter: Ruth 4:1-22
INTRODUCTION
Everyone likes a story with a happy ending, and the Book of Ruth is that kind of story. The book began with 3 funerals and 3 weeping widows; it ends with a wedding and, ultimately, the joyful birth of a baby boy, as we will see. At the beginning of the book of Ruth, everything is falling apart; at the end, life has been put back together again.
If this story were a work of fiction, someone might say, “But life isn’t that way. People don’t always live happily ever after.” That’s true; but the book of Ruth IS true, and these events happened to real people. Everything ended “happily ever after” because the characters of the story obeyed God.
Before we begin our study, let me give a little bit of historical background to help you understand chapter 4: God gave a law on the children of Israel that reinforced a very important principle in the Word of God.
The principle is that we do not own anything because God owns everything. We just use what God gives us. When we act as if WE’RE the owners, we begin to love our possessions too much, which can turn into a subtle form of idolatry. When we understand that we are only the USERS of the possessions God has entrusted to our care, then we understand the principle of stewardship.
Now this principle was applied to the people of Israel in the ownership of their land. GOD owned their land and the land was assigned to the various tribes and families. The land was intended to stay within that tribe and within that family.
If a family became destitute and had to sell their land, it would revert back to them in the Year of Jubilee, which occurred once every 50 years, OR a wealthy relative could redeem the land for them, and it had to be sold back to the kinsman-redeemer if he could pay the price. This is the law of the kinsman-redeemer that we have been talking about that plays itself out in chapter 4.
Now let’s note two important points from this passage of Scripture:
I. FIRST LET’S CONSIDER RUTH’S REDEMPTION – Verses 1-10
One word that is repeated many times in this passage and in chapter 3 is the word “redeem.”
“Redeem” simply means “to buy back” or “to purchase.”
Note three aspects of the law of the kinsman-redeemer we see in this chapter, which pictures our own redemption in OUR Boaz, the Lord Jesus Christ:
• First, note the CHARACTERISTICS of the redeemer
According to the Law of Moses given by God, not just anyone could be a redeemer. He had to meet three conditions:
1) He had to BE A CLOSE RELATIVE first of all.
Not just anyone could waltz in and redeem someone from servitude or redeem someone who had lost his land. In fact, not just any relative would do. It had to be a NEAR kinsman—that is, a close relative.
For Jesus Christ to redeem us, He had to be our near kinsman. But He was eternal, omniscient, omnipotent God.
How did He become our “near-kinsman”? – Hebrews 2:14-15 – “Forasmuch, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same, that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”
In order to redeem us, Jesus became a near kinsman by becoming human like us.
2) Second, the kinsman-redeemer had to BE ABLE TO REDEEM.
The relative had to have the money to pay the price. Jesus was able to pay our price of redemption because He was perfect and holy.
Use a couple or three of these verses: Heb. 4:15; 7:27; 1 Pet. 2:22; 1 Jn. 3:5; 2 Cor. 5:2; John 8:46.
His perfect holiness cancels all our debt of sin! He was fully able to pay our debt.
3) Finally, he had to BE WILLING TO REDEEM.
The closer relative in Ruth 4 was apparently able to redeem Ruth, but he was not willing. When initially presented with the idea, he was agreeable because he thought it would add to his estate. – Note verse 4 – “And I thought to advertise thee, saying, Buy it before the inhabitants, and before the elders of my people. If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it: but if thou wilt not redeem it, then tell me, that I may know: for there is none to redeem it beside thee; and I am after thee. And he said, I will redeem it.”
But in verse 6 we see that he had changed his mind – “And the kinsman said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance: redeem thou my right to thyself; for I cannot redeem it.”
Why did he change his mind? In verse 5, Boaz explained that if the closer relative redeemed the land, he also had to marry Ruth the Moabitess as part of the deal – “Then said Boaz, What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.”
At the death of Elimelech, Ruth’s deceased father-in-law, the property rights had passed to his son, Mahlon, and therefore to Mahlon’s wife, Ruth, upon his death.
Marriage to Ruth, therefore, had to be included in the redemption. In addition, according to the law of the kinsman-redeemer in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, a son should be raised up to perpetuate the family name if Ruth could bear one.
So when the closer relative realized everything that would be involved in the redemption, he realized that if Ruth bore him a son, that son would eventually inherit not only the redeemed property, but part of his own estate too. That’s why he said in verse 6, “…I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance…”
The point is that though the closer relative was ABLE to redeem Ruth, he was NOT WILLING.
But Boaz was both able AND willing to redeem Ruth – Look at two verses:
> Ruth 3:11 – “And now, my daughter, fear not; I will do [he was willing] to thee all that thou requirest: for all the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman.”
> Ruth 4:1 – “Then went Boaz up to the gate, and sat him down there: and, behold, the kinsman of whom Boaz spake came by; unto whom he said, Ho, such a one! turn aside, sit down here. And he turned aside, and sat down.” [Here we see he put feet to his words.]
Jesus—our Boaz—was also willing to redeem us. He showed that willingness by coming to earth and paying the ultimate price—His life—to redeem us. He was willing to redeem us because of His great love for us.
Note Hebrews 12:2 – “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Now, these comments have related to the CHARACTERISTICS of a redeemer according to the stipulations of the law of the kinsman-redeemer.
• The second aspect of this law related to the COST of redemption.
A price HAD to be paid for Ruth to be redeemed. Boaz could not go to the gate and say, “Let’s all be very gracious and loving. Why can’t the man who acquired Elimelech’s land just forgive all past debts and give Naomi and Ruth back their land and enable them to have a new beginning?”
That would not have been just because the buyer had purchased the land in good faith at a cost. Boaz knew that the only just way to redeem Naomi and Ruth was to act in accordance to the just laws God had laid down in the Law of Moses.
Likewise, God doesn’t save us purely on the basis of His LOVE, but also on the basis of His JUSTICE. God does not just overlook and forget our sin. He can only forgive sin which has been paid for. God followed the requirements of His own Law and paid the price that the Law demanded.
What was the price?
“The wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23)
“…The soul that sinneth it shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:4)
God’s Son fulfilled the requirements of the Law by paying our penalty in our place: 1 Peter 3:18 – “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.”
• The third aspect of of the law of the kinsman-redeemer relates to the RESULTS of redemption.
Whenever a kinsman-redeemer paid the redemption price for a relative or his property in the fashion we see described in the Bible, you can imagine the joy it brought the redeemed!
In Ruth’s and Naomi’s case, their lives were put back together! Their PAST was behind them and all their debts were paid. Their PRESENT was assured because they were no longer in debt and destitute. – In fact, now they shared the riches of Boaz! Their FUTURE was insured because they now had an inheritance in Boaz and his wealth. – They knew he would take care of them.
How did all this come about?—Someone paid a price! And so it was with OUR Boaz who bought us from the slave-market of sin.
I love that chorus we sing that goes…
He paid a debt He did not owe.
I owed a debt I could not pay.
I needed someone to wash my sins away.
And now I sing a brand new song—
Amazing Grace the whole day long;
Christ Jesus paid the debt that I could never pay!
All of this related to Ruth’s REDEMPTION.
II. LET’S CLOSE OUR STUDY OF THE BOOK OF RUTH BY CONSIDERING RUTH’S REWARD – Verses 13-17
One of the most obvious messages of the Book of Ruth is the truth that God rewards faithfulness. All through the book, Ruth is a shining example of a faithful, godly woman.
What were Ruth’s rewards for her faithfulness?
• First, we see that God gave her A HUSBAND – verse 13a – “So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife:…”
• Second, God gave her AN HEIR – verse 13b – “…and when he went in unto her, the LORD gave her conception, and she bare a son.”
• Third, God gave her A HERITAGE
Note verses 21-22 – “And Salmon begat Boaz, and Boaz begat Obed, 22 And Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David.”
Compare that with Matthew 1:5-6, 16 – “And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz [Boaz] begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse; 6 And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias; 16 And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.”
Ruth became one of the ancestors of the line of David (in fact, she was David’s great-grandmother) which ultimately was the line through which the Messiah, Jesus Christ, would come.
• Finally, God gave her HONOR
Note Matthew 1:5 – “And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab [Rahab]; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse;”
Ruth is one of only two Gentile, both females, mentioned in the lineage of Jesus.
CONCLUSION
What is the conclusion of the book of Ruth? The conclusion is this: IT PAYS TO DO RIGHT AND TO TRUST IN GOD!
The application for us is simple: TRUST IN HIM! Trust God with your whole life. He knows what He is doing. He knows the beginning from the end. You can’t be in any safer place than in His hands.
