Kinsman Redeemer Aug 23rd 2020 Ruth 4
1. A Relative
2. Possessing the Necessary resources
3. Willing to pay the price
4. Willing to take the “Bride”
Hello, I'm Pastor Greg from Calvary Reformed Church and we are here in Portage at the courthouse. We have a couple of courthouses in Kalamazoo. We have one in Paw Paw as well. We're going to continue our teaching on the book of Ruth and I wanted to be here just because it's a place where law enforcement officers are…where a judge renders a verdict between right and wrong.
We are going to look today at Ruth Chapter 4 concerning right and wrong and about a judge
rendering a verdict (or almost 10 judges rendering a verdict) for Boaz…which then affects Ruth and Naomi. Let's have a word of prayer:
Father God, we come before you and give You thanks for the Book of Ruth. We thank You for all that we have learned, and we ask for continued
insight within our lives through Ruth. It is in Your name we pray, amen.
The Book of Ruth, if you have been following along, is an amazing book. A story of loss, of love, of leaving an area and then returning. It is a story about redemption. This week we are going to look at Chapter 4. Chapter 4 deals with what is called in the Old Testament, a Kinsmen Redeemer.
A Kinsmen Redeemer is simply someone in the old testament and the word they use for it is a ga’al. A ga’al is an individual who is a relative who can buy somebody back if they have been sold into slavery. They can buy somebody's land back if the land had left the family.
If you remember in the Old Testament, Yahweh God had set up that every family was to have a certain amount of land and they would keep that land through generations and generations. The ga’al or the Kinsman Redeemer was able to buy it back for the family. Naomi has lost her husband. Ruth is her daughter-in-law and Ruth has gone out into Boaz's field to glean to provide and Boaz has been very kind to her.
Last week we looked at Chapter 3. Ruth actually shows up on the gleaning floor. While Boaz is sleeping, she uncovers his blanket and sleeps at his feet. He wakes up and she says, Boaz, I want you to cover me with your skirt. I want you to put your wing over me. In other words, she is saying, Boaz, I want you to marry me, to be my kinsman redeemer. You have got to remember that Ruth is a Moabitess. She is a foreigner.
We are going to pick up the story here in Ruth Chapter 4. Meanwhile, Boaz went up to the town gate, the town of Bethlehem. Interesting who else was born in Bethlehem…Jesus. When the kinsman redeemer, the one closer to then Boaz came along,
Boaz said to him, Come over here my friend. Sit down. So, they went and sat down together, and Boaz went to get 10 of the elders of the town.
10 judges/10 elders and he said sit here and they
did. He said to the kinsmen redeemer, the one closer to Naomi, ‘Naomi has come back from Moab. You know about it. She is selling the piece of land that belonged to our brother, Elimelech. I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of all those seated here. If you want to redeem it, do it. But if
Not, tell me so I will know. I am next in line and the closest kinsman redeemer to Naomi. I will buy it. I will redeem it.
I would imagine at that point in time Boaz’s heart might have sunk because he thought, okay, there goes the woman whom I have grown to love, Ruth. Then Boaz says, ‘On the day you buy the land from Naomi and Ruth, the Moabite, the foreigner… In other words, you're going to be buying land from somebody who is not of Jewish or Hebrew heritage, but one from Moab. You will then acquire the land, but also the dead man's widow, Ruth. At this time, the closest kinsmen redeemer said he could not do it. He said I do not want to do it. I am not going to buy the land. I do not want to take Ruth on. I do not want to take on that responsibility.
So, the kinsman redeemer said to Boaz, buy it yourself. He removed his sandal. In the Old Testament, there was the process that when an agreement of land being sold was finished,
at the city gate, the one would take off their sandal and give it to the other as a symbol to the other
that now that new person could walk over that land because it was their land. Boaz announced to the elders at the courthouse, you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property from her husband, from her two sons. I have also acquired Ruth, the Moabite. She will become my wife so that I can maintain the name of Naomi’s husband, the name of Ruth's dead husband…and we will pass on the land to our children.
This Sunday morning in church we're going to get into it a lot more, but I want to bring up four points right now, about a kinsmen redeemer. Again, you have got to remember, a kinsman redeemer is somebody who is a blood relative. Ruth says to Boaz, you are the closest relative, you can marry me and give protection to me. Well there is a few things about the kinsmen redeemer that we need to think about.
First off, it needs to be a blood relative. Think about Jesus Christ within our lives. The Apostle Paul says that Christ was made of woman. Galatians 4 made under the law to redeem those who were under the law. He also says in Philippians Chapter 2, that Jesus Christ, who was in the likeness of men, being found in the fashion as a man, humbled himself and became obedient unto
death. Even death on the cross.
Friends, out of any world religion, any God
that people worship out there, Jesus Christ is the only one who is our brother. He is the only one who took on flesh, became one of us. We can be that blood brother through our DNA with Jesus Christ. I love the fact that there is some of us at church who talk about the fact that we are a brother or a sister through a different mother. We have the same Father God. Boaz is a kinsman. He is a relative to Naomi and by marriage a relative to Ruth. Jesus Christ is that relative to me. He is my brother and I give thanks for that.
Second aspect of a kinsmen redeemer is that they have to possess the necessary resources in order to pay the price.
In Chapter 3, Naomi says to Ruth: Don't worry Ruth, Boaz will take care of it. He has the resources. He will take care of it. We know that in Hebrews Chapter 10 it says that the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ happened once for all. Christ had the resources. He paid for the redemption of my sin once and for all. We know that God is the creator of all. Christ is part of God. In the beginning
was the word and the word was with God and the word was good. So, it says in John 1:1.
Jesus Christ is our brother. Jesus Christ also has the resources, the necessary resources to pay the price for my sin, for your sin. I Corinthians says we were bought with a price. The price of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. I Peter says for you know it is not with perishable things, silver or gold or investments or our property that we were bought with. No. We were bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ who was a lamb without blemish or defect.
The kinsman redeemer had to be a relative. The kinsman redeemer had to have the necessary resources to pay the price.
3rd, The kinsman redeemer also had to be willing to pay the price. The closest redeemer to Naomi and Ruth at first said yes, I want the land. Give me the land, I want to have more money, I want to make more money. But, when he heard about having to have Ruth as his wife, he is like nope. Not going to do that! I cannot do that. I do not want to jeopardize my own son’s inheritance. I do not want to jeopardize what I have. It is interesting here, because the idea of a kinsmen redeemer is to buy back the land. But as you are learning now it's also to raise up a son to continue the family name. We are going to talk about that a little bit more next week.
It happens multiple times in scripture in the Old Testament. Even in the New Testament when the Sadducees come to Jesus and they say hey Jesus what's going to happen when their seven brothers and the oldest brother marries a woman and he dies and then all six brothers end up marrying the woman and they all die without a son in their family? Who is she going to be married to in Heaven? Jesus says no, no you do not understand. In Heaven there is no marrying and burying. What they are asking is each one of those brothers had to marry their sister-in-law in order to raise up a son to continue their family.
So we see here, Boaz is willing to pay the purchase price. He's willing to pay the price where the other closest relative was not. Jesus says to us in John 10, I lay down my life for the sheep and the reason my Father loves me is that I lay it down freely. We are told in 1 John 3:16 Christ laid down his life for us and we also ought to lay down our lives for others. In I Timothy 2 it says Jesus Christ gave himself as a ransom for all people. The first part of the verse is that He is part of humanity. The man Christ Jesus gave himself ransom for all people. He was willing to pay the price. Now this has been witnessed so says, Paul through Timothy. It is witness at the proper time. There had to be ten witnesses when Boaz was asking the other kinsman redeemer. And then when he said no, Boaz says okay. I will buy the land. I will pay for it and I will also acquire Ruth as my wife and Naomi as a mother-in-law. He was willing to purchase it.
There is a fourth aspect I have already gotten into a little bit. but the kinsmen redeemer must be willing to take the woman as his bride. Boaz is willing to take a foreign woman. One who the Jewish people, the Hebrew people, and the Moabite people have been at odds with for years. But Boaz says, I will take her in. The Moabite people are descendants of Lot, who is the nephew to Abraham.
One of Lot's daughters tricked father Lot into incest that took place so their DNA they're together but they have an animosity against each other.
But Boaz is willing to take on the bride and to fulfill the Old Testament law of raising up a son, a daughter. But raising up the son to carry on the name of Naomi’s and of Ruth's first husband taking on the bride, John writes in the book of revelation-- says for the wedding of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. Meaning the church is the bride of Christ.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians, I promise you to one husband, to Jesus Christ, so that I might present to you the church as a pure virgin to Jesus Christ the church. Those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior are the bride of Christ.
Boaz is the symbol of the kinsman redeemer. The one paying for my sin. I cannot pay for my sin. There is nothing that I can do to earn my own salvation. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. My sin pulls me down. My sin daily pulls me down and yet it is by the grace of God that I am lifted up through the kinsman redeemer Jesus Christ.
? The One who was a relative to mine. The brother to me.
? The one who possessed the necessary resources to pay for my and for your sin.
? The One who was willing to pay the price on the cross for the burial to descend into hell but then also resurrected.
? And the One who was willing to take the bride. Willing to take me. Willing to take you, the church, to be with Him for eternity.
Friends, we are going to continue next week with looking at the end of Ruth Chapter 4. But between now and then I hope you take time to read the whole book of Ruth. I also hope you take time to reflect
on how Jesus Christ is that kinsman redeemer in
our lives. And though you and I sometimes think we need to earn our own salvation…it is what Christ has done. He has redeemed me, He has sanctified me,
He has made me whole. He has called me perfect.
Not through myself, but through His grace alone.
Name of the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May He lift up His grace upon you and grant you grace and strength in your life, amen.
I encourage you to read the entire book of Ruth before our next teaching. It is only 4 chapters - 88 verses or so.
God bless you
