09/11/2008
Ruth 4:13 - 17 (HCSB) 13Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he was intimate with her, the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 14Then the women said to Naomi, “Praise the LORD, who has not left you without a family redeemer today. May his name be famous in Israel. 15He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. Indeed, your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” 16Naomi took the child, placed him on her lap, and took care of him. 17The neighbor women said, “A son has been born to Naomi,” and they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
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Continuing with the story of Ruth: when she and Naomi returned to Bethlehem, they were in possession a parcel of land which had been passed to Ruth’s husband. But as a woman, she could not legally own property. Therefore a kinsman redeemer (or family redeemer) – that is, a male relative - was needed to buy the land. This family redeemer had the first right of refusal to buy the property to retain it in the family.
As it turned out, Boaz was a family redeemer, but not the closest family member. Boaz waited at the city gates and made his proposal to the nearest family member. Because the other family member did not want to take Ruth as a wife, he let the property fall to Boaz. Boaz bought the property and took Ruth, a Moabite woman, as his wife.
Now, in those days, they did not have lawyers and courts as we do. Legal matters were conducted at the city gates in the presence of other witnesses. Then, the two parties to the contract would swap a sandal to bind the contract. Boaz found 10 witnesses to this transaction so that if any dispute arose later on, he would be able to corroborate the contract with at least one witness. There was no paper with signatures.
The idea of the Kinsman Redeemer is a picture of Christ buying us back from our sinful condition. But in this story, I see another subtle message. While the Jews were the chosen people, Ruth, a Moabite woman becomes the great-grandmother of David, Israel’s greatest king. What this tells me is that the Jews were not chosen because of their pedigree, necessarily, but the Jewish nation was chosen because of their devotion. We have already seen in Ruth an admirable devotion to Naomi and her desire to join with Naomi’s people.
God invites all people into His kingdom. The qualifications to join into this kingdom are only that we become the bride (as it were) of the Kinsman Redeemer, that is, Jesus.
Jeff Justus
Cleff Publishing
www.cleffpublishing.com
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