Redeemed For a Purpose

Ruth 4:1 – 22

 

This past Friday would have been my dad’s 83^rd birthday. This past Wednesday made 8 years since he passed away. Growing up I never really got to hear a whole lot of family history, but in the aftermath of his passing my uncles found themselves sharing some interesting stories about my family.

 

I’d known the basics, my dad was the eldest of 12 children, the firstborn. Born in the Azores, he took his father’s place to immigrate here after a volcanic eruption on their island. He took his father's place because my grandparents were expecting baby number 12.

 

Each of them immigrated here later on as well, and my dad played a pivotal role in each of their immigrations, including having some of his brothers live with and work for him as they got established here. Boy did they hate working for the big brother.

 

But perhaps the most unique story of my family’s history is how my grandmother, who birthed 12 children, came to be and inherited the substantial property she came to possess. My grandmother was an only child, born to a 70 year old man who was a remarried widower.

 

My great grandfather was one of five brothers. As they grew up, one brother moved to Brazil, met a woman, got married, and started a family and life there. He wrote back to his remaining four brothers in the Azores and told them to distribute whatever he owned there amongst themselves because his life was now in Brazil and he was never going back.

 

Of the remaining four brothers, only my great grandfather got married, the other three remained single and childless. My great grandfather became a widower without a child, and so he remarried. He then had my grandmother, my father’s mother, who then had twelve kids of her own. God works in mysterious ways, doesn’t he?

 

Because my grandmother was the only child among those four brothers, it fell to her to care for her father and her three uncles as they aged. As the only child in the family, she inherited all of their property.

When she passed in 2004, 16 years after my grandfather, all that she had inherited and acquired passed down to her 12 children, or their heirs (one of my uncles passed away before she did). Those who didn’t want to deal with foreign property sold their shares to their siblings. In this way, property remained in the family across generations.

 

That’s something we don’t see as much in our day and age. It still exists, but in our transactional world, so much generational property gets sold out of necessity or greed. This idea that family land ought to remain in the family is not new. In fact, we see it at work throughout much of the Bible, including here in Ruth. Let’s read God’s Word: Ruth 4:1 – 12.

 

Israel had a unique and distinctive theology of land and family. Considering they were gifted a foreign land by God to call their own, they believed that the individual portions of land granted to each family was a gift from God and must remain within the family.

 

They also believed that a family must remain intact in order for the life of the ancestors to continue. If it didn’t, they viewed that ancestor as being blotted out or cut off from the future of their people. Dealing with inheritance and widowhood in the OT was so much more than a practical matter, it was a theological one.

 

We left off in Ruth 3, where Naomi came up with a plan to make sure Ruth would be provided for. Naomi sent Ruth to Boaz’s threshing floor at night, where she was to get close to him and ask him to redeem her because he is a kinsman redeemer. Boaz say’s he’d be honored to, but there is another man who is the kinsman redeemer, and Boaz needed to make it known to him that he has a duty to fulfil.

 

Ruth went back to Naomi and told her what happened, and Naomi confidently asserted that Boaz wouldn’t rest until it was resolved. That’s where chapter 4 picks up in the story. Boaz indeed didn’t rest until the matter was handled that day. It was the very same morning, Ruth went home to Naomi, but Boaz went up to the city gate.

 

Cities in those days didn’t have city halls or county courthouses. Instead, business and legal proceedings were conducted at the city gate. The city gate looked like this, usually had multiple rooms within it. Stronger and more significant cities, like Gezer pictured here, would have larger gates. Bethlehem being less significant, likely had a smaller gate.

As was customary, if someone had business to conduct, they went to the gate and then waited for the other person to arrive and also went out and sought the city elders as witnesses. What’s truly ironic here is that Scripture tells us in v.1 “And behold, the redeemer, of whom Boaz had spoken, came by.” Was this by chance? Was this just “luck” that as soon as Boaz sat down at the gate this guy came by? By no means!

 

Throughout Ruth God’s hand is seen at work, and the redeemer passing by at that time was not coincidence. Boaz had told Ruth in 3:13 that if the nearer redeemer would not redeem her, as the Lord lives, he would redeem her. Boaz invoked the name of YHWH when he promised Ruth that he would redeem her, as such God made sure that opportunity readily presented itself.

 

When the redeemer walks by, Boaz calls out to him, but not by name. Surely if this guy was a relative Boaz would have known his name. While most of our English translations say Boaz called him “friend,” the modern English translation of the Hebrew Bible, which is our OT, has the idiom used by Boaz that our Bible’s say friend translated instead as “Mr. So-and-So.”

 

He might as well have called out to him as he walked by and yelled, “Hey, you!” This is deliberate by the writer of Ruth. This guy is the kinsman redeemer, yet this guy has no real bearing on the story. In fact, as is seen here in the rest of the passage, he’d rather not fulfill his responsibility. Essentially, Mr. So-and-So might as well be Mr. Irrelevant because his name isn’t going to matter or be remembered.

 

Once Mr. Hey You sits down, Boaz goes and rounds up ten of the city elders and brings them over to the gate and has them sit down. Then he makes it known to the redeemer that Naomi is looking for someone to redeem her dead husband’s property.

 

The Book of Ruth doesn’t say what happened to Elimelech’s property when he took his family to Moab, but it’s likely that he had sold it because of famine and poverty. As such, a relative, a go’el, would be able to redeem it, at least the use of it until the year of jubilee according to Mosaic law. Naomi wasn’t trying to sell it out right, she didn’t even possess it. Boaz is saying that Naomi is seeking someone to redeem it. But this raises some questions here. If this was merely informational, why did Boaz call the elders? And how is this doing what Ruth asked for?

The answer and purpose behind the first question is made apparent in v.4, Boaz intends to redeem the portion of land belonging to Elimelech himself, if the nearer redeemer won’t do it. The elders are there to witness the transfer of the right of the go’el, the right to be the kinsman redeemer, not the acquiring of property.

 

That transaction will have to come later, but it’s never discussed further in the Book of Ruth because it’s not the point of the Book of Ruth. As for the second question about redeeming Ruth, that answer is up ahead.

 

The nearer redeemer, figures more land wouldn’t hurt so he agrees to do it. And now Boaz introduces the plot twist. In v.5 Boaz tells the nearer redeemer that when he acquires the land of Elimelech from Naomi, he also acquires Ruth, the Moabite, the widow of the dead. He adds a very specific reason, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance.

 

While it’s been said in the Book of Ruth that Naomi was left empty, with no hope of a future, here is the first mention of the purpose for redeeming Ruth. This is how Boaz intends to do for Ruth what she asked of him. Boaz understood that the key to getting the hand of Ruth was to get the right of redeeming her dead father-in-law’s property.

 

But this reason of perpetuating the name of the dead is not found anywhere in the Mosaic law regarding the duty of the go’el. Instead, it is found in Deuteronomy 25, as the duty of the levir and the levirate marriage. In the Mosaic law, the duty of the levir fell to a brother-in-law to keep the name of his dead brother alive, but in all the laws regarding the redeemer the nearest relative would suffice if there were no brothers.

 

With this revelation about Ruth to the redeemer, Boaz is challenging the go’el to keep the name of Elimelech’s family line alive, but he is not appealing to the letter of the law in Deuteronomy 25, rather to its spirit.

 

Neither man was legally bound by Deuteronomy 25, but that didn’t absolve the moral obligation. Remember Israel’s unique and distinct theology about land and families. Boaz was fully prepared to act on these grounds, the question is, was the go’el?

 

 

 

What becomes abundantly clear here is that Boaz’s concern was not for the land, or even so much as for Ruth’s welfare, but for the line of Elimelech. The end of the story brings out the importance of this, and makes this sentence here in v.5 one of the most significant in the book.

 

The nearer redeemer, however, at this point balks at the deal. He responds in v.6 that he cannot redeem it for himself, lest he impairs his own inheritance. He gives the right of redemption to Boaz, because he cannot redeem it. Here’s the transaction that the elders were called to witness.

 

The redeemer legitimizes this transfer of the right of redemption by taking off his sandal and giving it to Boaz. The Book of Ruth includes this little parenthetical statement in v.7 that was the custom in Israel in the old days, apparently this custom was just as strange when Ruth was written as it is today that it needed to be explained. Interestingly, another version of this is in Deuteronomy 25.

 

When this was done, Boaz calls out to the elders and says that they are witnesses that he now has the right of the go’el, the kinsman redeemer, and that he was invoking that right. He was acquiring all that belonged to Elimelech and his sons, Chilion and Mahlon. With that came taking Ruth, the Moabite and widow of Mahlon, to be his wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead, to ensure the family line of Elimelech did not die out.

 

Now, this isn’t to minimize or compartmentalize Boaz’s motives. He clearly states what his concern is in redeeming Ruth, to make sure the line of Elimelech is cut off from his people. But his actions throughout the entire book of Ruth show readers a pious man of God, who demonstrates real hesed to Ruth, and who is grateful for the pious hesed shown by Ruth, a foreigner and a widow.

 

Boaz views the continuation of his dead relative’s family line as the least he can do in redeeming Ruth. Boaz’s care and love for Ruth are firmly rooted in his own love for God, as should be every Christian’s love for one another, and especially as a foundation for marriage.

 

By the time the deal was struck with the nearer redeemer, it wasn’t just the ten elders at the gate but many others came to see what was going on. Everyone there became witnesses to what Boaz had done. And they all responded positively, agreeing with Boaz that they were witnesses.

With their acceptance of their role in the legal proceeding that just took place, they fulfilled their obligation as witnesses. But they haven’t finished speaking yet. The crowd breaks out in the pronouncement of an emotional blessing upon Boaz.

 

Their request of God concerning Ruth is truly extraordinary considering she began this story as a foreign widow. They call upon God to make her like Rachel and Leah, the wives of Jacob and matriarchs of the tribes and nation of Israel. They were praying that YHWH would grant this foreign woman a place among the matriarchs of Israel. Extraordinary.

 

They add that Boaz act worthily, that he act honorably, and so be blessed with prosperity for continuing to act according to his godly character. And then the crowd specifically brings in the house of Perez, which Boaz descends from. As if reinforcing the concept of the levirate marriage they cite Perez, the son of Judah and Tamar.

 

Boaz and Ruth have been shown from the beginning to the end of the book to be people with righteous character, people with the highest ethical standards; they both embody covenantal hesed. But the people didn’t appeal to their characters as the reason for blessing them with children. Instead they appealed to God.

 

Their blessing that God would build up Boaz’s house through Ruth like He did for Israel through Rachel and Leah highlights two important facts here in the Book of Ruth, the purpose of Boaz’s marriage to Ruth is to fulfill the duty of the levir, to perpetuate the name of his dead relative, and more importantly, that it is God who builds the house. Without Him, as Psalm 127:1 says, people labor in vain.

 

God is the one who builds the house. God is the one who from before the beginning of the earth, before sin had even entered the picture, already had the plan for redemption. He built it into His people, he built it into His law, and the Book of Ruth is a beautiful picture of redemption in the life of believers, and beautiful step in God’s plan of redemption.

 

Because God is the Author of redemption, you can trust His redemptive work through Jesus Christ on the cross and embrace God’s purpose for redeeming you.

 

 

The folks who uttered those words of blessing on Boaz had no idea how prophetic their words would be. Even the author of Ruth didn’t know. Let’s go back to our passage from Ruth to see how this turned out for them. Let’s read Ruth 4:13 – 22.

 

God’s hand is present throughout that entire story, and the end of it is no exception. Boaz takes Ruth as his wife, and the Lord enabled her to conceive. She had been married to Mahlon, the son of Elimelech and Naomi for TEN years, without conceiving a child. God had a purpose for that, He had a plan in place for Ruth, but a greater plan for humanity.

 

Ruth bore a son, and while the women of the city praised God because He didn’t leave Naomi without a redeemer, the reality is God didn’t leave humanity without a Redeemer. The women of the town praise Ruth as being worth more than seven sons, because of her love for Naomi. But most significant is their prayer that the name of this son be renowned in Israel. Who is he? Who is Obed?

 

Nothing about Obed’s life is ever mentioned in the entirety of the Bible. No stories about him are ever told. Obed is, however, always listed as he is here, the son of Boaz and the father of Jesse, who is the father of David. Yes, King David. God’s purpose in redeeming Ruth is to preserve the royal line from Judah to David, and beyond that.

 

Seeing God’s hand at work throughout the Book of Ruth and the impact it has on our redemption from sin makes this one of the most beautiful books in the Bible. This book and this genealogy shows us that in the dark days of the judges the chosen line is preserved not by heroic deeds by deliverers or kings, but by the mighty hand of God.

 

In the dark days of the judges the foundation is laid for the line that would produce the Savior of the world, the Messiah, the Redeemer of a lost and destitute humanity. That’s something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, and that is something to remember as we prepare to celebrate His birth in a month.

 

Through David, the prayer of the women is fulfilled. The name of David certainly renowned in all of Israel. And further down the line, the name of Jesus is renowned in all the world. This was certainly beyond the imagination of the Hebrew writer of Ruth, but it certainly was always part of God’s plan for the redemption of humanity.

God’s plan of redemption is not the one anyone on earth would have chosen. It’s why it was so difficult for the Jewish ruling elite of Jesus’ day to accept Him. But accepting Him as Lord and Savior is the only way to be redeemed from our sin.

 

The Book of Ruth tells a story of the redemption of an Israelite family that leads to the king of Israel. But it points the greater story of Jesus Christ as our kinsman redeemer, redeeming us from our sin and taking us as His church, His bride. The love and care demonstrated by Boaz is a shadow that sets the stage for the love and care and sacrifice of Christ to redeem His bride from their sin.

 

And understand that you were redeemed for a purpose. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Sharing the gospel, providing for your loved ones, serving His church, all that you do ought to be done to bring glory to God.

 

I want you to take this understanding of God’s glorious work of redemption into this week of Thanksgiving by doing these three things.

 

Remember WHO you’re giving thanks to. God is the author of your redemption, Jesus is the perfecter of your faith, the Spirit is your helper to persevere in life. 2 Corinthians 13:14. Remember to thank God for who He is. Deuteronomy 6:4.

 

Remember WHY you’re giving thanks. You were dead in your sin; there was nothing good in you before you were saved. You were an enemy of God. Faith in Jesus Christ changed all that, Christ is your Redeemer, give thanks for His sacrifice on the cross that paid the price of your redemption. Romans 5:8.

 

Remember WHEN to give thanks. Being thankful isn’t restricted just to the Thanksgiving holiday or season. Being thankful must be a regular posture and attitude of your lives.

 

During Christmastime we always talk about remembering the real reason for the season. Remembering the real reason for the season begins with Thanksgiving, not the day but the heart attitude. If you ever feel like you have nothing to be thankful for, you must remember that you always have redemption in Christ Jesus to be thankful for.

Let’s pray.