Ruth 4
McGeeCHAPTER 4THEME: In the heart and home of BoazRuth has come all the way from the land of Moab into the heart and home of Boaz. And we who were at one time strangers, far from God, without hope in the world, now have been made nigh by the blood of Christ. We today are in the family of God; we are in His heart. And one of these days we are going to be in His home. What a glorious, wonderful prospect we have of someday being with Him! In this chapter we will see the work of Boaz. He has had to stand aside with his arms folded, but now he is free to move because Ruth has claimed him as her kinsman-redeemer. And I say this reverently to you, my friend: Christ, like Boaz, is not free to move in your behalf until you claim Him as your Kinsman-Redeemer. Christ died on the Cross for you; He went through hell for you; and He even today stands at the door of your heart and knocks, saying, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Rev_3:20). But He won’t crash the door. You will have to invite Him in.
God offers the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus, but you have to reach out your hand and take it by faith. By faith you receive Christ. Boaz is ready to act in the capacity of kinsman-redeemer. Ruth is to wait and let him be the one to make all the arrangements. He is the one now who will step out into the open and claim her, actually jeopardizing everything that he has and everything that he is. But he wants her; he loves her. This is the great message of this book: redemption is a romance; because God loves us He redeemed us.
Ruth 4:1
“Boaz went up to the gate.” Why did he go there? Well, simply because the gate served as the courthouse. That’s where court convened. In our American way of life, in the past at least, the custom was to build the courthouse in the center of town, put a square around it, and actually build the town around it. In the state of Texas where I was born that was done in nearly all of the county seats. In the days of Boaz it was different. You see, many of the towns were walled in order to protect the citizens from any marauder or enemy that would attack from the outside. The cities were very compactstreets were narrow, and houses were crowded close together. You can see that today in Bethlehem and in Jerusalem. Most of the old cities over there reveal this. Bethlehem in Ruth’s day was that kind of place, so that the gate was the place where everybody came in or went out.
Like the courthouse in the old days, especially on a Saturday, if you wanted to see anybody in the county, you’d just go to the courthouse square, and the chances were you would see him. Well, here in the Old Testament times they went to the gate. Now Boaz went to the gate for two reasons. It was where court convened, and he was going to take this other kinsman to court. The second reason is that he knows the other man will come in or out of that gate sooner or later that day. So he went to the gate, sat down, and waited there for him.
Now I do not know how long he waitedit probably seemed a long time to Boazbut finally the man he wanted to see came by. Now this man was a kinsman to Ruth and was nearer than Boaz. I do not know the relationship. In these early days they did not express relationships specifically. You just couldn’t narrow it down to a second cousin or a kissing cousin. A man was either kin to you or he wasn’t kin to you.
And the same word would be used for a brother or an uncle or some other relationship. I assume that this other man was a brother of Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, which made him an uncle of Ruth’s first husband. So when Boaz sees him, he says, “Ho, such a one!” Now the question arises, didn’t he know him by name? And I think the answer is yes, he knew him by name. We’ve all done something similar, I’m sure. Even though we know the person’s name, just on the spur of the moment, we may address him without using his name.
And Boaz, in the excitement of the situation, fails to call him by name. I’m confident Boaz knew him. They both lived there in Bethlehem, and they were related apparently by blood. So this other kinsman came and sat down. He responded to what was almost a command from Boaz. And I think that his reaction would have been simply this: “What in the world has happened to Boaz?
Here it is the harvesting season and we’re all busy in the fields, and he is detaining me. He must have something very important to discuss. This is really unusual.” So the kinsman, if for no other reason than that of curiosity, wants to know what it is that’s on the mind of Boaz.
Ruth 4:2
These ten men were elders, we’re told, and they were the ones who constituted the judges. This is the courthouse, and court’s in session. You will find way back in the Book of Genesis, that the men who came to the city of Sodom found Lot was sitting at the gate. Lot had become a petty judge there in the city of Sodom. Even that far back the city gate served as the courthouse, and the men who sat in the gate were the judges. Now Boaz has called the court into session, and they’re ready to hear the case. And Boaz is ready to state it, by the way. Notice the strategy of this man. It’s quite remarkable.
Ruth 4:3
Now notice the approach Boaz makes. Although he is primarily interested in Ruth, he doesn’t even mention her at first. And does this verse mean that Boaz was Elimelech’s brother also? Not in the Hebrew. “Our brother Elimelech” would mean “our near relative.” Apparently there was a difference between these two men’s relationships to Elimelech, or one kinsman wouldn’t have been nearer than the other. He had to be nearer than Boaz was. In his approach, Boaz says that there’s a piece of property involved.
We have already seen that there was a law pertaining to property which involved the kinsman-redeemer. This law could be put into effect when a person’s property fell into the hands of others through varied circumstances. In the case of Naomi, she and her family had left during a famine. When she came back, she had nothing. She could not retrieve her property. She would have to wait until the Year of Jubilee, and I assume that was a long way off.
But now what is going to happen? Will a kinsman-redeemer come forward? Boaz is calling this other kinsman’s attention, not to the person of Ruth, but to the property that belonged to Elimelech. He wants to know whether this other kinsman will redeem that property. I think that it’s a logical step. Property had to be redeemed before a person could be redeemed. Now Boaz says,
Ruth 4:4
In other words, Boaz gives this man the priority that belongs to him. And the question is: Does this man want to be the redeemer? Will he redeem this property in order that it might be given to Naomi before the Year of Jubilee? Now the very interesting thing is that this other kinsman responds in the affirmative. He says, “I will redeem it.” Apparently he was a generous man, and he was willing to perform the part of a kinsman in this connection. And I take it that if a man refused to be a kinsman, it brought upon him a certain amount of criticism, in fact, it brought a degree of disgrace.
And I think that when this man agreed to redeem the property, Boaz’s heart must have gone way down into his sock. But he would not give up. He had prepared for this eventuality, and he was ready now to reveal his hand, and to show that there was more to this case than just a piece of property.
Ruth 4:5
It’s as if Boaz said, “Well, I forgot to tell you that there is in connection with this property, a little hurdle that you’ll have to get over. You see, there is now a woman by the name of Ruth. She’s a Moabitess, and she’s connected with the property because she happened to marry a son of Elimelech. And now that both he and Elimelech are dead, she’ll be the one to inherit this land. So the day that you redeem this property, you’ve also got to redeem this woman; that is, you’ll have to step in and marry Ruth, because she’s tied to this property.” And I think Boaz made the problem very clear. And you’ll notice he let the man know the nationality of the woman involved. “She is a Moabitess.” Now the Mosaic Law says very specifically in Deu_23:3, “An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD.” It would mean that if this man brought Ruth into the congregation of the Lord, it would jeopardize his own property.
Now Boaz will not mind doing that. To tell the truth, Boaz will be delighted to do that. He loves her and he is willing to make whatever sacrifice is involved. But this other man doesn’t even know her. All he knows is that she is a woman of Moab. Regardless of what he may have heard, he certainly is not interested in marrying her, and he makes that very clear.
Ruth 4:6
Now I assume that this other kinsman was already married. It’s quite possible that he had grown children the age of Boaz, and that his children were married. His property already would be allotted to his children. To marry this woman of Moab would jeopardize everything that he owned. He would be risking everything by marrying Ruth and bringing her into the congregation of the Lord. Very candidly, this other kinsman probably was right in what he said, that he could not redeem the property and Ruth because his own inheritance would be marred. Then he tells Boaz, “You go ahead and take my right of redemption to yourself if this is what you want to do.” Now I have attempted to lift out of this little book some of the great spiritual lessons that are hereand there are many. The kinsman-redeemer is one of the most marvelous pictures that we have of our Lord Jesus Christ who redeemed us. In other words, as we said at the very beginning, this story is a picture of our redemption. This is the way our Kinsman-Redeemer has acted in our behalf. Also we have a marvelous picture in this other kinsman. What does he represent? I personally think that he represents the Mosaic Law. To begin with, he’s nameless. The Law could not redeem us. It was impossible for the Law to redeem us.
That’s made very clear in the New Testament. “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (Rom_3:20). The Law was never given to be a redeemer. The Law was given to reveal man’s true condition. Paul calls it a ministration of condemnation (2Co_3:9) and a ministration of death (2Co_3:7). The Law was never a savior. The Law actually condemned us rather than saved us.
It was given as an attempt to control the old nature. There was really never anyone who got saved by keeping the precepts of the Law. It was only as they brought the sacrifice that pointed to Christ that they were ever made acceptable to God. And that’s the reason the great Day of Atonement was so important. It covered the sins of ignorance for everyone in Israel. On that day their attention was called to the fact that they needed a Savior even to deliver them from the Law.
Like the other kinsman, the Law was unable to save. The other kinsman said it would mar his own inheritance. And the Law would have to lower its standards if it saved you or me, friend. I hear a great many people who talk rather foolishly about keeping the Law. They say, “I live by the Ten Commandments,” or “I live by the Sermon on the Mount.” Well, do you? There are those that say, “That’s my religion.” If that is your religion, I have a question for you: How are you getting along?
Are you keeping it? “Oh,” somebody says, “I’m trying mighty hard.” A very prominent businessman told me that years ago in Nashville, Tennessee. Well, you can’t find anywhere in the Sermon on the Mount or in the Ten Commandments or in the Mosaic system where it says you are to try. God says, “Do these things.” He didn’t say anything in the world about trying. You can’t come halfway. This other kinsman, who symbolizes the Law, said, “I cannot redeem.” The Law cannot redeem you. You have to have somebody who will love you, friend, and somebody to pay the penalty of your sins.
That’s the only way you’ll ever get saved. You cannot measure up to God’s standard. You and I are way short of God’s standard. We need today a Kinsman-Redeemer who loves us and who was not only willing to risk everything, but who actually gave His life. When He took our place, He paid an awful penalty. He died upon the Cross for our sins. In order to make a contract or agreement binding, it was necessary to follow an unusual procedure.
Ruth 4:7
You’ll recall that when we looked at this law back in Deuteronomy 25, it said that the woman was to take off his shoe and spit in his face. Well, I’m glad Boaz didn’t spit in his face here, but he did take off the shoe. And we see that Boaz has taken the place of Ruth in this entire transaction; he is acting for her. On her behalf he takes off the shoe of the other man, and this girl is now to become his wife. Now I have given names to nearly everyone in this little Book of Ruth, and I have a name for this other kinsman. He’s Old Barefoot. He lost his shoe. You know, only the gospel has ever put shoes on our feet. “And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace” (Eph_6:15). The old Law, my friend, is barefoot. It cannot save you at all.
Ruth 4:8
First he redeems the property, you see. Then he is also the redeemer for Ruth. He acts the part of a kinsman and makes her his wife. He does it because he’s in love with her. Since Boaz depicts the Lord Jesus Christ, our Kinsman-Redeemer, it is very important to see that He has acted in our behalf. Now Boaz calls the people to witness the fact that he not only has redeemed the property, but he has also redeemed Ruth, the widow of Mahlon.
Ruth 4:11
These people of Bethlehem are rejoicing in this becauseas we’ve been told twicethis girl, though a foreigner, an outsider, has made a wonderful name for herself in Bethlehem. It was obvious that she, as a Moabite, had made a tremendous sacrifice to trust God as her Savior. And she didn’t spend her time running around chasing every man in the community, and Boaz had noted that, you remember. The impression you get from some girls today is that they start out as soon as they are able, and they chase the boys until finally they run one down and marry him. And then we wonder why those marriages don’t work out. I risk being thought archaic for saying this, but I believe it is still the prerogative of the man to do the chasing. The man is always the deliverer, and the woman is the receiver. God made them that way. And that’s why He says to the man, “Husbands, love your wives” (Eph_5:25).
He didn’t turn that around and instruct the wife to love the husband. Somebody asks, “Well, isn’t she supposed to?” Of course she is, but she’s a responder. She is to respond to him. If he loves her, then she will love him. If he treats her harshly and cruelly, she will become cold and indifferent, and love will die. In the majority of casesand over the years I have counselled literally hundreds of cases that have to do with marriage problemsthe man is to blame.
You see, he is the one who is responsible because he is to be the leader. As a man chooses a woman for his bride, and as Boaz claimed Ruth, so Christ came to this earth for His bride. He is the One who demonstrated His love by dying for us. And we are the responderwe are to respond to His love. We are to receive Him as Savior, then come to know Him. Oh, friend, that should be the ambition of every Christianto know Him! It is sad that a great many people make a trip to Bethlehem once a year and look in a manger.
He’s not there, friend. Although He did come as a baby, He hasn’t been a baby for a long time. Then at Easter they go look in an empty tomb, and He’s not there either. He’s the Man in the glory today. And Paul could write that his ambition was, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings” (Php_3:10). That was the goal of this man.
Oh, that we might know Him, our Kinsman-Redeemer, and love Him because He first loved us. And now all the people of Bethlehem are joyful over the events that are taking place in the life of Boaz. And they continue to express this.
Ruth 4:12
The women said this to Naomi because, you see, Naomi needed a kinsman to carry on the line of Elimelech. Now it will be carried on through Boaz. We have a Kinsman today, and that’s the most wonderful news we can have, friend. Look today at this poor, sin-stained world. It is puzzled, not knowing where to turn. And look at the faces. I’ve looked into the faces of literally thousands of people in downtown Los Angeles and elsewhere. If they are happy, their faces don’t reveal it. The children appear happy but not the older folk. Their lives seem almost aimless, without hope, without God in the world. They need a Kinsman. It’s tragic to see people celebrate Christmas or Easter or anything that relates to Christ without knowing He is their Kinsman and without having received Him as their Kinsman-Redeemer.
Ruth 4:15
This child, you see, is Naomi’s grandson. And how precious he is to her.
Ruth 4:17
Naomi’s neighbors, seeing her great love for the child, named him Obed, meaning “servant” or “worshiper.” Although he was of no blood kin to Naomi, he was legally her grandson. Undoubtedly, he became a little servant to Naomi in her old age and took the place left vacant by the death of her husband and two sons. Her estate, of course, would go to this son of Boaz and Ruth. He is a worshiper of the living and the true God. Now we’re given Obed’s genealogy. Obed is the father of Jesse. And who is Jesse? He is the father of David.
Ruth 4:18
In one sense this genealogy that concludes the Book of Ruth is just about as important as any portion of the Old Testament. Do you know why? Because this little book and this genealogy are what connect the family of David with the tribe of Judah. Without it we would have no written record of the connection. This makes the little Book of Ruth very important, as you can see, because it fits into God’s plan and into God’s scheme. As a fitting climax for the little Book of Ruth, let us look further at the kinsman-redeemer as he pictures the Lord Jesus Christ. In what sense did our Lord fulfill that which the kinsman-redeemer represents? There were several requirements a man had to meet in order to qualify as a kinsman-redeemer. We shall look at several of them. First of all, he must be a near kinsman. Second, he must be willing to redeem. The third requirement is that the kinsman-redeemer must be able to redeem. And the fourth, the kinsman-redeemer must be free himself. And finally, the redeemer must have the price of redemption. He must be able to pay in legal tender that which is acceptable. Now Boaz was able to meet all of these conditions as the kinsman-redeemer of Ruth. And the Lord Jesus Christ as our Kinsman-Redeemer, and the Kinsman-Redeemer of the world, meets all these requirements also. First of all, let’s consider that the kinsman-redeemer must be a near kinsman. That seems to be obvious and needs no proof. In fact, that is the reason Boaz could act. He said, “I am your near kinsman.” Presented to us from beginning to end is the fact that Boaz was related to the family of Elimelech. And the Lord Jesus Christ is our Kinsman-Redeemer. He is a near kinsman.
He is the One who took upon Himself our humanity. “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. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham” (Heb_2:14-16). The Lord Jesus Christ came into our human family, “he took on him the seed of Abraham,” we’re told here. We are also told that He “…can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity” (Heb_5:2). He knew what it was to be a man. “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Gal_4:4-5). He was born of a woman, born under the Law.
You see, He came down and took upon Himself our humanity, and He became a man. And it was for the joy that was set before Him that He came down to this earth and entered into the human family. That, my friend, is one of the greatest encouragements that I could have today. If you could persuade me that God had not become man (you cannot persude me of that, by the way, but if you could), then, I say it reverently and with some thought, I’d turn my back on God. However, you cannot persuade me of this, and I’ll not turn my back on Him, because almost 2000 years ago He came down and took upon Himself my humanity. And He suffered down here; He bled and died.
He is able to help me today because He knows me and He knows you. He knows you better than your friends know you, than your relatives know you, than your wife or husband knows you. He knows you better than you know yourself. He knows you today, and He can help you today because of that. Because God became man and took my humanity upon Himself, then, although there are many experiences in this life I cannot explain, and I do not know why certain things happen today, I accept them. Since He became a man, and since He found it necessary to come down to this earth to suffer and to bleed and to die for the sins of the worldwhich is in the plan and program of GodI know that life has some high and holy purpose.
I’m going to get up and brush myself off when I fall again, and I’m going to continue right on through life because I know that we’re pressing “…toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Php_3:14). Christ’s humanity has been expressed in a lovely little poem by Jean Ingelow: O, God, O Kinsman loved, but not enough! O Man, with eyes majestic after death, Whose feet have toiled along our pathways rough, Whose lips drawn human breath! By that one likeness which is ours and Thine, By that one nature which doth hold us kin; By that high heaven where sinless Thou dost shine, To draw us sinners in. Anselm, one of the great saints of the period before the Middle Ages, in his book, Cur Deus Homo, that is, Why God Became Man, reduces to one well-defined point the problem of why God became a man. That point is defined by one word: redemption. The Lord Jesus Christ took upon Himself our humanity and our flesh that He might be our Kinsman-Redeemer on this first point: He is our near Kinsman! Not only must a kinsman-redeemer be a near kinsman, but he must also be willing to redeem. You will recall that Naomi’s other kinsman was not willing to redeem. He very frankly told Boaz, “I’ll mar my own inheritance. I cannot redeem it. You redeem my right for yourself.” And Boaz was willingnot only willinghe wanted to redeem it, because he loved Ruth. And you and I today have a Kinsman who loves us.
Why? There’s no explanation in us. Paul said in Rom_3:24: “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” “Freely” means without a cause. He didn’t find any cause in us at all. But He loves us, and He’s a willing Redeemer. The writer to the Hebrews says, “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” (Heb_12:2).
And so we find that the Lord Jesus, as our Kinsman-Redeemer, was willing to redeem us. He wanted to redeem us and He loves us today. He was a willing sacrifice. It has been suggested by some, and wrongly so, that because Jesus was a willing sacrifice, He was a suicide like Socrates. That’s a blasphemous statement, but some of the liberals have made it, as they have made other blasphemous statements. Although His death was not a suicide, He certainly was willing to dieyou see, He loved us!
Many years ago down in Houston, Texas, when a boarding house caught on fire, a woman broke through the lines and went into that house. It collapsed, and she was burned to death. The headlines read: “Poor Wretch Dies: Suicide.” Later the newspaper corrected it, and printed an apology. Do you know why? It was because when workmen were digging around in the rubble, they found in a back room, a little iron bed, and in that little iron bed was a baby, her baby. She entered that burning building to save her baby.
She wasn’t a suicide. She loved that baby and wanted to save her child. The Lord Jesus was a willing Redeemer, friend, very willing, and it was because He loved us. Third, a kinsman-redeemer must be able to redeem. I am sure that Naomi had some poor kinfolk there in Bethlehemwe all have poor kinfolk, haven’t we? It might have been that one night after Naomi had come back from Moab that these poor kinfolk came over, they all got out their handkerchiefs and they wept. They said, “Naomi, we feel sorry for you, but we can’t help you. In fact, we’re in pretty bad shape ourselves. We can’t even help ourselves.” It’s nice to have folk sympathize with you, but it’s wonderful to have a kinsman who is able to write a check that doesn’t bounce, and to have that kinsman come along and say, “I’ll redeem you.” Well, you and I have a Kinsman-Redeemer.
One of the things that is said about Him is that He is able to redeem. Have you ever noticed the many times in the New Testament that it says the Lord Jesus is able? He is able. “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb_7:25). He is our great Kinsman-Redeemer with the ability to save. That, of course, was true of Boaz. He was called a mighty man of wealth.
There was never any question about his ability. And, friend, there’s never a question about whether the Lord Jesus can redeem. Job could say, “For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth” (Job_19:25). I can say today that I know that my Redeemer liveth, because He is right now at God’s right hand, and He stood one day upon this earth. In fact, He hung one day upon a Cross that He might redeem us from sin. He is able to save.
And we’re told today that God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name above every name, and that some day every tongue must confess and every knee must bow to Him (Php_2:9-11). He is able to save. And may I say, He is able to save you. The question is: Has He saved you? He wants to, and He will if you’ll come to Him.