What a journey we have traveled to get here! Loss, love, intrigue, loyalty and suspense have brought us to this point of the story. This story, like many in the Old Testament, such as Hosea, tells us the story of Israel. She often runs from God, looking for other gods, looking for answers and the like, looking for protection, and she finds herself in a worse situation than when she started. She returns to God, and God blesses her, and not too long after that, she tends to run back to evil again. It is a vicious cycle. But in this story, we see the lovely man, Boaz. He is the Kinsman Redeemer who comes to rescue Naomi and Ruth, and to restore what was lost when Naomi ran to Moab with her husband.
Ruth is the Gentile, us, who is grafted into the family of God. In her case, right into the family of Jesus. She chooses to follow the God of Israel and comes to live in Bethlehem. There she serves Naomi and honors her. She lives in a selfless and servant way, and all in Bethlehem, including Boaz, take notice of her. The whole concept of the Kinsman Redeemer is a part of the Mosaic Law that was designed to preserve the inheritances of the tribes and the families in the tribes. Under this law, a plot of land or field could be redeemed by a close family member marrying the widow of an Israelite and having kids, preserving his name. In Naomi’s case, it would appear that she is too old to have kids, and so the man marries Ruth and has a son with her.
When we ended last week, Boaz promised Ruth that he would attend to the matter of redeeming her and Naomi as soon as possible. In the first verses of Ruth 4, we see the formation of an ‘ek-klesia,’ which is translated in the New Testament as an assembly and what we call a church. Boaz called out an assembly of men, ten to be exact, who gathered together to do city business. This was a local assembly with a purpose. The New Testament church is that: a called-out assembly of baptized believers that assemble together to do God’s work in a specific location. We can see this in the epistles; they are addressed to a church in a certain location. The church at Ephesus, the church at Corinth, the church at Rome, and on and on. There is no such thing as a Universal church; it is foreign to the scriptures.
Boaz, the Kinsman Redeemer, Jesus, ends up contracting to redeem Naomi. He basically buys them and redeems them and their lands. This is a reminder, as we celebrate the Passover celebration of Easter, that our salvation is a legal transaction. God is a perfect God; you and I are sinful persons. Our sin separates us from God, and Jesus pays the price for our redemption. He buys us back (see 1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.”
In Romans 5:1, we are declared ‘justified’ before God. We now have the ability in Jesus to be right before God. In Romans 8:1, we see that there is ‘no condemnation for us’; we are no longer condemned as sinful, fallen men and women. We are redeemed and saved by Jesus. This is a legal transaction that God did, and it cannot be negated ever. Once Boaz redeemed Ruth, no one could come back and claim either her or her land. The transaction was done publicly and witnessed by many, just like the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. In reference to Israel, God’s protection over her has been very public. Israel is surrounded and outnumbered by her enemies on every side, and were it not for God’s promises and His protection, surely she would have been consumed by now. (See Psalm 124:1-2.)
“If the LORD had not been on our side—let Israel now declare— if the LORD had not been on our side when men attacked us, when their anger flared against us, then they would have swallowed us alive.”
And so, Boaz marries Ruth; she gets pregnant and has a son, Obed. That son gives birth to Jesse, and he has David. We all know that Jesus is the son of David and that one day, as the oldest living man of Judah, He will reign over the whole world from Jerusalem. We begin the story with Israelites running for food and looking to Gentile cities for help. We end with Israel restored; hope and joy is real as they celebrate the redemption that comes in the Kinsman Redeemer.
There are so many beautiful stories in the Book of Ruth. Lessons for the Jews, lessons for the Gentiles. In the midst, we get an Old Testament example of a local church, and we see the person of Jesus played out in Boaz. Once again, like we were looking at a few weeks ago, Jesus is the central story of the Bible; He is everywhere, and He is the main character there rescuing us from death and hell.
Is He the central character in your life? Often, even as saved people, we can forget the plot and get off track. It is all about Jesus, His life, His power, His love, His death, His burial and his resurrection, and we find all the hope we need in His promises.
Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario