Will Not Disappear

Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Kilion, and Mahlon. I have also acquired Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from the town records. Today you are witnesses!” (Ruth 4:9-10, NIV 1984).

My Musings – Boaz was the man that married Ruth, in accordance with the customs of the Israelites. She met him while gleaning in his fields during the barley harvest, another custom (actually one of God’s commandments) of the Israelites. Gleanings were portions of the crop that the reapers did not pick clean during the harvest. “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 23:22, NIV 1984).

And the other custom? “Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. ‘The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,’ she said. ‘The Lord bless him!’ Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. ‘He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.’ She added, ‘That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers.'” (Ruth 2:13-20, NIV 1984).

A kinsman-redeemer was a near relative (kinsman) of a deceased man, who had the right to buy (redeem) their property. The means of settling the estate. There was one caveat, which the nearer relative than Boaz found out. “Boaz said [to him], ‘On the day you buy the land from Naomi and from Ruth the Moabitess, you acquire the dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.'” (Ruth 4:5, NIV 1984). While she could not inherit her deceased husband’s estate outright, this was the way that culture cared for the welfare of the dead man’s widow.

But it was not an obligation of the kinsman-redeemer. “At this, the kinsman-redeemer said [to Boaz], ‘Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.'” (Ruth 4:6, NIV 1984).

This is more than a nice little story relating the lineage of King David and of Jesus the Messiah. It previews the story of mankind’s salvation. Here are some things we can “glean” from the preview.

Loss of Our Estate – At the fall, mankind experienced a “death” that caused us to lose the rights to our inheritance. “So, the Lord God banished [mankind] from the Garden of Eden.” (Genesis 3:23. NIV 1984).

We Cannot Redeem Ourselves – Like Ruth, there is nothing that we can do to earn our redemption. Nothing we can offer. Nothing that would be acceptable. “For it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.’ Clearly no one is justified before God by the law.” (Galatians 3:10-11, NIV 1984).

Jesus is Our Nearest Kinsman – He is the one who has the right to redeem us, because He created us. “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.” (John 1:3-4, NIV 1984).

There is No Other Kinsman – If He does not redeem us, there is no other. There is no “Boaz” waiting in the wings. “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12, NIV 1984).

He is Not Obligated to Redeem – Talk about “endangering His own estate!” The cost of redemption was the life of the Son of God. But unlike the kinsman-redeemer ahead of Boaz, who said “I cannot do it,” Jesus could definitely do it. But would He? “I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” (Exodus 33:19, NIV 1984).

He Was Willing – Like Boaz. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save [redeem] the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned.” (John 3:16-18, NIV 1984).

My Advice – “[We] are not your own; [we] were bought at a price.” (1 Corinthians 6:19, NIV 1984).  “So that [our] name will not disappear from among his family or from the…records.” As a result, “[He] will never blot out [our] name from the book of life.” (Revelation 3:5, NIV 1984). But only for “whoever believes in him.”