God Provides a Redeemer (2)

Big Idea

Tension: How will Ruth and Naomi be redeemed?

Resolution: Yahweh provided Boaz and will provide an ultimate redeemer?

Exegetical Idea: Ruth and Naomi will be redeemed by Yahweh’s provision of Boaz and a future, ultimate redeemer.

Theological Idea: God provides his Son as our ultimate redeemer.

Homiletical Idea: God provides us a redeemer for all our brokenness and sin.

Outline

Story

Background

Chap 1: Elimelech had to sell his property to provide for his well being. Elimelech and his sons both die. So on the one hand, we have two problems, the land which is the family’s belongs to another. And there is no offspring. In Hebrew culture, only a close family member can buy the land back and raise up offspring to possess the land. Naomi and Ruth lose everything but their faith.

Chap 2: Yet, we begin to see how God’s providence is working, and God’s Providence brings Ruth into a field owned by someone who could provide for them. Boaz is revealed to be not only a man of character, dignity, and integrity. But he is also someone who could redeem them.

Chapter 3: A tension starts: After all, if Boaz is such a good guy, why hasn’t he redeemed them? So Naomi and Ruth hatch a plan. Ruth goes to Boaz in the middle of the night while she’s in a field and uncoveres his feet. When he wakes up, she asks him to redeem her. Boaz says he will help, but there is actually someone who is a closer relative, and thus, a redeemer ahead of him. So while Boaz is vindicated as a godly man, it seems like Ruth and Naomi are back to square one. There is one more step, one more hurdle, one more obstacle to overcome. And that’s where the story today picks up.

Verses 1-4

Boaz gets the redeemer in the gate and some witnesses (vs. 1-2)

Boaz lays out the plight of Naomi. Says there’s this land that somebody’s got to redeem. The person, of course, who is willing to buy the land will get to keep it, because Naomi has no children left. So this looks like a pretty attractive deal. Of course, if the other redeemer doesn’t want it, Boaz says he’s interested. (vs. 3-4)

The other redeemer says, “Of course, I’ll take it!”

Verse. 5-8

Now, Boaz reminds the other redeemer, if you do this, you will also have to take Ruth as your wife. Because the goal of Hebrew land laws is that the land would always stay in the family. And If you want to keep the land in teh family, somebody’s going to have to provide children for Ruth, the widow of Mahlon, the eldest son of Elimelech (vs. 5)

The other redeemer says, “I can’t do that, lest I impair my own inheritance.” Now, obviously, any children who he has with Ruth, will also have a claim on his own land. He believes this will “impair.” Now this word means to pollute or corrupt. And he believes that the offspring of Ruth will “corrupt” his land. Why is this? Because Ruth is a Moabite. Ruth is not a native Israelite. And he cannot imagine leaving his land to a Moabite. This is something like what we would today call racism. (vs. 6)

So the redeemer takes off his shoe. Now, to understand this, you have to understand Deut 25:5-10… His point is, I would rather absorb the shame that comes from not raising up children than to marry a Moabite. He’s saying, in essence, “i don’t care if you take my shoe, spit in my face, and if I’m cursed, I will not do this.” (vs. 7-8)

Now we see Boaz’s design. The entire plan of Boaz was to make it obvious what was going on. He made the deal sound as attractive as he could. But the other redeemer was so recalcitrant that he refused to do this kindness to Ruth, Naomi, and the family of Elimelech. This is why, I believe, his name is not included in the book of Ruth. Because he would not preserve the name of Elimelech’s family, his own name is cut off from the annals of history.

Verses 9-12

So Boaz turns to the elders of the people and the people, “I will take this because he won’t.” I will do what he couldn’t. I will stand in the gap (vs. 9-10). He says, I will buy the land back, and I will raise up children through Ruth for it.

So the people respond to him, “we are witnesses. May teh Lord make Ruth like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel.” Here they are obviously referencing the wives of Jacob, who, from between them came the 12 tribes of Israel. Important with these two women is that they were both women who expereinced, at different times, barrenness, rejection, and strife. Yet, God blessed these two women in all their brokenness. (vs11)

Then the people say, “May your house be like Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah”. Here, the analogy is slightly different. You see, Judah, one of the sons of Jacob, had three sons, "Er, Onan, and Shimei.” And Tamar was Er’s wife, but Er was a wicked man, so he was struck dead. Now, it was Onan’s responsibility to bring up children for Er through Tamar, but he didn’t, so God struck him dead. So what’s a girl to do? She’s a bit like of a black widow, right? So Judah sends Tamar back to her father’s hosue to wait until his third son grows up. Well later, she sees that Judah’s third son was grown up, but Judah was not providing Shimei to marry Tamar. So, Tamar went in, and dressed up like a lady of hte night, and seduced her father-in-law, to produce chidlren. Now, in all the gross ness, and brokenness of this story hear this: God provided redemption for Tamar through a child. God vindicated her. God showed Judah to be in the wrong and Tamar to be in the right. God redeemed Tamar. ANd so by drawing hte analogy with Tamar, the people are asking that God would vindicate, redeem, and provide for Ruth. (12)

Vs. 13-17

So Boaz marries Ruth, and God gives them a child. (vs. 13)

And the women, you remember the women from chapter 1, right? say to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord becahse he has not left her without a redeemer! And they praise him and ask that hi sname be renowned in Israel. (Vs. 14)

Now when we get to vs. 15, we might think that Obed is supposed to be the restorer of life and sustainer, but I actually think it’s still talking about the Lord. That they ask that the LROD would restore her to life and be her sustainer in old age, because he has given Ruth, who is worth more than 7 sons.

So Naomi takes the child and is his nurse.

And the women again call him “Obed,” whose name is probabluy short for “Obadiah” or “servant of the LORD.”

Vs. 18-22

And of course we see the genealogy here, that through Ruth, God provides the great King of Israel.

Conclusion: So chapter 4 provides for us the fitting ending. All the obstacles are overcome. All the characters are resolved. Naomi is restored. Ruth is remarried. Boaz is the redeemer. We started off our study of Ruth by noting that Ruth is included in the “wisdom literature” in the Hebrew Bible. Ruth is, like Job, or Ecclesiastes, or Proverbs, or Psalms, trying to answer the question of suffering. And I think the ultimate answer that we have seen, is that, by his good and kind Providence, God provides a redeemer. That God will make right what is wrong. He will provide life in death. He will make what is broken whole. And God’s people are to walk in faith and integrity, trusting that all will be made right. And so it is fitting that we end our time meditating on Ruth, to see how Ruth, and in particular, Ruth 4, points us forward to the Messiah.

The Greater Redeemer

Something has to be done with the curse, we need a better redeemer than Boaz, a better Boaz - One of the great tensions of this whole book, and chapter in particular, is that there is a question that is left unanswered. The reason that the Israelites felt such resentment and hatred for Moab is that they were cursed for their historical hatred for the people of God. We see this in Deut 23:3-6. While the other redeemer did the wrong thing, and should have fulfilled his obligation to Elimelech’s family, we can almost understand his point of view. After all, who wants to take on the curse of Moab? And Boaz can’t really, finally deal with the problem of the curse, can he? No, what this story strongly implies is that God is going to have to provide a better redeemer, a better Boaz. As good as Boaz is as a redeemer, Ruth and Naomi needed a better one. This, of course, we believe is Jesus. When Jesus says in Matthew 12:38-42, that he is the better Jonah and the better Solomon, I think we can easily see that Jesus is not only the better Jonah, and the better Solomon, but the better Adam, teh better Moses, teh better Joshua, and yes, the better Boaz. God provides a better redeemer.

The Messiah came from Moab for Moab, he came from us for us - But Boaz is not only a type of the Messiah to come, he actually is one of his forefathers. From Boaz comes the Messiah. And this makes sense, doesn’t it? Because if the Messiah is going to deal with Moab’s curse, he’s going to have to come from MOab? And so teh Messiah comes from Moab for Moab. In fact, if you go and you read through the genealogy of Jesus in Matt 1:1-18, you can see that the Messiah doesn’t only come from Moab. He also comes from the Canaanites, and the Jebusites, and other peoples. Yes, teh Messiah is Jewish. But he is also Gentile. He comes from teh nations for the nations. He was one of us. If the Messiah is going to deal with the curse, he’s going to have to be one of us (cf. Heb 2:14-15)

Just as Boaz takes on Ruth’s curse, so the Redeemer takes on our curse - Boaz gives us a picture of htis great redeemer, because he marries Ruth knowing about the curse upon her. This is not a surprise to him. He knows that Ruth is from Moab. And when he marries her, he takes his curse upon himself. That was the only way redemption could happen. In a bigger way, if Jesus is going to redeem us, he’s going to have to take our curse upon himself, which is exactly what we see that he does (Gal 3:13-14)

The Messiah will be God’s chosen servant - You will notice that the name of the child born is Obed, or “servant” of the Lord. In the same way, the Messiah to come will be the servant of the LORD. And he will bring about redemption. He serves us by taking our sin upon himself (Is 53:7-11)

Redemption and Life - One of the strong implications in this chapter is that true redemption restores life. We see this in vs. 15, where the Lord is called a “restorer of life”. But notice that one of the great goals of this chapter, is that the redemption of Ruth and Naomi would perpetuate teh name of the dead. We see throughout the Bible this strong desire to preserve life, to restore life, to perpetuate us. Because death, introduced by the curse, does not get the last word. Redemption brings Resurrection. (Job 19:25-27)

We will possess a world made new - You will probably note in Ruth 4 the importance of keeping the land in the family. Part of the purpose of redeeming the land is so that the lanbdn would not be forgotten and turn into disrepair. The land itself needed to be redeemd. And this points us to this glorious reality, that our redeemer will break the bonds of corruption (Rom 8:18-25)

Redemption is for worship - Finally, we see that redemption is for worship. Redemption is for nothing less than the eternal praise and worship of our Lord. Just as the womenin chapter 4 respond to this turn of events by worshiping the Lord, you and I are bought to exult and magnify the name of our great Lord who has accomplished great things. We will praise him with all the saints for all time saying... Rev 5:9-10

Application

Look back:

God has provided a redeemer - Are you looking for a solution to life’s problems? Look no further than the cross.

Trust him - This is hard, because we want to trust ourselves. This is also because, in our hearts, often we do not believe that Jesus is eenough.

So memorize this statement: Jesus is enough.

Look up:

Don’t use suffering as an excuse. - Boaz probably could have cut corners, or gone around the system. After all, he doesn’t know any of this. But suffering is no excuse for acting without integrity.

Encourage one another - It is funny how even here, the women of hte community encourage Naomi to look up at all that God has done.

Look ahead:

There will be a day when everythign will be redeemed. When at last, in our flesh, we will see our redeemer.

SO praise him and pray that he would come back urgently.

And hear him say this: behold I am coming soon.

Amen, come Lord Jesus!