With Family Like This...

Prayer

Guardian-Redeemer

Start with the idea of a guardian-redeemer (or kinsman-redeemer), which, as you may recall, Naomi had described Boaz as such.

The idea of a guardian-redeemer comes from God’s command in Leviticus 25:25, If one of your fellow Israelites becomes poor and sells some of their property, their nearest relative is to come and redeem what they have sold.

Idea was this - God gave the land to all the Israelites, each had their own inheritance. Intention was for each family to keep their land so that they could provide for themselves through the generations. Invariably, things happen that would cause a fellow Israelite to fall into poverty - grave illness…death in the family (which we see here in the story of Ruth)…perhaps their own foolish choices. And because of that poverty, they would be forced to sell their family land. This command was given so that the land could be redeemed, purchased back on behalf of a relative, so that family line had a way to get their inheritance back and provide for themselves. Hence, a guardian - or kinsman, redeemer.

In this case, the guardian redeemer bears the cost. He doesn’t benefit - unless there is no heir in the relative’s family he is redeeming the land for, then the land would become part of his family’s inheritance. But typically, it would be an act of generosity, a sacrifice made for the sake of a relative.

And this is Naomi’s hope for her and for Ruth and for her deceased husband’s family line - that Boaz would serve as a guardian redeemer for them. This is the plan that the rest of the story hinges on - which is what we’re going to cover this morning, as we finish up in the book of Ruth, chapters 3 & 4. But before we jump in, a quick recap so everyone is up to speed.

In chapter one, Naomi and her husband, Elimelek, and their two sons, leave Bethlehem due to a famine and make their way to Moab, a foreign land. The two sons marry Moabite women. But then the father dies, as do the two sons. Naomi decides to return to Bethlehem now that the famine is over - Ruth, her daughter-in-law, is determined to return to Bethlehem with her. Chapter ends with Naomi expressing her bitterness towards God because as far as she is concerned, she has come home empty because God has been against her.

In chapter two, as we saw last week, things start to change. Ruth decides to go glean (practice that allowed for the poor to go through a field after it was harvested to glean the remains, as a way to provide for themselves). It “just so happens” that Ruth ends up gleaning in the fields that belong to Boaz, who, as we mentioned, is a potential guardian-redeemer, someone who could buy Elimelek’s land for his family. As a reminder, our focus last week was on Ruth and Boaz, their character, what good and virtuous lives they lived.

By the end of the chapter two Ruth has returned home from gleaning, and due to her hard work and Boaz’s generosity, she comes home loaded - lots of grain. Naomi is excited at all the food - but even more excited to learn that Ruth had worked in Boaz’s fields - because he is a guardian-redeemer. So she starts cooking up a plan. Poor Boaz has no clue the schemes that are getting cooked up here.

That brings us up-to-date - Ruth 3:1-6...One day Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, I must find a home for you, where you will be well provided for. 2 Now Boaz, with whose women you have worked, is a relative of ours. Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. 3 Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. 4 When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.” 5 “I will do whatever you say,” Ruth answered. 6 So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do.

Just a quick note about the setting here. The threshing floor was a community space, an open air area, elevated, so you could take advantage of the breeze. So it appears that this is at the end of the harvest, the community has gathered to thresh their grain. They would do the work, then celebrate with eating and drinking before everyone crashes by their grain pile.

Evening plays out exactly like Naomi plans - Boaz, after a day of work and an evening of celebration, goes to sleep at the far end of his grain pile. He wakes up startled in the middle of the night to find a woman lying at his feet.

Ruth 3:9 - “Who are you?” he asked. “I am your servant Ruth,” she said. “Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family.” Ruth here is offering herself in marriage to Boaz, asking that he would redeem the family property and take her as his wife in order to continue the family line of Elimelek.

Boaz is touched - and definitely interested. Just as a side note, there’s a sexual tension throughout this chapter. The language is ambiguous - the phrase of “uncover his feet” is sometimes used as euphemism. Some have suggested that there’s sexual interaction going on - but that seems to fly in the face of everything we’ve seen of the character of both Ruth and Boaz. It’s likely that the behavior is completely innocent, but it does suggest sexual attraction.

We certainly see that in Boaz - he doesn’t waste any time, going to take care of the matter immediately, first thing in the morning. Make all the necessary arrangements for him to act as a guardian-redeemer, buying the property. There’s one catch, Boaz is not the closest relative, he doesn’t have first claim as guardian-redeemer. That person has to reject the offer in order for Boaz to claim it.

Ruth returns to Naomi with the good news - and a bundle full of barley as well. That brings us to chapter four, very next day, as Boaz goes to town to settle the matter.

Ruth 4, Boaz goes to town gate, which was the hub of activity for the town, town elders would hang out here, all sorts of business was conducted, including legal affairs.

The closer relative shows up, Boaz sits him down, along with ten town elders, lays out the matter, Ruth 4:3-4 - Then he said to the guardian-redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelek. 4 I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.” “I will redeem it,” he said.

Man agrees to buy the property, he sees an opportunity to increase his family’s inheritance. That is, until Boaz reveals the condition: Ruth 4:5, Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.”

The other relative backs off, he doesn’t want to pay cost and not get the property for his family - if he doesn’t have any heirs, he might lose his property as well. He forsakes his right to redeem the property, so the way is clear for Boaz to serve as the guardian redeemer.

So they finalize the deal with a sandal - literally, that’s the way legal transactions were finalized in those days - the relative takes off his sandal and gives it to Boaz. Who then affirms that all present were witnesses to the transaction - he has bought from Naomi the property of her deceased husband, Elimelek, and sons, Killion and Mahlon. And with it, Boaz acquires Ruth the Moabite as his wife so the name of the family line of Elimelek will be continued.

Boaz marries Ruth, she conceives and gives birth to a son. Story ends with the women of the town affirming God’s greatness to Naomi, Ruth 4:14-15...The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord, who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! 15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”

Beautiful turn of events - that came out of the interaction of God working his purposes and human decisions, all coming together in this wonderful story of God’s redeeming work.

Such a contrast to where things were at the end of chapter one, with Naomi expressing her bitter state, Ruth 1:20-21, “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”

Now Naomi has a guardian-redeemer! The lineage of her family will continue. She’ll be provided for in this generation (as will Ruth) - and into old age, as her newborn grandson grows up. All because of God’s blessings - Naomi thought she was empty, she had nothing, and yet she had an incredible gift of Ruth all along. The women of the town affirm that to her - you have a daughter-in-law who loves you and is better to you than seven sons (number of wholeness). Now she has gift of Boaz, guardian-redeemer who paid the price to insure her family future.

Our Guardian-Redeemer

But the story, as wonderful as it it, doesn’t end there. God is not done yet, he has more work, more redeeming to do. We get this little tidbit at the very end, Ruth 4:16-17, Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. 17 The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

If those names aren’t ringing a bell, let me help you out a bit. We’ll meet Jesse in our next book of the Old Testament, 1 Samuel. He’s the father of many sons, the youngest of whom is David. David is the man chosen by God, anointed by Samuel to be Israel’s second king.

Saul, first king, proved to be a disappointment. but David was a man after God’s own heart, humble and strong in faith. He ends up becoming the man who will establish the kingdom of Israel, turning the hearts of the people toward God. He becomes the king that all the latter kings of Israel and Judah are compared to, the gold standard.

God uses these people - Naomi, Boaz and Ruth the Moabite - to establish the line of David, who becomes the king through whom God establishes Israel as a great nation. In other words, the redemption happening here is not just for Naomi’s family, but for the entire nation of Israel (if you remember the ominous theme of Judges - In those days Israel had no king, everyone did as they saw fit). Story of Ruth is setting the stage for Israel to have their king.

You think that would be enough. But that’s not the end of the story. Because all of those individual stories in the Bible, like the story of Ruth, which plays a part in the bigger story of the people of Israel, in God making a people of himself. But even those are just a part of God’s great story, the story of salvation, of redemption, for all of creation. The story of the Bible - the story of Jesus Christ.

Because God gives King David a promise - of a son who will rule on the throne forever. The one true King, the son of David, Jesus the Christ. By the way, if you go to the Gospel of Matthew, you can read Jesus’ genealogy in chapter one, there’s only three women mentioned, one of whom is Ruth the Moabite, the foreigner.

Story of Ruth, the story of God using a guardian-redeemer to save Naomi and her family, is also part of the story of the people of Israel, the redemption of God’s holy people. And more than that, it’s part of the story of our guardian-redeemer, of Jesus. Jesus is our relative, our brother, who paid the price, who offered his life for our sake so that we might be redeemed. So that we might have life, full forever life.

And I want you to take a moment to let that sink in for a moment (meditate, chew on, let the truth reflected here not just impact our thinking, but our hearts). To reflect on God’s sovereign work, his working his purposes, weaving it all together. It reveals how the Bible is really one big story, that everything that God does - all the stories we’ve been looking at throughout the Old Testament (and there are plenty more) - they are all leading to our redemption through Jesus Christ. All these layers of redemption, happening all at once in this one little seemingly random story of a family from Bethlehem that suffers misfortune.

All these threads coming together - a Moabite, a foreign woman and her deep devotion to her mother-in-law. A landowner, man of generosity and integrity - who also happens to be a guardian-redeemer. And God, bringing them together results in the salvation of the family, God providing beautifully for Naomi and Ruth and Boaz.

And it will lead to the salvation of the nation of Israel, because the grandson of this newborn child, Obed, will be the great king of Israel, David, a man after God’s own heart. And through that line, this same lineage, will come the one who will bring salvation to us all, Jesus Christ, our guardian-redeemer.

And this is all God’s doing. He made it all happen. Probably like a lot of you, I get my planner out, try to figure out what my schedule is going to be the next week, and over the next few months. And I’m constantly adjusting it, because it never works out how you planned. And yet, here God is, he knows exactly how all this is going to come together - he knew how he was going to redeem Naomi’s life through Ruth and Boaz, and then use that marriage and their child to begin the line leading to King David. All of this is 1,000 years before another descendant of Ruth and Boaz will be born, the true guardian-redeemer of us all, Jesus. God knew it all. He brought it all together.

Makes you wonder why we ever worry about the future, when we’re in the hands of a God who can do all this.

Spiritual Disciplines: One of the things we’ve mentioned numerous times is that spiritual formation, of Christ being formed in us, starts with our being enthralled with God, of being in awe of Jesus Christ. Because we won’t give ourselves over to him if we’re just kinda blase about him. But the more we see the greatness of Jesus, his glory, how almighty he truly is, more we will naturally worship him. Offer ourselves to him.

Discipline of Worship - as you read Scripture, one thing you can praise Jesus for (just like this morning, an opportunity to be amazed by the sovereignty of God - but there’s so many other traits of God we can praise him for). Listen to praise music, sing along. As you see things of beauty, enjoy God’s goodness - praise him!

Practice the Presence of God - seek to live in the present moment with God. Our sin - dwell on the past (Naomi) or we worry about the future, which is unknown to us. It’s only in the present that we connect with God. And when we’re with the sovereign God, we don’t worry about the future! Take moments throughout the day to be mindful of God’s presence, invite him into what you’re doing, offer it to him.