Boaz, Ruth, and the better Redeemer

Introduction/ Scripture

Ruth 4:1–17 NIV

Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat down there just as the guardian-redeemer he had mentioned came along. Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down. Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, “Sit here,” and they did so. 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. 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. 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.” At this, the guardian-redeemer said, “Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.” (Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.) So the guardian-redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it yourself.” And he removed his sandal. Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelek, Kilion and Mahlon. I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, 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 his hometown. Today you are witnesses!” Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.” So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 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! 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.” Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Pray.

Hook: I took my oldest son to play golf yesterday for the first time.

Ruth and Naomi:

Naomi and her husband leave Bethlehem and go to Moab because of famine in the land. Naomi’s husband dies. Then the sons marry two women. All is not lost for Naomi. But after 10 years there are no grandchildren and the husbands die.

Naomi’s two sons marry Ruth and Orpah and when the two sons die then the three women are lost. They have nothing. In a world where the man not only makes decisions and runs the household, but society is structured so that the women counts for very little. This societal structure would paint the 3/5ths compromise in a progressive manner. How would these three women take care of themselves…even with eachother, how would they survive. No children between them, and definitely no men left.

Naomi knows what she must do…she releases the women to return to their father’s house. She knows that in this society, to not have any men then the patriarchal connection to society and family is lost.

Ruth 1:11–13 NIV

But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons—would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”

At least in returning home they might marry again, they might find protection and provision. Painfully the two women consider this proposition. Orpah, reluctantly, accepts and returns home. Ruth makes an impactful opposite decision. She elects to stay with Naomi and face the bleak and intimidating future at her mother-in-law’s side. Perhaps intertwined with fear and commitment, she declares, “your people will be my people, your God will be my God.” I will go where you go and we will face this world together.

Ruth takes on the ultimate commitment of kin.

So the two go back to their home in Bethlehem, though they have nothing between them. When they arrive, they take advantage of the “Gleaning laws” set up for care of the widows and orphans. They are able to go and gather from the outside of the harvest in order to survive.

Enter into the story Boaz. Really wanted to name our first son Boaz, lost that battle. Scripture tells us that he is a relative to Naomi’s deceased husband. This is very important. In Levitical law…the patriarch has responsibility for his extended family. So if a man were to die then his brother or father or uncle, or cousin, whichever was closest of kin would have responsibility to go and redeem the widow. In levitical law, these were responsibilities to protect the widows.

In Israel’s tribal society redemption was the act of a patriarch who put his own resources on the line to ransom a family member who had been driven to the margins of society by poverty, who had been seized by an enemy against whom he had no defense, who found themselves enslaved by the consequences of a faithless life. Redemption was the means by which a lost family member was restored to a place of security within the kinship circle. This was a patriarch’s responsibility, this was the safety net of Israel’s society.

So Ruth sees her knight in shining armor, a man of standing, from the same clan as her father in law.

She begins to scheme and plot. Not in a mischievous way but she is trying to stack the deck for her own sake and for Naomi’s sake. Ruth works to get close to him. Like middle school crush trying to catch the eye of the other, she tries to “run into him” and be where he might be. You know casually hanging out by his locker hoping he will come by.

Then the story takes a jump in chapter 3 from seemingly innocent pursuit to Ruth is going to try and make this whole thing happen. I love the way the author seems to blur out the bad parts. She waits until he has had a long night and had a little bit of wine and she goes and hides in his bedroom. She lays down at his feet…she says “Spread your garment, over me.”

Yeah risk-ey right? What she is doing though is saying, marry me! Literally what she is saying is “redeem me.”

Boaz continues on with his integrity in tact. He tells ruth. I am not the first in line…there is one who has first right and responsibility to redeem you, but if he doesn’t then I will. And he allows her to stay the night and leave in the cover of the early morning hours.

And we know how the story goes. The trial from what we read this morning. The other relative, who is not even given a name by the author, does not want all the baggage. He will take the land but he does not want a couple of widows. This is too costly. And what if Ruth has 10 children and he has to put them through college.

So Boaz redeems Ruth and Naomi. We know this is costly and comes at a sacrifice. Yet he pays it. He puts his bank account on the line and says whatever the cost Ruth, I am going to redeem you. I will restore you and Naomi. I will bring you into the family. “You will be my people.” My inheritance will be yours.

Book of Ruth’s themes

a literary masterpiece

Obedience and commitment

God using brokenness in our lives for good.

God working through life to accomplish his mission

First verse is in the time when the Judges ruled…..explain

Then the closing is with the line of David…the king.

But for me the biggest is redemption:

Again, Israel would be reading this story and they would not miss the nuance considering their context.

God is the redeemer

“Metaphor of scripture: it is the metaphor of the redemption of a lost family member by the patriarch of the clan, who sends his firstborn son, to not only redeem the lost kinsman, but to share his inheritance with the family member as well. His goal? To restore his kinsman to the household so that where he is, they may be also.” – Sandra Richter

Isaiah 43:1 NIV

But now, this is what the Lord says— he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.

Isaiah 54:5 NIV

For your Maker is your husband— the Lord Almighty is his name— the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth.

Redeemer is everywhere:

Abraham and Lot

Hosea and Gomer

Father in Heaven is saying I will send the most precious member of my household. Paying whatever price so that we can have the inheritance.

The metaphor of redeemed, again:

Can you hear the metaphor of Scripture? Yahweh is presenting himself as the patriarch of the clan who has announced his intent to redeem his lost family members. Not only has he agreed to pay whatever ransom is required, but he has sent the most cherished member of his household to accomplish his intent—his firstborn son. And not only is the firstborn coming to seek and save the lost, but he is coming to share his inheritance with these who have squandered everything they have been given. His goal? To restore the lost family members to the household so that where he is, they may be also. This is why we speak of each other as brother and sister, why we know God as Father, why we call ourselves the household of faith.

God, our father, is buying back his lost children by sending his eldest son, his heir, to “give His life as a ransom for many” (Mt 20:28), so that we the alienated might be “adopted as sons and daughters” and share forever in the inheritance of this “firstborn of all creation.”

Colossians 1:13–15 NIV

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

You have received an inheritance….

1 Peter 1:18–19 NIV

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

The mission of Christ is more than heaven and hell….it is more than making good people. Restoring the family of God.

IV. APPLICATION

So what does this mean for us?

You may feel like Ruth—an outsider, overlooked, on the edge. But God sees you. And He can use you.

You may be called to be like Boaz—someone with privilege, position, or resources who can stand in the gap for someone else.

Or maybe today you simply need to receive the love of Jesus—the Redeemer who doesn’t just restore our circumstances, but our very hearts.