The Need for a Kinsman Redeemer

Introduction

Kids change so much. My August Rose has this new agenda. She has this idea that she can ask for something she knows I’ll give her, then try to use that to get the thing she really wants. Her latest ploy is to run up to me with arms high and wide and exclaim, “hug!” What are you gonna do with that? You could be in the middle of open-heart surgery and you’re stoppin’ what you’re doing to pick up that little girl and get a hug from her. So I pick her up, and I’ve fallen into her trap, you see. The hug was merely a means to an end. Now she has the vantage point to go after what she really wants… those things we keep out of her reach on the countertop and table.

It’s been a real pleasure watching my kids grow. They are changing all the time, and I suppose that never ends. Sometimes I look at my children who are doused with macaroni and cheese all over their shirts and apple sauce all over their faces and I just think, “I love those little cuties.” I wonder if that’s how the Lord looks down on us. I’m blushing a little bit thinking that the Lord sees me the way I see my child with mac and cheese and apple sauce all over them, but wow does God love us. As I wipe their mouths and change their shirts, I can understand just the smallest portion of what it meant for God to wipe our sins clean and give us new hearts.

Today we are going to take a look at the next installment pertaining to God’s grand plan to redeem humanity. We have seen God promise to bring about a person who would crush the head of the enemy, and whose heel would be bruised. God promised to never destroy the earth with a flood, thus ensuring the previous promise could never be undone. Then God promised Abraham to establish a holy people group from his descendants and through this holy people group would come the one who would bless the entire world by crushing the head of the serpent. And then God established that in order to be forgiven of our sins, there would have to be a sacrifice who suffered the penalty of our sin on our behalf. The sacrifice would have to die. For people living before Christ, they had to sacrifice animals on the regular in order to be clean of their guilt. They couldn’t even offer the sacrifice, it had to be the priest who did so on their behalf.

With the story of Ruth, we see the concept of salvation and deliverance expanded upon.

Through this story, the reader is introduced to the concept of a kinsman-redeemer. Kinsman Redeemer is a concept that was common and necessary in the ancient culture of the Israelites. The idea of the Hebrew word for kinsman-redeemer is this,

to redeem, act as next of kin. Refers to carrying out the responsibility of the next of kin to protect the interests of the clan. With reference to a family context, the concept of redemption relates to the importance of keeping property within the clan or recovering property that has been sold ). The next of kin was responsible to redeem property that had been sold and could also take a relative’s widow into his household.

Thom Blair, “Family,” ed. Douglas Mangum et al., Lexham Theological Wordbook, Lexham Bible Reference Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2014).

The idea of kinsman-redeemer speaks to the property of the deceased and also to the preservation and safety of the widow. At this time, men were the ones who primarily conducted business. The main businesses were farming and other tasks relating to manual labor and subsistence living. They had to work for the food they ate. And in the structure of things back then, the women managed the home while the men managed the labor to provide for the family.

When a man died, it left his widow in a terrible bind. The greatest way in that day for a woman to be safe was to be married to a man who provided for her. Without that, women could be bullied, stolen from, and generally mistreated. They were not the property owners. If a woman was left as a widow, and did not have a son old enough to take care of her, then it was a tumultuous situation for the family.

That’s where the idea of the kinsman-redeemer came in. When a man left a widow, his next closest male relation could marry her, thus preserving and protecting her as well as the family property. Oftentimes this was a brother. The kinsman-redeemer would start with the closest possible relation and expand outward. If the widow and the man both agreed, the next of kin would marry her, thus redeeming her and preserving the family. The man and/or the woman could refuse. If the man refused to marry her, then the buck would get passed to the next man in line, and if both parties agreed then he could act as her kinsman-redeemer.

This is obviously very different than how things are conducted in the present. The culture has changed. The idea of a kinsman redeemer is not a New Testament mandate, it was a cultural precedent intended to help the family and especially the widow. Society and culture can change, which is why things are different now in this way.

But we never allow our culture or society to subvert the Word of God.

Please don’t hear me say that the practices of the Bible can be changed or dropped based on society and culture. That is absolutely untrue. Only the Word of God can reveal how we are to live and obey. What I’m saying is that the concept of a kinsman redeemer is not a biblical mandate for Christians today. It was established in the Old Testament as an assurance of safety and protection of the woman and the family property but is not something we practice today because there is no need for the preservation of the Israelite's holy property. Those promises have been fulfilled now by Jesus. And Jesus is the kinsman redeemer for us all, not just for the ladies.

Naomi and Ruth are without a Redeemer

Let’s start by reading Ruth 1:1-5

Ruth 1:1–5 (ESV)

In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years, and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.

The story of Ruth starts by detailing the tragedy that has befallen three women. Naomi and her husband relocated to the land of Moad with their two sons. All three men in the equation die. Now the women are left without owning property, they are left defenseless. Naomi is the elder in the situation, and she decides to give Orpah and Ruth a choice.

Ruth 1:8–14 (ESV)

But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. And they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb that they may become your husbands? Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.” Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

It would have been no fault on Ruth’s part for her to go back to her homeland. Naomi released her of any obligation that existed because of their relationship. Her sister-in-law, Orpah, left and it was not to her shame. But Ruth stuck with Naomi out of loyalty and love. Ruth would come to be incredibly blessed because of this decision. Not only because of how this story unfolds but also because of the greater picture of the Bible. God would use this woman to eventually bring about Jesus Christ.

A curious thing about Ruth is that she was one of those rotten Moabites. That’s the people group who the Israelites were supposed to cast out of the Promised Land. She’s part of the people group that Gideon was fighting against. We just talked about him last week. The Lord doesn’t stop using people who we could think of as unlikely candidates. A Moabite woman would be the ancestor to the savior of the world.

Why do Naomi and Ruth need a redeemer?

A Redeemer Identified

Naomi’s and Ruth's new lot in life was to be beggars. Without a harvest of their own to collect, they were forced to rely on the goodwill of strangers who would allow them to pick up the scraps out of the field after the hired hands picked the crop clean for harvest. This is where Ruth meets Boaz. Let’s pick up the story from Ruth 2:8-13

Ruth 2:8–13 (ESV)

Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now, listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. Let your eyes be on the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not charged the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink what the young men have drawn.” Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” Then she said, “I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.”

This interaction sparks the process for Boaz to act as a redeemer for Ruth. As Boaz looks into the situation, he realizes there is a snag in the plan. There lives a man who is closer in relation to Ruth’s deceased husband. If Boaz is going to be able to redeem Ruth, then the man will have to refuse. And it’s a big refusal because it means refusing to assume the land left to Naomi by her late husband.

Without a Kinsman-Redeemer, what would Ruth and Naomi be forced to do to survive?

Who would be Ruth’s Kinsman-Redeemer?

The Redeemer Pays the Price

Ruth 4:1–6 (ESV)

Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the redeemer, of whom Boaz had spoken, came by. So Boaz said, “Turn aside, friend; sit down here.” And he turned aside and sat down. And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, “Sit down here.” So they sat down. Then he said to the redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. So I thought I would tell you of it and say, ‘Buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people.’ If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not, tell me, that I may know, for there is no one besides you to redeem it, and I come after you.” And he said, “I will redeem it.” Then Boaz said, “The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance.” Then the redeemer said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.”

Together, Ruth and Boaz have a son named Obed, who was the grandfather of King David, a very important figure in the Bible, and the man to whom the next covenant would be given. King David, and therefore Ruth, are the ancestors of Jesus the Christ.

Jesus Christ is our Kinsman-Redeemer.

As stated in Hebrews 2:11 He is our brother. He is our kinsman redeemer. He can do something for us that we cannot do. That thing He can do is satisfy the debt that our sin placed us in. By dying on the cross for our sins, he satisfied that debt and redeemed us, bringing us once again into a relationship with Yahweh.

The story of Ruth is yet another example of God’s sovereignty working in, through, and around people.

In all the details of this story, we don’t want to miss out on the big picture of what’s really going on. Ruth sticks with Naomi despite being given the option to remarry and in a more stable situation? God is moving in that. Naomi and Ruth being provided for by an honorable, distant relative? That’s God’s planning. The closest kinsman-redeemer refusing to redeem Ruth and have a plot of land?

These are all examples of God’s sovereignty at work. God being sovereign means that nothing happens without His say. He rules all of creation. He is the one who would offer redemption on our part, with the work and sacrifice being on His own. He’s a wonderful, good God.