-- Tuesday, 9/14/10 -- OUR KINSMAN-REDEEMER - Ruth 3:1-4

[J.R. & Bonnie Ricks]

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OUR KINSMAN-REDEEMER – Ruth 3:1-4 NIV

 

One day Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, "My daughter, should I not try to find a home for you, where you will be well provided for?  Is not Boaz, with whose servant girls you have been, a kinsman of ours? Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor.  Wash and perfume yourself, and put on 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.  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."

 

In Old Testament times, one of the worst things that could happen to a woman was to become a widow, because she would have no way to support herself.  But God had taken care of that situation through Jewish Law… The Law said that if a woman became widowed, she could marry a brother of her dead husband.  If no brother was available, then the closest relative to the dead husband could become a “kinsman-redeemer” and marry the widow.

 

This is exactly what Naomi was hoping for where Ruth was concerned, laying the “groundwork” for Boaz to step forward and become Ruth’s kinsman-redeemer, even though Ruth was not a Jew.  So Naomi told Ruth what to do so that she would become “obvious” before Boaz, and would thereby be saved from a hopeless life of poverty.   What Naomi didn’t know was how much greater the future truly would be through the marriage of Ruth and Boaz who would become the ancestors of Jesus!

One of the most fascinating things about Jewish law is how it’s reflected in virtually everything about Jesus.  The more we learn about Jewish law and tradition, the more we see Jesus in all of it… and the kinsman-redeemer is no exception…

 

Without Jesus, our lives are just as hopeless as Ruth’s was when she went home with Naomi… The only “light” at the end of our tunnel is “an on-coming train”!  We have no security – in anything.  Oh, we may think we have security, especially if we have a good job, a big savings account, a happy marriage, and live relatively debt-free.  But companies go bankrupt or “downsize”, making once-secure jobs disappear.  Economic crises can strike – like a sudden illness which costs more than our medical insurance will cover – and once-large savings accounts can dwindle quickly to zero.  Happy marriages can “go bad”, ending in divorce, and even in the happiest marriages, spouses can and do die, leaving the other alone.  And no matter how determined we are to live debt-free, things happen that cause us to incur debt… and if one of these other things happens, paying that debt can become very difficult.

 

What we haven’t mentioned is eternity… without Jesus, there is no hope for anyone… no hope at all.  None of us can ever be good enough to enter Heaven without Him, because just one sin is enough to keep us out of Heaven!  And even the best of people sin – maybe not as often or  as obviously as others, but every person sins in some way at some time – and with most of us, it’s almost a daily event!  But none of this means that we are totally hopeless.  Just like Ruth found in Boaz, we can find our kinsman-redeemer in Jesus!      

 

Even though He is God, Jesus lowered Himself to become human in order to be the perfect sacrifice for our sins, saving us with His blood on the cross.  Just as Ruth was saved from a life of hopelessness, we are saved from an eternity of hopelessness through Jesus’ death on the cross where He purchased us for Himself.  And to become His possession, all we have to do is believe… 

 

Once we are His, all those other hopeless situations become less threatening… less frightening… less hopeless… because we have Him to rely on daily, no matter what else occurs in our lives.  Now and forever, Jesus is our kinsman-redeemer… Awesome, isn’t it?

 

“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 forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.  Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.”  1 Peter 1:18-21 NIV

 

 

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