[fusion_text]By Rosie Moore.
This is the final devotion on Ruth and one of our top devotions of 2020 published on the 9th of October 2020. You can read the first part here, A woman who hid beneath God’s wings.
“So Ruth set out and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech…(Ruth 2:3)
And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers” (Ruth 2:20).
Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you?” (Ruth 3:1)
If you’ve been reading the book of Ruth, you’ll know that each of its four chapters is dripping with raw gospel honey. Ruth is surely a great love story, but not the Hollywood variety. Strangely, there’s no mention of Ruth’s beauty and Naomi’s plan sounds a lot like a seduction ploy to our 21st century ears! But Ruth’s story is infinitely more profound than any rags-to-royalty, famine-to-fullness, widow-to-wedding story you and I have ever heard.
Boaz and Ruth’s marriage models God’s relationship with His people throughout history. Their royal lineage is just a tiny sample of God’s massive family tree. And their love story is a perfectly formed embryo of God’s great story of redeeming grace. But it all hinges on a kinsman-redeemer.
A kinsman-redeemer
If we dig a little deeper into Moses’s books, we see that a kinsman-redeemer was God’s gracious provision to help families of an Israelite man who died childless: The nearest relative was to marry his widow to provide an heir and buy back any land they’d lost (Deut 25:5-10; Lev 25:25). Otherwise, a family name and land would disappear forever and they’d lose their claim to God’s promised blessings to Abraham (Gen 17:7-8). They would be cut off from the people of God and their name blotted out. Elimelech’s land was a hard asset, but Ruth was hardly a safe bet for any kinsman redeemer!
It’s no wonder Elimelech’s nearest relative was unwilling to endanger his own estate by taking Ruth as his wife (Ruth 4:6). After all, why would a man pay for land that wouldn’t benefit his own heirs? And imagine having a son that wouldn’t even be able to take his family name! The cost was too high for a sensible man driven by self interest. But not Boaz! Here was a man of grace who loved God and cared about his laws for the poor and the foreigner (Lev 19:9-10). Here was a godly man living in a godless era (Judges 17:6; 21:25). Here was a man who happened to be the son of Rahab!…Keep Reading
