JESUS, OUR KINSMAN REDEEMER

Prologue

Obed lay on a woolen mat in the shed, kicking his feet in the air like an upturned pigeon and giggling as Grandma Naomi tickled him. Naomi just couldn't get enough of her grandson, he had become her joy and delight. Boaz sat at the edge of the field watching the two play, beaming with joy. He looked around, and His eyes met those of Ruth’s. They were shimmering. Tears laced her sclera, and a tiny one fell to her cheeks, plump from smiling. They exchanged looks- that look. One thing they had continually shared throughout their marriage - the look of gratitude. 

Easter's almost here. One festival that makes me feel all giddy inside. Jesus’s death and his subsequent resurrection are the most important historical events.

But long before this happened, scattered throughout history, God was using the lives and messages of others to foretell the purpose of Jesus’ life. From the curse of the serpent and Eve (Gen 3:15), through to Hosea’s marriage to Gomer (Hosea 1:2) and Isaiah’s prophecies(Isaiah 1:6-7).

We see God, the Master storyteller, leaving clues and hints of His eternal plan. Today, we're going to look at the story of redemption through the lens of the Book of Ruth. And how that fits into God's salvation plan for mankind.

At first glance, we see a heroine-Ruth, trusting God to beautify her life. We either see a love story or a grass to grace story. More about the characters and less about their God. But Ruth is primarily story of redemption.

Redemption - buy back or set free.

Ruth was the mother of Obed, the father of Jesse, who was the father of David, an ancestor of Christ. We see God in the shadows using the story of one of Jesus' ancestors to foretell His (Jesus) story. 

The book of Ruth tells the story of a Moabite woman who became an Israelite woman by association. She married Naomi's son, became a widow and moved to Bethlehem with her when she finally decided to return.

Ruth went through a detour. She got married young and I'd think did not expect her life to turn out the way it did. Widowed and childless. Battling with the decision of following her foreign mother-in-law to her home country. I don't know whether it was just filial duty that motivated Ruth to follow Naomi, or if she saw something worth following in that woman's life. But it's impressive how she left everything familiar to a land and a culture that was far from everything she'd ever known.

Back in Israel, she had to work in the fields of the rich to put food on the table. Luckily, the field happened to belong to a relative, Boaz.

In ancient Israel, when a relative is sold into slavery, another relative can buy him back from his owner. When a family member sells a property due to poverty, a wealthier relative can buy the property back into the family. When a husband dies without an heir, his brother marries his wife to give the late man an heir. The benefactor is called a kinsman redeemer. 

Kinsman-relative

Redeemer- someone who buys back or sets free

Aunty Naomi came up with a plan(quite mischievous in my opinion. Go and read Ruth, it has all the tea😅):to have Boaz redeem them, as that was the only way to ensure her and Ruth's safety and future, as they were widows. After an almost scandalous encounter with Ruth, Boaz readily agrees to do so. 

Sin alienated human beings from intimate fellowship with God, we were cast out of the garden. We needed to be redeemed to enjoy the inheritance that was initially meant for us in the beginning. Boaz had to be 

• A relative

• willing to buy back

• wealthy enough to buy back

Jesus satisfies all these requirements. He became a man like us, our kin, our brother, to redeem us from the curse of the law and sin.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.” 

Galatians 3:13 NIV

He was willing to give Himself for us, he was neither forced, nor coerced. 

He, being rich in power, grace and mercy, looked upon our spiritual poverty and decided to deliver us.

At that point in history, God's chosen people were the Israelites. Those of us from other nations were called Gentiles. We were not partakers in God's inheritance until Jesus' death and the apostles’ work of spreading the good news to all the earth. We, who were once aliens like Ruth have now been grafted into the lineage of God.

It depicts the marriage between Christ and the church. A bride of different races, tribes and tongues.

---

Ruth is also a story of responsibility and devotion.

Long before she married Boaz, on the dusty road from Moab to Bethlehem, she made a decision and did not look back. She decided to let Jehovah be her God before she received any material benefit from that affiliation.

She served her mother-in-law dutifully because she had vowed dedication to her.

She did not consider herself too high or too unworthy to go into the fields and pick after the servants had gathered the harvest. Ruth served, and she served with all her heart. Before people knew of the vow she had made in private, they saw her devotion in public.

Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. [12] May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

Ruth 2:11-12 NIV

The bride of Christ (Ruth) does not fold her arms on her proverbial chest, waiting idly for the bridegroom (Boaz); she puts her hand to the plow. She puts her faith into action by serving the people God has blessed her with and spreading the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Epilogue

Like clockwork, both their eyes drifted from each other and into their skies. The smiles still plastered on their faces, whispering thanks to the one true God whose habitation is the heavens who made redemption possible.

A God once unknown to Ruth. But here she was, finding it difficult to comprehend how her life was before she met Him.

He had become her God.

...Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse - Matthew 1:5 NIV