GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
RUTH 4:3-6
3 He said to the closer kinsman, “Naomi, the one who came back from the land of Moab, is selling the piece of land which belonged to our brother Elimelech. 4 I thought I should let you know, and say ‘Buy it with those who sit here as witnesses, the elders of my people.’ If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not redeem it, then tell me, so that I know, since there is no one to redeem it ahead of you, and I am next after you.”
He said, “I will redeem it.”
5 Then Boaz said, “At the same time that you buy the field from Naomi, you will be buying it from Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of the dead man, to maintain the name of the dead with his inheritance.”
6 Then the kinsman-redeemer said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, or I will jeopardize my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption for yourself. I cannot redeem it.”
What a contrast we have between Boaz and the Israelites we encounter in the latter chapters of Judges, people like Micah and his mother, who created their own church to please themselves. Boaz, on the other hand, does everything “decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40).
To begin with, the closer relative tells Boaz, “I will redeem,” but when he finds out that a wife comes with the inheritance, he backs away. Why? We can’t say, apart from his claim that he would jeopardize his own inheritance. Perhaps he was already married, but had no children. A son born to Ruth would mean that Elimelech’s land would go to the child, but then if no more children would be born, everything would transfer over to Ruth’s son, and the closer relative’s wife would have nothing.
This verse also helps us to answer people who wish to take Ruth only as an allegory and not as history. If the events in Ruth are merely symbolic (with Boaz standing in for Christ, perhaps), who does the other redeemer represent? He is obviously an important part of the story—if the story were meant to be symbolic, why include him at all? Of course, another verse which helps us see that Ruth is historical fact is Ruth 1:1, which sets the stage as taking place “In the days when the judges judged.” Unlike the parables of the Bible, which often begin with “the kingdom of heaven is like…,” there is no “like…” verse in Ruth. These things happened. We will soon see the reason for including this little love story when we reach the end of the chapter. But the Apostle John also helps us cut through any uncertainty with words which can be applied to the entire Bible: “These (words) are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).
So is this account, and specifically this passage about the court case “Boaz vs. the Closer Kinsman-redeemer,” a matter of Law or Gospel? Although it is a legal matter, and can be applied to other legal matters, the passage itself is part of the Gospel for Ruth and Boaz. This was how her rescue came about, just as the trial of Jesus before Pilate is part of the story of how our rescue from sin came about. Although Ruth wasn’t present, she heard all about it later on, and this legal proceeding was the pivotal moment in her life. It’s when uncertainty became certainty. It’s when everything that had begun to be filled up in the emptiness of both Ruth and Naomi was now going to be permanently filled.
This helps us see that the terms Law and Gospel are interconnected even though they are theologically more opposite and extreme than north and south, or yes and no. Luther said:
“Though these two (law and gospel) in content are very far apart, they are at the same time most intimately joined in one and the same heart. Nothing is linked more closely than fear and confidence, Law and Gospel, sin and grace. For they are so bound together, that the one is swallowed by the other. Therefore there can be no mathematical combination that equals this” (St. L. IX:454).
The Law teaches us to despair of our sins, either by condemning sin outright (“he who does evil has not seen God” 3 John 11), by proclaiming the coming judgement (Joel 1:15), or by preaching the history of God’s people and others when their sins led to God’s holy wrath and displeasure (Obadiah 12-14).
The Gospel proclaims God’s answer to sin by providing the perfect atoning sacrifice for sin, either in the prophecies about Christ (Gen. 3:15), the promise to forgive in general (“I will remember their sins no more,” Jeremiah 31:34), or by the story and application of Jesus’ atoning work through his active obedience in life (Luke 2:51), his passive obedience and death on the cross (Luke 23:46-51) followed by his resurrection and ascension (Luke 24:51). All of this is summarized succinctly by Jesus himself: “For the Son of Man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
So this passage is the Gospel of God’s grace in the lives of Ruth, Naomi and Boaz. There is the broader picture, which we will see later on—that Ruth here entered into the very line of the Savior. But in a more personal way, this was also the grace of God showing itself in Ruth’s life. As one of the prophets also comforts us: “The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble; he cares for those who trust in him” (Nahum 1:7). God cares for each of us, and he shows it in his answer to our sins, and in his blessings given every day.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota