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Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat down there just as the guardian-redeemer he had mentioned came along. Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down.
2 Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, “Sit here,” and they did so. 3 Then he said to the guardian-redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelek. 4 I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.”
“I will redeem it,” he said.
5 Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.”
6 At this, the guardian-redeemer said, “Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.”
7 (Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.)
8 So the guardian-redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it yourself.” And he removed his sandal.
9 Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelek, Kilion and Mahlon. 10 I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from his hometown. Today you are witnesses!”
11 Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. 12 Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”
Ruth 4:1-12
and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Colossians 1:12-14
The book of Ruth is a beautiful picture of Jesus being foreshadowed through the person of Boaz, who shows up at the moment of greatest need to extend grace, mercy, generosity, and love by “buying” Ruth into a family and meeting her greatest earthly needs. Boaz is literally called a “kinsman-redeemer”. In other words, a next-of-kin who was able to give Ruth a hope and a future. Through their bloodline would come King David and through the line of David would come Jesus Christ, the perfect Kinsman-Redeemer whose perfect blood would buy us into an eternal family and give us a hope and a future, now and forever!
Both Naomi and Ruth had experienced much loss and were doing all they could to make it on their own. Boaz stands in and pays the price for both; Naomi to be restored to her land, and for Ruth, a foreigner and gentile to share the same rights. Boaz’s actions represent Jesus’ on the cross and the price He paid so that ALL people could become sons and daughters of the Most High, heirs of Christ Jesus!
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. We see all of these represented in the story of Ruth, Boaz, and Naomi – beautifully intertwined into this story of redemption. These are all within you, as well through salvation and the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life, being beautifully intertwined into your own story.
Write out a prayer of praise and thanks today to Jesus for your redemption!
FLOURISH
A Mentoring Journey
FLOURISH: A Mentoring Journey is a year-long curriculum guide, rooted in Scripture and developed by The Flourish Team of Passion City. Now available in two volumes, this mentoring journey encourages women from different stages of life to share their lives with one another through the studying of the Word of God and relevant life topics. Find out more about Year One and Year Two of FLOURISH by clicking the link below.