Sunday, July 3, 2016

“Jesus Our Kinsman-Redeemer” (Ruth 2:17-23) - Book of Ruth II -


How God Sees Us
Yesterday was my mother’s birthday. When I think about my mother’s love, it is the closest thing to God’s agape love. When I was between 9 and 11 years old, I was addicted to video games. I even stole the money from my parents and told lies in order to play games. One day some of my classmates’ mothers visited my mother. And they told her how bad I was at school. They didn’t know at that moment I was actually in my room. I overheard what they were saying about me. They said just one good thing about me, and the rest of them were all bad. But what they said was true. I couldn’t deny it. I was afraid of being scolded. So I pretended to take a nap. After a good while, I went out of my room. My mom said to me just one thing, “Son, this afternoon some of your friends’ moms were here. And they said you get along well with your friends.” And I knew she already forgave me. That changed me. That changed my heart, my attitude, and my behavior.

This is how God loves us: Over and over again God’s people, the Israelites, did turn back from following the Lord and neither seek the Lord nor inquire of him. God was grieving, but he constantly showed them how much he loved them by sending his prophets. Zephaniah was one of them. He said to the Israelites, “The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing” (Zph 3:17). In today’s passage Ruth is not lovable woman by the standard of the world. She is a widow. Possibly, she is barren. Most of all, she is a gentile, second-class citizen, from a Jewish perspective. In the eyes of Boaz, a type of Christ, Ruth is a beloved child of God and a woman of noble character (cf. 2:11, 3:11). In Ruth 3:11 Boaz said, “My daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All my fellow townsman know that you are a woman of noble character.” This is how God sees us. We have hundreds of bad things in us, and perhaps we have one good thing within us. God finds that one good thing from us. And he encourages us, sustains us, and keeps us going and growing.

ds,x,(hesed), God’s Covenant Love
In today’s passage there are 3 important Hebrew words that I want to draw your special attention to: hesed, goel, and dabaq. The first word is hesed. In the Old Testament this word is one of the most precious words that describe God’s character. There is no exact English equivalent for this word. Hesed is translated as “kindness,” “mercy,” “loyalty,” “steadfast love” or “covenant love.” My personal favorite translation would be “covenant love.” God entered a covenant relationship with his people. And he voluntarily bound himself to act toward them in certain ways, and he is always faithful to his self-commitment no matter how bad and unfaithful they are. God made a covenant with Abraham and said, “I will make you into a great nation… and you will be a blessing. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Gen 12:2-3). But Abraham’s descendants were not faithful (cf. Ezekiel 20), so they were afflicted by the Egyptians. The Israelites groaned and cried out. And because of his hesed toward Israel, God remembered his covenant with Abraham and delivered them out of Egypt (Ex 2:24-25). God made a covenant with David and said, “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me. Your throne will be established forever” (2 Sam 7:16). But after that, David’s descendants turned back from God and followed false gods. And they were afflicted, defeated, and exiled. But because of his hesed toward his people, he spared them and brought them back from distant lands. So in Psalm 136 as the psalmist looks back the history of Israel, he gives praise to God with this beautiful phrase 26 times: “His hesed endures forever!” In today’s passage Naomi said to Ruth, “He (Boaz) has not stopped showing his hesed to the living and the dead” (v. 20) No matter who we are and no matter how unfaithful we are God’s hesed toward us endures forever!

laeGO (goel), Kinsman-Redeemer
The second word that we need to remember today is goel, translated as “kinsman-redeemer.” In Ruth 2:20 Naomi said, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers.” In ancient Israel if someone sold land in time of need, the redeemer, normally his nearest relative, had an obligation to buy back the land (Lev 25:25). If someone sold himself into slavery, the redeemer was to buy his freedom (25:47-55). If someone was killed, the redeemer had the duty of avenging a murder (Nu 35:19). If someone died without child, the redeemer had the duty to providing an heir (Dt 25:5-10). But we need to remember this: this family law is a moral duty. A kinsman-redeemer was under no legal obligation do to so. In the Book of Ruth there was a kinsman-redeemer nearer than Boaz. At first he was willing to buy the field. But later, he realized that he also had the duty of getting married to Ruth and raising an heir through her. Then, he would lose what he had bought. He had to give the land back to the heir. So this man said to Boaz, “I cannot do it because the cost is too high!” (4:6) Boaz was also under no obligation to do it. He didn’t have to redeem it. But because of his hesed toward Ruth, Boaz was willing to undertake that costly duty.

The character of Boaz foreshadows that of the greater Redeemer, Jesus Christ. All of us, like sheep, have turned back from following the Shepherd and have strayed away (Isa 53:6a). Jesus didn’t have to lay down his life for the sheep. In John 10:18 Jesus said, “No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also take it up again” (NLT). Jesus voluntarily became our kinsman-redeemer. He showed his hesed toward us most clearly on the cross. We were dead in our many sins, but he made us alive. We were slaves to sin, but he set us free at the cost of his own life. We were unfaithful brides, but he accepted just the way we were and made us clean by his blood. And he became our bridegroom. Jesus is the true and better Boaz. Pastor Tim Keller made a beautiful statement about Jesus in this way:

“Jesus is the true and better Adam
who passed the test in the garden, His garden – a much tougher garden,
and whose obedience is imputed to us.

Jesus is the true and better Abraham
who answered the call of God to leave all the comfortable and familiar
and go into the void not knowing whither He went.

Jesus is the true and better Moses
who stands in the gap between the people and the Lord
and who mediates a new covenant.

Jesus is the true and better Job
– He’s the truly innocent sufferer who then intercedes for
and saves His foolish friends.

Jesus is the true and better David
whose victory becomes His people’s victory
though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves.

He’s the real Passover Lamb. He’s the true temple, the true prophet, the true priest, the true king, the true sacrifice, the true lamb, the true light, the true bread.”[1]

The Book of Ruth is not just a beautiful love story. It is not just a textbook of ethics and morals. It points to one person. The whole Bible is not series of disconnected stories. It is one single narrative that points to one person – Jesus (cf. Luke 24:44). 

Qb;D’(dabaq), “Cleave”
What is our proper response to this? The third key word of today’s passage, dabak, answers to this question. The verb dabak is translated as “cling” or “cleave.” Ruth 2:23 says, “So Ruth “stayed close” to the servant girls of Boaz to glean…” The verb used here and verse 8 and 21 is also used for the marriage bond in Genesis 2:24: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (KJV). Ruth found favor wherever she went. So what is the secret? The answer is because Ruth always cleaved to God. She always cleaved to God’s people and God’s community. She cleaved to Naomi (1:14). She cleaved to Boaz and his people (2:8, 21, 23). As a widow and foreigner, there was nothing Ruth could do other than cleave to God. And when she did that, she found favor in God’s eyes. When we hear the story of Ruth if you find yourself more like Ruth, you are blessed. Like Ruth, there is nothing we can do. We cannot earn our salvation. We cannot earn God’s favor and his grace. All we can do is to humbly and faithfully cleave to our kinsman-redeemer, Jesus Christ our Lord. Cleave to Jesus – nothing more, nothing less. And he will come and redeem you. Let me close with Charles Wesley’s hymn, “Jesus the One Thing Needful”[2]:

Jesus, let me cleave to Thee
Thou my one thing needful be;
Let me choose the better part,
Let me give Thee all my heart.

Whom have I on earth below?
Thee, and only Thee I know;
Whom have I in heaven but Thee?
Thou art all in all to me.



[1] Timothy Keller, “True and Better,” https://vimeo.com/23642755
[2] Charles Wesley, “Jesus Let Me Cleave to Thee,” http://www.hymnary.org/text/jesus_let_me_cleave_to_thee

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