Bought Back at a Price
The Story
Ruth is a widow, a foreigner, and poor — three strikes in the ancient world — gleaning leftover grain to keep herself and her mother-in-law Naomi alive. Into the story walks Boaz, and with him an old Israelite institution: the go'el, the “kinsman-redeemer.” The redeemer was a near relative with the right and the means to rescue a family member in trouble — to buy back lost land, to pay off debt, to take a childless widow as his wife and raise up an heir so the family line would not die. It cost the redeemer to do it; redemption was never free for the one who paid it. Boaz, under no obligation, chooses to pay. He redeems the land, marries Ruth, and restores a destitute family. Watch the chapter end, though, with its eyes on the future: their son Obed becomes the grandfather of David — and the genealogy is not finished yet.
What It Calls Us To
Ruth teaches us to locate ourselves honestly in the story. We are not Boaz, the resourceful rescuer; we are Ruth, the empty-handed one who has nothing to offer and everything to receive. That is humbling, and it is meant to be — but it is also where rest lives. Naomi's counsel after the redemption is striking: “Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today” (3:18). The redeemer does the work; the redeemed wait and trust. If you are weary of trying to rescue yourself, Ruth invites you to stop, and to let yourself be redeemed by Someone who will not rest until the matter is settled.
How Jesus Fulfills It
Matthew opens his Gospel by tracing Jesus' family tree, and there, surprisingly, is Ruth the Moabite (Matthew 1:5) — a foreigner woven into the line of the King. The little book was always pointing past Boaz. We needed a Redeemer nearer than any human kinsman, so the Son of God took on our flesh, “born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law” (Galatians 4:4–5). Like the go'el, He had the right (He became our brother) and the means (He was sinless) — and like the go'el, it cost Him everything: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses” (Ephesians 1:7). Ruth asked Boaz to spread his wings over her; Jesus spreads His arms on a cross over a destitute, foreign, debt-ridden people and buys us to be His own. The kinsman who redeems is, at last, Christ.
Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we thine unworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving-kindness to us; we bless thee for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life; but above all, for thine inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. Amen.