Boas, the Kinsman Redeemer
(NIV) Ruth 4:9 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.”
Well, this is odd. I began my devotional early this morning, as always, but became distracted by one of my senior dogs. When I returned, I could not find my devotional. After searching I decided to start again.
Today’s writing deals with God’s faithfulness to Ruth and her mother-in-law, Naomi. You remember the story. Naomi, her husband and their two sons left Bethlehem during a famine and moved to Moab, an enemy country. Her sons married Moabite women, and after some time her husband and both sons died.
Naomi, completely bereft, instructed her daughters-in-law to return to their mothers. While Orpah conceded, Ruth clung to Naomi. In one of the most beautiful declarations of love I have ever seen, we read, “(NIV)Ruth 1- 16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”
So Boaz, a distant relative of Naomi, acted as the Kinsman Redeemer by marrying Ruth, carrying forward the lineage of Elimilek. This was such a sacrificial act on his part, and it was clearly God working on behalf of the faithfulness of Ruth whose son by Boaz became the grandfather of David.
May we be faithful even when we cannot see a way to make it through.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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