1463 - “The Family Redeemer-The Go’El” The Book of Ruth

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Each weekday, Dr. Crisp will be discussing biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Tune in daily to start your day right and deepen your understanding of how to better walk the way and enjoy the journey. Here's your host, Dr. Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Welcome to On the Way. This is Tony Crisp, and this is Podcast 1463. We're passing up the Torah. We're going through the book of Joshua, through the book of Judges, and I want to meet you today in the book of Ruth. Because we are following the story of the Crimson River, the great story of redemption, and it runs through the middle of the book of Ruth. Now most of you look at the book of Ruth as a great love story. That it is, but it's far more than that. It has great theological depth, but it also has great historical depth because the primary purpose of the book is to serve as a bridge in between the time of the judges and the time of the United Monarchy and the anointing of Saul the Benjamite as the united king of Israel that brought all the tribes together. For over three hundred and fifty years it was one from this tribe or one from that tribe would be raised up by God to deliver the people, and the book of Judges was an endless cycle round and round and round. God would give the people rest, they would rebel. God would send retribution by an enemy, whether it was the Midianites or whether it was the Philistines. And then the people would turn back to God. They would repent. God would in his great mercy forgive them and restore them. Then he would give them rest, and then the rebellion would start, and then the retribution, and then the repentance, and then the restoration, and it was a cycle for three hundred and fifty years. And the scripture says at the close of the book of Judges, there was no king in Israel during those days, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. That was the cycle. That was the vacuum of leadership. But when you come to the book of Ruth, you're during that period of the judges, at the close of it, and you have a godly man from Bethlehem that during a period of famine, Elimelech, we call him Elimelech, Elimelech, God is my king, he saw across the Jordan Valley, the great Syrian African rift, and he saw green pastures in the hills and the mountains of the east. I have stood in Bethlehem as I was there studying alone. My wife was not with me, my children were not with me, no group was with me, and I walked the hills of Bethlehem, and one morning as I stood, I saw because I knew where Matabah was on the other side of the great Syrian African rift, I saw on the hills of Moab, what would have been Moab during the days of Ruth and Naomi, the green pastures of Mataba and all around the Nebo area, Mount Nebo. And it just so happened that years before I had stood at Mataba, and I was there early in the morning when the sun was rising. And as it rose I knew where Bethlehem was on the great patriarchal highway that runs north to south through the land of Israel, and I could see Bethlehem shining in that morning sun. That's right. You see, when they were in Bethlehem they could see the green pastures and the shadow of the rain that had passed over Bethlehem. And when they were in Mataba, where they lived, the home of Ruth, it was there that no doubt Naomi, after her two sons and husband had died, she would in the morning as she rose from her bed, she would look across the great Syrian African rift, and as she looked west, she would see the sun shining on her home in Bethlehem. And so one day she said, I'm going home, and Ruth and Orpha said, I'm going with you. Well, as you know, one turned back, and Ruth said, Wherever you go, I'm going to go. And your God is going to be my God. And wherever you die, that's where I'll die. I'm making my home with you, I'm making a commitment. And they came back to Bethlehem. You know the story in Ruth chapter two of a wealthy and influential man in Bethlehem named Boaz. And he was a near kinsman. He was a relative of Naomi's husband, Elimelech. And it was harvest time, it was in the springtime. And as they were harvesting the grain in the spring of the year, Naomi said, Ruth, you go to this man's field, and you go behind those reapers, and there'll be some grain that'll be left behind. And maybe you can get enough for us to thresh it out and get enough to bake bread and to eat. And so you know the story Ruth went and she found favor with Boaz. He asked about her, found out who she was, and said, You reapers, you don't get it all, but you deliberately leave some behind when you see Ruth following you. She received a great bounty. Now when Naomi saw what she had and had brought home, she knew what Boaz had done. He was an older man, she was a younger woman, but here was Naomi saying he is a kinsman. He could redeem us. That means I know who he is and he's single. He's unmarried. He could buy back Elimelech's property. If he does, he will need to take care of me as Elimelech's wife, but he would also take care of you because he would marry you because he is the kinsman redeemer. And so sure enough, that's exactly what happened through a series of events that I don't have time to go into in this podcast. Indeed, Ruth presented herself to him and he said to her upon her presentation to him, there is one that is closer than I. But I will see if he wants to redeem Ellie Mellick's property, but I also know that he is already married, he has his own estate, and he may not conduit. And so as he checked, he went to the elders of the city, you know the story. And as he went to the elders of the city, he went and found the man who was a closer kinsman than he was a closer relative. And you know the story if you've read through those four chapters of Ruth, the man said, I'll redeem it. So they went to the city gates where the elders would be sitting. And he said, You know that if you buy this land you've got to take care of Naomi and you've got to marry Ruth, because you've got to raise up a seed on behalf of her husband who died. He said, Oh no, I'm not going to do that. And so this is where Boaz did the right thing, and he redeemed, he paid the debt that was owed on Elimelech's place. And when he bought the land, he bought Naomi, he redeemed her, he redeemed Ruth, he married Ruth. And from Ruth they had a son whose name was Obed. Obed had a son whose name was Jesse. Jesse had a son whose name was David, the shepherd from Bethlehem, who became the greatest king of Israel, that became also a type of the Messiah. And one day, according to the Scriptures themselves, King David will serve with the Messiah Jesus as a co regent ruling as the prince under the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, as the prince of Israel, the nation of Israel during the days of the great millennium. Now you can look that up for yourself and you will find what I'm telling you is true. And so Ruth was the great grandmother, and Boaz was the great grandfather of King David. Now this kinsman redeemer follows the theme of the Crimson River. I'm going to give you just three qualifications that had to exist in the kinsman, the family relative, the family redeemer. Number one, he had to be the closest relative. If he wasn't, the closest relative got an opportunity to buy first. But again, it was not just buying land, it was taking the responsibility of the widow, of her mother, her family, and in some cases her children. But Ruth and her husband did not have children. When Boaz found out that the closest redeemer, the one closer than he did not want to redeem and marry Ruth, then he became the closest relative, so that parameter was met. Number two, he had to be able to pay. He had to be able to pay the price. He had to be a near relative. He had to be identified with the family. He had to be in close association with the family. But he also had to have the means to pay. He had to be able to pay the debt that was owed. Third, he had to be willing. Because even if he was the closest redeemer, and he was able to pay, he didn't have to do it. He could let the one that was next in line do it, or the one after him. That's exactly what the man did that was nearer and closer as a relative than Boaz. He said, I cannot do that. I have my own family, I have my own pieces of land, and I cannot take on a wife. I already have one. And so this is what happened. Boaz became the closest and nearest relative. He was able to pay and he was willing to pay. I think you get the picture that's being drawn. Jesus is our kinsman redeemer. He has redeemed us. How could he do that? Well the book of Hebrews says He came to us. He became a man just as we are men, yet without sin. He came and he became part of the human family so he could redeem us. He was able to pay. He was totally righteous. He had no sin. He became sin for us that knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So he was able to pay. He was the nearest kinsman. He was part of the human family. So he was able to pay. And he was willing to make the commitment to enter into a love covenant with us, a covenant where the bonds would not be broken. Because the Bible says that we as the Church of Jesus, made up of Jew and Gentile, that we are his bride, and that He is our groomsman, He is our husband, and so He was a close relative, He was able to pay, He was willing to pay, and He paid. When Jesus died on the cross He uttered these words, the debt has been paid. This is why the Apostle Peter said we were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Paul told the Corinthians, What? Wait just a minute, do you not understand this? You are bought with a price, therefore you do not belong to yourself. You are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body which belongs to God. You're not your own. You were not able to redeem yourself. He was. The great story of the redemption of the near kinsman, the Goel is beautifully portrayed. The theological meaning is clear. The prophetic meaning is clear. Boaz was a type of Jesus. But the historical reality is that the book of Ruth and the great story of the Kinsman Redeemer served as a bridge between the period of the judges and the period of the United Monarchy of Israel. For on the way, this is Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Thanks for listening to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Tune in every weekday for information on biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Fridays are for your questions. Email your questions to questions at TonyCrisp.org, then just listen for your question to be answered on Friday's podcast. That's questions at TonyC R Isp.org. Thanks for listening and have a blessed day on the way.