Boaz and Jesus, Part 3 (Ruth Sermon 5)
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Boaz and Jesus, Part 3 (Ruth Sermon 5) Every family has a story. Maybe things to be proud of, victories to remember; maybe things that are shameful, wrongs no one wants to talk about; maybe things that are heartbreaking, losses to grieve. The book of Ruth brings us right into the family of Ruth and Naomi, with all of its heartaches and joys, and then allows us to see a bigger picture, reminding us that the current story of any family is not the whole story. There is always more than we can see, for God is doing things that reach beyond these brief moments and into eternity. Ruth 1 records the darkness that fell upon this family as they faced loss after loss, and the deep pain in Naomi as her heart concluded that God must be against her. Then Ruth 2 begins to unfold the provision that God had planned. But chapter 2 ends with a note to remind us that much is still unresolved: Read Ruth 2:23. There’s nothing wrong with living with your mother-in-law. :-) But I think this little sentence reminds us that while Ruth is able to glean now, and there will be food for her and Naomi, none of the other issues have been resolved: Naomi still has no husband or sons or future for her family, and Ruth is still a widow living with her mother-in-law and working hard in the fields to just get by. Read Ruth 3:1 Naomi wants Ruth to have a more secure future, as we saw back in chapter 1. It’s ironic that Naomi thought she could arrange things to find rest for Ruth, when in reality the God whom she thought was against her was already completing a marvelous plan to provide rest for Ruth and a future for Naomi’s family. So let’s briefly add #8 to our list: Boaz foreshadows Jesus, the ultimate ‘mighty man,’ because: 1. He was a relative. 2. He showed favor. 3. He was devout. 4. He was respectful. 5. He protected. 6. He provided. 7. He satisfied. 8. He gave rest (3:1, 1:9) Boaz’s protection (#5) and provision (#6) resulted in rest for this family. We won’t spend time on this, but it’s on the list because it does point us right to Jesus, who calls to those who have no rest, and he says, “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) Because of the protection and provision we have in Jesus, it is well with our souls whether life’s circumstances are peaceful like a river, or sorrows like sea billows roll. Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, it is well with our souls. There is a rest in the ultimate mighty man, Jesus, that the world can’t ever give, and you may need to come to Him today and say, “Jesus, my heart is weary and heavy-laden. Please help me. I have no rest.” But let’s keep going in chapter 3, because it becomes more complicated to study so we need time this morning. We’ll come back to chapter 3 later when we study Ruth - right now we’re still studying Boaz, so #9, Boaz foreshadowed Jesus because he redeemed. 9. He redeemed (3:9) [2:20; 3:12; 4:1-10, 14-15] Remember that Ruth had gone out to the fields, hoping to find someone who might let her glean. In God’s kindness she came to the fields of Boaz who protected her and provided for her in abundant ways. When she came home loaded with grain and with her to-go box of all the leftovers from the meal, her startled mother-in-law wanted to know where Ruth had gleaned. The field was owned by a man named Boaz, Ruth said, and if you look at the end of Ruth 2:20, Naomi replied The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers. Then chapter 2 ends, with Ruth spending the harvest season gleaning in Boaz’s fields. Several weeks passed by - maybe 6 weeks or so - and there was no further indication that redemption was coming. So at the end of the harvest Ruth went to Boaz with a request. Read Ruth 3:1-13 We’ll come back to this later when we study Ruth - for now just see in 3:9 that her request was that he spread his wings over her because he was a redeemer. That means, essentially, “Please marry me so that you can be the redeemer for Naomi’s family.” Boaz told her that there was one other closer relative in town, so Boaz would ask the other man if he wanted to redeem them, and if he would not then Boaz would. Then chapter 4 records what Boaz did next: Read Ruth 4:1-10 In verse 14 the women then say to Naomi, Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a redeemer. So let’s talk about the meaning of a redeemer, why this was so important, and why marrying Ruth was part of the deal. Many things we don’t understand, but Jewish laws in Leviticus 25 and Deuteronomy 25 help. First we have to understand who owned the land of Israel. Leviticus 25:23 The land must not be sold permanently because the land is mine. The Jewish people were like managers of God’s land. That same verse goes on to say, You reside in my land as foreigners and strangers. Because it was God’s land, they didn’t have the right to just sell it to anyone they wanted. How would you feel if you gave a precious family heirloom to one of your grandchildren, so that they could pass it along to their grandchildren - and found out that the next day they sold it to an antique store? In a slightly similar way, Israel’s land was God’s, and so they couldn’t just sell it to whatever Egyptian or Assyrian or Roman wanted to buy it. Not only was it God’s land, but they were also God’s people, and He had assigned their families to take care of different parts of his land. Because of those things, buying and selling land in Israel was not like buying and selling property today: there were specific rules to keep the land in the family of Abraham, and in the specific families and regions which God had given to each one. You can see how sin and death would make this very complicated. Naomi’s husband left the land during a famine. What happened to his land then? He died, his sons married Moabite women, his sons died, and there were no grandchildren. What about their family’s responsibility in God’s land after all of that? Many years before God had given some direction about those complications, and this is where Leviticus 25 and Deuteronomy 25 connect to Ruth’s story. First of all, in Leviticus 25 (25:25f.) God said that if a Jewish man became poor and sold part of his property, then a family member could come and buy it back into the family. That family member was called a “redeemer.” A redeemer was a relative who could afford to buy back what a family member had sold. So picture someone selling a family heirloom to an antique store to make some money, and then a family member finds out and goes and pays the full price to buy it back to keep it in the family. That family member redeemed that heirloom. (On your handout) In Israel the redeemer had to be a relative, and they had to be able to pay the price necessary, and they also had to be willing to do it. There was some shame if they didn’t, but they weren’t required to. So the redeemer had to be a relative who was able to pay the price and willing to do so. Leviticus 25:25 also refers to the “nearest redeemer,” so apparently there was an order of family members who should consider redemption. So there are lots of connections between Leviticus 25 and our story: ● Naomi was apparently having to sell the family’s land, so her family’s inheritance in Israel was about to be lost. ● Boaz was a family member. ● He was the second-closest redeemer, and the closest chose not to do it. ● He was able to redeem: he apparently had the money. ● He was willing to redeem: he wanted to care for Naomi’s family in this way. In these things Boaz foreshadows Jesus, who took on humanity so that he could die for us when our eternal inheritance was lost. He was able to redeem us: fully God and fully man, he fulfilled all righteousness with a sinless life. And so only His death could pay the price to redeem sinners. He was also willing. “I lay my life down on my own initiative. No one takes it away from me.” (John 10:18) “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11) Jesus is our redeemer - more on that in a little bit. But first, we’ve learned about how Boaz could redeem the land and property of Naomi’s family - but what did marriage to Ruth have to do with that? If the land was God’s land, and if He had placed families in particular regions to take care of it, then it wasn’t okay for these families to just disappear, like was about to happen to Naomi’s family.