He said, “GOD bless you, my dear daughter! What a splendid expression of love! And when you could have had your pick of any of the young men around. And now, my dear daughter, don’t you worry about a thing; I’ll do all you could want or ask. Everybody in town knows what a courageous woman you are— a real prize! You’re right, I am a close relative to you, but there is one even closer than I am. So stay the rest of the night. In the morning, if he wants to exercise his customary rights and responsibilities as the closest covenant redeemer, he’ll have his chance; but if he isn’t interested, as GOD lives, I’ll do it. Now go back to sleep until morning.” Ruth 3: 10-13 (MSG)
As in every good love story, the element of suspense is there – that is the plot is always somehow tied up with a choice? Will all the characters perform as they should to ensure the man and woman in love will be able to come together?
This story is no different – as we see in the above verse, although Boaz was honored to perform the role of covenant redeemer (kinsman redeemer) – there was a relative who was ahead of him. Boaz had to approach the nearest kinsman first, before he could make a commitment. The next verses of Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 tell us the story of what ensued:
Boaz then said to his relative, “The piece of property that belonged to our relative Elimelech is being sold by his widow Naomi, who has just returned from the country of Moab. I thought you ought to know about it. Buy it back if you want it—you can make it official in the presence of those sitting here and before the town elders. You have first redeemer rights. If you don’t want it, tell me so I’ll know where I stand. You’re first in line to do this and I’m next after you.”
He said, “I’ll buy it.”
Then Boaz added, “You realize, don’t you, that when you buy the field from Naomi, you also get Ruth the Moabite, the widow of our dead relative, along with the redeemer responsibility to have children with her to carry on the family inheritance.”
Then the relative said, “Oh, I can’t do that—I’d jeopardize my own family’s inheritance. You go ahead and buy it—you can have my rights— I can’t do it.” Ruth 4: 3-6
The nearest relative after hearing all the terms for buying the field, was not able to fulfill all the tasks and so he told Boaz – “you can have my rights” – thus giving Boaz the opportunity to in fact be the kinsman redeemer.
God, as our kinsman redeemer also offers us a choice – to determine whether we want one closer than He (the world, the flesh, and the devil) to have our heart and life – or whether we want Him to perform all the rightful duties of a kinsman redeemer, complete with a covenant that is as strong as the blood of Jesus that it was written with. If we accept the terms of the covenant, than we join the roll that Ruth’s son joined, take a look:
Now these are the descendants of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron,
19Hezron of Ram, Ram of Amminadab,
20Amminadab of Nahshon, Nahshon of Salmon,
21Salmon of Boaz, Boaz of Obed,
22Obed of Jesse, and Jesse of David [the ancestor of Jesus Christ].
(Now if you’ve been redeemed by the blood of the lamb – add your name to this list!
Ruth 4: 18-22( KJV)
God Bless You,
Maria