Let us turn again to the word
of God, to that chapter that we read a part of in the book
of Leviticus. And especially this morning I
would draw your attention to verse 48. In the book of Leviticus, chapter
25 and verse 48. where we read, after that he
is sold, he may be redeemed again. One of his brethren may redeem
him. Leviticus chapter 25, verse 48,
after that he is sold, he may be redeemed again. One of his
brethren may redeem him. I know that this book of Leviticus,
sometimes it has a reputation as a bit of a dry book and a
difficult book. And even sometimes it's spoken
of as if it's not really worth the trouble of reading. I remember
a few years ago reading an article in one of the magazines which
was talking about the importance of Bible reading. And whilst
it was good in that it encouraged a systematic approach to the
reading of the Bible, it did almost infer that there were
some books which were not worth reading, and specifically this
book of Leviticus. And it could be interpreted as
saying that when we come to our, in our daily reading to this
book, this article could have been interpreted as saying, well,
why not try one of the Psalms instead, or something a little
more easy? But this book is an important
book. Obviously, it's an important
book. It wouldn't be here if it wasn't. It's a book that we
need. Obviously, we need it or it wouldn't
be here. And it is a book that's worth reading. Andrew Bonar,
who wrote a commentary on the book of Leviticus, he makes the
comment that this book is unusual in many ways because almost every
verse of the book is the direct word of God. What did he mean
by that? Well, he certainly didn't mean
that these words are any more inspired than other words. But
there is something striking about the way in which, in almost every
chapter, it's the words of God to Moses that are being recorded. If you turn back to chapter one,
you will see that the book opens in that way. The Lord called
unto Moses and spake unto him. out of the tabernacle of the
congregation, saying." And then from verse 2, and as you go through
the chapters over and over again, you have these kinds of expressions
at the beginning of chapter 4, the Lord spake unto Moses, saying.
And chapter 6, the Lord spake unto Moses, saying. And chapter
8, the Lord spake unto Moses, saying. And so almost every verse
of the book is the direct word of God. God is the direct speaker
in almost every part of it. And Andrew Bonar says, well that
surely ought to make this book very interesting to us and make
it worthy of our attention. The book picks up really from
the end of the book of Exodus. You remember at the end of Exodus
we have the account of the raising up of the tabernacle. God has
given Moses lots of instruction about the tabernacle, about how
it is to be built and the materials and the furniture and the size
and the way in which it's to be set up. And then in the last
chapter of Exodus, we have the fulfilment of all those things,
don't we? And Moses is instructed to set up the tabernacle of the
tent of the congregation. on the first day of the first
month, and to set up the altar, and the laver, and the court,
and the anointing oil, and all the different parts of the tabernacle. And Moses does that. And everything
is set up just as God has directed, and we read in verse 33 of that
last chapter of Exodus, so Moses finished the work. And then we
read a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the
glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And it was following
on from those events that the Lord called unto Moses in the
way that he did at the beginning of this book of Leviticus. Sometimes
it's interesting when you come to a book and when you want to
understand the gist of a book or the themes of a book to go
through and to look for words which are common. Of course,
you don't have to do that manually these days. You can find various
tools that will enable you to do that. I found it interesting
that when you do that for this book of Leviticus, there are
various words that come up which really give us a very good insight
into what the book is all about. We read very often of the Lord. The word Lord comes up very often
in the book. The word offering. And the word
priest, of course, that's what the book is all about really,
isn't it? Why is it called the Book of Leviticus? Well, it deals
with the responsibilities of the tribe of Levi. It was the
tribe of Levi that was chosen to be the tribe of the priests.
And so those three words, Lord, offering, and priest, they give
us a good summary of what much of the book is about. You have
the Lord, you have the priests, and you have the offerings that
are offered by the priests to the Lord. It's a book which deals
with the detail of offerings. And then there are another two
words which come up, the word unclean and the word holy. And
again, that's not a bad summary of what the book is about. Here
are these people who are unclean and here are these offerings
that the Lord says, well, there's something about holiness. There's
uncleanness and there's holiness in this book. And then there's
two other words which come up over and over again, the word
sin and the word blood. And God is teaching something
about what sin is and what sin leads to and what sin deserves.
And he's teaching something also about the salvation that there
is in the blood of Christ. It's a book about sin, it's a
book about offerings, it's a book about blood, it's a book about
uncleanness and holiness. It's often been said that it's
a good idea to read the book of Leviticus alongside the epistle
to the Hebrews. The epistle to the Hebrews, or
it's almost a commentary, some parts of it, on what we're reading
here in the book of Leviticus. You remember what we read at
the beginning of the 10th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
The word that's used is shadow. It's talking about the sacrifices
which were offered year by year under the Old Testament system.
Those offerings which are described here in the Book of Leviticus
and the Epistle to the Hebrews says those sacrifices, they were
like a shadow of good things to come. A shadow of good things
to come. Well, a shadow is not nothing,
is it? A shadow is something. If you
were to ask someone about a building and you said to them, well, can
you describe this building to me? Well, if they said, I've
not seen the building, but I can tell you what its shadow is like.
Well, that shadow, the shape of that shadow would tell you
something about the shape of the building, wouldn't it? or
the shadow of a person can tell you something about the shape
of that person, what that person looks like. And so these offerings and sacrifices
and all of the detail that's here in the book of Leviticus,
it's a shadow of good things to come. It tells us something
about the gospel. It tells us something about the
Lord Jesus. It's not him. but it is a shadow of him. The law is a shadow of good things
to come, a shadow of good things to come, and what does the epistle
go on to say about these sacrifices? Well, it says it is not possible
that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
That was never the plan of the sacrifices here in Leviticus.
It wasn't that the Israelites were just to become complacent
about sin and to think, well, does it really matter if we sin
then because we can always offer a sacrifice? And you never find
Moses taking that approach, do you? When Moses comes down from
the mountain the first time and the children of Israel have started
to worship the golden calf, Moses, it's not, relaxed about it, is
he? He doesn't say, well, don't worry,
we'll just offer an offering and this will undo your sin. He knows that that's not the
solution, that's not the answer. And you can go through all the
sins that the Israelites sinned in the wilderness. And Moses
never takes that approach, does he? It's the same with David.
You remember David's great sin with Bathsheba and then the murder
of Uriah? What does David say in that Psalm
of Confession in Psalm 51? He says, Thou desirest not sacrifice,
else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt
offering. David says, I realise that just making a sacrifice
and offering and offering, it can't solve my problem. It can't
undo my sin. And he realises this, doesn't
he? The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and
a contrite heart, O God, thou will not despise. These sacrifices,
they were never meant to be something mechanical. They were never meant
to be something that the Israelites just picked up and turned the
handle day by day and manufactured grace and forgiveness. In that
way, they're a picture of something greater. So you can read through
the early chapters and there are various offerings, aren't
there? Laid out, the offering, the burnt offering, the meat
offering, the peace offering, offerings for sins of ignorance,
the trespass offering. You can go through the chapters
and there's a great deal of detail. And then you come to chapter
23 and then it becomes focused upon the feasts. You can read
about the Feast of Pentecost. and the Day of Atonement, and
the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Jubilee, the Day of Jubilee,
there's something very wonderful about the Day of Jubilee, isn't
there? In chapter, in the eighth verse of this 25th chapter, they're
directed to number seven Sabbaths of years, seven times seven years,
49 years, and then in the 50th year, they cause the trumpet
of the Jubilee to sound on the 10th day of the seventh month.
In the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout
all your land, and ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim
liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.
It shall be a jubilee unto you, and ye shall return every man
unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
It was a time of great rejoicing, a day of great deliverance, and
of course in that there's a picture of the gospel, isn't there? And then we come to the passage
that we read. And really it's all about the
redemption of people, isn't it? There's something in the early
part of the chapter about the redemption of land. And God says,
you're not to sell the land forever because it's not your land, it's
my land. You're just borrowing it. You're just being lent it.
The land shall not be sold forever, it says in verse 23, for the
land is mine, for ye are strangers. and sojourners with me." And
then we come to the lore about brothers, about men who have
been sold or who have sold themselves into bondage. There is instruction concerning
servants of Jews. We read verse 39, didn't we? And that passage speaks about
how the Jews were to treat one another. If one Jew became so
poor that he had to sell himself to another Jew, the Lord says
that that doesn't mean you can oppress them. That doesn't mean
you can treat him as your possession, because he's still my servant.
He's not to be sold as a bondman. You aren't to rule over him with
rigour, but you are to fear thy God and You're not to have slaves
from amongst your brothers. And then verse 47, this passage
deals with a different scenario, where a Jew has been sold to
someone who isn't a Jew. The Lord says there may be circumstances
where you have a rich foreigner living in your land, a person
who is not from the Jewish family, And you may have a Jew that lives
by them who has become poor and the Jew may sell himself unto
this stranger. And so here is the promise concerning
that situation. After that he is sold, he may
be redeemed again. One of his brethren may redeem
him. Well, of course, this is a shadow too, isn't it? This
is a picture of something greater. We come to these passages and
sometimes it's very easy to think, well, what's this got to do with
us? We're not Jews. We don't live in that kind of
culture. It's not likely that we're to
find one of our brothers has sold himself into slavery to
a rich stranger. But there is a gospel picture
here. And here is a hope, isn't there,
in verse 48? Here is this man who has sold himself into slavery. and become the slave of a stranger. And here is a hope of redemption,
of freedom. Well, it's a picture of the gospel,
isn't it? It's a picture of the gospel. What are we looking at,
what are we thinking about when we read of this slave, this one
who has sold himself? Well, we're reminded of what
Paul writes about when he writes to the Romans, aren't we? He
uses the word slave there. It's translated as servants,
but really the word has the force of slaves. And when Paul writes
to the Romans, he can say that they were once the servants of
sin, or the slaves of sin. He says, ye were the servants
of sin. The servants of sin. And Paul makes clear that that's
not just the exception, that's something universal. It's not
that some people are born as the servants of sin, but other
people are not. But if you read chapter three
in the epistle to the Romans, he makes clear that this is true
both of Jews and Gentiles. It's not just the publicans,
not just the adulterers, not just the murderers. who are slaves
of sin, but even the civilized people and the polite people
and the kind people and the generous people. And we all know people
like that. They're not Christians, but they
would do anything for anyone. And they would give up their
time and their money and they take people into their homes
and they do all these things without expecting anything in
return. And we might be tempted to say sometimes, well, is it
appropriate to call that kind of person the slave of sin? But
Paul says they are the slave of sin. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. They're not following him. They're not seeking him. That's
something universally true. They are all gone out of the
way. They are together, become unprofitable. There is none that
doeth good. No, not one. They may be able
to be very generous people and kind people, but when we think
about that first and greatest commandment, thou shalt love
the Lord thy God, we all have to say, well, we're guilty when
we compare ourselves to that word. The slaves of sin. It was even true of the Jews,
wasn't it? We read that chapter in Isaiah. where the Lord is
speaking through Isaiah to his people, the Jews, and what does
he say? Ye have sold yourselves for naught. They were supposed to be his
people, but they have sold themselves into slavery. And now they're
serving a strange master, a new master. We're told of one of
the kings of Judah, that man Ahab. We have that expression
concerning him, It says there was no king like him who sold
himself to work evil. There was none like unto Ahab
which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the
Lord, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. He sold himself. He gave himself over to it. That became his driving force
in his life. It was not righteousness, but
it was sin. And the Lord says to the Jews,
here in Isaiah chapter 52, ye have sold yourselves for naught. He says you haven't even got
anything out of it. It's not that this has been of benefit
to you, but as they have sold themselves into sin, what are
the wages that they receive? Well, it's death, isn't it? They
think it's going to be worth doing. They think they're going
to get something out of it. But in the long term, the Lord says,
the wages of sin is death. It was true of the Jews back
there in Isaiah's day. You remember how the Lord Jesus
came to the Jews of his day with very similar teaching, didn't
he? When he speaks to them in John
chapter eight, He says to them, if ye continue in my word, then
are ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and
the truth shall make you free. And immediately they begin to
object to this, don't they? And they say, well, hold on a
minute. We're Abraham's seed, and we were never in bondage
to any man. How sayest thou ye shall be made free? It's as if
they say to the Lord Jesus, you can go to the publicans if you
like and say that kind of thing, but it's not appropriate to talk
to us because we're the chosen people. But Jesus says, verily,
verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant
of sin, the slave of sin. And the servant abideth not in
the house forever, but the son abideth ever. If the son therefore
shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. And he says,
I can see that you are the slaves of sin, because you're trying
to kill me. I know that you are Abraham's seed, but ye seek to
kill me, because my word hath no place in you. Even the Jews,
who were the most religious people of their day, Jesus says, you
Jews, you are the slaves of sin. Well, if it's true of them, it's
certainly true of us. the slaves of sin. This is the
great power that moves and works in the world, isn't it? Paul
talks about the prince of the power of the air. There is this
great force that is driving mankind forwards. And we can see it sometimes
in the way that governments work, in the way that powers work,
and if we're honest, we can see it in the way that we work, in
the way that we think. this great force of sin that
drives men to seek power and authority and to be exalted,
the slaves of sin. Well, here is a picture in this
chapter in Leviticus of one who is sold into that slavery, who
has sold himself like Ahab did, like the Jews did in the days
of Isaiah. What can we say then about this
redemption that there is here? Well, four things. First of all,
this person has no power to deliver themselves, does he? He's sold himself. He's not his
own anymore. It's not that he can go to this
stranger, who's now his master, and say, well, I've been working
for you for a number of years now, and I've decided really
it's time to move on. and I'm handing in my notice,
I'm going to find another master. If they had gone to their master
with that kind of request, the master would have said, well,
hold on, it's not in your power to make that kind of decision.
You're not your own, you're mine now. You belong to me. It was like that with the slaves
in America, wasn't it? They literally belonged to their
masters and they couldn't just say, well, that's enough now,
I think I'll move on. They were possessions like animals were
possessed. They had no power to move on. There's something hopeless, isn't
there, about the state of this man. He can't resolve his situation. Wasn't it like that with the
Israelites in Egypt? Remember what we read about at
the beginning of Exodus? Here are these Jews in Egypt
and they've been brought into a condition of slavery. And they're subjected to this
harsh treatment and forced to build these cities. And all they can do is cry. The
children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage and they
cried. And God heard their groaning. They're sighing their groaning
because they can't do anything about this. They haven't got
the power to get out of this situation. They are slaves. Now, I know it says at the end
of verse 49, and this is where the picture perhaps breaks down
a little bit, as all pictures do, it does say, if he be able,
he may redeem himself, but the important word there is if, isn't
it? It might have been possible in some situations that that
man who has sold himself, he might come into an inheritance,
or he might find some treasure. or he might somehow come into
the possession of something that would enable him to buy his freedom.
But when we think about this in a spiritual sense, we can
discount that, can't we? If he is able, he may redeem
himself. But when you think about the
slavery of sin, what is the cost of that freedom? Well, it's death,
isn't it? The wages of sin is death. No ability to deliver ourselves. No escape from that slavery of
sin. Something that holds us and keeps
us down. No power to move on. No power
to deliver one's own self. From that point of view, it seems
entirely hopeless. But then, in the second place,
we see that there is a hope, isn't there? There's a may, here
in verse 48. In fact, there's two, aren't
there? After he is sold, he may be redeemed again. One of his
brethren may redeem him. And you can imagine, can't you,
the slave who, by one means or another, becomes conscious of
this law. What a great hope would have
sprung up when they come across this little word may. You can
imagine the man who has, because he's so destitute, he's had to
sell himself into slavery and he's made that decision and taken
that step, and now he looks forward to a hopeless future, but then
he comes to a word like this. After the year's sold, he may
be redeemed again. There is a hope there, isn't
there? There is a possibility of deliverance. The slaves of sin, when we first
become conscious of that slavery, isn't it sometimes like that?
It seems like such a hopeless thing. We become aware of how
much power sin has, and how little control we have over it, and
how much control it has over us. But then we come to a word
like the word of the gospel. And there is a hope that springs
up. He may be redeemed again. Suddenly this man begins to see
that he has the word of God on his side. The Word of God doesn't say,
well, if you've sold yourself to a stranger, that's it then.
There's no chance of deliverance. There's no way of escape. But
the Word of God makes provision for freedom and for liberty. And so in the heart of this man,
this hope may perhaps have sprung up. I may be redeemed again. There is a hope. This is not
something terminal, not something final. It's true that I have
no power to redeem myself. But there is a hope here. He
may be redeemed again. We come sometimes to the Gospel
or to the Word of God and perhaps you're here this morning and
there's such a hopelessness about it sometimes, isn't there? And
we look at the law and we can only say, well, it's hopeless.
We don't measure up to it. We can't stand in the light of
it. And we come to that place that the hymn writer came to
when he said, eternal light, eternal light, how pure that
soul must be, which placed within thy searching sight, it shrinks
not, but with calm delight can live and look on thee. But then
he says, and how can I? How can I? And there's a hopelessness
there. Well, if we come hopeless, if
you come hopeless this morning, be encouraged. by this word because
God doesn't leave them hopeless. He says, there's a may, there's
a possibility. There is a hope. There is a hope. Where does this hope sit? Who
does this hope centre in? Well, it's here in the verse,
isn't it? One of his brethren. One of his brethren. This is
the teaching concerning the near kinsman, isn't it? This word
redeem, it comes up in many books, but one of the books in which
it comes up most regularly is the book of Ruth. It's a short
book, isn't it? Just four chapters there in the
book of Ruth, but especially in the last two of those four,
we come over and over again to these references to the redeemer. When Naomi says to Ruth at the
end of chapter two, Ruth has come in from the fields and Naomi
notices how much she's brought back with her. And she says,
where have you been today? Someone clearly has been very
kind to you. And Ruth says, well, I've been working in the field
of a man called Boaz. And Naomi says, well, this is
wonderful. Blessed be he of the Lord who
hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead.
Why is Naomi so amazed at this and why does she rejoice so much
in it? Because she knows that this man Boaz is near of kin
unto us, she says. Naomi said unto her, the man
is near of kin unto us. One of our next kinsmen. It's
a very similar phrase, isn't it? Verse 49 here in Leviticus it
says, any that is near of kin unto him may redeem him. And Naomi, she knows that Boaz,
he fits that description and he meets that requirement. And
so she says to Ruth, this man is one of our next kinsmen. And
then in chapter three, Naomi, she encourages Ruth to go to
Boaz. Why does she encourage her to
go to Boaz? Because she knows that Boaz is one of the near
kinsmen. Ruth has the law of God on her
side, doesn't she, as she goes to Boaz? And she has the word
of God on her side. It seems strange to us, doesn't
it, the activity that takes place there in Ruth chapter 3? Ruth
creeping into Boaz's threshing floor in the middle of the night
and lying down at his feet. But it's not strange. She has
the word of God on her side. And when she comes to Boaz, and
Boaz turns in the middle of the night and finds her lying at
his feet, She can plead that promise, can't she? She can plead
that word. I am Ruth, thine handmaid. Spread
therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid. Why is Ruth able to
come in this bold way? Well, she says, you're a near
kinsman. You're a near kinsman. And as you read through the rest
of that book, chapter three and chapter four, what is Boaz doing? Well, he's doing the duty of
the near kinsman, isn't he? He's redeeming. And you find him at the end of
that book, he's taken Ruth to be his wife, he's redeemed all
that was Elimelech's, he's bought it back, and now Ruth has a name
and a place among the people of God. Though naturally speaking
she was so different. This hope that's here in this
word may, it's a hope that is in the near kinsmen. There's a verse elsewhere, isn't
there, that talks about a brother born for adversity. That's what
this man needed. Someone who would come in all
his adversity and help him and redeem him. And we sang, didn't
we, in that second hymn? O ye banished seed, be glad. Christ your advocate is made.
You to save your flesh assumes. Brother to your souls becomes.
This is what Jesus has done, isn't it? in taking upon him the form of
a servant and being made in the likeness of sinful flesh, what
is the result now? What's the consequence? Well,
again, it's there in the epistle to the Romans, isn't it? What
does Paul say there in Romans chapter 8 verse 29? For whom
he did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among
many brethren. There's this closeness now, as
Jesus has come in human flesh, in a human nature. He's now a brother, the brother
born for adversity. Again, it's there all over the
epistles of the Hebrews, isn't it, but especially in chapter
2. At the end of chapter two we
come to these words, verily, he took not on him the nature
of angels, he didn't come in the form of an angel, but he
took on him the seed of Abraham. Why did he do that? In all things
it behoved him, it suited him, to be made like unto his brethren.
Why did he need to be made like unto his brethren? Why did he
need to take on him the seed of Abraham? That he might be
a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to
God, to make reconciliation. for the sins of the people. Reconciliation
is redemption, isn't it? It's deliverance, it's freedom. What kind of person did he come
to do this for? Well, he said himself, didn't
he, that he came to save sinners. I came not to call the righteous,
he says, but sinners to repentance. And so where there is a consciousness
of this slavery, And where there is a sense of
this, this position of captivity, well, there is encouragement,
isn't there, for those people who come with that kind of sense?
Because there is one who is, I was going to say, he's designed
for that situation. You know what I mean? He was
made for that kind of situation. Made a brother. a near kinsman. After that he is sold, he may
be redeemed again. One of his brethren may redeem
him, and the brother comes, and the redemption is made, and the
price is paid. After that he is sold, he may
be redeemed again. Well, we've seen how this person
has no power to deliver themselves. We've seen, secondly, that there
is a hope. We've seen, thirdly, that that hope is in the brother.
But then, fourthly and finally, there's something about this
redemption. This person here is, I was going
to say, entirely passive in this work, aren't they? They don't
contribute to it. They don't bring anything into
this relationship. When the near kinsman, or the
brother, or the uncle, or the uncle's son, or this person who
is near of kin unto this unto this person who has sold themselves
into slavery, when they turn up, they bring everything with
them, don't they? They bring everything with them. It's not
that they have part of the solution, but they bring everything with
them, and especially that's true of the Lord Jesus. When we see the salvation that
there is in the Lord Jesus, sometimes we might be tempted to say, well,
it's a wonderful salvation, Surely I must make some contribution
to this. Surely I need to do something
to earn this. Surely I need to have something to give in return
for this. But Jesus says, no, I bring everything
with me. I bring everything with me into
this relationship. You don't need to bring anything. And this
person here, what did they bring? They brought nothing but their
slavery, did they? They brought nothing but their
need. They made no contribution. They really are passive in this
work. The brother comes, the uncle,
the uncle's son, and this redemption is made. Any that is nigh of
kin unto him or of his family may redeem him. What are we to
do then when we find ourselves in this condition of slavery,
when sin seems to be a hard taskmaster and when we can't seem to imagine
any way of escape from it? Well, we are to be encouraged,
aren't we, by these words here in Leviticus, by the promises,
by the hope, by the may that is here. And we are to be encouraged
by the words of the Psalmist. What does he say in Psalm 62? Such a suitable word for those
who feel their slavery and their hopelessness. The Lord through
David says, trust in him at all times. Ye people, Pour out your
heart before him. Pour out your heart before him.
That's exactly what Ruth did, wasn't it? She came to Boaz with all her
need and she didn't come offering
anything to Boaz, did she? She didn't come to Boaz and say,
well, how about you do this for me and I'll do this for you.
She came poverty stricken, didn't she? She had nothing. Terrible words, aren't they?
The words of Naomi at the end of chapter 1 when she comes back
from Moab and she says, I went out full and the Lord hath brought
me home again empty. And she's got nothing now. And
they're so poor that Ruth has to go gleaning in the fields.
That wasn't something that a person would do lightly, was it? You
think of what it would take for us to have to go out into the
fields at harvest time and try and pick up enough corn off the
ground just to continue to live. There's poverty there in Ruth. And when Boaz first begins to
deal with Ruth, she can't believe it, can she? And she says, why
have I found grace in thine eyes? That thou shouldest take knowledge
of me, seeing I am a stranger. And she says, she can't believe
that this man has comforted her and has spoken friendly unto
her. She says, I'm not like one of thine handmaidens. She said,
I'm not the kind of person that you should be blessing in this
way. And she comes and she pours out
her heart before him and she puts her trust in him, doesn't
she? Trust in him at all times. Ye people pour out your hearts
before him. God is a refuge for us and Boaz is a refuge for Ruth. And as she comes saying, this
is all that I can ask for. This is all I need. is what I
want you to do for me, Boaz. Spread therefore thy skirt over
thine handmaid, put me under your protection, take me under
your wing, provide for me, supply me, make a way for me. Well, Boaz, he doesn't disappoint
her, does he? He doesn't bargain with her.
He doesn't say, well, who are you, Ruth, to come into my threshing
floor like this with a request like that? He couldn't be more pleased to
see her. Blessed be thou of the Lord, my daughter, he says. And
he promises to do to her all that she required. And now when
Ruth goes home to Naomi, Naomi can say, sit still, my daughter,
until thou know how the matter will form. Naomi says to Ruth,
you've put your matter into the hands of Boaz, and now it's his
matter. And he's not going to let you
down. The man will not be in rest. until you have finished
the thing this day and you see how it falls out in chapter four. And here is Ruth not only made a husband to Boaz and not
only given a son but given a place in the family tree of the Lord
Jesus, isn't she? She's there in Matthew chapter
one. What a place of privilege, what a place of blessing for
someone like her. What a hope there is set before
us in the account of Ruth. What a hope there is set before
us here in the account of this redemption. After that he is
sold, he may be redeemed again. Do you come this morning with
a hopelessness, clouding your mind and wondering if there is
a way of escape from sin? Well, the Lord says there is. He may be redeemed again. One
of his brethren may redeem him. Either his uncle or his uncle's
son. Pour out your heart before him. That is to trust in him.
And what is the promise to those who trust in him? Well, there
are many promises to those who trust in him. I was thinking
of the words of the Lord through Isaiah. In chapter 49, verse
23, they shall not be ashamed. that wait for me. They shall
not be. There's a certainty there, isn't there? It's not a maybe. But there is a certainty. After
that he is sold, he may be redeemed again. One of his brethren may
redeem him. And we're going to sing about
that redemption again in our closing hymn in a moment. This
friend that sticketh fast, John Berridge, he loves to speak of
Jesus in that way, doesn't he? He says, Jesus is not like an
earthly brother. who sometimes is hot and sometimes
is cold, and we're all like that sometimes, aren't we? We go off
people. We find them irritating. We don't want to help them sometimes,
but Jesus is always the same. And so John buries at the end
of that hymn, he says, let all the ransomed of the Lord exalt
his love with one accord and hallelujah sing, adore the dying
friend of man. And bless him highly as you can,
he is your God and King, the dying friend of man. That's the
price that he had to pay, wasn't it? Here in Leviticus, the price
could have varied, couldn't it? There's this instruction, it
depends how many years there are until the year of Jubilee.
If it's just a short time, well the price would be lower than
if it's many years until the day of Jubilee. What is the price
that Jesus had to pay? Well, we, again, we're going
to sing about it in verse five of that hymn. The law demanded
blood for blood. And out he lets his vital flood
to pay the mortal debt. He toils through life and pants
through death and cries with his expiring breath. It is finished. It is finished and complete.
After that he is sold, he may, he may be redeemed again. one
of his brethren may redeem him, or may God bless his word to
us each. Amen.