And I'm speaking this evening,
as I said on the subject, the part of a kinsman, what the kinsman
was to do. For it's in here in Ruth that
we meet one of the most glorious types of our Lord anywhere in
the Old Testament, and that is the kinsman redeemer. So, our
text is found in chapter 4, as I said. For brevity, I want to
read verse 1 and then jump to verse 9 through 12 for our text,
the part of a kinsman. Then went Boaz, up to the gate
and set him down there. And behold, the kinsman of whom
Boaz spake came by, unto whom he said, Ho, such a one, turn
aside, sit down here. And he turned aside and sat down. Verse 9. And Boaz said unto the
elders and unto all the people, You are witnesses this day that
I have bought all that was a limalex, all that was Chileans and Melons
of the hand of Naomi. Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess,
the wife, literally widow, of Melon, have I purchased to be
my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance,
that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren,
and from the gate of his place, ye are witnesses this day. And all the people that were
in the gate and the elders said, we are witnesses. The Lord make
the woman that is coming to thy house like Rachel and like Leah,
which too did build the house of Israel, and do thou worthily
in Ephrathah, and be famous in Bethlehem, and let thy house
be like the house of Phares, whom Tamar bear unto Judah, of
the seed which the Lord shall give thee of this young woman."
What we have this evening is one of the greatest events or
occurrences that is to be found here in the Book of Ruth. And
it's very typical. And everything in the Book of
Ruth, providentially, is flowing toward this event that we are
looking at this evening. And that is Boaz's public and
all-encompassing purpose of redemption of the land and of the widow
Melon of Chile on and what we have here is the work of a kinsman
Redeemer witnesses were to be called a boy said I will I will
as to redeeming and performing the work of a kinsman to Ruth
and unto Naomi thus it was that there respective intentions were
ratified here before the witnesses that sat there in the gate, and
that put the matter beyond question, and therefore the transaction
could go forth and be carried out. Now, Boas, you will notice
if you read, is very especially to take care that it be done
in the hearing of proper witnesses according unto the law. You see
that verse 10, verse 11. Now there are two parts that
make up the whole of this work of a redeemer or a kinsman redeemer. In verse 9, ye are witnesses
that I have bought all at the hand of Naomi, all that was Elimelech,
Chilion, and Melons, all three of them are dead by the providence
of God, and they had no offspring to carry on their name, no son. And then the second part is in
verse 10, you are witnessing that I have purchased Ruth the
Moabitess to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon
his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from
among his brethren and from the gate in this place, as that was
considered an awful thing in Israel. Now, as we've already
seen, both of these were a part of the law, the redemption of
the land and the marrying of the widow without child or without
issue. Now, the redemption of the land,
the law regarding it, is found in Leviticus chapter 25, if you're
interested in researching it a bit further. But Boaz confines
both of these into the performance as the part of a kinsman. Both he redeemed the land back
to its owner, and he raised up the name of the dead, performing
both, presumably because our Goel Christ was combined in both
in His saving work. He parts unto us our inheritance,
and He raises us up out of spiritual death, and He gives us our life. He restores unto us that lost
in Adam, Ye, and even more. And He imparts spiritual life,
ensuring that our names will not be blotted out of the book
of life, forever and forever and will never disappear out
of the book of God and from before God. So let us consider the matter
of the redemption of the land. Now the land had originally been
the part of the inheritance unto Elimelech. It is called in chapter
4 and verse 3, a parcel of land, the inheritance of Elimelech.
It would have been passed down to his sons and their son, except
they had died, as did their father, Elimelech. And this caused the
right of the property, therefore, to reside with the widow, Naomi,
and the widow of Malon, who was Ruth. And by the way, was a Gentile
who was brought into the family line of Christ. Now it would
help us to know that what Elimelech had done with his land when he
left the land because of a great famine in it. We wonder if he
just walked off and left it We wonder if he made some disposition
of it, if he left it forsaken or did he put it under mortgage
in the hand of another. We're not told about that, whether
he sold it away or whether he mortgaged it or whatever, but
that's not important for the work of the Goel-Kinsman-Redeemer
Boaz in this situation. Now, we need to better understand
the matter. We need to go back in Israel's
history and consider some special laws that were enacted regarding
the land that God gave unto them. And remember, It was imparted
unto them as their inheritance. Remember that God gave to each
Israelite, every tribe, with the exception of the Levitical
tribe, who were the priests, an inheritance in the land. Every tribe and everyone, with
the exception of the Levite, had an inheritance of the land,
was to be passed down to their offspring, their sons and their
son. and such like, and was to be
kept according to Leviticus chapter 25 and verse 34, quote, their
perpetual possession, unquote. They were not to sell their land,
it was their inheritance. Now, two things about their parcels
of land. A, they did not, in a sense,
own the land. God claimed it as his possession. Leviticus chapter 25, 23, For
the land is mine, saith the Lord. But then be their land inheritances
were but typical of the heavenly inheritances of the elect of
God, which though an inheritance of all the saints of God, yet
strictly speaking, they do not own it. It is not theirs. It
is an inheritance bequeathed unto them by the Father. Now,
the land of Canaan was a good land. God gave them a land that
flowed with milk and with honey. It was a place of rest and good
for agriculture and all those kind of things. But there were
certain laws that were given regarding the land. If we turn
to Leviticus chapter 25, there we will learn something. That
these laws were among some of the last laws that were given
through Moses on the mount. And there are two significant
laws here concerning the management of the land in Leviticus chapter
25. First of all, in verses 1 through
7, the land, and get this, the land was to observe a Sabbath. There was a Sabbath that they
were to observe by the land. The second verse says this, then
shall the land keep a Sabbath unto the Lord. And in verse 4,
in the seventh year, shall there be a Sabbath of rest unto the
land. In the fifth verse it said, year
of rest unto the land, and in verse six, and the Sabbath of
the land. So it is very clearly spelled
out. The Sabbath of the land was to
be every seventh year. Verse three and four. Six years
they could sow and they could farm and they could till, they
could reap, they could prune, they can harvest and such like.
But in the seventh year, they can neither plow nor prune their
plants, nor sow, nor reap, nor gather from the land, not even
the grapes of the vineyard. And yet, in verse 6 and verse
7, there would be plenty for man and beast, as the providential
God would order it that way. Now, the lessons of this were
very valuable unto the people. It reminded them that the law,
that all things, the earth and the heavens are mine, saith the
Lord. And it also shut them up unto
divine providence that the land might rest. and yet they still
have plenty. And it freed them to a fuller
meditation and service unto God, devotion unto family, and that
sort of thing, as well as forming unto them, and let us not forget
it, a type for them and for us of God's creative work and of
His rest. That God created all things and
He rested. The heavens and the earth were
finished and God rested on the seventh day. Again, I guess it
was a reflection of their weekly Sabbath every seventh day. Or Exodus 20 verse 8 through
10. They were not to do work upon
the Sabbath day. And then B, at verse 9 and following,
describes the year of Jubilee. Now the year of Jubilee was every
50 years. In the Jubilee, all land that
had been sold or mortgaged or for whatever reason lost control
of, was returned again unto the original owner. All who had sold
themselves into slavery and had become servants and slaves went
free. And in that jubilee year, all
debts that had been accrued unto them were canceled out, and it
was a year of rest and of worship. Now, there are two verses in
the last part of Leviticus chapter 25 that we're looking at. And let's put the emphasis here
on the two statements. The land shall not be sold forever. you shall grant a redemption
for the land. Not sold forever, you shall grant
a redemption. Now, no doubt these two statements
are certainly related. The land not sold forever, and
when it is for a time, you shall grant or make provision for a
redemption of the land. that it might be redeemed out
of any bondage or mortgage. So let us note it. The land shall
not be sold forever. The 34th verse repeats it. But
the field of the suburbs of the city may not be sold for it is
their perpetual possession. Thus they could not sell their
land forever because Number one, God claimed ownership, and number
two, it was given as their perpetual inheritance when they went into
the land. It shall not be sold forever. Forever meaning not ever sold,
but not sold forever. so that it is never brought back
into the position, so that it is never final or forever, not
sold and never recovered or ever possessed again, not lost forever
and ever out of the hands and the control of the true heir
as it belonged. So the word is strong. The land
shall not be sold. we could use the word annihilation. The word, the land, shall not
be sold unto annihilation, so as to be lost and gone forever
and forever. So that any such selling of the
land was never final. It was never an absolute sale,
as we might say. But as Lange put it, and I quote,
only a temporary lease for a course of years," unquote, and always
measured from the year of the jubilee. That is, charges were
calculated on it or against it from the year of jubilee. And
you see that in Leviticus chapter 25 and verse 15 and 16. More or less, it was paid according
to the years that it would be used by the temporary user RLC. Now, let's consider the second
statement in Leviticus 25 and 24. And in all the land of your
possession, ye shall grant a redemption for the land. That is, make a
provision that it might be redeemed again and put into the hand of
the original heir or owner." Notice the three words, right
of redemption. The right to have their redemption
restored unto them again, however they had lost it. It simply means
that the original owner had a right to recover the land even if it
had been sold or even if it had been mortgaged, keeping in mind
that it was an inheritance from the Lord, given unto each Israelite. Now, just to illustrate, when
wicked Ahab, you remember, sought to take the vineyard of Naboth,
who was simply a peasant to him, according to the scheme of his
own wicked wife, who dreamed it up. Even though Ahab offered
Naboth a better vineyard, or to pay him the full worth for
his, there was a reason why Naboth did not want to part with his
vineyard. And it's found in 1 Kings 21
and verse 3, and that is, God forbid, the Lord forbid it me,
that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee. In other words, this is his inheritance. his inheritance in the land,
his inheritance from God. God forbid, he said, that he
should let go of that. But let's go back to the redemption
of the land. Though it was not to be sold
outright or forever, it was at times put under a temporary mortgage
to another person or individual, but always with the right of
redemption, with provisions written in for the recovery of that land
called a redemption. That is, the manner of the recovering
of the land was by means of redemption or literally a redeeming price. Thus the buyer knew that the
land was not his forever and forever, and that it could and
that it would revert back unto the original heir under the proper
redemption, that it was not his forever or lost forever unto
the heir, because God intended it for a perpetual possession. So let's consider here the right
of redemption. As we no doubt have mentioned
earlier in this study several times, there were three possible
ways or means of redemption. By three ways could the inheritance
be restored, all three returning it again unto the true or the
original heir, free and clear. of all debt and obligation for
His full possession, enjoyment, and usage. And all three are
set forth back there in Leviticus chapter 25. A. In verse 25, when a person became
poor and sold or leased his land, then another, then somebody else. It could be any of his kin may
redeem it, Brother is mentioned, probably means a fellow Israelite,
one like him. In verse 49, an uncle, a cousin,
any that was nigh of kin could redeem his land, buy it back,
and give it to him. Buy it not for his possession,
but to give it again unto the original heir. Such a person
redeemed it for his brother. and it went back to the original
heir. That's clear. Then B, in verse
26 and 27 there, a person could redeem their own land again. They could buy their own land
back again, provided they had, in the meantime, acquired the
means to do so. If they prospered, after being
poor and mortgaging their land, then they could act as their
own redeemer and pay calculated on the time of the year of jubilee
and recover their lease again. And then see in verse 28, if
neither self-redeemed nor kinsmen redeemed, then the year of jubilee
won, it went back again unto them. or another like Boaz could
buy it and could give it back. So now we understand the law
involved in Boaz when he said in verse 9, I have bought all
that was Elimelech's Chileans and Malan, which is called redeeming
in the fourth verse of the fourth chapter of Ruth. For remember,
ye shall grant a redemption for the land. It was done by the
first method, a kinsman redeemer. For consider, it was not yet
the jubilee year when this transaction occurred, nor do we know the
years until the next jubilee. But though it would be automatically
reverted back to her in the jubilee, Boaz, in mercy, would not make
them wait and redeemed it early and put it in their possession.
Secondly, it was out of the question that either Naomi or Ruth had
the means to redeem the land that had belonged under their
husband and father. When they came back to Bethlehem,
in the barley harvest, they were, as we used to say, as poor as
a church mouse. As pure, rather as poor, as Job's
turkey who had to lean up against the fence in order to have strength
that he might gobble. They were poor. They came back
empty. They came back without anything. They came back gleaners of the
field that they might survive and have food and meat for the
day. So Boaz stands in the gate, and
he says to all of the witnesses there, Naomi and Ruth there by
his side, I have bought all that pertains to Elimelech, which
we remembered was figured by the time to the next jubilee. As Matthew Henry paraphrased
the words of Boaz like this, I have bought the estate. Whosoever
has any part mortgage to him, let him come to me and he shall
have his money according to the value of the land. I have bought
it. I, Boaz, have redeemed it. Evidently, someone was using,
therefore, the parcel of land must be compensated so that it
might be returned again unto Naomi. It must be freed of every
mortgage and every debt. and every claim that might be
against it, and all debts pertaining unto it must be paid off." And
this is what Boaz declared that he was doing. He bought it again
for Naomi. And because he bought it of Mahlon,
it gives Ruth a part of an inheritance in the land now that she had
not before. And what an awful word is that
one, mortgage, when we think about it in its reality and meaning. We don't think about it very
much in our day. No fear of putting something
under mortgage or taking out a mortgage. And yet the word,
as to its original and meaning, has the literal meaning of a
death pledge. A mortgage is, in a way, a death
pledge. Mort means death, and gage means
a pledge. Think of these words which use
the word mort as the first syllable of them. Mort or death. Mortify. mortify, mortification,
mortician, one who deals with or handles those that are dead. So mortgage means a thing, or
did in that day, a thing that was under a debt or a sentence
of death that had to be recompensed and had to be paid off. And Boaz bought it all, paid
it every bit, paid the last sparkling and restored that land, the inheritance
again to the widow Naomi. The land of Canaan being a type
of the heavenly inheritance of the saints of God and our great
Goel. the Son of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, a mighty man of wealth and of power, has given us a
heavenly inheritance that fadeth not away and is reserved in heaven
for us. And as the land could not be
sold or lost forever, it could be not lost to a true Israelite
heir. So our inheritance in the Lord
Jesus Christ is laid up. It is there an inheritance. Every
elect of God has an inheritance. There is no such thing as an
elect of God without an inheritance, and our inheritance set in and
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And there's no Israelite
purchased his inheritance It was a gift of God. They did not
go in and buy so many acres or parcels of the land of Canaan. It was given unto them freely
and without cost and without labor. So we have an inheritance. that cannot be bought with money
or with price. We could not redeem our poor
lost estate on our own. We had nothing to buy ourselves
out of the degradation and slavery of sin. So Christ becoming our
near kinsman. You have that in Hebrews chapter
2. Our heavenly Boaz, our blessed
kinsman, who was made like unto his brethren, that he might guarantee
unto us an inheritance that lasts forever and forever. Now Boaz only acted for a single
family, though there was a largeness about his redemption. All that
was Elimelech, all that was Chilean, all that was Melian, all of the
four of them. And yet there is a greater largeness
about Christ's purchase for each and every elect. As with Boaz,
it was a particular purchase, not a Boadventure, but a particular
purchase. A certain definite people was
the object of the buying or the purchase of Boaz. not all Bethlehem
and not all, but all that pertain unto the house of Elimelech. Even so, we close by reminding
ourselves that Christ became our near kinsman by assuming
flesh, in a hypostatic union together with his divine nature,
and he purchased our redemption. By whom we have redemption, the
forgiveness of our sin, according or by the blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We have an inheritance. It's
by our great kinsman Redeemer, our Goel Redeemer, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And what has he done? He has
bought the church. the church with his own precious
blood, even as Boaz bought Ruth to be his wife. Then the Lord
has bought the church to be his blessed bride, and she is his
forever and forever, his everlasting possession and inheritance undefiled,
and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. So Christ
is our kinsman, our Goel, our heavenly Boaz, our Redeemer,
has redeemed us and granted us an inheritance infallible and
imperishable. Thank God for that.