Context No. 2695 of 4322 · Ruth

Ruth 4:6-10: in context

6The near kinsman said, “I can’t redeem it for myself, lest I endanger my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption for yourself; for I can’t redeem it.” 7Now this was the custom in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning exchanging, to confirm all things: a man took off his sandal, and gave it to his neighbor; and this was the way of formalizing transactions in Israel. 8So the near kinsman said to Boaz, “Buy it for yourself,” then he took off his sandal. 9Boaz said to the elders and to all the people, “You are witnesses today, that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s, from the hand of Naomi. 10Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, I have purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his place. You are witnesses today.”

At the town gate the drama of Ruth reaches its settlement. The nearer kinsman has first claim to redeem Elimelech's land, but when he learns that redeeming it means also taking Ruth to raise up the dead man's name, he pulls back: I cannot, lest I endanger my own inheritance. He hands the right to Boaz with the old custom of the sandal.

Watch the two men do the same math and reach opposite answers. The first calculates the cost to himself and says no. Boaz accepts that very cost, buys the land, and takes Ruth as his wife, and by doing so steps into the line that runs to David and to Christ. Redemption is never free to the redeemer. It is precisely what the first man would not spend that makes Boaz a picture of the One who would.

When love asks me to take on a cost that is not strictly mine, do I calculate like the first kinsman, or step in like Boaz?

Sources

Leviticus 25:25: "If your brother becomes poor, and sells some of his possessions, then his kinsman... shall come and redeem that which his brother has sold."
Ruth 4:17: "They named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David."
Matthew 1:5: "Boaz became the father of Obed by Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse."