RUTH: THE MOABITESS BROUGHT IN BY GRACE ALONE, AND THE KINSMAN-REDEEMER WHO FULFILLS THE LAW'S "I CANNOT"

Scripture teaches that Christ Himself opens the Scriptures, for the Scriptures testify of Him (Luke 24:27,44-45; John 5:39). From Him, through Him, and to Him are all things (Rom. 11:36). The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Rev. 19:10). Ruth bears that testimony in narrative form: an enemy from outside the covenant is brought in, not by law-keeping or birth or merit, but by a kinsman who pays the price another kinsman cannot pay. The arrangement is the argument. Famine leads to exile. Death leads to emptiness. Emptiness leads to gleaning. Gleaning leads to the threshing floor. The threshing floor leads to redemption. Redemption leads to marriage. Marriage leads to David, and from David to Christ.

GRACE CHOOSES THE ENEMY WHOM THE LAW EXCLUDES

Ruth was a Moabitess (Ruth 1:4). That designation carries the history of Moab. Moab descended from the incest of Lot and his older daughter (Gen. 19:37). When Israel came out of Egypt, Moab would not give bread and water, but hired Balaam to curse Israel (Deut. 23:3-4). Therefore the law declared that no Moabite would enter the assembly of the Lord, even to the tenth generation (Deut. 23:3). The exclusion exposed what Moab was: an enemy outside, under curse, without covenant.

In the days when the judges ruled, famine came upon Bethlehem, the house of bread (Ruth 1:1). Elimelech took Naomi and their two sons to sojourn in Moab. There Elimelech died. There the sons married Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. There the sons also died. Naomi was left without husband and without sons (Ruth 1:3-5). What began as a search for bread ended in bereavement. The famine pointed to a deeper famine: the lack of a redeemer, the lack of an heir.

Naomi heard that the Lord had visited His people in giving bread, and she rose to return to Bethlehem (Ruth 1:6). She urged her daughters-in-law to return to their own mothers' houses, to their own gods, to their own people (Ruth 1:8-15). Orpah returned. Ruth clung. Ruth clave unto Naomi (Ruth 1:14). The same verb describes the cleaving of man to wife (Gen. 2:24) and the cleaving of Israel to the Lord (Deut. 10:20). Ruth spoke the resolve at the center of the book: where Naomi went, Ruth would go; Naomi's people would be Ruth's people, and Naomi's God would be Ruth's God (Ruth 1:16-17). Ruth did not negotiate terms. Ruth abandoned Moab and cast herself upon the God of Israel. That abandonment is what Scripture calls faith: not a work offered to God, but a cleaving to the God who gives.

Naomi returned empty (Ruth 1:21). She told the women of Bethlehem not to call her Naomi, pleasant, but Mara, bitter, because the Almighty had dealt bitterly with her (Ruth 1:20). Yet the same hand that emptied Naomi brought Ruth with her. Grace does not wait for fullness. Grace meets emptiness. Ruth entered Bethlehem as a Moabitess, a widow, a foreigner, without a portion, without a redeemer. Scripture places her there to show that the bringing in of the outsider is the work of God alone.

THE LAW PROVIDES GLEANING, BUT GLEANING CANNOT PURCHASE INHERITANCE

Ruth went to glean in the fields (Ruth 2:2). The law of gleaning commanded that the corners of the field and the fallen grain be left for the poor and the stranger (Lev. 19:9-10; Deut. 24:19-21). Gleaning was mercy under law. It fed the hungry. It did not redeem. It did not give inheritance. Ruth gleaned because she had nothing else, working from morning until evening, carrying home an ephah of barley (Ruth 2:17). The labor was real. The portion was small. The law could sustain life for a day. The law could not give life forever.

Her lot fell upon the field of Boaz, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech (Ruth 2:1,3). The phrase "her hap was" does not teach chance. Scripture teaches that the lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord (Prov. 16:33). Boaz spoke to Ruth with favor: do not glean in another field, abide here (Ruth 2:8-9). Boaz prayed that the Lord God of Israel would recompense Ruth, under whose wings she had come to trust (Ruth 2:12). Boaz became the instrument by which that trust was fed.

Boaz commanded the reapers to let grain fall purposely for Ruth, to leave handfuls, and not to rebuke her (Ruth 2:15-16). The text shows grace abounding beyond law. The law said leave the corners. Boaz said drop handfuls on purpose. Ruth ate and was sufficed and left (Ruth 2:14). Still it was provision in the field, not possession in the house. Ruth remained a gleaner. The field could not make her a bride. Only a redeemer could do that. The law feeds the stranger for a day. Grace marries the stranger forever.

Naomi told Ruth that Boaz was near of kin, one of the redeemers (Ruth 2:20). The Hebrew word goel carries the weight of the book. A goel redeemed a brother sold into poverty, bought back land sold in distress, raised up seed for a dead brother (Lev. 25:25,47-49; Deut. 25:5-10). The redeemer had to be near of kin, able to pay, and willing. Ruth continued gleaning through wheat harvest and barley harvest (Ruth 2:23). Provision continued, but redemption had not yet come. Gleaning was not the end. The threshing floor was still ahead.

THE THRESHING FLOOR EXPOSES NEED AND REVEALS THE REDEEMER

Naomi instructed Ruth to wash, anoint, put on raiment, and go down to the threshing floor where Boaz winnowed barley (Ruth 3:1-4). The instruction has been misread as seduction. The text shows the opposite. The threshing floor was a public place of labor, where grain was separated from chaff. Ruth was told to uncover the feet of Boaz and lie down, that he might tell her what to do (Ruth 3:4). The act was a petition, not a proposition. To spread the skirt over a woman was to claim her in marriage and protection. Ruth would ask Boaz to spread his skirt over her, for he was a near kinsman (Ruth 3:9).

At midnight Boaz awoke to find a woman at his feet (Ruth 3:8). Ruth answered: I am Ruth thine handmaid; spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid, for thou art a near kinsman (Ruth 3:9). The Moabitess who had come to trust under the wings of the Lord God of Israel (Ruth 2:12) now asked the kinsman to spread his wing over her. The wings of the Lord and the skirt of Boaz meet in one act. Ruth did not offer payment. Ruth did not plead merit. Ruth pleaded kinship: thou art a near kinsman. The claim rested on who Boaz was, not on who Ruth was. That is the structure of redemption throughout Scripture.

Boaz answered with blessing and with law. He called Ruth blessed of the Lord (Ruth 3:10). He promised to do all that she required, for all the city knew that she was a virtuous woman (Ruth 3:11). Then he named the obstacle: there was a kinsman nearer than he (Ruth 3:12). The law required that the nearer kinsman have the first right. Boaz would not bypass the law. He would go to the gate in the morning and let the nearer kinsman choose (Ruth 3:13). Redemption would be done lawfully, openly, before witnesses, or not at all. The petition ended with six measures of barley, a pledge that the man would not rest until he had finished the thing that day (Ruth 3:15,18).

THE NEARER KINSMAN SAYS "I CANNOT," AND THE LAW GIVES WAY TO GRACE

The gate of Bethlehem was the place of judgment and transaction (Ruth 4:1). Boaz sat with ten elders and called the nearer kinsman to sit (Ruth 4:2). Boaz presented the case: Naomi had sold a parcel of land which belonged to Elimelech (Ruth 4:3). If the nearer kinsman would redeem it, let him redeem it. If not, Boaz would redeem it (Ruth 4:4). The nearer kinsman answered at first: I will redeem it (Ruth 4:4). Then Boaz added the condition joined to the land: Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, must also be bought, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance (Ruth 4:5). The nearer kinsman answered: I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance; redeem thou my right to thyself, for I cannot redeem it (Ruth 4:6).

That confession is the hinge of the book. The law provides a nearer kinsman, and the nearer kinsman confesses inability. The law is holy, just, and good (Rom. 7:12), but it cannot give life, because the flesh is weak (Rom. 8:3). The law exposes need. The law cannot meet need. The nearer kinsman could redeem land alone, but he could not redeem land with the Moabitess joined to it without marring his own inheritance. He drew off his shoe and gave it to Boaz, according to the custom of redemption in Israel (Ruth 4:7-8; Deut. 25:7-10). The shoe signified a foot that would not walk in redemption, a right surrendered.

Boaz then declared before the elders that he had bought all that was Elimelech's, and all that was Chilion's and Mahlon's, and that he had purchased Ruth the Moabitess to be his wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance (Ruth 4:9-10). The elders witnessed: we are witnesses (Ruth 4:11). The blessing followed: may the Lord make the woman like Rachel and like Leah, who built the house of Israel; may the house be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bore unto Judah (Ruth 4:11-12). Redemption is a public, witnessed, lawful purchase that builds a house.

REDEMPTION IS PURCHASE, MARRIAGE IS UNION, AND THE GENEALOGY RUNS TO CHRIST

Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife, and the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son (Ruth 4:13). Purchase precedes union. Union precedes fruit. The same Lord who had emptied Naomi now filled her through Ruth. The women blessed the Lord who had not left Naomi without a kinsman, that he would be a restorer of life, for Ruth was better to Naomi than seven sons (Ruth 4:14-15). Naomi took the child and became nurse unto it (Ruth 4:16). The women named the child Obed, saying a son is born to Naomi (Ruth 4:17). Grace does not merely feed the empty. Grace fills the empty with a son.

The genealogy closes the book (Ruth 4:18-22). Pharez begat Hezron, Hezron begat Ram, Ram begat Amminadab, Amminadab begat Nahshon, Nahshon begat Salmon, Salmon begat Boaz, Boaz begat Obed, Obed begat Jesse, Jesse begat David. The line runs from Judah through Pharez, the child of Tamar, through Boaz, through Ruth the Moabitess, to David the king. The line of David was never a line of pure blood. It was a line of grace, through women whom the law would have excluded, preserved by redemption.

Matthew takes up that genealogy and carries it forward. The genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, names Boaz begat Obed of Ruth (Matt. 1:5). Luke traces the same line backward from Jesus through David, through Obed, through Boaz (Luke 3:31-32). The book of Ruth ends with David. The Gospel begins with the Son of David. The Kinsman-Redeemer who bought Ruth foreshadows the Redeemer who buys the Church. The marriage of Boaz and Ruth foreshadows the marriage of Christ and His bride.

The parallels are exact where Scripture invites comparison. Boaz was near of kin to Ruth by flesh. Christ became near of kin to His people by taking flesh and blood, forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same (Heb. 2:14). Boaz was able to pay. Christ paid, not with silver and gold, but with His own blood, for the saints were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ (1 Pet. 1:18-19). Boaz was willing when the nearer kinsman said, I cannot. Christ was willing when the law said, I cannot, for Christ redeemed from the curse of the law, being made a curse (Gal. 3:13). Boaz bought land and bride together. Christ bought His people and their inheritance together (Eph. 1:11,14). Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle (Eph. 5:25-27).

The Gentile character of the bride is central. Ruth was a Moabitess, an enemy, an outsider, without covenant. The Church is drawn from the Gentiles, who were without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus have been brought near by the blood of Christ (Eph. 2:11-13). Ruth was purchased at the gate before witnesses. The Church was purchased at the cross before witnesses, where Christ was set forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood (Rom. 3:25). The thread runs unbroken from Moab to Bethlehem to David to Christ.

THE WEDDING OF THE LAMB IS THE END TOWARD WHICH RUTH POINTS

Scripture ends where Ruth points. The marriage of Boaz and Ruth, blessed at the gate, with the elders as witnesses, looks forward to the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7-9). There the bride has made herself ready, arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of saints (Rev. 19:8). The linen is not woven by the bride. The righteousness is given. The bride is presented spotless because the Bridegroom purchased her spotless. Ruth was made a wife by purchase. The Church is made a bride by purchase. The Church is the fullness of Him that filleth all in all (Eph. 1:23).

The book of Ruth teaches, therefore, that redemption is by grace alone, through a Kinsman who fulfills what the law cannot. The nearer kinsman confesses: I cannot redeem without marring mine own inheritance. Boaz says: I will redeem. Christ says, in effect through His work, it is finished (John 19:30). The Moabitess who had nothing is given everything: a redeemer, a husband, a son, a name, a place in the genealogy of David, a place in the genealogy of Christ. Naomi who returned empty is given fullness through the son of Ruth. The famine is answered by the bread of Bethlehem, by the Son who is the bread of life (John 6:35). Faith is present possession: he who believes has eternal life (John 6:47). The line from Pharez to David runs on to Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Kinsman-Redeemer who purchases His Gentile bride with His blood and carries her to the wedding of the Lamb, where the arrangement of all Scripture finds its end: from Him, through Him, and to Him are all things (Rom. 11:36).