Returning to the book of Ruth, I want you to note several fragments which indicate another of those lines of unfolding that runs through this book.
In Ruth 2:1:
And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband’s, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.
Then, in Ruth 2:20:
And Naomi said unto her, Blessed be he of the Lord, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi said unto her, The man is near of kin unto us, one of our near kinsmen.
In Ruth 3:9:
And he said, Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth thine handmaid: spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman.
And in Ruth 3:12:
And now it is true that I am a near kinsman: howbeit there is a kinsman nearer than I.
Then, in Ruth 4:1-6:
Then went Boaz up to the gate, and sat 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.
And he took ten men of the elders of the city, and said, Sit ye down here. And they sat down.
And he said unto the kinsman, Naomi, that is come again out of the country of Moab, selleth the parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech’s:
And I thought to disclose it unto thee, saying, Buy it before them that sit here, and before the elders of my people. If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it: but if thou wilt not redeem it, then tell me, that I may know; for there is none to redeem it besides thee; and I am after thee. And he said, I will redeem it.
Then said Boaz, What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.
And the kinsman said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance: take thou my right of redemption on thee; for I cannot redeem it.
I will return to the New Testament, to the letter to the Romans, chapter 3, verse 24:
Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Then 1 Corinthians 1:30:
But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.
And Ephesians 1:14:
Which is an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God’s own possession, unto the praise of His glory.
So we proceed with our meditation in this book of Ruth. Without going back over the many details which we covered this morning, I will only say again that this wonderful book comprehends, within the small compass of its few pages, the principles and the processes of God’s complete plan of redemption.
The book has many things, as we have seen, of real value to our Christian lives in our course here on the earth. But it also has these greater aspects of the great doctrine of salvation that we shall see again as we proceed this afternoon.
We take, to cover this present meditation, that phrase which we have just read from Romans 3:24: “The redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
Ruth presents to us vividly, really, from the outset, a hopeless beginning. You know the origin of Moab. Moab was the product of Lot’s incest with his own daughter. That is not a very propitious, promising beginning for anybody.
Then later, the curse pronounced upon Moab collectively as a nation is recorded in Deuteronomy 23:
An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of the Lord; even to the tenth generation shall none of them enter into the assembly of the Lord for ever.
It was a fairly hopeless situation into which to be born: without God and without hope in this world.
Then, by those tragic results and conditions which we find in the book of Judges—the leaving of the land by Elimelech, his wife, and his two sons, and all the sequence of famine and disaster which overtook them in Moab—Ruth’s father-in-law was dead, and her husband was dead. She was without helper, without protection, an inheritor of death.
That describes our state by nature in every detail. There is a curse resting upon the very world into which we are born, and upon the very race to which we belong by nature. Surely this New Testament phrase applies: “Without God and without hope in the world.”
That is the state of every one of us by nature, and we have no helper there. We are dead through trespasses and sins.
That is the background of the whole book: human loss and hopelessness leading to the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
We saw this morning that the good news reached the land somehow: there was resurrection in Bethlehem. The barley harvest, resurrection, was on. The news reached these desolate souls in Moab, and they left the place of desolation, the place of utter hopelessness, and went to Bethlehem, the place of resurrection.
Through resurrection, the whole glorious work of redemption was brought about. They entered into it: redemption through resurrection, as the gospel brings again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
On the ground of His resurrection is full redemption. Of course, that may seem really obvious because you are so familiar with it. You know all about it—but do you?
God have mercy upon us if ever that loses its charm and its preciousness.
But not only on the ground of resurrection was there redemption, but on the ground of union with the Redeemer. That is an extra aspect: resurrection union with the redeeming Kinsman.
That was the next stage, and that is the next stage. Let us remind ourselves that this is the heart and the sum of the gospel.
We break the gospel up into fragments and speak about forgiveness, atonement, justification, and so on. They are all parts of one thing. The sum and core of redemption, of salvation, is union with the Redeemer.
Redemption is not a thing, an abstract truth. Redemption is a relationship with a living Person. And that makes redemption so full of possibilities and potentiality.
Ruth might have been saved from her deplorable condition and might have come into the land with a little plot of it and certain personal benefits. But look how much more accrued to her by union with Boaz.
Not only then, but look at the last words of the book, and look through the last words of the book right on down the ages. We will look at that again presently.
This redemption was not just something that saved from; it was something that saved unto. It was not merely something for the time being, or for her personal life, with certain advantages and values. It was Someone who comprehended all and carried her into a tremendously full heritage.
There is redemption. Salvation is living union with a living Person. By that union we are led to the inheritance which is ours in Christ.
Now note carefully four details. Ruth’s lost inheritance was due to union in a first marriage. She had been married to Elimelech’s son, and this whole question of redemption arose. The whole difficulty of redemption arose because she had no connection with this thing except by reason of that marriage union.
It brought the whole matter into meaning, but it was lost by that union in the first marriage.
I think that first marriage has a sidelight thrown upon it, and is given meaning, by that nearest kinsman—Boaz, but the other one, the nearest kinsman.
Who is our nearest kinsman by nature? The old Adam. We know that he is a very near kinsman indeed. He is always imminent, always on the scene; he is never very far off.
Boaz said, “There is another kinsman.” That is very true—very true. We need not try to explain it. We know how true, by nature, it is that there is a very near kinsman.
It is very interesting, is it not, to note the unfolding of this thing? You can say very much more about it, and I am saying that you should study your New Testament, especially your letter to the Romans. I think it is wonderful—almost fascinating.
Otherwise, the responsibility for redeeming rested with the nearer kinsman in the first place. Responsibility does rest in the first place with Adam, the first Adam: responsibility for this situation, and responsibility to do something about it.
We are not talking about ability; we are talking about responsibility to do something about it. Therefore Boaz says, in effect, “Let us put this thing on him and see what he can do about it.”
You see, that opens up a whole realm: whether man can find in himself, in his own natural life, in his own inheritance and heredity, in the nearest kinsman, the old Adam, something by which he can find redemption.
Is it not just the working of that principle which the Lord follows out? When He convicts us of our lost condition, He so often, for a time, lets us go through an experience by which we come to know more and more that salvation is not in ourselves.
The fact is that our great redeeming Kinsman does that sort of thing. He says, “That is all right. If you can save yourself, save yourself. I will stand back. I will give you a chance. I will give the old Adam a full chance, a clear way. I will give all that humanism full scope and see what it can do, what it will do.”
Look at the world that says it can be its own saviour, that there is enough good possibility and power in human nature to redeem itself and change the world. Well, what is the answer?
Yes, the Lord brings us home to a dead end if He is going to bring us really into the good of redemption. He lets us know that the nearest kinsman, the old man, the old Adam, is absolutely impotent. He heads us up to the point where He, and He only, is the Redeemer; and He will not share this thing with anyone.
In His own way, He does put the responsibility where it first of all belongs. This is not, “Do it if you can.” Do it if you can.
I think you can say that there is no one who ever really comes, livingly, into the good of redemption who has not come beforehand to the place of absolute hopelessness as for himself or anybody else he may become.
I am not sure that the Lord does not press that more and more after we are saved, making us know that there is really, after all, no kinsman but Himself who can do this business, either in us or outside of us.
As with Boaz, there is another kinsman, and, in fact, he must be given the opportunity to show what he can do about it. So Boaz, in a way, stands back for the other man and gives him a chance.
Dear friend, if you are still trying to save or sanctify yourself, struggling and striving to bring about redemption in some way—at the beginning or at any other point in your Christian life—the Lord is going to lead you to that point.
He is not going to concern Himself about it until that part of you says, “No, we can do nothing about it,” until that resource is proved utterly impotent. This is a thing for Christians to remember as well as unsaved people.
You will realise that I am keeping closely to this letter to the Romans, because it was written to Christians. It is about the two Adams, is it not?
Boaz places the responsibility upon the old Adam, upon the nearest kinsman, in the first place. He challenges him and says, “There is the situation. Responsibility lies at your door. What are you going to do about it?”
It is found, inevitably, in the long run, that he cannot do anything. Oh, he makes a prompt answer: “I will do it. I can deal with this matter. I can save this situation. I can take it on myself.”
That is because the whole implication of redemption has not been recognised. So Boaz says, “No, there is something more in it than that, a great deal more in it than that. It is not only doing this legal thing, but you have got to raise up an everlasting testimony in the house of Israel—a testimony in resurrection.”
The old man cannot do that. When the real implications of the matter are presented to him, he says, “I cannot do anything about it.”
Why is he unable? Why is this disability upon him? “Lest I mar mine own inheritance.” I confess that I do not altogether understand the precise details, but I think we can get something of what the Word means by interpreting it in the light of the New Testament.
The old man is just tied up—tied up with his own interests, tied up with his own inheritance. He cannot do anything about this because he is so personally tied up.
This nearest kinsman’s disability was because he had all that he could do to cope with his own situation, all that he could do to look after his own inheritance. What could he do about redemption?
That is perfect for life, is it not? It is true to experience. There is this other thing which keeps us still occupied and still busy, so that we are unable to do anything about heaven, eternity, and the things of God.
If we begin to think in terms of eternity and heaven and the things of God, we say, “Well, it is going to spoil our little bit down here in this world. It is going to upset things here for us.”
Yes, that is the thing against which the gospel comes so often, when there is presented the whole matter of salvation in Christ Jesus and eternal well-being. People say, “Yes, but see what it means giving up. See what it will cost. See what it will involve with friends.”
“Yes, all that. I shall mar my inheritance if I begin to take on this other matter of eternal affairs. If I begin to consider this whole matter of redemption, it is going to spoil the fun for me in this world.”
Well, that is all wrong. But people are so tied up, are they not, in their own affairs? The old man is so tied up, looking after himself, that he is simply not free to entertain this matter.
His disability lies in his bondage to the world, his bondage to its things, and his bondage to its king, its overlord. He can do nothing about it.
When that is established, proved, and settled, then Boaz steps right in. That old man must give it up and get out of the way.
Now, Christians, this is your trouble as much as the sinner’s: trying to effect your own redemption, trying to find something that will please God in yourself; this ignorant striving of the old man to redeem or save himself in some way.
Oh, that old man must give it up and get out of the way before the Lord will do it. And He never will until we get there—get out of the Lord’s way.
When we come to that position, then the redeeming Kinsman, our greater Boaz, will step in and take over.
But notice—and I think it is something about Boaz really to be noted—he never forced or asserted himself. He stood, so to speak, waiting: “I am waiting. I am waiting.” There was no asserting, no imposing.
If there is anyone here this afternoon who does not really know the Lord, the Lord Jesus is not going to force Himself on you to be your Redeemer. He is not going to assert Himself to take over.
He will wait until you come to the place where you say, “He is the only One who can do it. He is the only One.”
So Boaz did not put his hand on this and assert himself to possess. He would give ample opportunity to any other course we may think to take, and He will wait until all other resources have been exhausted.
Then we come to the place where we realise that He is able, and He is the only One who is able. Boaz was able to do it, and he was the only one able to do it. But more than that, while waiting, he was perfectly willing to do it.
I confess to you—and probably you have been reading this little book—that when I got to that place where Boaz told Ruth, “There is a kinsman nearer than I, and we must give him his chance,” a thought took place in me.
I mean, here is a man desperately in love with this woman. He wants her. He is hiding it all, I know, and giving the other man a chance. Oh, supposing the other man had said yes! What would Boaz have done? Poor Boaz!
You see, the Lord is full of concern, full of love for you and for me. He is desperately anxious to have us. But He knows that we shall never appreciate Him until everybody else is out of the way.
He is not going to have a half allegiance. He is prepared to let go all rather than have only half.
He runs all the risks. “If you can find another redeemer,” He says, “all right, find him. If you can find another husband, find him. All right, find him.”
But you must come to the place where He is everything before He is going to do anything about this. He is jealous to have us wholly.
He is able, He is willing, and He is anxious. Boaz, perhaps, is hidden, and He is untrammelled, unfettered. He is free. He has no other preoccupation or interest. He is unlike this other man.
There is nothing of secondary interest with Him. He is free from all such things. It is a glorious thing, dear friends, is it not, to really apprehend that our Lord Jesus has no preoccupation where we are concerned? We are His only occupation.
He is unfettered by other considerations, and all personal interests have completely disappeared in the interest of getting His Bride. He has one interest.
That is Corinthians, is it not? Everything is gone—even His glory in heaven with the Father is gone—because He is single-eyed, single-minded. He has only one interest. He is untrammelled by any other consideration. You and I are His object, His concern, and everything else is set aside.
I am so glad the Lord has not got an alternative. Are you? He has not got an alternative—not at all. The other man had an alternative.
Then things were established on that basis, and Boaz was the only redeemer. The redemption which he carried out brought all the inheritance into Ruth’s possession.
All the redemption was hers in him. All the inheritance was hers in him. It was the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. We get it all in Him.
He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?
We get it all in Christ. I know how simple this is, but is this not a wonderful and beautiful exposition of the gospel—the book of Ruth?
The inheritance—the inheritance. Just look at it.
In the first place, of course, it was a part in the covenant land. You have to go back again to the book of Joshua. When the land was taken by Joshua, and finally subdued and conquered, then it was divided up to the tribes, and through the tribes to the families. They had their lot of inheritance in the land.
Somehow or other, Elimelech came to have a plot in the covenant land. We know what an Old Testament figure means. We moved this afternoon just to touch it in the letter to the Ephesians.
The thing which corresponds to the book of Ruth is the letter to the Ephesians: the wonderful inheritance that is in Christ, and His wonderful inheritance in His own.
It is a land, is it not, of vast distances—heavenly distances. That is the inheritance. Look at Ephesians: our distances reach right back into eternity past and right on into eternity to come. Wonderful!
It is a very wealthy land, a very rich land. The inheritance, in the first place here in view with Ruth, was that part in the covenant land. It was most important to have a part in that as your own.
But it never stopped there. What had been hers because of union with Naomi, and through Naomi with Elimelech, had been lost. Yet in the recovery, or in the redemption, a very great deal more than what was lost was given.
Her little bit was swallowed up in His large inheritance. The great truth is that in the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, we get far more than we ever lost—far more than Adam lost.
Christ brings to us far more than ever Adam had, and therefore far more than ever he lost.
It is a very much enlarged inheritance into which we come in Christ. Our little bit, yes—but His all, His all.
I like that. Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, returned out of the country of Moab. They came to Bethlehem. And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband’s, a mighty man of wealth—a mighty man of wealth.
Look through that book down the ages, through Ruth, and see the mighty Man of wealth. Did Ruth come into a larger inheritance than that little bit of the land of Canaan which she had lost? Look on to Christ, who came through her. He came by way of Ruth.
What an inheritance! One greater than Boaz is here.
Finally, for the present, consider the motive and principle of this redemption. It is stated in these words: “To raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.”
What does that mean—to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance? To raise up the name of Elimelech upon his inheritance. How? By an abiding seed in resurrection.
Elimelech—what is the meaning of that? “My God is King.” It is the very first truth of the book: God is King.
“To raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.” The last words of the book of Judges are:
In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
What chaos, what tragedy! There always is where there is no central and supreme authority. All the trouble can be traced to that.
It was so in the four hundred years of the judges: a terrible condition and final tragedy. It is so today in the whole world, and, sadly, in some sense it is true in Christianity.
All the division, all the disruption, all these unhappy conditions which yet exist, are because Jesus has not His place of headship.
While He is called Lord, and things are said to be in His name and profession, He really is not in that place. Other lords have dominion. We can name any number of things which really do rule, even Christian lives and church affairs.
These are things which get in the way of the absolute sovereign headship of the Lord Jesus. Is it not made perfectly clear by Paul that the oneness, the unity, that organic fellowship in the Body of Christ, proceeds from His headship?
The whole body, fitly framed together, depends upon the Head. We are so familiar with that. Here you have conditions which are anything but like that, and they are like that today.
The need is for authority—for a king, for a head. Oh, that the Lord may really, actually, be King and Lord everywhere.
I have been recently in the States among Christians. The same thing has been said to me everywhere. I have not said it, but it has been said to me: “Our trouble is no leadership. Our trouble is a lack of authority. Everybody does as they think or like.”
There is no central authority and no leadership. Therefore you have hunger, spiritual starvation, poverty—all that. That is how it was in the days of the judges, and that is how it was in these days until the Lord visited them.
“To raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance” surely means the recovery and reinstatement of the absolute lordship of the Lord. Elimelech—“my God is King.” Raise up that name.
When He is King, what a very blessed situation! People think that if they let go to the Lord and let Him be Lord altogether, they are going to lose something. Well, do not be deceived about that.
Look again at the book of Judges, and look at this little book of Ruth. Surely the book of Ruth stands conclusively to announce that where there is a Head and a Lord established, there is plenty, prosperity, blessing, life, and everything. When that is not so, there is nothing.
“To raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.” Is there not another glance here? “Thou madest him to have dominion.” He lost his inheritance in Adam, through Adam; and yet, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance is to raise up man who has died, in the sight of God, and give to that man through redemption his dominion again—his kingship.
We shall reign with Him, our Lord. That is all very simple, but I am finding—