Ruth 4:14-15. Kinsman Redeemer

Sunday July 8, 2018

Title: Ruth 4:14-15. Kinsman Redeemer

Rut 4:13 So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife, and he went in to her. And the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son.

Rut 4:14 Then the women said to Naomi, "Blessed is the Lord who has not left you without a redeemer [goel] today, and may his name become famous in Israel.

Rut 4:15 May he also be to you a restorer of life and a sustainer of your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him."

The redeemer is now the child Obed because someday he will be the one to redeem all of Naomi’s possessions.

This is the only time that a kinsman (goel) is used of a child. Of course, this is in preparation for another child born in this line who will be Redeemer of all mankind.

The contrast to Naomi’s prior life couldn’t be sharper. She referred to herself as bitter when she returned to Bethlehem. She was angry at God and bitter over the way her life resulted in loss.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, was also a woman reproached. She was pregnant and unwed and had to bear that reproach since the Messiah was to be born from a virgin.

Reproaching groups and shame cultures are frequent in human history. The shunning of a community can be a powerful tool to alter a person’s self-consciousness and behavior.

In fact, God used excommunication in Israel as the Law instructed that lawbreakers who had become unclean were to be removed from the main population and bear their reproach outside the camp. However, this was not so much shaming as it was the truth that God can have no part with sin and that sin separates a man from the good things from God. This was done in grace, for according to the Law, if they had not committed a sin worthy of death, after a certain time outside the camp, they were to be restored, Deu 23:11; Num 12:15.

The world’s shaming is like the world’s sorrow. It is made with death in mind. God’s sorrow is for a repentance not leading to regret but rejoicing.

2Co 7:10

For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation; but the sorrow of the world produces death.

This is true because we have a Kinsman Redeemer, and a part of His redemption is our vindication.

There is a significant amount of literature on the difference between shame cultures and guilt cultures, the former usually being pointed out in the east and the later in the west. The guilt culture is touted as the inner voice while the shame culture is the outer voices of the community.

This has become an interesting subject as migrants from the east (shame culture) immigrate to western Europe and America (guilt culture), which leads to generational conflict.

The Holy Spirit reveals to us through Paul that there is a godly sorrow over the wrongdoings of our past when they are corrected by the word of God, but it is one that is without regret.

Godly sorrow leading to repentance without regret is thanksgiving for the knowledge of the correction and the power to turn to the way of Christ, while the past is no longer a yoke.

The yoke of the Kinsman Redeemer is light. Christ has born the reproach for us.

Heb 13:12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.

Heb 13:13 Hence, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.

Going outside is not conforming to the norms of the world. When we don’t we will be persecuted by the world, and if so, we are blessed.

Heb 13:14 For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.

Heb 13:15 Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.

Even at the writing of the Gospel of John (90-100 A.D.) the pregnant, unwed Mary was a source of accusation.

Joh 8:41

They said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God."

It could be that John included this statement from the Pharisees so that his readers would know that the establishment had been accusing Jesus of illegitimate birth since the time they heard of it.

Matthew includes Rahab and Ruth in his genealogy of Christ. It was unheard of to include women in a genealogy, but not only did Matthew insert them, but they were Gentiles, Rahab being a former prostitute. This removes all inclination that the ancestors of the Messiah were all pure, even though Mary’s pregnancy was the purest.

If you remember, the leaders from Jerusalem went to see Him in Nazareth (Luk 5:17) after the Jewish leper was healed. It was there, in a house, that they witnessed Jesus say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven you.” They would have inquired about Jesus and the story of Mary’s questionable pregnancy would have been easily known.

In their unbelief they viewed Mary’s pregnancy as a reproach instead of relating it to Isa 7:14 and marveling and rejoicing.

Conceived out of wedlock, raised in Nazareth, the son of a common carpenter, uneducated in the great schools, and most of all, nailed to a Roman cross were all points against the Redeemer in the eyes of the religious establishment.

However, much like a parable, if one simply took a little time and a little inquisitiveness and peaked behind the curtain so to speak, they would have seen that all of those things were a part of Him being unmistakably the Messiah. Nicodemus was inquisitive enough to go to the Lord and ask.

Joh 3:2

"Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him."

Why didn’t all the Sanhedrin come to Him and inquire?

As with the Lord Jesus and Rahab, Ruth, Naomi, and countless others, God has a wonderful way of delivering those who love Him from the reproach of others. Ruth was drastically changed and so was Naomi’s circumstances.

Naomi now holds an infant redeemer.

Luk 2:16And they [shepherds] came in haste and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger.

Luk 2:17 And when they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child.

Luk 2:18 And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds.

Luk 2:19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

Mary held THE infant Redeemer in her lap.

Rut 4:14 Then the women said to Naomi, "Blessed is the Lord who has not left you without a redeemer [goel] today, and may his name become famous in Israel.

Rut 4:15 May he also be to you a restorer of life and a sustainer of your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him."

The women bid that Obed will be to Naomi a restorer of life. The removal of her reproach and the blessing of the child and family will revive her spirit and hope.

The child will grow and take care of Naomi in her old age.

Doctrine of the Kinsman Redeemer.

There are at least fourteen reasons assigned in the Bible for the death of Christ, and, since He was born to die, it follows that He was born, or became incarnate, for each and all of these reasons.

However, the major portion of these reasons are but varying aspects of the general theme of the cure of sin, which, so far as the incarnation is concerned, may be attended under the one aspect of soteriological truth—the Kinsman Redeemer.

Jesus is the Kinsman Redeemer who died for our redemption.

As in so many instances, a doctrine is now confronted which transcends all human understanding. We are confronted with the dual nature of Christ, His willingness to die spiritually and physically, His judgment and separation from His Father, and the blood of Christ as the payment for sin.

No one in this life could fully know the price of redemption and its act, the death of Christ for us.

Qualifications for a kinsman redeemer:

Near kinsman – The Son of God became a man.

Able to redeem –Jesus remained impeccable.

Willing to redeem – He wilfully laid down His life.

The Law governed who could redeem – a nearest kinsman. Jesus became a man in order to qualify.

We are therefore faced with the doctrine of the hypostatic union.

Heb 2:14 Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil;

Heb 2:15 and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

Heb 2:16 For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham.

Heb 2:17 Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Heb 2:18 For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.

The kinsman must be able to redeem and willing. Jesus remained sinless. As the God-Man He was qualified as a perfect Mediator and He did so willingly.