September 30, 2025 • 49 mins
What if Ruth isn’t a romance but a masterclass in covenant, courage, and community? We step into the city gate of Bethlehem and watch Boaz work redemption in public view—gathering elders, citing law, and taking a costly stand for Naomi and Ruth. From Leviticus 25 to leverite marriage, we break down how land, lineage, and law intertwine to protect the vulnerable, restore a household, and honor a lost name. The details matter: the sandal ritual, the witnesses, and the blessings that invoke Rachel, Leah, and Perez all situate Ruth’s inclusion within Israel’s legal memory, offering a thoughtful answer to hard questions about identity and belonging.
Along the way, we highlight how providence meets participation. “Chance” moments—Ruth gleaning in the right field, the redeemer passing by—become turning points because people act with integrity. Boaz leverages power for others rather than himself; Naomi’s wisdom frames the story’s theology; and the women of the town interpret what God has done and even name the child Obed. Their voices reveal the book’s heartbeat: chesed is not sentiment but structure, not just kindness but covenant that binds the strong to the weak. The genealogy to David is brief, but the story has already trained us to see the women beneath the names—Ruth, Naomi, Tamar, perhaps Rahab—whose courage makes the line possible.
If you’re ready to rethink Ruth 4 as civic theology in action, this conversation is for you. We read key verses with Hebrew name-meanings, explain how earlier legal precedent shapes later practice, and show why the “nearer redeemer” declines while Boaz risks his inheritance for a larger good. By the end, Naomi’s arms hold fullness, Ruth belongs without remainder, and a community has witnessed justice done. Listen, share with a friend who loves biblical studies and practical theology, and leave a review to tell us what surprised you most.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
JessicaLMJenkins (00:00):
Commonly told as a romance story, or even
taught as a guide on how to finda godly spouse, the Book of
Ruth is really about God'speople walking in covenant with
him and reflecting his charactertowards those around them.
We see this in Ruth as shecares for her mother-in-law
(00:23):
Naomi.
We see this in Naomi as shespiritually interprets the
events of the book for us.
And we see this in Boaz as heuses his power, prestige, and
privilege to care for the weakand vulnerable, echoing God's
heart for the needy andmarginalized.
(00:44):
Without the people in the bookof Ruth acting to reflect the
character of God, we would nothave this story.
If we didn't have strong,privileged people purposely
risking their future on behalfof the weak and the
marginalized, the entire storywould end in chapter one.
But God providentially workingbehind the scenes and in the
(01:10):
hearts and characters of thepeople in the story, we get a
beautiful story of redemptionthat culminates in Ruth chapter
four.
I am going to start, as we doevery episode, by reading
chapter four from my Hebrewtranslation.
Again, I will be using theHebrew meaning instead of the
(01:31):
transliterated name.
When we get to the genealogiesat the end, there are a few
names that we do not know themeanings for, and so those I
will just read thetransliterations.
But everything else, I willread the name meanings to help
us immerse ourselves in thisstory.
(01:52):
When we left off in chapterthree, Ruth had visited Boaz on
the threshing floor, and Boazhad promised that he would take
care of her and he would findsomeone to redeem her.
Ruth went back to Naomi, whosaid, Boaz will take care of
this today.
Ruth chapter four starts with aBoaz setting his plan for the
(02:16):
redemption of Ruth in motion.
And strength went up to thegate, and he sat there.
And behold, the kinsmanredeemer was passing by whose
strength had spoken of, and hesaid, Turn aside, sit here, such
a one, Mr.
So and so.
And he turned aside and he sat.
Then he, strength, took ten ofthe men of the elders of the
(02:39):
city, and he said, Sit here, andthey sat.
And he said to the kinsmanredeemer, a portion of the field
which is to our brotherElimelech, pleasant, who
returned from the fields ofincest, sells it.
And I myself said, I willuncover your ear, saying,
Acquire before the sitters andbefore the elders of my people,
if you will redeem, redeem, andif you will not redeem, tell to
(03:02):
me, and I will know, for thereis none except you to redeem,
and I am after you.
And then the man said, I myselfwill redeem.
And then strength said, In theday you acquire for yourself the
field from the hand ofpleasant, you also acquire
refreshing friend, the womanfrom the land of incest, the
wife of the dead, acquiring herto cause the name of the dead to
(03:26):
stand upon his inheritance.
Then the kinsman redeemer said,I do not have the power to
redeem for myself, lest I causemy inheritance to be ruined.
Redeem for you yourself myright of redemption, for I do
not have the power to redeem.
And this is what happenedbefore in Israel concerning the
right of redemption andconcerning the recompense to
(03:48):
confirm for all the world.
A man would draw off his sandaland he would give it to his
friend.
This is the attestation inIsrael.
And so the kinsman redeemersaid to Strength, Acquire for
yourself, and he drew off hissandal.
Then Strength said to theelders and all the people, You
are witnesses today, for Iacquired all that belonged to my
(04:10):
God as king, and all thatbelonged to dying and sickly
from the hand of pleasant, andalso refreshing friend, the
woman from the land of incest,the wife of sickly, I have
acquired for myself as a wife tocause the name of the dead to
stand upon his inheritance.
The name of the dead will notbe cut off from the people of
(04:30):
his brothers.
You are witnesses today.
And then the people who are inthe gate and the elders said, We
are witnesses.
May the Lord give the womancoming into your house to be
like you sheep and delicate, whobuilt the two of them the house
of wrestling.
And the Lord may the Lord makestrong in the house of bread,
(04:53):
and he will call the name in thehouse of bread, and may your
house be like bursting forth,whom palm tree bore to the Lord
be praised, from this seed whothe Lord gave to you from this
young woman.
Then strength took refreshingfriend, and she was to him a
wife.
And he went to her, and theLord gave her conception, and
(05:16):
she bore a son.
And the women said to Pleasant,Blessed be the Lord who did not
cease to give you a kinsmanredeemer today, and his name
will be called in the land ofwrestling, and he will be to you
a returner of life, and asupport in your old age, for
your daughter in law who lovesyou bore him, who is better for
(05:37):
you than seven sons.
Then Pleasant took the boy, andshe put him in her bosom, and
she was to him a nanny.
Then the neighbors called himthere, saying, A son is born to
Pleasant, and they called hisname servant.
He was the father of Jesse, thefather of beloved.
And these are the generationsof bursting forth.
(05:59):
Bursting forth begat Hezron,and Hezron begat Exalted, and
Exalted begat my kinsman isnoble, and my kinsman is noble,
begat little serpent, and littleserpent begat Salmon, and
Salmon begat strength, andstrength begat servant, and
servant begat Jesse, and Jessebegat her beloved.
(06:22):
If we consider the book of Ruthlike a play, each chapter would
be an act in that play.
So at the end of chapter three,Ruth and Naomi are discussing
Boaz and what his next actionswould be.
And then we can proverbiallysee the curtain close on that
scene.
Now the curtain is openingagain, and this time we have
(06:46):
Boaz center stage for the firsttime in the story.
And so we see Boaz, and he ishe is striding, he is
immediately setting about hispurpose.
Boaz goes to the gate.
Now the gate in ancient Israelwas where you do your business.
It could be both themarketplace and the gate.
(07:07):
Sometimes in ancient Israel,they would fortify their cities
with multi-layered walls.
So imagine a city that has awall, and it's actually two
walls together.
You have the outer wall that ofcourse enemies would see, and
then you have an inner wall thatpeople on the inside would see.
Houses are sometimes builtbetween those two walls, and in
times of war, you could fillthose houses with rubble and
(07:31):
other things to make the wallsstronger.
So you might have houses builtinto a very thick wall, and you
might have houses on the inside.
We don't know exactly what typeof wall Bethlehem had because
archaeological digs have notbeen able to be done extensively
in Bethlehem because it's beencontinually occupied from the
(07:51):
Roman Ages through today.
But typically they would havethese very thick walls.
There's an example, a greatexample of one at Beersheba in
Israel.
And the walls would be thickenough, you could actually have
kind of an entryway carved intothe wall as you go through the
gate into the city.
There would be these notcheswhere benches are literally
(08:12):
carved into the wall.
So that could be kind of thegate style in the wall that
we're talking about with benchesalong the sides, or there could
be benches in a seated arearight outside the wall and kind
of an open plaza that would alsofunction as a market.
Whatever style of gate we'redealing with here, Boaz goes to
(08:32):
this.
This is kind of the town hall.
This is where official businessis notarized, is done.
If you have official business,this is what you are going to
do.
If you need to sell land, buyland, make big purchases, get
something notarized, this iswhere you go.
Functions as town hall,administrative clerk, um,
property office, all of thethings.
(08:53):
So Boaz goes there and he sitsdown.
Sitting down in the ancientworld is often an expression of
authority or business that youneed to do something or you need
to speak.
So he sits, and behold, thekinsman redeemer he was telling
Ruth about in chapter threepasses by.
This brings us back to whenRuth is gleaning in chapter two,
(09:15):
and behold, Boaz comes out ofthe city.
We get a glimmer of God'sprovidence here that God is
bringing the kinsman redeemer byat just the time Boaz needs
him, just like God brought Ruthto Boaz's field and brought Boaz
out at just the time Ruthneeded him.
So the kinsman starts passingthrough the gate as he would
(09:36):
have to do to go do to hisfields or conduct other
business.
Anybody who needs to leave thecity for business or tend to
their fields or do their dailywork outside the city has to go
right through the gate.
So behold, the kinsman redeemerpasses by, and Boaz speaks up
and he says, Turn aside and sitdown.
And he calls the man in Hebrew.
(09:57):
It's almost a nonsense phrase.
It's it's so-and-so, Mr.
So-and-so.
He his name is perfectpurposely um left out of the
text.
Now Boaz would have known hisname, and he would have called
him by name.
This is a small town.
They know everybody in thetown.
Um, but it's left out of thetext, and there's a couple
(10:17):
reasons many think that his nameis left out.
Reason number one, because hedoes not do the duty of
Redeemer.
So it's kind of a belittling,like your name isn't even worth
being mentioned in the storybecause you wouldn't step up and
do your duty.
But on the flip side, it has asecondary purpose that it saves
(10:37):
that man's descendants fromshame.
Because as we're going to talkabout quite a bit in this
episode, part of the book ofRuth is pointing to David and
David's reign and why David canbe king.
And so that this man'sdescendants are likely still
living in Bethlehem, stillaround at the time David is
(11:00):
ruling.
So to put his name in the bookof Ruth would shame that entire
family.
And to withhold that both makesa statement that, hey, dude,
your name's not worth beingincluded because you didn't step
up, but also we don't want toshame your entire family because
you didn't step up.
So it kind of has a a bothreason there.
So the author did not recordhis name, and Boaz just is like,
(11:21):
hey, you, hey, buddy, come overhere.
And the man turns aside andsits down.
And then Boaz takes 10 of themen of the elders of the city,
whether they were already there.
He's like, hey guys, come overhere, let's have a meeting, or
whether they're all walking outto their fields and he's calling
them one by one as they gothrough the gate.
We don't know for sure, and itdoesn't really matter to the
story.
But Boaz is gathering a quorumfor official business.
(11:46):
So he takes the elders of thecity and he has them sit down.
He says, Sit here, and they alllisten to Boaz and they sit.
You can tell Boaz is a man ofstanding.
He is a man of authority inthis town.
And the men immediately listenand do exactly what he asks.
They can tell he has business,they can tell he is eager to get
his business done, and they arelistening.
(12:07):
They are rapt attention.
Now, of course, let's set thescene even further.
Boaz has called all these mentogether.
People are nosy.
They're curious.
They don't have TV or radio forentertainment.
So anybody else around who'snot part of this is likely like,
ooh, some business is goingdown.
I wonder what's going down.
We're all nosy.
(12:27):
We, you know, if our neighborsleave their blinds open, we're
like, ooh, what's what do theyhave in their house?
I want to know.
I'm curious.
And people back in the OldTestament were the same.
And so there's probably a crowdstarting to grow as Boaz
gathers the elders becausethey're curious what's going on
and what business is going tohappen and it will affect the
community.
And so people are wanting toknow.
(12:47):
So you not only have Boaz andthe Elders and the Kinsman
Redeemer sitting, you also havea crowd that is standing
gathered around to hear what'sgoing on.
Maybe merchants are kind oftrying to listen out of the
corner of their ear whilethey're doing shopping.
And everybody's very aware thatthis meeting is happening.
(13:08):
So Boaz turns to the kinsmanredeemer and he immediately
starts in a way that's verysurprising considering his
conversation in chapter three.
In chapter three, Ruthbasically proposes to Boaz and
asks him to redeem her.
Boaz says, I absolutely would,but there's a man who has a
(13:28):
greater right to do that than Ido, so I need to go talk to him
about it.
So he goes to do this, but hedoesn't start by talking about
Ruth at all.
He starts by talking aboutland.
He says, a portion of the fieldwhich belonged to our brother
Elimelech, Naomi is now selling,or she's transferring the
rights to.
Now, calling Elimelech theirbrother doesn't mean he's
(13:52):
physically their brother, justhe's a tribe member.
He's part of the general clan,part of the city.
It's a familial term in a in afondness way, not in a like
literal brother.
Like the three of them weresiblings.
And so Boaz starts letting theother redeemer know that
Elimelech that Naomi is sellingland that belonged to Elimelech.
(14:18):
And Boaz says, I will uncoveryour ear, saying, Acquire before
those who sit and before theelders of my people this land.
If you will redeem, redeem.
And if you will not redeem, Iwill redeem.
And tell me, and I will know.
So this concept of landredemption goes back to
Leviticus 25.
(14:39):
Let me read Leviticus 25, 23through 27 from the NIV.
That passage says, the landmust not be sold permanently,
because the land is mine, saysthe Lord, and you, the people of
Israel, reside in my land asforeigners and strangers.
Throughout the land that youhold as possession, you must
provide for the redemption ofthe land.
(15:00):
If one of your fellowIsraelites becomes poor and
sells some of their property,their nearest relative is to
come and redeem what they hadsold.
If, however, there's no one toredeem it for them, but later on
they prosper and acquiresufficient means, they can
redeem it themselves.
They are to determine the valuefor the years since they sold
it and refund that balance tothe one to whom they sold it,
(15:22):
and then they can go back totheir property.
So land in ancient Israel was apermanent possession of a
family or a tribe or a clan.
It was not like today we buyand sell houses to whomever,
whenever, and we don't thinkmuch about it.
But land was necessary for thesurvival of a family in ancient
(15:43):
Israel.
If you did not have land, youreally were fairly destitute and
you didn't have much.
And so keeping the land withinthe family is incredibly
important.
And it's important not only forthe immediate household, but
the clan and the tribe as well.
One thing that's interestingabout these verses is that women
(16:04):
usually didn't have direct landownership.
There is discussion in thescholarly world on whether it
was the household that owned theland or the men who owned the
land.
Many scholars, because land waspassed through the father's
line, it was passed on throughthe male line to keep it in the
(16:26):
household, in the clan.
It was that was traced throughthe men.
There's many who think it wasmen who owned the land.
There are other scholars likeCarol Meyer who say, it's not
necessarily that the men own theland, but it's that the
household has the land, and it'swho is representing that
household, which 99.9% of thetime would be the men.
(16:50):
And so do women could inherit.
We have the daughters ofZehlapad, they inherit land and
then marry men within their clanto keep that land within the
clan.
So women can inherit.
The widow's inheriting fromtheir husband was pretty rare.
Um, typically, you would have asomeone, a male relative,
(17:11):
inherit the land instead of thewidow.
So you have kind of an oddsituation here where Naomi needs
to transfer the rights of theland or sell the land to um a
male relative because a coupleof widows, though they make a
tiny household on their own,cannot survive long term.
(17:32):
They do not have the manpoweror the resources to work the
land as needed for their ownsurvival.
They are a dead end.
So they need to find a largerhousehold to take them in and to
absorb that land and them forsurvival.
And so Boaz here mentions Naomineeds to transfer the land.
(17:54):
And presumably, commentatorsnote that when the land is
transferred, care of Naomi wouldbe transferred as well.
So whoever takes the land takesresponsibility for Naomi.
Naomi is the matriarch ofElimelech's household.
She goes with the land, and youkind of take both together.
And so the Redeemer initiallyhears this situation Boaz is
(18:21):
bringing up and is like, thatsounds like a great idea.
Naomi's past childbearing age.
I can, she's one mouse, she'snot going to eat that much.
She's an old lady.
Um, I can care for her, and Iget this land, which my
household can work.
We can turn a lot of profit, wecan help ourselves out.
If he had children, my thatwill increase the inheritance of
my children.
(18:42):
Um, my children will get moreinheritance because of this
land.
This sounds like a great deal.
Absolutely.
I'm in.
I will redeem the land and takeon caring for Naomi.
No, babe, I can do that.
So he says, I myself willredeem.
I'll do it.
Not a problem.
And then Boaz drops the othershoe.
(19:04):
Boaz rings up and he says,Okay, but in the day you acquire
for yourself the land from thehand of Naomi.
She's the acting matriarch, sheis the head of the household.
From the hand of Naomi, youalso get Ruth the Moabitus, the
wife of the dead.
Now, Naomi's the wife of thedead as well, but she is
(19:26):
post-menopausal.
She is not of marriageable age,so they're not really concerned
about that.
But Ruth is um of marriageableage.
She is still in years where shecould bear children.
She is also a Moabitis, andBoaz drops that in the middle of
this.
He's using a lot of verytechnical legal language.
This is kind of, think of thisas in your in the county
(19:50):
surveyor's office, you're in thetown hall, and you have all
those legal documents with allthe legal ease that Boaz is
speaking in legalese here.
So some of what he says soundsvery formal, it sounds very kind
of disjointed, and it'ssupposed to because it's very
specific legal language.
He is drawing this out to makesure all the T's are crossed,
all the dies are audit, dotted,and everything is going as it
(20:13):
needs to.
But he's also laying out subtlecues to get the end result that
he's going for.
So he says, when you get theland and Naomi, you're also
gonna get Ruth, who is aMoabitist.
And as we've talked in otherepisodes, there's a lot of
animosity between Israel andMoab.
(20:34):
Moab, the people of Moab,according to Genesis, started
from an ancestral relationship.
The Moabites had their womenseduce Israel's men and draw
them away from the Lord.
Moab refused to let Israel passthrough and cursed Israel.
So the Moabites, and in recentyears, the king of Moab has been
(20:58):
ransacking and pillaging partsof Israel just north of
Bethlehem.
So they're not a big fan ofMoab.
And Boaz drops right in themiddle Ruth the Moabitist, which
everybody in town knows she's aMoabitist, but he's dropping
that just to make sure nobodyforgets.
(21:18):
But he also mentions wife ofthe dead.
That's a very technical phrasethat's used in the passages
about leverett marriage, thewife of the dead.
And so he's he's bringing thoseelevent marriage ideas into
this passage.
And he's Boaz is brilliantlytying together two legal
(21:43):
concepts that Ruth started tobring up, but she wasn't fully
aware of all the legal nuance inchapter three.
In chapter three, Ruth comes tohim and basically does a
marriage proposal, but then shesays, You are a kinsman
redeemer, and shifts from just aplain marriage proposal into
(22:04):
the realm of redemption bysaying that Boaz is a Goel.
Now let's review very briefly.
A Goal's responsibility inIsrael was for, as we've been
talking about, the redemption ofthe land to keep it in the
family, to keep it in the clan.
It was also to redeem relativeswho've sold themselves into
slavery, um, to help make suremoney paid in restitution gets
(22:27):
to where it needs to go, um, toassist clan members in lawsuit.
Um, generally, leverettmarriage is just direct
brother-in-law.
So if Malhon um had died,Chileon would need to marry
Ruth, um, but both of them died.
So we don't have the directleverant marriage, but a Goale's
(22:48):
responsibility is to care forthose in his clan in his
community.
So Ruth broadened her requestfrom just marriage to him acting
as a Goale for her and Naomi.
Boaz understands everythingthat entails, more than even
Ruth did.
And he broadens that further tobe the land and Naomi and Ruth.
(23:14):
And so he says, you acquireNaomi, you acquire Ruth, the
wife of the dead, and the reasonyou acquire Ruth, the wife of
the dead, he says to the otherRedeemer, the reason you would
acquire her is to cause the nameof the dead to stand upon his
inheritance, to keep the to keepElimelech and Malham's name
(23:38):
alive.
We have very little informationon the ancient Israelites' view
of the afterlife.
They did not have the same viewof the afterlife that the New
Testament Christian or thechurch today does.
But for the Old TestamentIsraelite, having your name stay
with your land, your legacystay with your land, they
(24:01):
believed it had some sort ofimpact on your afterlife.
Having people of yourdescendants on your land was
important, as important in yourdeath as it is in your life.
And so Boaz here is saying tokeep the name of the dead, to
cause the name of the dead tostand upon his inheritance.
(24:24):
We are working for the good ofa Limelex household, a Limelex
family, a Limelex name as ourbrother.
And in order to do that, youneed to marry Ruth to carry on a
Limelex line because ofLeverett marriage
considerations.
Leverett marriage is thebrother-in-law marriage where if
(24:47):
a brother dies, his brother, ifa man dies, his brother would
marry the dead man's wife, andher first son would be
considered the dead brothers,not the biological father of the
baby.
Um, and so that child would getthe inheritance from the dead
brother.
I talk about that this in greatdetail in my episode on Tamar.
(25:11):
So go back and listen to thatand all the tricky Leverett
marriage, brother-in-law lawstuff that goes on in Tamar's
story in the book of Genesis.
But here, Boaz is bringing allof that into these legal
proceedings.
He's saying, redemption of landis great, but we need more than
just keeping the land in theclan.
That's the easy part.
(25:32):
The hard part is keeping thename of the dead connected to
his land.
At that point, the kinsmanredeemer basically says, I'm
out.
He's like, I don't have thepower to do this.
I can't.
And we don't know why.
He doesn't say why he doesn'thave the power.
It could be that inheritancefor his kids would get all
messed up.
It could be he just financiallycan't manage all of that.
(25:53):
We don't, it could be he uhthought marrying a Moabite was
distasteful.
The text doesn't tell us.
We have no reason except thisman is like, I can't do it.
Too big, too scary.
My inheritance, my children'sfuture, I would be endangering
all of that.
Um, I can't do it.
I'm out, you do it.
So the man tells Boaz he can doit.
(26:15):
And then in verse seven, wehave a little aside from the
narrator that tells us aboutthis ancient custom where they
would take off sandals and passsandals between the people to
kind of rubber stamp a legalagreement.
And so that shows that the bookof Ruth was written enough
later from when the events ofRuth happened that the original
(26:36):
audience of the book of Ruthneeded to know this little aside
detail that they wouldn't havenaturally known.
So just like I sit here and Itell you historical context
about the book of Ruth to helpyou understand, because we're
3,000 years later.
So the book of the author ofthe Book of Ruth was just enough
later from the events of theBook of Ruth that he needed to
(26:59):
give a little historical contextaside for his audience.
And that's what he does inverse 7.
The man drew off his sandal andhe would give it to a friend.
This is the attestation inIsrael.
Verse 8 picks back up with thelegal proceedings, where the
Kim's Miner Deemer is going todo that very thing.
He says, acquire it all foryourself.
He says, I can't do it, tooexpensive, I'm endangering my
(27:21):
livelihood and my family.
Do it for yourself.
And so he draws off his sandal.
Now he's uncovering his feet.
He draws off his sandal andgives it to Boaz.
Boaz, it doesn't say this, buthe presumably accepts the
sandal.
And Boaz said to the elders andall the people who are there,
remember, there's a big crowd,the elders are sitting there, a
(27:42):
big crowd.
Boaz then turns to the crowd,the people representative of the
entire city of Bethlehem.
Probably not the entire citywas there, but close to it and
enough to represent the city.
And he says, You are witnessestoday.
And this is very importantbecause in the ancient world,
they didn't necessarilysometimes they would write it
down.
We have lots of ancient writtenrecords, but we're dealing with
(28:06):
like small backwater Bethlehem.
They may not have scribeshanging out in Bethlehem.
They're going to be in thebigger cities.
And so this is an oral culture.
They remember things and theyneed human witnesses to be like,
yes, this is what happened.
Because if there's ever anissue further down the road, you
can be like, well, ElderSo-and-so and Elder So-and-so,
(28:28):
and Mr.
and those people, they were allthere.
They heard it.
They witnessed it.
I can bring them into the legalwranglings further down the
road to be like, no, that theyou agreed, Mr.
So-and-so, you agreed to suchand such.
We were there, we saw it.
So the Boaz asks everyonestanding around and the elders
who sit to witness theproceedings.
(28:48):
He wants Bethlehem as a city.
He wants their buy-in on whatis about to transpire.
So Boaz says, You are witnessestoday, for I am acquiring all
that belong to Elimelech.
Um I read this as he'sacquiring the household.
He's acquiring the movablegoods, clothes, um, pottery,
(29:11):
grinding stones, everything.
Movable goods, house, land,everything.
Um he says, I acquire all thatwas to Elimelech.
I'm acquiring this entirehousehold.
I am absorbing their household,movable goods, immovable goods,
land, people, all of it.
I'm acquiring all that belongsto alimelec.
(29:31):
I am absorbing their householdinto my own and all that belong
to Chileon and Malhon from thehand of Naomi.
I am transferring theresponsibility and protection of
this household, of Olimelexhousehold, from the widow Naomi
to myself.
That's how I read this verse.
(29:51):
He is saying, I see Naomi as awidow who does not have legal
standing to represent herself ina court of law.
In this culture, she is tryingto care for Ruth.
She's trying to manage heraffairs.
I'm going to step in and I'mgoing to bring them under my
protection.
I'm going to absorb theirhousehold into my own and all of
(30:12):
the good, bad, ugly, beautifulthat goes with it.
He says, Also, Ruth theMoabitus, the wife of Mahan, I
am acquiring from me as a wifeto cause the name of the dead to
stand upon his inheritance.
That the name of the dead willnot be cut off from the people
of his brothers.
You are witnesses today.
(30:33):
He opens and he closes hisstatement.
He says, You are witnesses.
Here is everything I am doing.
Now witness this.
And the people say, We arewitnesses.
Ratified, approved, witnessed,done.
Now I want to go back verybriefly and make a note.
It says that he is acquiringthe land and he is also
(30:53):
acquiring Ruth.
Ruth.
There has been some discussionabout this because that word
acquire could also mean bought.
And some people are like, wait,is this, does this like he's
buying her like a slave as awife?
And that's not really at allwhat's going on here.
Yes, he's using the wordacquire, which can also be
bought, but it's also a legalterm.
Remember, this is a legalproceeding dealing with the
(31:17):
estate of a limelec.
The whole estate, the wholehousehold, which in the ancient
world includes house, land,people, movable goods, animals,
anything that they have, thehousehold, it all goes together.
You don't separate out thepeople from the house from the
land.
They are all intertwined.
So he's dealing with this is alegal situation where he's
(31:40):
dealing with the entirehousehold.
And so he would acquire, hewould buy the household, he
acquires that.
And so with all of that, heacquires Ruth.
So this isn't talking about abride price or her being bought
and sold, wives being bought andsold.
This is the only time that wordacquire or bought is used of
getting a wife in the OldTestament.
(32:00):
And it's in a very specificlegal setting where there's a
much broader picture than justher singular marriage happening,
if that makes sense.
So he he's acquiring her aspart of the household and he's
acquiring her, he's marrying herbecause he wants to.
We saw that in chapter three.
But also to keep the name ofthe dead in the inheritance.
(32:24):
He recognizes the importance ofthe brother-in-law law of the
Leverett marriageresponsibility, especially in
this group collectivist culturewhere you think about the whole,
you think about the clan, youthink about all of the people,
not just yourself.
So he says, You are witnessestoday.
(32:47):
He says, You are witnesses.
I am taking this household intomy own, and I will be marrying
Ruth as part of that process.
You are witnesses.
And all the people say, We arewitnesses.
They ratify this and theypromise to remember and to pass
on knowledge of what hashappened down through the
generations for legal stabilityin the city.
(33:10):
And then they give a blessing.
They say, We are witnesses.
May the Lord give the womancoming into your house.
May they be, may she be likeRachel and Leah, who built the
two of them the house of Israel.
They recognize the importanceof women in the building of
houses of Israel, not thephysical houses, but the people
(33:30):
itself.
And they recognize Rachel andLeah, Leah, Rachel and Leah have
Star Wars on the brain.
Rachel and Leah are the onesthrough whom all the tribes of
Israel came by Jacob.
May Ruth be like them.
May she be a matriarch.
May she be a name that standsand will continue throughout the
(33:57):
generations.
And then they ask that the Lordwill make strong, will increase
strengths and honor to Boaz'sname in the city of Bethlehem.
And they say, they say, Mayyour house be like Perez, who
(34:18):
Tamar bore Judah.
The people in Bethlehem, thoughBoaz didn't bring it up,
recognize that the story ofTamar and Judah provides legal
precedent for what Boaz is doinglegally that day.
Let me get into the legal weedshere for a second.
(34:38):
If you recall, I mentioned itin the first episode on the book
of Ruth, that there is a law inDeuteronomy 23, verse 3, that
says from the NIV, no Ammoniteor Moabite or any of their
descendants may enter theassembly of the Lord, not even
to the tenth generation.
So integrating a Moabite or anAmmonite into the community of
(35:04):
Israel is exceptionally tricky.
You don't have a clean way todo that.
Some people say, well, Ruth, Imean, she was a woman of faith.
She she believed in the Lord,and so therefore she gets a
pass.
Not according to Deuteronomy23, 3.
It's pretty clear.
They can't enter the assembly,the worship.
They're not allowed to be likefull-on part of Israel.
Neither are their descendantsfor ten generations, which this
(35:28):
book is pointing to, David, whois less than ten generations
away from Moabitus.
But the people recognize whatBoaz has done.
Deuteronomy 23:3 is a later lawin the book of the Torah, in
the book of the law.
Tamar and Judah is an earlierlaw.
(35:51):
The Leverett marriage, therelationship, the kinship
relationship taking care ofwidows sets precedent over the
later law.
Earlier laws get weightedheavier than the later laws.
So the people bless the houseof Boaz to be like Paras, but
(36:20):
they also recognize that becauseof Tamar and Judah and Peres,
Ruth can be integrated into theIsraelite community, into the
Bethlehem community,specifically because of the
Leverett marriage.
(36:40):
In a way she would not havebeen able to, even with her
faith, even with everythingelse, she would not have been
able to be integrated intoIsrael if she had just stayed
married to Malhon.
If Malhon had married her andhad lived and had brought her
back to Bethlehem, she would notbe able to be integrated into
the community in the same way asshe is by marrying Boaz,
(37:05):
because her marriage to Malhondoes not depend on nor reflect
an earlier situation in theMosaic law that overshadows the
Deuteronomy 23, 3 command aboutMoabites.
We have very specific legalwrangling going on that Boaz
starts, and the city ofBethlehem recognizes that this
(37:30):
is a special situation.
And we are bringing Ruth in,just like Tamar is brought in,
and we are recognizing that sheis as much part of the in-group
now as Rachel and Leah, who wereArmenians when they were
brought when Jacob married them,as Tamar, who may have been a
(37:52):
Canaanite when Judah was withher.
And now we have Ruth, who hasbeen brought in to the people.
She is also like potentiallyRahab, which the book of Ruth
never tells us this, but Matthew1 tells us that Boaz's mother,
or maybe grandmother, is Rahab,who was the one who welcomed the
(38:18):
spies, and she married intoIsrael.
And so Ruth is following thefootsteps of all of these
matriarchs of Israel who, bymarriage and especially leverage
marriage, were able to enterthe people of God and be
considered an Israelite underthe covenant of God.
(38:39):
And so Boaz took Ruth and shewas to him a wife.
She consented to marry him.
And he went into her, and theLord gave her conception, and
she bore a son.
At this point, Ruth has thebaby, and she and Boaz step off
the scene.
We don't hear about Ruth againin the book, which this book is
(39:00):
ultimately about Naomi, notRuth.
And by verse 13, Ruth's problemhas been solved.
Ruth, the blessings that wereprayed over her have been
fulfilled.
Naomi's concern for her thatshe find rest in the home of a
husband has been fulfilled.
She has had a child, so herproblem is solved.
She moves off to the side.
(39:22):
Now the text finishes where itstarted by focusing on Naomi.
And then the women said toNaomi, Blessed be the Lord who
did not cease to give you akinsman redeemer today.
Naomi is holding the baby andthey're blessing her.
(39:43):
His name will be called greatin Israel.
He will be a returner to you oflife and a support in your old
age.
For your daughter who lovesyou, who is better than seven
sons, has bore him.
And so Naomi takes the boy andshe holds him in her chest as
she was to him on Manny.
Some commentators argue is sheadopting him formally?
(40:06):
Is she just taking care of him?
I think it's most likely thatshe's she's taking care of him.
He's going to carry on the lineof a limelech, so she doesn't
need to adopt him.
That's Boaz already formallytook care of that.
Naomi is probably living in thesame household as Boaz and
Ruth.
She's still the matriarch ofthis household.
And so she is caring for thisson, but the women are
(40:28):
recognizing you left us empty,or you left us full.
You returned empty, and now youare full again.
You have a new son.
God has provided for you.
The word she was to him anurse, many of your translations
say, um, that could speak tolike a breastfeeding nurse, a
(40:48):
wet nurse.
Naomi's obviously too old forthat.
It can also be nanny caregiverguardian.
The masculine form of that wordtalks about caregivers and
guardians.
So it just is referencingNaomi's care for this child who
will be a servant to her, whowill care for her in her old
age.
And the women of the town,which this is very unique, name
(41:11):
him and they called his nameObed, which means servant.
He will serve the Lord and hewill serve Naomi.
And Obed was the father ofJesse, the father of David,
which again brings us fullcircle back to the beginning,
where I said that one of thepurposes of the book of Ruth is
to show how David's reign andSolomon's building of the temple
(41:36):
could be legitimate when theyare less than 10 generations
away from a Moabite.
And it's through very specificlegal wrangling that that can
happen.
So for the Ma for thereadership of the Book of Ruth,
it the book ends with someonethey are very familiar with,
King David, the highest, mosthonored king in Israelite
(41:59):
history.
The book of Ruth starts withemptiness, Naomi losing
everything.
And then the book ends withNaomi being the, in some ways,
proverbial adoptedgreat-grandmother of David, and
Ruth, the physicalgreat-grandmother of David.
These two women in theirloyalty to each other are both
(42:22):
ancestors, one legally, onephysically, to David, and
thereby Jesus.
We talked in a previous episodehow Naomi is in many ways a
female Job.
And like Job had family andriches restored to him, so Naomi
does also.
The book closes with an evenmore extensive genealogy, but
(42:47):
again, it starts with who?
It starts with Perez, onceagain, pointing to Perez is the
key for the book of Ruth.
If you want to understand thebook of Ruth, you need to
understand the story of Perezand his mother, Tamar.
It is through these women thatGod has moved and God has worked
(43:11):
to set up the family line ofDavid and thereby Jesus.
Often genealogies leave outwomen, and they have in this one
as well.
Paras begets Hezron, Hezron,Ram, Ram, Aminodab, Aminodab,
Nashon, Nashan, Salmon, Salmon,Boaz, Boaz, Obad, Obed, Jesse,
Jesse, David.
The women are left out.
(43:32):
But people would have known whothe key women were, and God
highlights continually the keywomen throughout this story.
That without the women doingsacrificial, chesed, covenant
faithfulness works on behalf ofthose near them, women who
(43:55):
fought against abuse andoppression to get what they were
owed.
Women who had absolute faith inGod when everything fell apart.
These women are how the malegenealogies can even exist.
(44:16):
These women are the bedrock onwhich the story unfolds.
So as we consider the book ofRuth as a whole, think about how
God is working continually onbehalf of the broken and the
weak and the destitute throughthose who have proud power and
(44:37):
privilege, who are willing torisk their own inheritance to
help those who are in need.
Boaz's inheritance could havebeen in as much risk as the
kinsman redeemer who said hecouldn't do it.
But he was willing to risk.
He was willing to leverage hispower and position and privilege
(44:59):
to help those in need.
And those who were in clung toGod by faith.
Naomi's faith was often shakenand she was often angry, but she
is still the theologian of thebook who is pointing out what
God is doing alongside the otherwomen in the town who are
(45:20):
saying, This is what God isdoing.
Men bless in this book.
They offer blessings.
It is women in the book of Ruthwho interpret what has happened
and point to how God is workingthrough the events.
Women's wisdom, women'sinsight, women's voices are
(45:43):
important to God and they havebeen immortalized in Scripture.
So as we close out the book ofRuth, remember this book is not
a romance story on how to find aspouse, because we don't have
all the legal procedures theyhad that precipitated finding a
(46:04):
spouse.
And finding a spouse wasn'tabout romance, but it was about
necessity, but not justnecessity for themselves,
necessity for those who are nolonger there.
And necessity for those who areeven more vulnerable than they
were.
Naomi is more vulnerable thanRuth because Ruth is still young
(46:25):
enough to marry.
Naomi is not.
Ruth sacrifices potentiallyeverything for the good of Naomi
and is able to bring aboutwholeness and security and
fullness for Naomi.
God works providentially in thebook of Ruth, and we see the
glimmers all over.
(46:45):
But those who interpret theactions of the Book of Ruth, the
women, the women who interpretthroughout the book of Ruth what
God is doing, give God'sprovidence and human action the
same weight.
They see how people act toreflect God's character, and
they say that has the sameweight as God's providential
(47:09):
action.
The book of James tells us thatwhen we know what to do and we
don't do it, when we knowthere's a good we need to do and
we don't do it, it is sin.
God expects his people to standup and act on behalf of the
weak and the destitute, to useour power and our privilege and
(47:29):
our position on behalf of thosewho need.
And he loves it when thathappens, whether it is women,
whether it is men, whether andhe loves it when it happens
through creative means.
God inspired the Mosaic Law.
And when Boaz can work throughthe nuances of the creative law,
(47:52):
of the Mosaic Law to creativelydraw Ruth into full communion
in Israel so that their greatgrandson can be the premier king
of the people, and his son canbuild the temple of God.
God thinks that is beautiful.
People who know the word,people who live the word, people
(48:15):
who act the word, so that Godcan work through them on behalf
of others.
Find me on social media.
Let me know what you think ofthis episode.
I cannot wait to talk about itwith you more.
If you sign up for my mailinglist, go to wehoothirst.com
backslash links.
You can sign up for my mailinglist, and we will further
(48:38):
conversations about Ruth andthese sorts of topics there.
I cannot wait to talk to younext time.
Have a great week.
Commonly told as a romance story, or even
taught as a guide on how to finda godly spouse, the Book of
Ruth is really about God'speople walking in covenant with
him and reflecting his charactertowards those around them.
We see this in Ruth as shecares for her mother-in-law
(00:23):
Naomi.
We see this in Naomi as shespiritually interprets the
events of the book for us.
And we see this in Boaz as heuses his power, prestige, and
privilege to care for the weakand vulnerable, echoing God's
heart for the needy andmarginalized.
(00:44):
Without the people in the bookof Ruth acting to reflect the
character of God, we would nothave this story.
If we didn't have strong,privileged people purposely
risking their future on behalfof the weak and the
marginalized, the entire storywould end in chapter one.
But God providentially workingbehind the scenes and in the
(01:10):
hearts and characters of thepeople in the story, we get a
beautiful story of redemptionthat culminates in Ruth chapter
four.
I am going to start, as we doevery episode, by reading
chapter four from my Hebrewtranslation.
Again, I will be using theHebrew meaning instead of the
(01:31):
transliterated name.
When we get to the genealogiesat the end, there are a few
names that we do not know themeanings for, and so those I
will just read thetransliterations.
But everything else, I willread the name meanings to help
us immerse ourselves in thisstory.
(01:52):
When we left off in chapterthree, Ruth had visited Boaz on
the threshing floor, and Boazhad promised that he would take
care of her and he would findsomeone to redeem her.
Ruth went back to Naomi, whosaid, Boaz will take care of
this today.
Ruth chapter four starts with aBoaz setting his plan for the
(02:16):
redemption of Ruth in motion.
And strength went up to thegate, and he sat there.
And behold, the kinsmanredeemer was passing by whose
strength had spoken of, and hesaid, Turn aside, sit here, such
a one, Mr.
So and so.
And he turned aside and he sat.
Then he, strength, took ten ofthe men of the elders of the
(02:39):
city, and he said, Sit here, andthey sat.
And he said to the kinsmanredeemer, a portion of the field
which is to our brotherElimelech, pleasant, who
returned from the fields ofincest, sells it.
And I myself said, I willuncover your ear, saying,
Acquire before the sitters andbefore the elders of my people,
if you will redeem, redeem, andif you will not redeem, tell to
(03:02):
me, and I will know, for thereis none except you to redeem,
and I am after you.
And then the man said, I myselfwill redeem.
And then strength said, In theday you acquire for yourself the
field from the hand ofpleasant, you also acquire
refreshing friend, the womanfrom the land of incest, the
wife of the dead, acquiring herto cause the name of the dead to
(03:26):
stand upon his inheritance.
Then the kinsman redeemer said,I do not have the power to
redeem for myself, lest I causemy inheritance to be ruined.
Redeem for you yourself myright of redemption, for I do
not have the power to redeem.
And this is what happenedbefore in Israel concerning the
right of redemption andconcerning the recompense to
(03:48):
confirm for all the world.
A man would draw off his sandaland he would give it to his
friend.
This is the attestation inIsrael.
And so the kinsman redeemersaid to Strength, Acquire for
yourself, and he drew off hissandal.
Then Strength said to theelders and all the people, You
are witnesses today, for Iacquired all that belonged to my
(04:10):
God as king, and all thatbelonged to dying and sickly
from the hand of pleasant, andalso refreshing friend, the
woman from the land of incest,the wife of sickly, I have
acquired for myself as a wife tocause the name of the dead to
stand upon his inheritance.
The name of the dead will notbe cut off from the people of
(04:30):
his brothers.
You are witnesses today.
And then the people who are inthe gate and the elders said, We
are witnesses.
May the Lord give the womancoming into your house to be
like you sheep and delicate, whobuilt the two of them the house
of wrestling.
And the Lord may the Lord makestrong in the house of bread,
(04:53):
and he will call the name in thehouse of bread, and may your
house be like bursting forth,whom palm tree bore to the Lord
be praised, from this seed whothe Lord gave to you from this
young woman.
Then strength took refreshingfriend, and she was to him a
wife.
And he went to her, and theLord gave her conception, and
(05:16):
she bore a son.
And the women said to Pleasant,Blessed be the Lord who did not
cease to give you a kinsmanredeemer today, and his name
will be called in the land ofwrestling, and he will be to you
a returner of life, and asupport in your old age, for
your daughter in law who lovesyou bore him, who is better for
(05:37):
you than seven sons.
Then Pleasant took the boy, andshe put him in her bosom, and
she was to him a nanny.
Then the neighbors called himthere, saying, A son is born to
Pleasant, and they called hisname servant.
He was the father of Jesse, thefather of beloved.
And these are the generationsof bursting forth.
(05:59):
Bursting forth begat Hezron,and Hezron begat Exalted, and
Exalted begat my kinsman isnoble, and my kinsman is noble,
begat little serpent, and littleserpent begat Salmon, and
Salmon begat strength, andstrength begat servant, and
servant begat Jesse, and Jessebegat her beloved.
(06:22):
If we consider the book of Ruthlike a play, each chapter would
be an act in that play.
So at the end of chapter three,Ruth and Naomi are discussing
Boaz and what his next actionswould be.
And then we can proverbiallysee the curtain close on that
scene.
Now the curtain is openingagain, and this time we have
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Boaz center stage for the firsttime in the story.
And so we see Boaz, and he ishe is striding, he is
immediately setting about hispurpose.
Boaz goes to the gate.
Now the gate in ancient Israelwas where you do your business.
It could be both themarketplace and the gate.
(07:07):
Sometimes in ancient Israel,they would fortify their cities
with multi-layered walls.
So imagine a city that has awall, and it's actually two
walls together.
You have the outer wall that ofcourse enemies would see, and
then you have an inner wall thatpeople on the inside would see.
Houses are sometimes builtbetween those two walls, and in
times of war, you could fillthose houses with rubble and
(07:31):
other things to make the wallsstronger.
So you might have houses builtinto a very thick wall, and you
might have houses on the inside.
We don't know exactly what typeof wall Bethlehem had because
archaeological digs have notbeen able to be done extensively
in Bethlehem because it's beencontinually occupied from the
(07:51):
Roman Ages through today.
But typically they would havethese very thick walls.
There's an example, a greatexample of one at Beersheba in
Israel.
And the walls would be thickenough, you could actually have
kind of an entryway carved intothe wall as you go through the
gate into the city.
There would be these notcheswhere benches are literally
(08:12):
carved into the wall.
So that could be kind of thegate style in the wall that
we're talking about with benchesalong the sides, or there could
be benches in a seated arearight outside the wall and kind
of an open plaza that would alsofunction as a market.
Whatever style of gate we'redealing with here, Boaz goes to
(08:32):
this.
This is kind of the town hall.
This is where official businessis notarized, is done.
If you have official business,this is what you are going to
do.
If you need to sell land, buyland, make big purchases, get
something notarized, this iswhere you go.
Functions as town hall,administrative clerk, um,
property office, all of thethings.
(08:53):
So Boaz goes there and he sitsdown.
Sitting down in the ancientworld is often an expression of
authority or business that youneed to do something or you need
to speak.
So he sits, and behold, thekinsman redeemer he was telling
Ruth about in chapter threepasses by.
This brings us back to whenRuth is gleaning in chapter two,
(09:15):
and behold, Boaz comes out ofthe city.
We get a glimmer of God'sprovidence here that God is
bringing the kinsman redeemer byat just the time Boaz needs
him, just like God brought Ruthto Boaz's field and brought Boaz
out at just the time Ruthneeded him.
So the kinsman starts passingthrough the gate as he would
(09:36):
have to do to go do to hisfields or conduct other
business.
Anybody who needs to leave thecity for business or tend to
their fields or do their dailywork outside the city has to go
right through the gate.
So behold, the kinsman redeemerpasses by, and Boaz speaks up
and he says, Turn aside and sitdown.
And he calls the man in Hebrew.
(09:57):
It's almost a nonsense phrase.
It's it's so-and-so, Mr.
So-and-so.
He his name is perfectpurposely um left out of the
text.
Now Boaz would have known hisname, and he would have called
him by name.
This is a small town.
They know everybody in thetown.
Um, but it's left out of thetext, and there's a couple
(10:17):
reasons many think that his nameis left out.
Reason number one, because hedoes not do the duty of
Redeemer.
So it's kind of a belittling,like your name isn't even worth
being mentioned in the storybecause you wouldn't step up and
do your duty.
But on the flip side, it has asecondary purpose that it saves
(10:37):
that man's descendants fromshame.
Because as we're going to talkabout quite a bit in this
episode, part of the book ofRuth is pointing to David and
David's reign and why David canbe king.
And so that this man'sdescendants are likely still
living in Bethlehem, stillaround at the time David is
(11:00):
ruling.
So to put his name in the bookof Ruth would shame that entire
family.
And to withhold that both makesa statement that, hey, dude,
your name's not worth beingincluded because you didn't step
up, but also we don't want toshame your entire family because
you didn't step up.
So it kind of has a a bothreason there.
So the author did not recordhis name, and Boaz just is like,
(11:21):
hey, you, hey, buddy, come overhere.
And the man turns aside andsits down.
And then Boaz takes 10 of themen of the elders of the city,
whether they were already there.
He's like, hey guys, come overhere, let's have a meeting, or
whether they're all walking outto their fields and he's calling
them one by one as they gothrough the gate.
We don't know for sure, and itdoesn't really matter to the
story.
But Boaz is gathering a quorumfor official business.
(11:46):
So he takes the elders of thecity and he has them sit down.
He says, Sit here, and they alllisten to Boaz and they sit.
You can tell Boaz is a man ofstanding.
He is a man of authority inthis town.
And the men immediately listenand do exactly what he asks.
They can tell he has business,they can tell he is eager to get
his business done, and they arelistening.
(12:07):
They are rapt attention.
Now, of course, let's set thescene even further.
Boaz has called all these mentogether.
People are nosy.
They're curious.
They don't have TV or radio forentertainment.
So anybody else around who'snot part of this is likely like,
ooh, some business is goingdown.
I wonder what's going down.
We're all nosy.
(12:27):
We, you know, if our neighborsleave their blinds open, we're
like, ooh, what's what do theyhave in their house?
I want to know.
I'm curious.
And people back in the OldTestament were the same.
And so there's probably a crowdstarting to grow as Boaz
gathers the elders becausethey're curious what's going on
and what business is going tohappen and it will affect the
community.
And so people are wanting toknow.
(12:47):
So you not only have Boaz andthe Elders and the Kinsman
Redeemer sitting, you also havea crowd that is standing
gathered around to hear what'sgoing on.
Maybe merchants are kind oftrying to listen out of the
corner of their ear whilethey're doing shopping.
And everybody's very aware thatthis meeting is happening.
(13:08):
So Boaz turns to the kinsmanredeemer and he immediately
starts in a way that's verysurprising considering his
conversation in chapter three.
In chapter three, Ruthbasically proposes to Boaz and
asks him to redeem her.
Boaz says, I absolutely would,but there's a man who has a
(13:28):
greater right to do that than Ido, so I need to go talk to him
about it.
So he goes to do this, but hedoesn't start by talking about
Ruth at all.
He starts by talking aboutland.
He says, a portion of the fieldwhich belonged to our brother
Elimelech, Naomi is now selling,or she's transferring the
rights to.
Now, calling Elimelech theirbrother doesn't mean he's
(13:52):
physically their brother, justhe's a tribe member.
He's part of the general clan,part of the city.
It's a familial term in a in afondness way, not in a like
literal brother.
Like the three of them weresiblings.
And so Boaz starts letting theother redeemer know that
Elimelech that Naomi is sellingland that belonged to Elimelech.
(14:18):
And Boaz says, I will uncoveryour ear, saying, Acquire before
those who sit and before theelders of my people this land.
If you will redeem, redeem.
And if you will not redeem, Iwill redeem.
And tell me, and I will know.
So this concept of landredemption goes back to
Leviticus 25.
(14:39):
Let me read Leviticus 25, 23through 27 from the NIV.
That passage says, the landmust not be sold permanently,
because the land is mine, saysthe Lord, and you, the people of
Israel, reside in my land asforeigners and strangers.
Throughout the land that youhold as possession, you must
provide for the redemption ofthe land.
(15:00):
If one of your fellowIsraelites becomes poor and
sells some of their property,their nearest relative is to
come and redeem what they hadsold.
If, however, there's no one toredeem it for them, but later on
they prosper and acquiresufficient means, they can
redeem it themselves.
They are to determine the valuefor the years since they sold
it and refund that balance tothe one to whom they sold it,
(15:22):
and then they can go back totheir property.
So land in ancient Israel was apermanent possession of a
family or a tribe or a clan.
It was not like today we buyand sell houses to whomever,
whenever, and we don't thinkmuch about it.
But land was necessary for thesurvival of a family in ancient
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Israel.
If you did not have land, youreally were fairly destitute and
you didn't have much.
And so keeping the land withinthe family is incredibly
important.
And it's important not only forthe immediate household, but
the clan and the tribe as well.
One thing that's interestingabout these verses is that women
(16:04):
usually didn't have direct landownership.
There is discussion in thescholarly world on whether it
was the household that owned theland or the men who owned the
land.
Many scholars, because land waspassed through the father's
line, it was passed on throughthe male line to keep it in the
(16:26):
household, in the clan.
It was that was traced throughthe men.
There's many who think it wasmen who owned the land.
There are other scholars likeCarol Meyer who say, it's not
necessarily that the men own theland, but it's that the
household has the land, and it'swho is representing that
household, which 99.9% of thetime would be the men.
(16:50):
And so do women could inherit.
We have the daughters ofZehlapad, they inherit land and
then marry men within their clanto keep that land within the
clan.
So women can inherit.
The widow's inheriting fromtheir husband was pretty rare.
Um, typically, you would have asomeone, a male relative,
(17:11):
inherit the land instead of thewidow.
So you have kind of an oddsituation here where Naomi needs
to transfer the rights of theland or sell the land to um a
male relative because a coupleof widows, though they make a
tiny household on their own,cannot survive long term.
(17:32):
They do not have the manpoweror the resources to work the
land as needed for their ownsurvival.
They are a dead end.
So they need to find a largerhousehold to take them in and to
absorb that land and them forsurvival.
And so Boaz here mentions Naomineeds to transfer the land.
(17:54):
And presumably, commentatorsnote that when the land is
transferred, care of Naomi wouldbe transferred as well.
So whoever takes the land takesresponsibility for Naomi.
Naomi is the matriarch ofElimelech's household.
She goes with the land, and youkind of take both together.
And so the Redeemer initiallyhears this situation Boaz is
(18:21):
bringing up and is like, thatsounds like a great idea.
Naomi's past childbearing age.
I can, she's one mouse, she'snot going to eat that much.
She's an old lady.
Um, I can care for her, and Iget this land, which my
household can work.
We can turn a lot of profit, wecan help ourselves out.
If he had children, my thatwill increase the inheritance of
my children.
(18:42):
Um, my children will get moreinheritance because of this
land.
This sounds like a great deal.
Absolutely.
I'm in.
I will redeem the land and takeon caring for Naomi.
No, babe, I can do that.
So he says, I myself willredeem.
I'll do it.
Not a problem.
And then Boaz drops the othershoe.
(19:04):
Boaz rings up and he says,Okay, but in the day you acquire
for yourself the land from thehand of Naomi.
She's the acting matriarch, sheis the head of the household.
From the hand of Naomi, youalso get Ruth the Moabitus, the
wife of the dead.
Now, Naomi's the wife of thedead as well, but she is
(19:26):
post-menopausal.
She is not of marriageable age,so they're not really concerned
about that.
But Ruth is um of marriageableage.
She is still in years where shecould bear children.
She is also a Moabitis, andBoaz drops that in the middle of
this.
He's using a lot of verytechnical legal language.
This is kind of, think of thisas in your in the county
(19:50):
surveyor's office, you're in thetown hall, and you have all
those legal documents with allthe legal ease that Boaz is
speaking in legalese here.
So some of what he says soundsvery formal, it sounds very kind
of disjointed, and it'ssupposed to because it's very
specific legal language.
He is drawing this out to makesure all the T's are crossed,
all the dies are audit, dotted,and everything is going as it
(20:13):
needs to.
But he's also laying out subtlecues to get the end result that
he's going for.
So he says, when you get theland and Naomi, you're also
gonna get Ruth, who is aMoabitist.
And as we've talked in otherepisodes, there's a lot of
animosity between Israel andMoab.
(20:34):
Moab, the people of Moab,according to Genesis, started
from an ancestral relationship.
The Moabites had their womenseduce Israel's men and draw
them away from the Lord.
Moab refused to let Israel passthrough and cursed Israel.
So the Moabites, and in recentyears, the king of Moab has been
(20:58):
ransacking and pillaging partsof Israel just north of
Bethlehem.
So they're not a big fan ofMoab.
And Boaz drops right in themiddle Ruth the Moabitist, which
everybody in town knows she's aMoabitist, but he's dropping
that just to make sure nobodyforgets.
(21:18):
But he also mentions wife ofthe dead.
That's a very technical phrasethat's used in the passages
about leverett marriage, thewife of the dead.
And so he's he's bringing thoseelevent marriage ideas into
this passage.
And he's Boaz is brilliantlytying together two legal
(21:43):
concepts that Ruth started tobring up, but she wasn't fully
aware of all the legal nuance inchapter three.
In chapter three, Ruth comes tohim and basically does a
marriage proposal, but then shesays, You are a kinsman
redeemer, and shifts from just aplain marriage proposal into
(22:04):
the realm of redemption bysaying that Boaz is a Goel.
Now let's review very briefly.
A Goal's responsibility inIsrael was for, as we've been
talking about, the redemption ofthe land to keep it in the
family, to keep it in the clan.
It was also to redeem relativeswho've sold themselves into
slavery, um, to help make suremoney paid in restitution gets
(22:27):
to where it needs to go, um, toassist clan members in lawsuit.
Um, generally, leverettmarriage is just direct
brother-in-law.
So if Malhon um had died,Chileon would need to marry
Ruth, um, but both of them died.
So we don't have the directleverant marriage, but a Goale's
(22:48):
responsibility is to care forthose in his clan in his
community.
So Ruth broadened her requestfrom just marriage to him acting
as a Goale for her and Naomi.
Boaz understands everythingthat entails, more than even
Ruth did.
And he broadens that further tobe the land and Naomi and Ruth.
(23:14):
And so he says, you acquireNaomi, you acquire Ruth, the
wife of the dead, and the reasonyou acquire Ruth, the wife of
the dead, he says to the otherRedeemer, the reason you would
acquire her is to cause the nameof the dead to stand upon his
inheritance, to keep the to keepElimelech and Malham's name
(23:38):
alive.
We have very little informationon the ancient Israelites' view
of the afterlife.
They did not have the same viewof the afterlife that the New
Testament Christian or thechurch today does.
But for the Old TestamentIsraelite, having your name stay
with your land, your legacystay with your land, they
(24:01):
believed it had some sort ofimpact on your afterlife.
Having people of yourdescendants on your land was
important, as important in yourdeath as it is in your life.
And so Boaz here is saying tokeep the name of the dead, to
cause the name of the dead tostand upon his inheritance.
(24:24):
We are working for the good ofa Limelex household, a Limelex
family, a Limelex name as ourbrother.
And in order to do that, youneed to marry Ruth to carry on a
Limelex line because ofLeverett marriage
considerations.
Leverett marriage is thebrother-in-law marriage where if
(24:47):
a brother dies, his brother, ifa man dies, his brother would
marry the dead man's wife, andher first son would be
considered the dead brothers,not the biological father of the
baby.
Um, and so that child would getthe inheritance from the dead
brother.
I talk about that this in greatdetail in my episode on Tamar.
(25:11):
So go back and listen to thatand all the tricky Leverett
marriage, brother-in-law lawstuff that goes on in Tamar's
story in the book of Genesis.
But here, Boaz is bringing allof that into these legal
proceedings.
He's saying, redemption of landis great, but we need more than
just keeping the land in theclan.
That's the easy part.
(25:32):
The hard part is keeping thename of the dead connected to
his land.
At that point, the kinsmanredeemer basically says, I'm
out.
He's like, I don't have thepower to do this.
I can't.
And we don't know why.
He doesn't say why he doesn'thave the power.
It could be that inheritancefor his kids would get all
messed up.
It could be he just financiallycan't manage all of that.
(25:53):
We don't, it could be he uhthought marrying a Moabite was
distasteful.
The text doesn't tell us.
We have no reason except thisman is like, I can't do it.
Too big, too scary.
My inheritance, my children'sfuture, I would be endangering
all of that.
Um, I can't do it.
I'm out, you do it.
So the man tells Boaz he can doit.
(26:15):
And then in verse seven, wehave a little aside from the
narrator that tells us aboutthis ancient custom where they
would take off sandals and passsandals between the people to
kind of rubber stamp a legalagreement.
And so that shows that the bookof Ruth was written enough
later from when the events ofRuth happened that the original
(26:36):
audience of the book of Ruthneeded to know this little aside
detail that they wouldn't havenaturally known.
So just like I sit here and Itell you historical context
about the book of Ruth to helpyou understand, because we're
3,000 years later.
So the book of the author ofthe Book of Ruth was just enough
later from the events of theBook of Ruth that he needed to
(26:59):
give a little historical contextaside for his audience.
And that's what he does inverse 7.
The man drew off his sandal andhe would give it to a friend.
This is the attestation inIsrael.
Verse 8 picks back up with thelegal proceedings, where the
Kim's Miner Deemer is going todo that very thing.
He says, acquire it all foryourself.
He says, I can't do it, tooexpensive, I'm endangering my
(27:21):
livelihood and my family.
Do it for yourself.
And so he draws off his sandal.
Now he's uncovering his feet.
He draws off his sandal andgives it to Boaz.
Boaz, it doesn't say this, buthe presumably accepts the
sandal.
And Boaz said to the elders andall the people who are there,
remember, there's a big crowd,the elders are sitting there, a
(27:42):
big crowd.
Boaz then turns to the crowd,the people representative of the
entire city of Bethlehem.
Probably not the entire citywas there, but close to it and
enough to represent the city.
And he says, You are witnessestoday.
And this is very importantbecause in the ancient world,
they didn't necessarilysometimes they would write it
down.
We have lots of ancient writtenrecords, but we're dealing with
(28:06):
like small backwater Bethlehem.
They may not have scribeshanging out in Bethlehem.
They're going to be in thebigger cities.
And so this is an oral culture.
They remember things and theyneed human witnesses to be like,
yes, this is what happened.
Because if there's ever anissue further down the road, you
can be like, well, ElderSo-and-so and Elder So-and-so,
(28:28):
and Mr.
and those people, they were allthere.
They heard it.
They witnessed it.
I can bring them into the legalwranglings further down the
road to be like, no, that theyou agreed, Mr.
So-and-so, you agreed to suchand such.
We were there, we saw it.
So the Boaz asks everyonestanding around and the elders
who sit to witness theproceedings.
(28:48):
He wants Bethlehem as a city.
He wants their buy-in on whatis about to transpire.
So Boaz says, You are witnessestoday, for I am acquiring all
that belong to Elimelech.
Um I read this as he'sacquiring the household.
He's acquiring the movablegoods, clothes, um, pottery,
(29:11):
grinding stones, everything.
Movable goods, house, land,everything.
Um he says, I acquire all thatwas to Elimelech.
I'm acquiring this entirehousehold.
I am absorbing their household,movable goods, immovable goods,
land, people, all of it.
I'm acquiring all that belongsto alimelec.
(29:31):
I am absorbing their householdinto my own and all that belong
to Chileon and Malhon from thehand of Naomi.
I am transferring theresponsibility and protection of
this household, of Olimelexhousehold, from the widow Naomi
to myself.
That's how I read this verse.
(29:51):
He is saying, I see Naomi as awidow who does not have legal
standing to represent herself ina court of law.
In this culture, she is tryingto care for Ruth.
She's trying to manage heraffairs.
I'm going to step in and I'mgoing to bring them under my
protection.
I'm going to absorb theirhousehold into my own and all of
(30:12):
the good, bad, ugly, beautifulthat goes with it.
He says, Also, Ruth theMoabitus, the wife of Mahan, I
am acquiring from me as a wifeto cause the name of the dead to
stand upon his inheritance.
That the name of the dead willnot be cut off from the people
of his brothers.
You are witnesses today.
(30:33):
He opens and he closes hisstatement.
He says, You are witnesses.
Here is everything I am doing.
Now witness this.
And the people say, We arewitnesses.
Ratified, approved, witnessed,done.
Now I want to go back verybriefly and make a note.
It says that he is acquiringthe land and he is also
(30:53):
acquiring Ruth.
Ruth.
There has been some discussionabout this because that word
acquire could also mean bought.
And some people are like, wait,is this, does this like he's
buying her like a slave as awife?
And that's not really at allwhat's going on here.
Yes, he's using the wordacquire, which can also be
bought, but it's also a legalterm.
Remember, this is a legalproceeding dealing with the
(31:17):
estate of a limelec.
The whole estate, the wholehousehold, which in the ancient
world includes house, land,people, movable goods, animals,
anything that they have, thehousehold, it all goes together.
You don't separate out thepeople from the house from the
land.
They are all intertwined.
So he's dealing with this is alegal situation where he's
(31:40):
dealing with the entirehousehold.
And so he would acquire, hewould buy the household, he
acquires that.
And so with all of that, heacquires Ruth.
So this isn't talking about abride price or her being bought
and sold, wives being bought andsold.
This is the only time that wordacquire or bought is used of
getting a wife in the OldTestament.
(32:00):
And it's in a very specificlegal setting where there's a
much broader picture than justher singular marriage happening,
if that makes sense.
So he he's acquiring her aspart of the household and he's
acquiring her, he's marrying herbecause he wants to.
We saw that in chapter three.
But also to keep the name ofthe dead in the inheritance.
(32:24):
He recognizes the importance ofthe brother-in-law law of the
Leverett marriageresponsibility, especially in
this group collectivist culturewhere you think about the whole,
you think about the clan, youthink about all of the people,
not just yourself.
So he says, You are witnessestoday.
(32:47):
He says, You are witnesses.
I am taking this household intomy own, and I will be marrying
Ruth as part of that process.
You are witnesses.
And all the people say, We arewitnesses.
They ratify this and theypromise to remember and to pass
on knowledge of what hashappened down through the
generations for legal stabilityin the city.
(33:10):
And then they give a blessing.
They say, We are witnesses.
May the Lord give the womancoming into your house.
May they be, may she be likeRachel and Leah, who built the
two of them the house of Israel.
They recognize the importanceof women in the building of
houses of Israel, not thephysical houses, but the people
(33:30):
itself.
And they recognize Rachel andLeah, Leah, Rachel and Leah have
Star Wars on the brain.
Rachel and Leah are the onesthrough whom all the tribes of
Israel came by Jacob.
May Ruth be like them.
May she be a matriarch.
May she be a name that standsand will continue throughout the
(33:57):
generations.
And then they ask that the Lordwill make strong, will increase
strengths and honor to Boaz'sname in the city of Bethlehem.
And they say, they say, Mayyour house be like Perez, who
(34:18):
Tamar bore Judah.
The people in Bethlehem, thoughBoaz didn't bring it up,
recognize that the story ofTamar and Judah provides legal
precedent for what Boaz is doinglegally that day.
Let me get into the legal weedshere for a second.
(34:38):
If you recall, I mentioned itin the first episode on the book
of Ruth, that there is a law inDeuteronomy 23, verse 3, that
says from the NIV, no Ammoniteor Moabite or any of their
descendants may enter theassembly of the Lord, not even
to the tenth generation.
So integrating a Moabite or anAmmonite into the community of
(35:04):
Israel is exceptionally tricky.
You don't have a clean way todo that.
Some people say, well, Ruth, Imean, she was a woman of faith.
She she believed in the Lord,and so therefore she gets a
pass.
Not according to Deuteronomy23, 3.
It's pretty clear.
They can't enter the assembly,the worship.
They're not allowed to be likefull-on part of Israel.
Neither are their descendantsfor ten generations, which this
(35:28):
book is pointing to, David, whois less than ten generations
away from Moabitus.
But the people recognize whatBoaz has done.
Deuteronomy 23:3 is a later lawin the book of the Torah, in
the book of the law.
Tamar and Judah is an earlierlaw.
(35:51):
The Leverett marriage, therelationship, the kinship
relationship taking care ofwidows sets precedent over the
later law.
Earlier laws get weightedheavier than the later laws.
So the people bless the houseof Boaz to be like Paras, but
(36:20):
they also recognize that becauseof Tamar and Judah and Peres,
Ruth can be integrated into theIsraelite community, into the
Bethlehem community,specifically because of the
Leverett marriage.
(36:40):
In a way she would not havebeen able to, even with her
faith, even with everythingelse, she would not have been
able to be integrated intoIsrael if she had just stayed
married to Malhon.
If Malhon had married her andhad lived and had brought her
back to Bethlehem, she would notbe able to be integrated into
the community in the same way asshe is by marrying Boaz,
(37:05):
because her marriage to Malhondoes not depend on nor reflect
an earlier situation in theMosaic law that overshadows the
Deuteronomy 23, 3 command aboutMoabites.
We have very specific legalwrangling going on that Boaz
starts, and the city ofBethlehem recognizes that this
(37:30):
is a special situation.
And we are bringing Ruth in,just like Tamar is brought in,
and we are recognizing that sheis as much part of the in-group
now as Rachel and Leah, who wereArmenians when they were
brought when Jacob married them,as Tamar, who may have been a
(37:52):
Canaanite when Judah was withher.
And now we have Ruth, who hasbeen brought in to the people.
She is also like potentiallyRahab, which the book of Ruth
never tells us this, but Matthew1 tells us that Boaz's mother,
or maybe grandmother, is Rahab,who was the one who welcomed the
(38:18):
spies, and she married intoIsrael.
And so Ruth is following thefootsteps of all of these
matriarchs of Israel who, bymarriage and especially leverage
marriage, were able to enterthe people of God and be
considered an Israelite underthe covenant of God.
(38:39):
And so Boaz took Ruth and shewas to him a wife.
She consented to marry him.
And he went into her, and theLord gave her conception, and
she bore a son.
At this point, Ruth has thebaby, and she and Boaz step off
the scene.
We don't hear about Ruth againin the book, which this book is
(39:00):
ultimately about Naomi, notRuth.
And by verse 13, Ruth's problemhas been solved.
Ruth, the blessings that wereprayed over her have been
fulfilled.
Naomi's concern for her thatshe find rest in the home of a
husband has been fulfilled.
She has had a child, so herproblem is solved.
She moves off to the side.
(39:22):
Now the text finishes where itstarted by focusing on Naomi.
And then the women said toNaomi, Blessed be the Lord who
did not cease to give you akinsman redeemer today.
Naomi is holding the baby andthey're blessing her.
(39:43):
His name will be called greatin Israel.
He will be a returner to you oflife and a support in your old
age.
For your daughter who lovesyou, who is better than seven
sons, has bore him.
And so Naomi takes the boy andshe holds him in her chest as
she was to him on Manny.
Some commentators argue is sheadopting him formally?
(40:06):
Is she just taking care of him?
I think it's most likely thatshe's she's taking care of him.
He's going to carry on the lineof a limelech, so she doesn't
need to adopt him.
That's Boaz already formallytook care of that.
Naomi is probably living in thesame household as Boaz and
Ruth.
She's still the matriarch ofthis household.
And so she is caring for thisson, but the women are
(40:28):
recognizing you left us empty,or you left us full.
You returned empty, and now youare full again.
You have a new son.
God has provided for you.
The word she was to him anurse, many of your translations
say, um, that could speak tolike a breastfeeding nurse, a
(40:48):
wet nurse.
Naomi's obviously too old forthat.
It can also be nanny caregiverguardian.
The masculine form of that wordtalks about caregivers and
guardians.
So it just is referencingNaomi's care for this child who
will be a servant to her, whowill care for her in her old
age.
And the women of the town,which this is very unique, name
(41:11):
him and they called his nameObed, which means servant.
He will serve the Lord and hewill serve Naomi.
And Obed was the father ofJesse, the father of David,
which again brings us fullcircle back to the beginning,
where I said that one of thepurposes of the book of Ruth is
to show how David's reign andSolomon's building of the temple
(41:36):
could be legitimate when theyare less than 10 generations
away from a Moabite.
And it's through very specificlegal wrangling that that can
happen.
So for the Ma for thereadership of the Book of Ruth,
it the book ends with someonethey are very familiar with,
King David, the highest, mosthonored king in Israelite
(41:59):
history.
The book of Ruth starts withemptiness, Naomi losing
everything.
And then the book ends withNaomi being the, in some ways,
proverbial adoptedgreat-grandmother of David, and
Ruth, the physicalgreat-grandmother of David.
These two women in theirloyalty to each other are both
(42:22):
ancestors, one legally, onephysically, to David, and
thereby Jesus.
We talked in a previous episodehow Naomi is in many ways a
female Job.
And like Job had family andriches restored to him, so Naomi
does also.
The book closes with an evenmore extensive genealogy, but
(42:47):
again, it starts with who?
It starts with Perez, onceagain, pointing to Perez is the
key for the book of Ruth.
If you want to understand thebook of Ruth, you need to
understand the story of Perezand his mother, Tamar.
It is through these women thatGod has moved and God has worked
(43:11):
to set up the family line ofDavid and thereby Jesus.
Often genealogies leave outwomen, and they have in this one
as well.
Paras begets Hezron, Hezron,Ram, Ram, Aminodab, Aminodab,
Nashon, Nashan, Salmon, Salmon,Boaz, Boaz, Obad, Obed, Jesse,
Jesse, David.
The women are left out.
(43:32):
But people would have known whothe key women were, and God
highlights continually the keywomen throughout this story.
That without the women doingsacrificial, chesed, covenant
faithfulness works on behalf ofthose near them, women who
(43:55):
fought against abuse andoppression to get what they were
owed.
Women who had absolute faith inGod when everything fell apart.
These women are how the malegenealogies can even exist.
(44:16):
These women are the bedrock onwhich the story unfolds.
So as we consider the book ofRuth as a whole, think about how
God is working continually onbehalf of the broken and the
weak and the destitute throughthose who have proud power and
(44:37):
privilege, who are willing torisk their own inheritance to
help those who are in need.
Boaz's inheritance could havebeen in as much risk as the
kinsman redeemer who said hecouldn't do it.
But he was willing to risk.
He was willing to leverage hispower and position and privilege
(44:59):
to help those in need.
And those who were in clung toGod by faith.
Naomi's faith was often shakenand she was often angry, but she
is still the theologian of thebook who is pointing out what
God is doing alongside the otherwomen in the town who are
(45:20):
saying, This is what God isdoing.
Men bless in this book.
They offer blessings.
It is women in the book of Ruthwho interpret what has happened
and point to how God is workingthrough the events.
Women's wisdom, women'sinsight, women's voices are
(45:43):
important to God and they havebeen immortalized in Scripture.
So as we close out the book ofRuth, remember this book is not
a romance story on how to find aspouse, because we don't have
all the legal procedures theyhad that precipitated finding a
(46:04):
spouse.
And finding a spouse wasn'tabout romance, but it was about
necessity, but not justnecessity for themselves,
necessity for those who are nolonger there.
And necessity for those who areeven more vulnerable than they
were.
Naomi is more vulnerable thanRuth because Ruth is still young
(46:25):
enough to marry.
Naomi is not.
Ruth sacrifices potentiallyeverything for the good of Naomi
and is able to bring aboutwholeness and security and
fullness for Naomi.
God works providentially in thebook of Ruth, and we see the
glimmers all over.
(46:45):
But those who interpret theactions of the Book of Ruth, the
women, the women who interpretthroughout the book of Ruth what
God is doing, give God'sprovidence and human action the
same weight.
They see how people act toreflect God's character, and
they say that has the sameweight as God's providential
(47:09):
action.
The book of James tells us thatwhen we know what to do and we
don't do it, when we knowthere's a good we need to do and
we don't do it, it is sin.
God expects his people to standup and act on behalf of the
weak and the destitute, to useour power and our privilege and
(47:29):
our position on behalf of thosewho need.
And he loves it when thathappens, whether it is women,
whether it is men, whether andhe loves it when it happens
through creative means.
God inspired the Mosaic Law.
And when Boaz can work throughthe nuances of the creative law,
(47:52):
of the Mosaic Law to creativelydraw Ruth into full communion
in Israel so that their greatgrandson can be the premier king
of the people, and his son canbuild the temple of God.
God thinks that is beautiful.
People who know the word,people who live the word, people
(48:15):
who act the word, so that Godcan work through them on behalf
of others.
Find me on social media.
Let me know what you think ofthis episode.
I cannot wait to talk about itwith you more.
If you sign up for my mailinglist, go to wehoothirst.com
backslash links.
You can sign up for my mailinglist, and we will further
(48:38):
conversations about Ruth andthese sorts of topics there.
I cannot wait to talk to younext time.
Have a great week.
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