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Outlines on the Book of Ruth
Written by Dr. Lester Hutson

3. It was extremely important to these Jews that the land be kept in the family:

a. God had said to them in Leviticus 25:23, "the land shall not be sold forever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me." That meant no Israelite really owned the land. God owned it, and the people were merely God's tenants.

b. All rights of the individuals over any portion of the land were only temporary. Joshua 13-21 tells how the land was divided up among the tribes and families of Israel. Year after year, this divine inheritance was passed on from father to son. No Israelite could permanently dispose of the land of the family.

c. If an Israelite, due to poverty, was forced to sell a parcel of his land, the new owner had rights over it only until the year of Jubilee. The year of jubilee was every fiftieth year according to Leviticus 25:11. God had instructed the Israelites to let the land lie idle every seventh year, Leviticus 25:3-4. These were sabbatical years. At the end of seven sabbatical years (seven 7 year periods or 49 years, Lev. 25:8) was a year of jubilee. All slaves were to be free, all mortgaged possessions were to be returned, and all land was to be returned to the owner or family that held it at the previous year of Jubilee. Consider Leviticus 25:10-13.

d. The redemption price of a lost inheritance was determined by the number of years remaining before jubilee. If a man bought a piece of land in the first year after Jubilee, he held it for 49 years. if he bought it 25 years after Jubilee, he held it for 24 more years. Regardless of when he bought it, he relinquished it at the next year of Jubilee, thus the price he was to pay in redeeming a piece of land was based on the years remaining until the next year of jubilee.

e. It should be understood that any time an inheritance was sold, the new owner kept it only until jubilee or until another family member or kinsman came to redeem it. Just because someone bought an inheritance the first year after jubilee, did not mean he could keep it 49 years until the next jubilee. The inheritance clause of Lev. 25:24 made it possible for a kinsman of the person losing the land to redeem it at any time. God said, "and in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land. " The kinsman simply considered how much the buyer had given for the land, then he divided that by the number of years remaining before Jubilee at the time the buyer made the purchase. This gave him a per year price. In redeeming the inheritance, he simply paid for the remaining years before jubilee. For example, if a buyer paid $2,000.00 for a parcel in the 29th year, he would be entitled to hold the land 20 years, providing no one came to redeem it. That meant he was paying $100.00 per year for it. If a kinsman came to redeem it in the 39th year, he would pay a redemption price of $1,000.00 based on 10 remaining years at $100.00 per year.

4. So, what Boaz is doing in Ruth 4:3-4 is telling his cousin that Naomi is poor and must sell the family land. He is reminding that cousin also that as kinsmen, they should buy the land rather than see it go into the hand of a stranger outside the family.

B. To this the cousin readily agreed. He knew it was legally true, and he said, "I will redeem it," Verse 4. But then, Boaz brought up another aspect of redemption:

1 . His words in Verse 5 are, "What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance."

2. The cousin knew that was right. Any time a Jewish man died childless, his brother or nearest kinsman was to take the widow to wife and raise up children of her in the name of the dead man, Deut. 25:5. "If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her."

3.What this meant was that in order for this nearer kinsman to redeem the inheritance, he also had to marry Ruth. Redemption not only involved an inheritance, Lev. 25:25-26, it also involved a person, Deut. 25:5-10.

4. When the cousin heard that he must take the person in order to get the inheritance, he said, "I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance: redeem thou my right to thyself, for I cannot redeem it," Ruth 4:6.

C. Marriage to Ruth would put a blemish on this cousin's inheritance:

1 . Though the law said marry a brother's widow, it also said, "An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the congregation of the Lord," in Deut. 23:3.

2. Ruth was a "Moabitess" as Boaz pointed out in Ruth 4:5, so because of this shortcoming of Ruth's flesh, he could not marry her.

3. Thus, this nearer kinsman found himself unable to perform redemption due to a flaw in the person to be redeemed. But Boaz was able and willing to perform every detail required of a kinsman redeemer.

II.THERE IS A TREMENDOUS SPIRITUAL PARALLEL AND PICTURE TO BE SEEN IN THESE COUSINS:

A. They represent the two covenants: law and grace:

1. The nearer kinsman represents the law of Moses:

a. Acts 15:5 mentions "The law of Moses," which is given in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

b. It was "written and engraven in stones," and is called "the ministration of death" in II Cor. 3:7. Romans 7:6 refers to it as "the oldness of the letter," and Gal. 3:21 says it is incapable of giving life, It is "weak in the flesh," Romans 8:3.

c. Therefore, II Cor. 3:13 says it was "abolished" for Christ blotted "out the  handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross," Col - 2:14

2. Boaz represents the law of liberty, which is found in the Lord Jesus Christ:

a. James 1:25 mentions this "law of liberty."

b. It was written "not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart," II Cor. 3:3, and is called the "ministration of righteousness" in II Cor. 3:9. Romans 7:6 refers to it as the "newness of spirit," and II Cor. 3:6 says it is capable of giving "life."

c. Whereas the law of Moses was abolished, the law of liberty in Christ "remaineth," II Cor. 3:11. Hebrews 13:20 calls it "the everlasting covenant. "

3 . The blood that was shed in the everlasting covenant was "for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament" that they "might receive the presence of eternal inheritance," Hebrews 9:15. It is through faith in his blood and not by works of the law that men receive the remission of sins. Thus, Romans 4:13 says, "for the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." So, the cousin represents the law of Moses and its inability to redeem anyone, while Boaz represents the Lord Jesus Christ in whom is redemption, life, and liberty.

B. As the nearer kinsman was powerless to perform the redemption, likewise the law is powerless to redeem or save anyone:

1. The law is totally powerless to save, justify, or redeem the sinner. The law knows only justice without mercy. Its demands are absolute. It can show no mercy to the transgressor. It cannot make the sinner a saint, it cannot forgive sin, and it cannot change the heart.

2. All the law can do is demand justice and punishment, reveal our filthiness and unworthiness, and pronounce our sentence of eternal death. Like Ruth, we are not worthy to come into the congregation of God, and the law is quick to point that out.

3. That is not to say that something is wrong with the law. There isn't. Romans 7:12 says, "the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just and good." The law was good but "weak through the flesh, " Romans 8:3. The law demands justice according to its exactions, but it is unable to pay the price for failure on the part of those over whom it exercises dominion. The law is holy, just, and good; but it cannot relax its nature in order to grant mercy to the flesh, and still continue to remain holy, just, and good. To do so would be a violation of its very nature, and as Ruth 4:6 says, such a thing would "mar" it.

4. So because "all have sinned," Romans 3:23, the law, (which demands perfect holiness and obedience) cannot justify. Galatians 3:11 says, "that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident." Galatians 2:16 also says, "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law:  for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. "

5. The law could not redeem or save; it was not designed to do so. Its design was to make us see our own inability and thus turn us to the one who can redeem us. Galatians 3:24 says, "wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." That is true because the law was just "a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things," Heb.10:1.

6. Oh, how well this nearer kinsman, who stood there powerless to redeem the inheritance because Ruth did not meet his requirements, represents the law and its inability to save because no one measures up to its requirements.

C. But what the nearer kinsman under law could not do, Boaz in mercy could do:

1. If this Moabitess could be given the position of an heir, then the inheritance could be redeemed. Thus Boaz bought Ruth to be his wife and brought her right into the family, where she automatically became an heir to the inheritance. And in the process of the same transaction, he was able to redeem the inheritance as well. He "said unto the elders, and unto all the people, ye are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech's, and all that was Chilion's and Mahlon's, of the hand of Naomi. Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: ye are witnesses this day," Ruth 4:9-10.

2. This is exactly what Christ has done for all who believe in him. He has made them the members of his family. Not because of our adherence to the law, but by our simple faith in him, we become his children. This is what I John 5:1 says, "whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." Thus, they are "begotten" of God, I Peter 1:3; and Galatians 3:26 declares, "ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ."

3. Thus, our redemption in Christ is secured; not by our worthiness or obedience to every good precept, but upon the strength of the purchase price of our redeemer. Ruth being a Moabitess was, like all of us, unworthy. The law said so. But Boaz purchased her and made her a member of his family. Likewise, Jesus Christ has paid the price of our redemption in spite of our unworthiness. I Peter 1:18-19 declares, "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." Boaz, not Ruth, received all the credit for Ruth becoming his wife, for. his was a work of mercy and grace toward her, who was unworthy. Likewise God, not us, receives all the credit for our membership in his family; for his is a work of mercy and grace toward us, who are unworthy.

4. Once we are brought into the family of God, we become heirs to a divine inheritance. Paul wrote about it in Romans 8:17. He said, "if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." Thus, Peter could speak of us who have been begotten of God as having "an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you," I Peter 1:4. James said, "Harken, my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?" James 2:5.

5. So, as Boaz in mercy made Ruth a member of the family in order to give her the inheritance, even so has God in mercy made us a member of his family that he might give us an inheritance.

6. What the nearer kinsman, who symbolized law could not do, Boaz, who symbolized grace could do. Paul wrote in Romans 8:3, "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." Beautiful! What the law could not do, Christ did. The law could not justify, Gal. 3:11, nor give life, Gal. 3:21. Christ both justifies, Romans 5:1, and gives life, John 6:47.

7. Dear friend, as the nearer kinsman was powerless to help Ruth; likewise, the law is powerless to help you. It can only condemn you as being unworthy. But, as Boaz was able to take Ruth and make her his very own and give her the full inheritance, even so can Christ take you and make you his very own child, giving you a full inheritance among his people. But, as Ruth's standing was gained by her faith in Boaz, your standing "in Christ", Col. 3:3 can only be reached by your faith in Christ as your very own saviour, Galatians 3:26.