Christ Redeems us from Slavery

These posts are based on notes from our sermon series on Ruth.

Reading:  Ruth 2:19-20

Let’s look at how Jesus fulfills these kinsman redeemer (go’el) laws for us.  We’ll look at how the law is applied in Ruth, for the Church, and for us individually.

The first thing we look at on kinsmen redeemer is that they must redeem their relatives from slavery.

Christ Redeems us from Slavery

We find this requirement in Leviticus 25:47-55.

“If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you or to a member of the stranger’s clan, then after he is sold he may be redeemed. One of his brothers may redeem him, or his uncle or his cousin may redeem him, or a close relative from his clan may redeem him. Or if he grows rich he may redeem himself.  He shall calculate with his buyer from the year when he sold himself to him until the year of jubilee, and the price of his sale shall vary with the number of years. The time he was with his owner shall be rated as the time of a hired worker.  If there are still many years left, he shall pay proportionately for his redemption some of his sale price.  If there remain but a few years until the year of jubilee, he shall calculate and pay for his redemption in proportion to his years of service.  He shall treat him as a worker hired year by year. He shall not rule ruthlessly over him in your sight.  And if he is not redeemed by these means, then he and his children with him shall be released in the year of jubilee.  For it is to me that the people of Israel are servants. They are my servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Ruth—we can see the similarities here.  Ruth is poor and is ready to sell herself into some sort of indenturement—slavery.  Boaz redeems that and actually adopts her into his family somewhat.

We, the Church, were slaves to Satan because we sold ourselves to him in the Garden.  Christ purchased us out of our slavery.

Christ is our Avenger of Blood

Where from:  Dt. 19:11-13

“But if anyone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and attacks him and strikes him fatally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities, then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die. Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, so that it may be well with you.

Ruth:  How is Boaz an avenger of blood?  More tenuous maybe.  Boaz is a mighty warrior and his son David will avenge the blood of Elimelech and the nation on the enemies of Israel.

Church—Christ avenges our “death” on Satan on the last day—when death/Satan is the last enemy defeated by our avenger of blood—Jesus Christ.

Christ Restores our Share of the Inheritance of His People

Where from?  Lev. 25:23-25

“The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me.  And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land. “If your brother becomes poor and sells part of his property, then his nearest redeemer shall come and redeem what his brother has sold.

Ruth:  Boaz redeems the property.

Church:  No matter how big of dunce somebody has been, the family had to go in and bail them out—get their land back—why?—because they are of the identity of the family.  It’s not whether they’re good enough or bad enough—they’ve lost their inheritance, so they’re obviously not “good enough.”  But that doesn’t abrogate their status as a member of the family / body.

In the same way, when you are a member of the family of God, Christ bails you out.  He redeems you and he redeems your inheritance when you fail.  And our inheritance is our share in the Body of Christ, the Church, which inherits the whole earth.  We are his family—his very body—and he is redeeming the earth for himself and for the Church.

Christ is our Defense Attorney

Where from:  No law per se, but we see the role portrayed a lot.

• Psalm 119:54-- "Plead my cause and redeem me; revive me according to Your word."

• Proverbs 23:10-11-- "Do not remove the ancient landmark, nor enter the fields of the fatherless; for their Redeemer is mighty; He will plead their cause against you."

• Lam 3:58-59-- "O Lord, You have pleaded the case for my soul; You have redeemed my life. O Lord, You have seen how I am wronged; Judge my case."

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Ruth:  Boaz defends Ruth from the young men in Chapter 2—"see I have told my young men not to touch you.”  If Boaz is offering to defend Ruth, then there must have been a threat to defend from—possibly racist or just normal violence.

Church:  Remember Hebrews 2:17—Christ becomes the faithful high priest.  He says, these people are all mine—and He advocates to His Father on our behalf—and he advocates our innocence—we are so identified with him that we are actually innocent of all of our sins and so he’s advocating to the father, as a defense attorney, our innocence in him over and against the accuser, Satan.

Christ Restores our Fertility: 

The “Levir” is probably the most culturally disconnected role for us.  Where from:  Dt 25:5-7

“If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.  And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.

This one is pretty strange to us.  But it highlights the role of marriage—not for “love” per se………but the role was to bear fruit—to bear seed in the form of children.  And for the Israelite, this seed or fruit was salvific in the sense that, Genesis 3:15—how will the earth be redeemed—through the seed or fruit of the woman—so to not have a baby was a big deal.  And that is fulfilled when the seed, Christ, redeems the world.

So the levirate marriage thing—brother takes his sister-in-law to wife--was this act of charity and love—acknowledgement of the truth of the Gospel—the good news that Christ is going to come and save the world.  

So this baby would be considered to be and would actually be the son of the dead man in order to continue his line and continue his inheritance, and this is connected back to the land—else in the book of deeds—the book—his name would be blotted out of the book of who is a landowner / member of the nation of Israel—the levirate saved the dead man from being blotted out.

Ruth:  Obviously Boaz becomes the levirate to Ruth and by proxy Naomi, and the son is handed to Naomi at the end.

Church:  Just like the son of Ruth and Boaz—Obed—you, the Church, are this amalgamation—this hail-Mary pass.  You’re Gentiles—you’re the Earth—you’re the isles--and like Ruth, you’re grafted in to the covenantal tree because Jesus Christ came down as the go’el—your first husband Adam died and left you barren—but your kinsman redeemer / go’el—the second Adam—stepped in and made you fruitful again. 

So go and bear fruit.