Sat.’s Devo - Tour Kinsman Redeemer

Read: Ruth 2:1-4:22; John 4:43-54; Psalm 105:16-36; Proverbs 14:26-27 It had to be difficult for two single women to make a living during those days after the famine. It was customary for the poor people to walk behind the reapers and pick up what the reapers dropped. In Leviticus 19:9-10, 23:22; and 24:21 the law says that when you harvest the land you should only pass through the field once and leave whatever is left for the stranger, the fatherless and the widow. Ruth told Naomi that she would like to go and glean in a field since it was barley harvest. Naomi let her go. *** She just happened to glean in Boaz’s field who was a relative and a kinsman redeemer of Naomi. Boaz just happened to have come out to the field that day and noticed Ruth gleaning behind his gleaners. He asked about her and when he learned who she was, he instructed his men to leave her alone and to let her drink freely from their well. He went and told Ruth the same. Ruth asked him why he was being so kind to her and he told her that he knew of the kindness she had given to Naomi. *** At lunch, Boaz told her to come and eat with them and shared his food with her. He told his workers to purposely drop the heads of barley from their bundles for her to pick up. By the end of the day, Ruth had much grain. *** She showed Naomi her great harvest when she returned home and told Naomi all about her day. Ruth was elated and told her that Boaz was a relative and a kinsman redeemer. She should stay in his field throughout the harvest time f the barley and the wheat season. *** One day, Naomi told Ruth it was time she found a husband and told her what to do. It was time to thresh the wheat so she knew Boaz would be spending his nights at the threshing floor. She told Ruth to clean up and wear her best dress. She was to go to the threshing floor and hide until Boaz lay down to sleep. Then she was to uncover his feet and lay there. When he awakened and found her there she was to ask him to redeem her. Everything went according to plan. When she told Boaz her request, he was elated. He already knew there was another kinsman who was before him in order of redemption of her. He scooped her out six scoops of barley in her cloak and told her to go home an d he would let her know how the day went. *** He went immediately to the town gates where legal transactions were made and met with the kinsman redeemer who was nearest Naomi. When he asked her if he would want to redeem Elimelech’s property and his son’s wife, the man wasn’t interested. He already had a wife. So he did a legal transaction to buy the land and Ruth as a wife. *** Boaz and Ruth were married and blessed by the elders and all the people who witnessed their union. Ruth became pregnant and had a son and named him Obed which means “serving”. Ruth had served Naomi and now she was rewarded with a son and a wealthy husband who loved her. Naomi finally had a grandson. *** Ruth would be mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1:5. Boaz’s mother was Rahab, the harlot that hid the spies at Jericho. She, like Ruth had been a foreigner who married into the line of Jesus. Boaz could relate to Ruth’s plight as a foreigner. The bride of Christ will be a people who is neither Jew nor Greek, but saved by the grace of God. Jesus is our Kinsman Redeemer. *** After preaching to the people from Samaria, he went to Galilee to his own hometown. The ones who had seen the miracles he did at Passover welcomed him. He traveled back to Cana where he had turned the water to wine. A government official there had a son who was deathly sick,. He begged Jesus to come to Capernaum to heal his son. Jesus told him to go back home, his son would live. When he returned he found his son alive and well and learned that he had recovered the same hour Jesus spoke those words about him. His whole household became believers. Jesus had asked, “Will you never believe in me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?” *** That is a question to us also. Is our faith built on answered prayers or on the sovereignty of God? Will we believe when we don’t see his power, when he is quiet and we can’t hear or feel him? Faith is the evidence of things not seen. It is not activated by results but by our heart of belief. *** Lord, help us to stay strong when we don’t see the evidence or the results we want to see. Thank you for faith and your Word. We stand on what you say and not what we see. You work under the surface, our part is to believe and praise you.