Redeemed
Every married couple has their own story of their first meeting and how they felt about each other. I have my own story about how I met my life partner who later became the mother of my four daughters. We were at camp meeting. Two churches, mine and hers, co-sponsored that meeting. When my group arrived at the campsite, I saw a pretty young girl trying to set up a tent. I approached her and asked if she needed help. She stared at me, looked deep into my eyes, and with a smile on her face, said, “Yes, if you wish to.” I immediately started getting the poles and ropes and setting up the tent. Eventually,, the tent was standing tall. She thanked me for helping with the same smile on her face. My love story began at that camp meeting fifty-three years ago today.
Most of us know such classic love stories as Romeo and Juliet, Cleopatra and Mark Antony, and Beauty and the Beast; Some are based on history; others come from the imaginations of the world’s great writers, and still others seem to be as old as the human race itself. But the Bible documented a true love story that is far more glorious than any of these; the love story of Ruth and Boaz. The love that kindled between them was noble, portraying the relationship between a prominent man and a vulnerable woman.
On a scorching hot day, Ruth went out to the fields to gather grain left behind by the harvesters. According to the Law of Moses, the harvesters would leave some grain behind so that the needy could gather food. Coincidentally, Ruth picked grains in the fields of a wealthy landowner named Boaz. From a distance, Boaz noticed Ruth among those gathering up the grain, and he told his workers to leave extra grain behind so that she could gather more. Ruth went back to the same fields every day because she knew she could gather plenty.
The story seems to show that, at this point, Boaz only has sympathy for Ruth. Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law, believed that Boaz would make a good husband for Ruth. Despite the difference in their social statuses, Naomi instructed Ruth to courageously lay down by Boaz’s feet in the tent on the night of the harvest celebration.
At midnight, something startled Boaz. A woman was lying at his feet! “Who are you?” he asked. “I am your servant Ruth,” she said. “Spread the corner of your garment over me since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family.”
Then Boaz replied: “My daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All the people of my town know that you are a woman of noble character. Although it is true that I am a guardian-redeemer of our family, there is another who is more closely related than I. Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to do his duty as your guardian-redeemer, good; let him redeem you. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives I will do it” (Ruth 3:8-13).
Boaz decided to marry Ruth as a ‘kinsman REDEEMER,’ a relative who functioned on behalf of another person and their property in times of crisis.
The Ruth and Boaz love story is an illustration of a greater REDEEMING love, surpassing ordinary human love: God’s amazing love for all humankind. The story of Boaz and Ruth is a beautiful example of how REDEMPTION worked in the patriarchal culture. It is a picture of the heavenly romance of God who loves us and REDEEMs us from the death penalty. Ellen White wrote: “Thus the REDEEMED will be welcomed to the mansions that Jesus is preparing for them. There, their companions will not be the vile of earth, but those who through divine aid have formed perfect characters. Every sinful tendency, every imperfection, has been removed by the blood of Christ; and the excellence and brightness of His glory, far exceeding the brightness of the sun in its meridian splendor, is imparted to them.” In Heavenly Places, p. 367.
Jesus meets all the qualifications to be our kinsman-REDEEMER. He paid the price of our REDEMPTION in full at the cross. Let us claim Him as our own REDEEMER.
Hiskia Missah
Editor
