Boaz the Redeemer

“Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a kinsman-redeemer.” — Ruth 4:14

All through the barley harvest and the wheat harvest, Ruth gleaned in Boaz’s fields. And Naomi was thinking.

In those days, if a man died, a close relative could become his family’s “redeemer”. The redeemer would buy back the family’s land so it wasn’t lost, and take care of the family. He might even marry the widow, so that the family name would carry on.

Boaz was a close relative. He could be their redeemer!

So Naomi made a plan. “Wash and put on your best clothes,” she told Ruth. “Tonight Boaz will be at the threshing floor, where they separate the grain. When he lies down to sleep, go and lie down at his feet. He will tell you what to do.”

“I will do whatever you say,” said Ruth.

That night, after Boaz had eaten, he lay down to sleep at the end of the grain pile. Ruth crept up quietly and lay down at his feet. In the middle of the night, Boaz woke up with a start. There was someone lying at his feet!

“Who are you?” he asked.

“I am Ruth,” she said. “Spread the corner of your cloak over me, because you are a redeemer of our family.” She was asking him to marry her and take care of her and Naomi.

“The Lord bless you!” said Boaz. “You could have chosen a younger man. Don’t be afraid. I will do everything you ask. Everyone in town knows you are a woman of noble character.”

But there was a problem. “There is one man who is an even closer relative than I am,” said Boaz. “He has the first right to be your redeemer. If he won’t do it, then I will. I promise.”

In the morning, Boaz gave Ruth a big load of barley to take home to Naomi.

Then Boaz went to the town gate, where important things were decided, and sat down. Soon the closer relative came by. “Come and sit here, my friend,” said Boaz. Then he asked ten of the town leaders to sit down too, to be witnesses.

“Naomi is selling her husband’s land,” Boaz told the man. “You have the first right to buy it.”

“I will buy it,” said the man.

“But on the day you buy the land,” said Boaz, “you must also marry Ruth, so that the dead man’s name carries on with his land.”

“Then I can’t do it,” said the man. “It might spoil things for my own family. You do it.”

In those days, to seal an agreement, a man took off his sandal and gave it to the other person. So the man took off his sandal and gave it to Boaz.

“You are all witnesses today,” Boaz told everyone. “I have bought the land, and Ruth will be my wife.”

So Boaz married Ruth. And God gave them a baby boy. All the women of Bethlehem came to Naomi. “Blessed be the Lord,” they said, “who has not left you without a redeemer today! This boy will make you young again, and look after you when you are old. Your daughter-in-law, who loves you, is better to you than seven sons!”

Naomi took the baby in her arms and cuddled him and looked after him. Naomi, who had gone away full and come back empty, was full again!

They called the baby Obed. When Obed grew up, he had a son called Jesse. And Jesse had a son called David, who would become the greatest king Israel ever had.

Looking ahead to Jesus: The Bible lists Boaz and Ruth in the family tree of Jesus (Matthew 1:5). Ruth, a woman from Moab, became the great-grandmother of King David, and many years later, Jesus was born into King David’s family.

Read it in your Bible: Ruth 3–4

Dear God, thank you that you take care of people who have lost everything. Thank you that you are always working out your good plans, even when we can’t see them. Amen.