Todays Advent GPS: The Scripture Reading: Ruth 4:1-12 NLT Boaz went to the town gate and took a seat there. Just then the family redeemer he had mentioned came by, so Boaz called out to him, “Come over here and sit down, friend. I want to talk to you.” So they sat down together. Then Boaz called ten leaders from the town and asked them to sit as witnesses. And Boaz said to the family redeemer, “You know Naomi, who came back from Moab. She is selling the land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. I thought I should speak to you about it so that you can redeem it if you wish. If you want the land, then buy it here in the presence of these witnesses. But if you don’t want it, let me know right away, because I am next in line to redeem it after you.” The man replied, “All right, I’ll redeem it.” Then Boaz told him, “Of course, your purchase of the land from Naomi also requires that you marry Ruth, the Moabite widow. That way she can have children who will carry on her husband’s name and keep the land in the family.” “Then I can’t redeem it,” the family redeemer replied, “because this might endanger my own estate. You redeem the land; I cannot do it.” Now in those days it was the custom in Israel for anyone transferring a right of purchase to remove his sandal and hand it to the other party. This publicly validated the transaction. So the other family redeemer drew off his sandal as he said to Boaz, “You buy the land.” Then Boaz said to the elders and to the crowd standing around, “You are witnesses that today I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Kilion, and Mahlon. And with the land I have acquired Ruth, the Moabite widow of Mahlon, to be my wife. This way she can have a son to carry on the family name of her dead husband and to inherit the family property here in his hometown. You are all witnesses today.” Then the elders and all the people standing in the gate replied, “We are witnesses! May the Lord make this woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, from whom all the nation of Israel descended! May you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. And may the Lord give you descendants by this young woman who will be like those of our ancestor Perez, the son of Tamar and Judah Monday Thought-Starter: Bethlehem, though fairly small, was famous in Israel’s history (unlike Nazareth, an unknown village). Matthew 1:5 listed Ruth among Jesus’ ancestors. She was from Moab, the widow of an Israelite from Bethlehem. Boaz, a kinsman of her dead husband, “redeemed” her (along with her husband’s property). They married and were King David’s great-grandparents. • Deuteronomy 23:3 said no Moabite could ever enter “the assembly of the Lord.” But Deuteronomy 25:5-10 said if a man died childless (as Ruth’s husband did), his nearest relative should marry the widow and have an heir for the family. How do you think his love toward Ruth, even though she was a Moabite, show Jesus’ principle that “people are more important than rules”? • Ruth and Naomi’s society gave unmarried women no legal rights and few ways to support themselves. A “redeemer” changed their lives. In what ways did their story foreshadow the redeeming work of Jesus?
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 23:01:32 +0000
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