The Near Kinsman

17So she gleaned in the field until evening; and she beat out that which she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. 18She took it up, and went into the city. Then her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned; and she brought out and gave to her that which she had left after she had enough. 19Her mother-in-law said to her, “Where have you gleaned today? Where have you worked? Blessed be he who noticed you.” She told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.” 20Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by Yahweh, who has not abandoned his kindness to the living and to the dead.” Naomi said to her, “The man is a close relative to us, one of our near kinsmen.” 21Ruth the Moabitess said, “Yes, he said to me, ‘You shall stay close to my young men, until they have finished all my harvest.’” 22Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his maidens, and that they not meet you in any other field.” 23So she stayed close to the maidens of Boaz, to glean to the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest; and she lived with her mother-in-law.

People divide into introverts and extroverts. Some people are optimistic about everything, while others are pessimistic. Some are satisfied only when they make every decision themselves, while others are passive and simply go along with whatever others decide. Some insist on having everything their own way, while others take a neutral stance, weighing everyone’s opinions, finding a middle ground and taking them all into account.

Some of what shapes a personality may be inborn, but we see that upbringing carries more weight. If parents are tidy by nature and in the habit of putting everything back in its place, the child naturally cannot stand a mess. On the other hand, if the parents do not keep things in order, the child pays no attention to a fair amount of mess and grows up without knowing how to tidy up either.

Children pick up even the smallest details of their parents without realizing it. So when parents are warm and kind, their children naturally become affectionate people who notice how others feel and comfort them. But when parents are sharp and aggressive, the children have to find a way out of that situation. So they grow prickly and are likely to struggle in their relationships with people. In other words, a personality is not formed overnight.

It is remarkable how much children come to resemble their parents. Unless children grow up judging well on their own, it matters enormously what kind of character their parents have and what kind of surroundings they grow up in. Of course, we also see people who grew up in ordinary homes cause trouble in society. That is why it is so important for parents to set good standards for their children, so that they can judge the world rightly.

Ruth was born and raised in Moab. So she believed in the Moabite god her parents believed in, and she thought it only natural to live that way. But when she met her mother-in-law, she learned that the Moabite god she had believed in was not an absolute being but a god made by human beings. She learned that God is not a god who exists for people’s blessing, as idols do, but the Creator who made the heavens and the earth and all things. By leaving the parents who had borne and raised her and meeting her mother-in-law Naomi, Ruth had her eyes opened to a new spiritual world and came to have the hope of heaven.

As Naomi loved Ruth like her own daughter and had a great spiritual influence on her, Ruth came to have a faith that obeyed her mother-in-law’s words absolutely. Ruth grew up in Moab, yet she was born again as one of God’s people. From that we can see how hard Naomi worked to tell her daughters-in-law about God.

Little by little Ruth began to take on her mother-in-law’s character and faith. Because she respected the faith of a mother who had gone before her in faith, she believed God’s will just as Naomi made it known to her, and that faith made Ruth an ancestor of faith.

Meeting a person of faith like this is a blessing. The people and surroundings beside you influence you without your knowing it, just as parents do. So you must always look to see whether there are people of faith beside you. However firmly you resolve to live by faith, if you keep company with people who chase pleasure, your thoughts and actions will in fact lean more toward the world than if you lived among people who live by faith. That is why complainers will meet complainers, and people who deceive others will meet people who are even better at deceiving. Positive, bright, wise people recognize people who are more positive, bright and wise than themselves, so they will meet wise people.

You cannot live cut off from the world. That is why you must have good standards in order to judge rightly what happens around you. Only then, instead of getting worked up and angry, can you think a little more positively and have the ability to think a few steps further ahead and judge. God’s word may seem to have no strength or power at all, but if you look into your own life, you will find, remarkably, that the Word is guiding your life and is at work for your faith.

Ruth 2:17

17So she gleaned in the field until evening; and she beat out that which she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley.

The grain Ruth gleaned all day in Boaz’s field came to about an ephah, a very large amount for a woman gleaning in someone else’s field. An ephah comes to about twelve *doe*.

Boaz had ordered the men binding the sheaves not to bind all of it but to let a little fall here and there for Ruth. That is why there was plenty, enough for her and Naomi to eat with some left over. To help you picture it: the weight of a *doe* of barley differs from region to region, but in Seoul a *doe* of barley weighs 0.7 kg. So the barley Ruth gleaned that day came to 8.4 kg. That is a great deal of food for a woman to gather in one day.

Just as God helped Ruth so that she would not suffer for lack of daily bread, he is always preparing people and circumstances to help believers who work for the saving of souls. But suppose God had prepared Boaz, and Ruth had been too lazy to go out for food, or too afraid of the world to go out. Then, even with everything prepared, Ruth would have gotten nothing. Ruth went out into the world to find food with fear and trembling. But because God knew her faith and her resolve, he became her protector, and a shield so that the wicked could not touch her.

Naomi knew how hard it would be for her daughter-in-law to find food in a foreign land, so she worried as any person would. But God worked so that Ruth could find food.

Ruth 2:19-20

19Her mother-in-law said to her, “Where have you gleaned today? Where have you worked? Blessed be he who noticed you.” She told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.” 20Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by Yahweh, who has not abandoned his kindness to the living and to the dead.” Naomi said to her, “The man is a close relative to us, one of our near kinsmen.”

Rather than rejoicing at the barley Ruth brought home, Naomi first asked where she had gotten so much food. As Naomi saw it, there was no way Ruth could have found this much food anywhere. When Ruth answered that the man who had helped her was Boaz, Naomi said she wished Yahweh’s blessing on him, and then said something puzzling: that he was a precious man who had not stopped showing kindness to the living and to the dead. Naomi knew what God was working out for her and for Ruth. The two women had lost their families and everything they owned and had come back home with no one to lean on, and God’s love, showing them grace, was a great comfort to them.

The world is more generous to those who have. There is nothing to gain from the poor, so people treat the powerful, who can profit them, more generously. But Jesus, who bore the cross, sacrificed himself for sinners who had fallen into death, who could do nothing and could not pay the price of their own lives. Because of that sacrifice we now call God ‘Abba, Father,’ and in Satan’s world we are kept under complete protection and enjoy peaceful rest.

If Boaz had been a worldly man, he would never have let Ruth glean in his field, and he would not have told his servants to leave grain behind for her either. Boaz lived as one of God’s people, serving God rightly. Because of that, the mere fact that Ruth had come to Bethlehem to become one of God’s people was enough for him to show her kindness.

Ruth 2:20

20Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by Yahweh, who has not abandoned his kindness to the living and to the dead.” Naomi said to her, “The man is a close relative to us, one of our near kinsmen.”

When Naomi heard that Boaz had shown Ruth kindness, she was overjoyed. She said that he had not stopped showing kindness to the living and to the dead, and that he was one of their near kinsmen.

Boaz was Naomi’s relative, a man who had been close to this family and good to them even when Elimelech lived in Bethlehem. So when he goes on showing goodwill to Naomi and Ruth in their hard situation now, he is showing love to the living. And that very goodwill is the same as showing kindness to the dead as well, to Elimelech, Mahlon and Chilion.

Naomi said that Boaz was one of the ‘near kinsmen.’ Israel had an institution called the ‘goel.’ It was a system for keeping the inheritance allotted by God from being taken by other clans, preserving it permanently so that the family line would be maintained. Whoever became the near kinsman who redeemed a poor relative’s inheritance had to buy that person’s land with his own money. He also had the responsibility of avenging a relative who had suffered unjust harm, and the duty of marrying a relative’s widow to carry on the family line. Only someone resolved to sacrifice himself completely could bear all of this. To qualify as a goel, one had to be a blood relative and had to volunteer. And only someone equipped with the means to bear all of this was given the standing of a near kinsman.

Seen this way, no one among the near kinsmen is better suited than Boaz. For he is their relative, and he also has the wealth to recover their land. If Boaz makes up his mind, he will have to buy back the land Naomi sold when she left and return it to them, and he will also have to marry Ruth and carry on the family line.

Ruth had lost her husband and was in danger of being cut off from God’s inheritance, but through Boaz she came to receive God’s inheritance. Only someone like Boaz, who had understood God’s law, obeyed it and lived humbly, could recognize Ruth for who she was and take her as his wife.

God brought a poor widow, doomed to sink forever into having no inheritance, to receive his inheritance. In the same way, Christ saved us, who were bound to Satan and headed for hell, and caused us to receive an eternal inheritance. For believers, Jesus came as the near kinsman. Jesus sacrificed himself for sinners who had fallen into death and could not get out on their own, and like Boaz, he rescued sinners with absolute grace and love.

From now on Naomi and Ruth will live in gratitude for Boaz’s love and sacrifice. For there is nothing they could ever give to thank Boaz enough. He showed grace and love to poor widows who were no better than dead, and he showed them the grace of being able to receive an inheritance. They must obey Boaz, who gave them his love without holding back, out of the wealth he had worked all his life to gather, and they must do their best to live by faith so that the love he showed them is not watered down.

Ruth 2:22

22Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his maidens, and that they not meet you in any other field.”

There is a reason Naomi told Ruth never to leave Boaz’s field for another. Even if more grain had fallen in some other field, leaving the man who would redeem her inheritance would be a foolish choice. If she left Boaz over a small temptation, she would not be able to receive the eternal inheritance. Only if Ruth stays in Boaz’s field can she have his protection, and Boaz will become the near kinsman for the two of them.

You too must not leave the church where Christ is at work. For Christ, who is the head, saves your souls and protects you so that you do not stumble and fall in the world. You are safest when you are in the church Christ built by his grace, together with others who love the Lord and are faithful to him. Of course the world’s field may look far richer than Christ’s field, and you may think that only by going into the world can you eat well and live well.

But what you must know is this: the master of the world, Satan, will not be your Christ or your Boaz. To get you into his field, he lures you as if he will give you plenty of food, but the moment you abandon Christ and go, he will make you his slave. But if you stay in Christ’s field, then just as Ruth became Boaz’s wife and lived enjoying everything he had as if it were her own, you can live a safe and peaceful life in bright light, by the love Jesus has given you.

Deuteronomy 8:2-3

2You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or not. 3He humbled you, and allowed you to be hungry, and fed you with manna, which you didn’t know, neither did your fathers know; that he might teach you that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of Yahweh’s mouth.

The passage says that when God made Israel walk the way of the wilderness for forty years, he was testing Israel. He humbled them and tested them to see whether they would keep his commandments even in hard suffering, and so he told them not to forget those forty years of suffering. And the manna Israel ate in their suffering was a blessing and grace from heaven, which people did not know. God granted that grace, bread from heaven, to teach Israel that they were a people who do not live by bread only, the food of the world, but by the word that proceeds out of Yahweh’s mouth.

The biggest reason for Naomi’s suffering up to now is, of course, her own wrong choice: she sinned by leaving Bethlehem. Even so, God was waiting for Naomi to choose the kingdom of God by faith. When Naomi and Ruth held on to God’s word in spite of their hard circumstances, God again protected them with the fence of the Holy Spirit and granted them the blessing of heaven so that they could live in safety. He brought them to meet Boaz, whom no human planning could ever have brought them to, enabled them to recover their inheritance, and caused their line to go on. Blessings like these do not come about because people make plans and intend them. For God’s blessing is the grace received by those who do their best to live by the Word and who long for his kingdom with all their hearts.

Israel suffered in the wilderness without even their daily bread. If they had realized then what a precious gift the manna from heaven was and had thanked God deeply, God would have seen that faith, brought their trial by fire in the wilderness to an end, and led them into Canaan sooner. But Israel complained constantly, was proud, and was not thankful. God’s people, though, can enjoy peace and rest only when they have a faith that gives thanks in everything.

To our eyes it looks as if Naomi chose Bethlehem only because she had no other way to live. But God saw the small faith of Naomi and Ruth and worked to save their souls.

As more years went by, looking back over her life, Naomi would have confessed that everything had been God’s guidance, his grace and his love. It might seem that she had chosen Moab and then chosen Bethlehem again, but she would have come to confess that she had returned to the place of blessing in the end because God had not abandoned her.

Believers are people who have met Christ, the near kinsman, and received the blessing of heaven. God has always, without change, given believers the gift of Christ without holding back. Now believers who have received this gift from heaven will either enjoy that blessing or have it taken from them, according to their faith, but all of this is the believers’ own choice. Naomi made a foolish choice at first, but through hard circumstances she heard God’s voice and returned home. Naomi had lost to the world every blessing God had entrusted to her and had come home empty, yet God saw her faith, which looked to him, and through Ruth he filled up everything that had been taken from her.

God’s blessing was like an amazing miracle beyond anything people could imagine. Naomi had lost her husband, but God became her husband; she had lost her sons, but God gave her a son in Boaz; she had lost her husband and her sons and her line had been cut off, but through Boaz and Ruth God caused her descendants to go on. And beyond the spiritual blessing, because Boaz became the near kinsman and recovered all their property, Naomi came to spend her old age in peace, and Ruth became Boaz’s wife, lived a comfortable life and served Naomi.

The blessing God gives may be different from the blessing people have in mind. For Naomi wanted to live happily with her husband, her sons and her daughters-in-law, but God cut off all the branches that loved the world and gave her fruit through a branch that grew from the root called ‘Christ.’

What blessing do you want? Don’t you want your husband, your wife, your son, your daughter and many possessions to make you happy? Of course, families must love one another in faith. But if God has a plan greater than the plans you have made, he may lead you in a completely different direction from what you had in mind. It may be suffering, or it may be success. You must not leave home as Naomi did and live an empty life. That is why I hope you will learn the Word well, grow in the ability to judge God’s will rightly, and make good decisions as you live.

Treasure this place where you are hearing God’s word now, and treasure this time of living in dependence on God. I hope you will have the wisdom to entrust to God the many problems you could never solve on your own, and I hope you will have the fullness of living by the Word.

One small decision made in faith may change your life, and a small faith that strives to endure may bring you the amazing blessing of heaven. Only when a faith matured by God’s word stands firm at the center of your life at all times can you receive and enjoy all the blessings God gives without missing any. And that is how you can bring down the schemes of Satan, who is always watching for a chance to make you fall.

May you strive and endure as God’s children, to live by his word. However rich the world’s field may look, do not go to the world’s field. May you keep your faith in Christ’s field alone.