The Kinsman-Redeemer

Midnight on a threshing floor. The harvest is in, the workers are asleep, and a man wakes with a start. Someone is lying at his feet. Who are you? he whispers. And a quiet voice answers: I am Ruth.

The barley and wheat harvests are over. All season, Ruth has gleaned in the fields of Boaz, and he has been kind to her. But a few weeks of grain will not last for ever. Naomi has been thinking. Her husband's family once owned land near Bethlehem, and Boaz is a close relative, one of the family's redeemers. In Israel, a redeemer was a kinsman with the right to buy back family land and rescue relatives who had fallen on hard times. So Naomi makes a plan. My daughter, she says, shouldn't I find a home for you, where you will be well?

Tonight, says Naomi, Boaz is winnowing barley at the threshing floor. Wash, put on your best clothes, and go down. When he lies down to sleep, go and uncover his feet and lie down there. He will tell you what to do. Ruth answers, I will do all you say. So she goes. Boaz eats and drinks, and lies down contentedly at the end of the grain heap. Ruth comes softly and lies at his feet. At midnight he wakes, startled. Who are you? I am Ruth, your servant, she says. “Spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman.” It is a bold, respectful request, using the language of marriage: take me under your protection, as your wife.

Boaz is moved. May the Lord bless you, my daughter, he says. This kindness is even greater than the first. You did not go after younger men, rich or poor. Do not be afraid. I will do all you ask, for the whole town knows you are a woman of worth. But there is a problem. There is a relative closer than I am. If he will redeem you, good. If not, as the Lord lives, I will. Stay until morning. Before dawn, before anyone can recognise her, Boaz pours six measures of barley into her shawl and sends her home. Naomi listens to it all and smiles. Wait, my daughter. This man will not rest until the matter is settled today.

Boaz goes up to the town gate and sits down. Along comes the closer relative, and Boaz calls him over. Then he gathers ten elders as witnesses. Naomi is selling the land that belonged to Elimelech, he says. If you will redeem it, do so. I will redeem it, says the man. Then Boaz adds: on the day you buy the field, you also take Ruth the Moabitess, the dead man's widow, to keep his name alive on his inheritance. The man hesitates. Then I can't, he says, or I might harm my own inheritance. You redeem it. He pulls off his sandal and hands it to Boaz. And Boaz announces to the elders and all the people: you are witnesses today. I have bought everything that was Elimelech's. And Ruth will be my wife. The people answer: we are witnesses. May the Lord make her like Rachel and Leah, who built the house of Israel.

The sandal is the book's own detail. Ruth chapter four stops the story to explain it: in former times in Israel, to confirm a transfer, a man pulled off his sandal and gave it to the other. That was the way of attesting in Israel. Walking on land was a picture of owning it, so handing over your sandal said, I give up my right to walk here. And the town gate was where such business was done. The elders sat there, the whole town passed through, and anyone could be a witness.

You'll find this story in Ruth chapters three and four. A relative stepped in, paid the price, and brought an outsider into the family. Christians have long seen in Boaz a picture of Jesus, born in that same town, who came to redeem. So here is a question to carry with you. What does it mean to you that someone would willingly pay the cost to bring you home?