Abundant Life Sermons

The story of Christmas is found in the stories of five women in the genealogy of Jesus. The story of Ruth is the story of God’s redemptive love. Ruth was a Moabite, a people born out of incest. The Moabites hated God, and their sin was so great that God forbade any Moabite to ever enter the assembly of Israel for ten generations. Ruth, who is a picture of us, would be redeemed by Boaz—a picture of Jesus! To be legally married, Ruth would have to be married to a “kinsman redeemer”—a close relative of her deceased husband. The law of the “kinsman redeemer” is found in Leviticus 25. It was a provision to redeem family land and a deceased man’s wife. There was a closer kinsman than Boaz who was legally first in line to redeem Ruth. He could not redeem Ruth because he is a picture of the Law. The Law can only reveal our sin. It cannot redeem us from our sin. The Law was not given to redeem us, but rather to teach us of our need to be redeemed! Boaz became Ruth’s “kinsman redeemer,” like Jesus is to