On Good Friday, we are all called to bear witness of Jesus’ redeeming sacrifice. Bearing witness of redemption begets further redemption. Such is the way of God. Nowhere is that seen more clearly than in the ongoing story of Christ's church, which has borne witness of His redemptive life, death, and resurrection for the past 2000 years. But the story of the church simply reflects the truth that God’s Word is filled with.
As I consider the story of the death of our Savior on the cross today, the death that brought redemption for us all, I am drawn to a beautiful root of that story: The words of the witnesses to Boaz's redemption of Ruth. Their words speak of God's redeeming love for the discarded in the world. But before we get to that redemption and to the witnesses of that seminal event, we need to set the stage to understand just how profound an act of love Boaz's redemption of Ruth truly was.
Near the beginning of the Book of Ruth, Ruth and Naomi are penniless and defenseless. Their situation is dire. Starvation is a very real danger. But in their very selves, they represent the legacy of a man of Bethlehem, Elimelech.
Elimelech and his two sons have died in a foreign land leaving behind three widows. Naomi, his wife, is past childbearing age. Orpah, widow of Chilion, chooses to return to her people. As the widow of Elimelech’s son Mahlon, Ruth the Moabitess is now the only one who can possibly bear a child to continue that line.
As they return to Bethlehem, we don't know what land they own. What we do know is that they have only one hope for long-term provision in Bethlehem in the era of Judges–that a kinsman redeemer would follow God's way of provision for widows and marry Ruth to father sons to carry on that legacy. But, Ruth is a foreigner, a daughter of a hated enemy nation, Moab. No Jewish blood flows in her veins. What good Israelite would marry her, even if she is the widow of a close relative?
At the climax of the Book of Ruth, Boaz, a close relative of Elimelech, seeks to redeem the estate. He wants to provide shelter for Naomi and to become Ruth's husband. He seeks to do all this at Bethlehem's gate before many witnesses.
There is a man who has a stronger claim than Boaz does. If that man wants the estate it is his. As Boaz and that man discuss the situation, it becomes clear that Boaz is the only one whose eyes are on the needs of the widows. The man wants the land. He doesn’t want Ruth. But, Boaz insists, before those witnesses, that he must take Ruth as a wife if he is to take the estate. The other man chooses not to risk his own legacy. He renounces his claim.
At the moment the other man renounces his claim, Boaz publicly takes on the commitment to uphold Elimelech's legacy. He will be husband to Ruth, the last woman of childbearing age in that legacy. He calls upon those who are with him at the gate to bear witness to his commitment.
This might seem like the end of the story. After all, all that is left to do is to say plainly that they all acknowledge the estate now belongs to Boaz and that Ruth is to be his wife. But their declaration is far more than just the end of that story of Elimelech, it is actually the beginning of a new and grander story:
All the people who were in the court, and the elders, said, “We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, both of whom built the house of Israel; and may you achieve wealth in Ephrathah and become famous in Bethlehem. Moreover, may your house be like the house of Perez whom Tamar bore to Judah, through the offspring which the LORD will give you by this young woman.” –Ruth 4:11-12 (NASB)
The response of the witnesses is a powerful testament to who they believe Boaz to be. But it is also far more–it is a model for us as we consider what it means to have eyes for what God is doing and ears for what God is saying.
Notice that the witnesses who affirm Boaz as the redeemer of Ruth and Naomi don't merely speak of what has happened. Theirs is not a passive record of the immediate past. They prophesy what will happen because of his actions. In fact, most of what they say is focused on God's vision for what is to come out of Boaz's choice, not on the mere fact that he made it.
The witnesses speak of Boaz starting a new family line. Their words set that line apart in a way that only the greatest of family lines in Israel were viewed. Boaz is put up there with Jacob and Judah, Ruth is put up there with Rachel, Leah, and Tamar.
We now know this new line is the Davidic line of kings. Today, we who proclaim the name of Jesus worship the final and eternal king of that line. Their physical eyes have merely seen the commitment of a fine upstanding Israelite man to marry a foreigner. They have seen him commit to redeem her as a kinsman of her dead first husband. But, God inspired their spiritual eyes to see something much more. Such is the Father’s way.
When we see God at work, we need to be alert to the fact that He is often speaking in the midst of His actions. We have the opportunity to hear Him speak of what will result from what we see happening. And when we hear it we can participate in making it come to pass through speaking as witnesses. When we are called to do what He is doing and to say what He is saying we are entering into His creative work in the present (the doing) and for the future (the saying).
Those Bethlehemites at the gate helped to speak into existence the reality of today: Good Friday. At the moment they spoke, the line of David was established.
So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife, and he went in to her. And the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. –Ruth 4:13 (NASB 1995)
God chose to come into the world as a Son of that very line. He came as a baby. He lived as a man. And today, Good Friday, we remember that he chose to die as an innocent lamb for the sins of the world.
As a descendant of David, Jesus’ lineage represents the essence of all that is best about the Israel of God. It is that lineage we bear witness of every time we tell someone about Jesus. It is that lineage that we have been grafted into as children of God. And it is that lineage that those witnesses saw being founded at the gate of Bethlehem over 3000 years ago–when Boaz redeemed a widow who was born a Gentile.
To what might you bear witness today? And how might the Lord call you to speak of what is to come?
He who has ears to hear, let him hear. –Matthew 11:15 (NASB 1995)