The Nearer Kinsman is a type of the Law. 509 - 4 - 6

The Kinsman-Redeemer had to be a near kinsman, able and willing to perform, and must assume all the obligations.

Something of a surprise as I was researching the Hebrew term Goel, an equivalency to Kinsman-Redeemer. Often as I have read the Book of Ruth I never made the connection to the Kinsman-Redeemer being the avenger. The Kinsman-Redeemer was the loving Boaz, the Kinsman of Naomi. As the Kinsman-Redeemer Boaz redeemed Naomi who represents Israel and Ruth as the Gentile Bride. In this sweet but prophetic love story Boaz is a type of Christ but not called upon to be an avenger.

“Goel: Kinsman-Redeemer –Law of Redemption Lev 25:47-50 –Law of Levirate Marriage In Hebrew, the participle of the verb _gaal_, "to redeem." It is rendered in the Authorized Version "kinsman," Num. 5:8; Ruth 3:12; 4:1,6,8; "redeemer," Job 19:25; "avenger," Num. 35:12; Deut. 19:6, etc. The Jewish law gave the right of redeeming and repurchasing, as well as of avenging blood, to the next relative, who was accordingly called by this name.”

[http://www.dictionary.com/browse/goel]

The above definition suggested something deeper. We serve a loving God; however, He is a righteous God. Jesus came the first time as the suffering Messiah. Jesus is our Kinsman Redeemer who provided propitiation before a righteous God who cannot abide any degree of sin. God sees those of us who are in Christ through the purity of Jesus rather than in our fallen state. Without the gift of grace from Jesus, our near kinsman, we would be condemned. Jesus was able and willing to perform even to an excruciating death on the cross thereby assuming all the obligations of sins. Jesus cried out to God who wouldn’t even look at him as He was sin for us, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Psalm 22:1.

While in His earthly walk, Jesus quoted Isaiah 61. Luke 4:18-19, “18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Jesus stopped quoting Isaiah 61 at a comma and omitted “and the day of vengeance of our God.” At His second coming Jesus, will come as the blood avenger. Revelation 19:15, “And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” The sword is the Word.

We have the promise found in Job 19:25-26, “25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: 26  And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.”

In the Book of Ruth how is Boaz is a type of Christ? 509 - 4 - 4

Deuteronomy 25:5-10 deals with Levirate Marriage requiring that when a man died without heir, a close relative (Kinsman-Redeemer) should marry the widow. This would usually be a brother to the deceased, however in the absence of a brother, a near kinsman would do. The Levirate Marriage would perpetuate the family name thereby keeping the land in the family. The Kinsman-Redeemer had to be a near kinsman, able and willing to perform, and must assume all the obligations.

Both Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi had been left childless in pagan Moab. Naomi by the deaths of her husband Elimelech and two sons and Ruth by the death of her husband. Ruth 1:22, “So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter in law, with her, which returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest.”

Under the law, land owners could only make one pass over the land when harvesting and were to leave some of the grain as gleanings for those in need. To provide food Ruth gleaned in fields owned by Boaz who came to love her.

The Book of Ruth is prophetic with Boaz being a type of Christ. As much as Boaz may have loved Ruth, he had to wait for her to make the first move just as Jesus will not impose Himself on us. Like Ruth with Boaz, we need to ask Jesus into our lives. In accordance with the law Ruth asked Boaz to marry her by asking him to “spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman.” 

There was a nearer kinsman who was unwilling to be Kinsman-Redeemer, Ruth 4:6, “And the kinsman said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance: redeem thou my right to thyself; for I cannot redeem it.” This nearer kinsman “drew off his shoe” as a testimony. and the nearer kinsman refused to marry Ruth. As the next nearer kinsman, Boaz was free to marry Ruth thereby redeeming the land and the widows. Naomi represents Israel, Ruth is the Gentile Bride and Boaz is the Goel, the Kinsman-Redeemer, the Lord of the Harvest.

As our Kinsman-Redeemer Jesus is our kinsman if we have a personal relationship with him. Jesus was willing to endure torture and an excreting death on the cross for His Church. As wholly man and wholly God Jesus was qualified to be our propitiation, to assume all the obligations of our part, present and future sins.

Ruth is in the genealogy of Christ 50 - 1 - 6

2 Samuel 7:11-13, “Also the LORD telleth thee that he will make thee a house. And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee…  and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” Through this Unconditional Covenant (Davidic) the Messiah would come from the house of David.

King David’s lineage is encrypted in the Hebrew text of Genesis 38—in 49-letter intervals, Ruth, Obed, Jesse, and David. Ruth is in the genealogy of Jesus.

Ruth 1:1, “Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.” Ruth 1:4, “And they took them wives of the women of Moab; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth: and they dwelled there about ten years.”

After the death of her husband, Ruth returned to Bethlehem with Naomi. As a Moabite, Ruth was an outsider. Deuteronomy 23:3, “An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the LORD forever:”

However, there was an exception, “The Hebrew words for “Moabite” and Ammonite” are masculine. Women become a part of whatever tribe or clan they marry into. This is why Ruth became an Israeli when she married Boaz; and this is exactly why a male Moabite, even a God-fearer, could not become an Israeli citizen.”

[Johnson, Ken. Ancient Book of Gad the Seer: Referenced in 1 Chronicles 29:29 and alluded to in 1 Corinthians 12:12 and Galatians 4:26]

The Book of Ruth is a very short book and sometimes dismissed as a rather simple story of Ruth’s devotion to Naomi and the love story between Ruth and Boaz and their Levirate Marriage. However, the book is so much more! The Book is prophetic of Jesus as the Kinsman-Redeemer and the Church as the Gentile Bride. As Boaz redeemed Ruth as his bride and Naomi her land, Jesus has redeemed the Church and He will redeem Israel.

As a Kinsman-Redeemer Boaz had to be a kinsman, able and willing to perform, and must assume all the obligations. As our Kinsman-Redeemer Jesus is our kinsman if we have a personal relationship with him. Jesus was willing to endure torture and an excreting death on the cross for His Church. As wholly man and wholly God Jesus was qualified to be our propitiation, to assume all the obligations.