The Threshing Floor and the Kinsman-Redeemer

Observe what is happening. Naomi wants to find rest, meaning a secure home, for Ruth. She knows Boaz is a relative and knows he is winnowing barley that night. Ruth's approach at the threshing floor is bold but the text is careful to present it as honourable. Boaz calls her request a kindness greater than her earlier kindness, because she has not chased younger men, and he blesses her. The scene ends before dawn with no impropriety and a gift of grain for Naomi.

Interpret the key term. A kinsman-redeemer, in Hebrew a goel, was a close relative with the responsibility to buy back family land that had been sold, to redeem relatives sold into slavery, and in some readings to raise up an heir for a dead brother so that his name did not vanish from Israel. Leviticus 25:25 and Deuteronomy 25:5-10 lie behind the practice. Ruth is asking Boaz to take up this role. He is willing, but he is honest that another man stands nearer in line.

Apply it. The Old Testament redeemer had to be a relative, had to be willing, and had to be able to pay. Christians have long seen in Boaz a shadow of Christ, who became our kinsman in the incarnation, was willing to redeem, and paid what we could not. Ruth's request, spread your garment over me, is the request of every believer.

What does it mean to you that your redeemer had to become your relative? Where are you being asked to act boldly, and where to wait? How does the nearer kinsman's existence make Boaz's integrity more visible?