The Middle of the Story

Good morning, Good News Church. It's good to see you.

We are continuing our series. Actually, we're finishing up our series,

Ruth's Journey to Bethlehem.

Today, it's our Christmas series this year. And last week, we did the first part of it.

Actually, we did the first part and the last part of it. And then we're today

going back to the middle of the story.

But last week, I presented the story of Ruth in the Bible. I presented it to

you as a prequel to the Christmas story. You remember that?

Okay, great. For those of you that weren't here, just real quick review.

The part that we covered last week was there was a man named Elimelech and a

woman named Naomi, and they were living in Bethlehem.

This is before Bethlehem was

famous for, you know, Jesus and Christmas and all that way before that.

Naomi and Elimelech lived in Bethlehem. There was a famine in the land.

And so they left and they moved to a nation called Moab, which was probably

like they frowned upon at the time, maybe worse than that.

So they went into enemy territory with their two sons, Malon and Kilion.

Malon and Kilion each married women there in Moab and then through a series

of unfortunate events, every male member of the family died.

All the men in the family died. And so there's just three widows left over.

It was terrible. And so one of them, his name was Orpah. And she,

as best as we can tell, went back to her life and started over again in Moab.

But Naomi, who was a Jewish woman from Bethlehem, she had heard that there was

food in Bethlehem. And so she was going to return to her hometown.

And the reason why food was a big deal, we talked about this last week,

is the people in the time period of the book of Ruth, we're in a much more of

a survival situation than you and I are in.

And so when you have two widows in Moab, there's no men in the family.

And there's comes a point where they're honestly worried, like,

are we going to starve to death?

How are we going to make it? And so when she hears there's food in Ruth,

when she hears there's food in Bethlehem, Naomi says, we got to go there.

It's not like when you move, oh, I'm going to move back to my hometown.

I'm going to move back to this town that I was in, you know,

because I like the weather there better or because I like the activities there.

Like this is, let's move back there. Let me, I'm going to move there so I don't die.

And so that's what she does. And Ruth goes with her. Now, Ruth has never been

there. Ruth has never been to Bethlehem as far as we know. She's not from there.

And so she says to her mother-in-law, like, we're in a difficult situation,

but I'm going to stick with you no matter what. I'm going to help you for the rest of your life.

I'm going to go to your land and make it my land. And I'm going to go to your

people. I'm going to make them my people and your God will be my God.

And so Ruth converts to the God of Israel, the God of the Bible.

And she goes to a country that she probably had never been in and starts her

life over again for the sake of her mother-in-law, Naomi.

Then we kind of went from there and just sort of skipped to the end of the story,

Ruth gets married and she has a kid who has a kid who has a kid.

And that kid is King David.

And we find that out at the very end of the story, which makes Ruth not only

the great grandma to King David, but that makes Ruth Jesus's great,

great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandma,

right? She's a great grandma to the Messiah.

And that's why when you get to the Christmas story, the reason the Christmas

story is set in Bethlehem, it's because, well, actually in the Christmas story,

a lot of times they call Bethlehem what? The city of?

Yeah, city of David. Why is it the city of David? Well, because David's from

there. Why was David from there? Well, because Ruth was from there.

She went there before Bethlehem was famous.

And she was the one who was the great grandmother of David. And that's why it's

the city of David. And that's why Jesus goes there. And so then,

of course, Bethlehem becomes super famous because of Jesus.

But Ruth was there before David was. And David was there before Jesus was.

And so that's that part of the story. And that's the reason why it's called

that. So that's what we got to. We got to connecting Ruth to the Christmas story that way last week.

But if you think about the version of the story I told last week,

it doesn't really tell you like, how did everything turn out the way it did?

Like, if you remember last week's version of the story, it was all these terrible

things happened in Moab.

So Ruth converts to Naomi's God and Ruth decides to go to be among God's people

and Ruth moves to the land.

And then basically it just was, and they all lived happily ever after.

Did you notice that last week?

That was great, but that's not how it really went.

I just skipped to the end of the story to tell you what happened.

There's a bunch of stuff in the middle.

That's the way that that came about. And so that's what we're going to cover

today, the middle of the story.

How in the world is it that Ruth and Naomi lived happily ever after?

How did that come to pass? So we're going to cover the middle of the book of Ruth today.

So if you have your Bible with you, go to Ruth chapter one, and I'm going to read you verse 22.

Ruth one, verse 22 says, actually, I read this verse to you last week.

And then this verse that I read to you, I'm going to read it.

In fact, let me just read it right now. Here it is. This is how Ruth one ends.

So Naomi came back from the land of Moab with her daughter-in-law, Ruth, the Moabitess.

They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. Okay.

This was the point that I it just then jumped to the end of the story.

Okay. But today we're going to go back.

We're going to pick up where we left off. And instead of jumping to the end

of the story, now I'm just going to read the very next Bible verse,

Ruth chapter two, verse one.

Now, Naomi had a relative on her husband's side named Boaz.

He was a prominent man of noble character from Elimelech's family. Okay.

Ooh, who's Elimelech? Anybody remember? That's the husband of who?

Naomi, right? I mean, he's dead now, but he was the husband of Naomi.

So Boaz is related to Elimelech, which means Boaz is related by marriage to

Naomi and to Ruth, right?

So Elimelech is the father-in-law of Ruth and he is the husband of Naomi and

Boaz is related to him. So Boaz is related to them by marriage.

That is a very significant detail in the story that Boaz is related to them.

Okay, verse two. Ruth, the Moabitess, asked Naomi, will you let me go into the

fields and gather fallen grain behind someone who allows me to?

Naomi answered her, go ahead, my daughter. So Ruth left and entered the field

to gather grain behind the harvesters.

She happened to be in the portion of land belonging to Boaz,

who was from a Limelech's family. Now we find out why Boaz was introduced to us in the first verse.

That's the property that Ruth goes to when she starts scavenging for food,

okay? And again, Boaz is talked about as someone who's from a Limelech's family.

That's important. The author says it multiple times.

So what is she doing? What does it mean? Will you let me go into the fields

and gather fallen grain behind someone who will allow me to?

So for me to explain what Ruth is doing here, I think I do need to explain a

little bit about Israelite culture at the time and the laws that they had.

What Ruth is taking advantage of here is something involved in Israel's laws

that I guess the closest modern day equivalent that I can think of would be welfare.

That there were laws in the Israelite system that were set up so that poor people

would be provided for if they were in a bad situation.

The laws typically were given to wealthy landowners, wealthy farmers who had

plenty of crops, and they were basically told not to harvest all that they could

possibly harvest from their land.

There were multiple rules like this. One of the laws that they were given was

to not harvest the corners of your fields or the edges of your fields.

So they're going, they're harvesting all their stuff. And then there's a little

section in the corner and they just leave it alone.

And God told them why. The reason they were supposed to leave it alone was so

the poor people could come and they would be able to have some food.

There was another law that was given. I believe it was like,

let's say you have an olive tree and you beat the olive tree to get all the olives to fall down.

And you pick up all the olives and you put them in the bucket or wherever it is they go.

Okay. If you go look back and you go after I beat the olive tree and got a lot

of olives off of it, there's like a few more that are like still deep in there.

And they were told don't go pick those leave them why were they told to leave them behind.

So poor people could have olives, right? The last few that are there, just leave them there.

And then another rule that was made, and this is the one that's very relevant

to the story that we're in right now.

If they were harvesting wheat or they were harvesting barley or whatever,

and if they dropped any along the way,

like if you're gathering up a bunch of wheat or something like that,

and then you're putting it on the cart, and then you're taking it from the cart

to the barn or however it is, if you drop some on the path, they were told not to pick it up. Why?

For a poor person to come along, right? You drop some, it's like,

no, don't even, you're just, you got plenty of stuff, just put it on the cart.

And if you drop some, don't bend down and pick it up, just leave it there so

that someone else can come along.

Someone who's going, I don't know how I'm going to make it tonight.

I don't know how we're going to eat dinner. I don't know what I'm going to do

that they could come along and collect whatever it is that you drop.

That's what Ruth is referring to here. Oops, my verse went away. Could you go back to it?

That's what she's referring to here where she says, well, you let me go into

the fields and gather fallen grain behind someone who allows me to.

That's what she's saying. She's saying, I don't know how we're going to make it financially.

And I'm guessing at some point Naomi must have explained this to her because

I'm pretty sure. I can't imagine they had laws like this in Moab, right?

So she shows up and she finds out like, no way, there's laws where they just

have to leave the food there.

And she's like, well, can I go? Like, can I go and pick up the stuff they drop?

And Naomi apparently goes, yeah, I'm hungry too. That sounds great. Go do it. So she does.

So she goes to Boaz's land and she's walking behind the harvester.

She's picking up whatever they're dropping.

She's trying to do whatever she can And in order to get enough food for her

and her mother-in-law to survive, then apparently it causes a lot of chatter, okay?

Because Bethlehem's a small town and you have this Moabitess who just showed

up and maybe none of them had ever even seen a Moabitess before.

And there she is and she's collecting food off the ground and people are talking

to her and they're asking her questions and then they're telling people this is what she said.

And somehow it gets all the way to Boaz, the owner of the land,

and he finds out Ruth is picking up all this food off the ground to take care

of her mother-in-law, Naomi.

His relative, right? So he realizes like, oh, this person that's like scrounging

around for food is taking care of my relative, Naomi.

And he is very impressed with Ruth. What a kind thing.

This lady from Moab, you would travel all the way here to a bunch of people you don't know.

And you're scrounging around getting food off the ground to take care of my

relative, right? The widow of Elimelech, my relative.

So Boaz is very impressed. He likes that about her and he is very nice to her.

So the next, like, I don't know, 15 verses, I'll just summarize.

Boaz goes above and beyond what the law requires in being nice to Ruth and making

sure she has enough food.

There's water and safety.

Like there's a lot of things that come up in that chapter. I'll just bring one,

just give you one as an example.

One of the things that Boaz says to his men, I guess that he's hired that are the harvesters.

He says, okay, so you know the rule, the rule is if you drop it,

let the poor people come get it.

But he said, but I just want you, when you're, when you're gathering stuff,

I want you to look around. And if Ruth is around, I want you to drop extra, right?

He said, when you're, because if you're just, if everything's normal,

that's fine. Just if you drop some stuff, no big deal.

But if you're, if you're getting a bunch of barley and you're putting into the cart, right?

And then you look over and you see Ruth, I want you to be extra clumsy as you

put that barley in the cart.

I want her to be able to easily provide for her and Naomi.

So that's what happens. So let's skip to verse 19. So she, Ruth works all day.

She gets home that night. Verse 19.

Then her mother-in-law said to her, where did you gather barley today? And where did you work?

May the Lord bless the man who noticed you. And I'm thinking that phrase,

may the Lord bless the man who noticed you, it probably reflects you brought

home a lot more than I think that you would have been able to get all by yourself.

So whoever it is that helped you, that's awesome, right?

So Ruth told her mother-in-law about the men she worked with and said,

the name of the man I worked with today is Boaz.

Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, may he be blessed by the Lord who has

not forsaken his kindness to the living or the dead.

Naomi continued, the man is a close relative. He is one of our family redeemers.

Now that little last sentence, I think, at least for the purposes of this sermon,

is the most important sentence in the whole book. Okay?

He is one of our family redeemers. You do need to understand what is a family

redeemer during the time period of the book of Ruth.

So let me explain this to you. There's stuff in Leviticus and Deuteronomy,

different things that sort of explain, I think even some in Numbers,

that explain what a family redeemer was.

So in Israel, family redeemer, and this one I need to explain,

I guess, from the beginning, because I can't think of any modern day equivalent

of this. We just don't have anything like this.

But a family redeemer, the Hebrew name for it was Goel.

And you were a Goel if you were in a situation where you were a close relative

to a group of other family members and they got into like a terrible,

tragic situation and it was awful for the family and it brought shame or debt or whatever problems,

enslavement, whatever it is for the family.

If you were a close enough relative and if you were a rich enough relative,

you were supposed to swoop in and you were supposed to rescue your family members

from whatever problem they found themselves in.

One of the things that a Goel would do is if someone in the family were murdered,

it was the Goel's job to go and seek justice for the person that was murdered.

Another thing that a Goel would do is they would buy land to get it back into the family's name.

If you were in a family situation where you got the family farm and things are

getting bad and you're falling into debt and finances and just things are awful.

And so you decide in order to survive, you're going to sell like one of the

fields of the family property.

If there was another relative who had enough money and they saw that it happened

and they went, oh, that stinks.

The inheritance that was going to go to the next set of family members and the

next set of family members and the next set of families, it just kind of got

ruined because they sold the family land.

And so if they could afford to, a close family member, the goel,

would buy the land and get it back into the family to restore the family legacy

and restore the family farm and the family business and the line of the family going on.

Another thing that a goel could do is not only would they buy,

and when I say buy, it's the word redeem.

The reason why it's family redeemer, the word redeem means to buy back, right?

So if you're buying land back, that's redeeming the land. They also would buy people back.

Okay. If you remember at the time period of the book of Ruth,

or if you didn't know, like they also bought and sold people back then.

And so one of the things that you were to do is to get people back into your family.

If they had found themselves into a bad situation, this is described in the

book of Leviticus, that if you've got this family and let's say there's someone

that's in such a bad financial situation that they sell themselves into slavery.

Okay. And then some other family member hears about it, right?

Oh, that's terrible. Has he had the family reunions anymore?

No, he never shows up. Why? Because someone else owns him, right?

Like there's a master out there who owns him because he had all this debt.

If you were able to, and you were a close enough relative, you should do the job of a goel.

What is that? You would go find that person, find wherever it is that they are

enslaved, and you would pay the money and you would buy them.

Now, here's the thing. You buy them not so that they'll be your slave.

You buy them so that they will be free of slavery and brought back into the

family and restored. So a redeemer pays the price to restore whatever went wrong within the family.

Well, apparently another thing that the Goel did, and I don't know that I would

have known this except the book of Ruth connects these two concepts,

it's leverite marriage or leveret marriage was apparently also part of the redeemer's

job, the Goel's job, the family redeemer.

Now, if you don't know what leveret marriage is, I'm going to tell you about

it, and it is a treat, okay?

The way that, I'm guessing the big laughs, you know what it is?

Yeah, get ready. This is going to be awkward.

So the way that it happened is, let's say you're a man and a woman in ancient Israel.

And before you ever have a son, the husband dies. Okay, so imagine that happens.

Husband dies before he has a son.

That was considered a tragedy at the time. Because now, what is going to happen

to the future of the family?

It's like the whole family just died. Like the inheritance, who's it going to go to?

Who's going to keep the family business going? Who's going to keep the family

farm going? Who's going to get married and have more kids and keep the whole

thing going? Like, this is terrible.

If a son died, a daughter's different because they join other families,

but a son, like that stays in the family line.

So it's like, oh, this is not good. If there's no son and the father dies,

then it's like the whole family just ends right there.

So this is what they would do. Apparently a kinsman redeemer would be a relative that's close enough.

The way it's described in Deuteronomy, I believe is like a brother. the

brother of the dead guy would marry

his sister-in-law and have a child with her

and that child would then be the

legal i know i told you this would be awkward they um they

they the child would be legally the son

of the dead guy and all of the inheritance that would

have gone from the dead guy had he not died to his son like that now it's going

to go to that person who is now the new representative of the family he's the

now legally the son of the guy who's not alive anymore so So a brother would

marry their sister-in-law and do the duty of a brother-in-law in providing a

legal heir so that the family goes on.

Now, as I describe that, I realize there may be some of you that go,

oh, that is not what we do nowadays.

That is correct. I am very aware we don't do that. In fact, some of you might

even be going, I don't even think I like that system. That sounds awful.

Some of you might even be thinking about your brother-in-law and going,

oh, like, if my husband died, I would not want to be saddled with him. That sounds awful.

Okay. And that's fine. You feel that way all you want, but you need to understand

back then it was a very different culture than the one we're in now.

Very different. They had different opinions and values than you do.

In fact, it's the reason I brought up what I brought up last week.

Remember last week when I said in a zombie apocalypse, you would have different

preferences as to who you hang out with.

Okay. I wasn't bringing it up. I mean, I wasn't bringing that up because I believe

in, you know, zombie apocalypses.

And I realized that was sort of a silly example, right? Those don't happen, that hasn't, you know.

But the reason I brought up that is because I wanted you to imagine a situation

where you're going like, whoa, I would choose different friends and value different

things if I'm trying to like stay alive.

And you need to realize the situation they were in, they were in much more of

a survival culture than we are.

And things like your brother-in-law providing an heir for you,

that was much more reasonable to them than it seems to you.

So when Naomi says, the man is a close relative, he is one of our family redeemers.

She probably said it like this.

The man is a close relative. He's one of the family redeemers, right?

Because that's what she's thinking. She's thinking, Ruth, you, I did Boaz.

Boaz owns a field full of food and he's related to a limelight.

You've got to go marry him. Okay, let's get some perfume.

Let's get some good clothes. Boaz, we need you to marry him.

And so I'm going to summarize chapter three. I'm not going to read chapter three.

It's actually kind of risque, but I'm just going to tell you what happens.

In chapter three, Naomi basically says, go offer yourself to him.

And Ruth says, okay, I will. And she does.

And she essentially asks Boaz to marry her. Okay. She uses a different Hebrew

idiom kind of things, but basically she asks him to marry her.

And Boaz responds by saying, sure, but let me check with the guy who has first dips.

Now, if you don't know about that part, let me explain.

The relatives, like the closest relatives were in line first,

okay? It was their responsibility to do it first.

So basically, Ruth says, will you marry me? And by will you marry me,

she means not like, oh, I'm so attracted to you that I need you right now,

but more, will you take care of me and my mother-in-law and restore the situation?

Will you use your money and your wealth and your influence to make it as best

you can like Malon never died.

And when he says, yes, he says, yes, you're a noble, wonderful woman.

But he says, we got to check with the other guy first.

And this is why, because if there was a closer relative, they were the first

person that was responsible to be the goel.

And then only if that person said no, would it go to the next person.

So he says, we got to check.

Now, I tell you this because you need to see that the story of Ruth and Boaz

is not exactly romantic. Do you see that?

Have any of you ever had people where they kind of presented the story of Ruth

and Boaz like it's a romantic story?

Yeah, sorry. You might have been lied to because I don't think there's very

much romance in this story at all. Yes, there is love in this story.

The people do loving and kind things for one another.

Ruth loves Naomi and is willing to move to a whole land and even marry some

guy that she just met in order to take care of Naomi and restore her family situation.

And Ruth, I think, has some sort of like loving kindness or appreciation toward

Boaz because of the way he's treated her. And Boaz has a loving kindness that he shows to Ruth, right?

And an admiration for her for how she's treated Naomi.

And he has a love for them in the sense that he says, yeah, if the other guy

says, no, I will marry you and take care of you for the rest of your life.

So I guess what I'm trying to point out is, I think it's fair that you could

say this is a love story, right?

Because love is involved, but it's not exactly a romantic story.

Very practical, okay? Will you take care of our financial situation?

Yes, but let's check with the guy that's in line in front of me.

So they do. So let's look at Ruth chapter four and read it.

Ruth chapter four, starting in verse one. Boaz went to the gate of the town and sat down there.

Soon the family redeemer Boaz had spoken about came by.

So the guy's never named, but I mean, he had a name. Okay, so whoever this guy is, he shows up.

Boaz called him by name and said, come over here and sit down.

So he went over and sat down.

Then Boaz took 10 men of the town's elders and said, sit here,

and they sat down. I think the purpose of this is to have witnesses to what's about to happen.

And they sat down. He said to the redeemer, right? This is the guy who's closer

as far as to be the Goel in this situation.

He said to the redeemer, Naomi, who has returned from the land of Moab,

is selling a piece of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech.

I thought I should inform you.

Now, this land would be what was supposed to be, what was inherited by Malon

and Kilion, and what should have been inherited by Malon and Kilion's sons if

they ever had sons, but they didn't because they died.

I thought I should inform you, buy it back in the presence of those seated.

Remember, buy it back is what the word redeem means, right? To restore the situation,

to redeem it. Buy it back.

Okay, so buy it back in the presence of those seated here and in the presence

of the elders of my people. If you want to redeem it, do so.

But if you do not want to redeem it, tell me so that I will know because there

isn't anyone other than you to redeem it and I am next after you.

I want to redeem it, he answered.

Then Boaz said, on the day you buy land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth,

the Moabitess, the wife of the deceased man, to perpetuate the man's name on

his property. Doesn't that verse make a lot more sense now?

Okay. The Redeemer replied, I can't redeem it myself, for I will ruin my own inheritance.

Take my right of redemption, because I can't redeem it. So what's happening here?

He gets the guy down, and he says, okay, do you want to be the Goel for the

family? There's a piece of land that there's no one to inherit,

because all the men died.

Okay. Do you want to buy the land and get it back into the family as it should

be, right? And the guy goes, yes, I will.

And then Boaz, I don't know why, but he hid this back. He said,

oh, it comes with a woman, okay?

Now, I don't know. So when he just said, hey, do you want to redeem the land?

The guy said, yes, I'd like to redeem the land. Now, at this point,

I don't know if Ruth is there or not, okay? So I don't know if she's watching

this. I don't know what she's thinking, right?

When the someone guy goes, yeah, I want to redeem it. Is she going like,

oh no, like if he's in line first and you know what I mean? Like now I got a

married guy, I don't even know him.

Or maybe she's going, oh, he's better looking than Boaz. I mean,

if I'm going to marry a stranger, maybe this is going to work out.

Honestly, I don't know. She might not even been there for the conversation.

But what happens is the guy, when he thinks it's just land, he goes,

sure, I'll be the redeemer.

And then when he finds out, no, you're actually going to perpetuate the deceased

man's name and his property by acquiring Ruth the Moabitess,

the guy goes, oh, no, I'm sorry. I wanted the land, but if it comes with a woman, no.

And the reason he gives is it's going to ruin my own inheritance.

I don't know exactly what that means.

I don't know if he's someone who is already married. And so he's saying like,

I don't want to take on a second wife and then have all this inheritance that

goes to this kid that's not even legally my kid.

Or if he's someone that's not married yet and he's going, I don't want my first

wife to be this person and then their kid and then all of the inheritance goes

to this person that's not legally even my kid, right?

I don't know exactly what he means, but something about his life plans,

he goes, yeah, no, this isn't going to work for me.

And so then Boaz says, okay, well then you say no in front of everybody.

And so now I say yes in front of everybody. So this is what happens next. Verse 9.

I'm skipping to verse nine. Boaz said to the elders and all the people,

you are witnesses today that I am buying from Naomi everything that belonged

to Elimelech, Kilion, and Malon, right? So now Naomi's going to be able to live.

I will also acquire Ruth, the Moabitess, Malon's widow, as my wife to perpetuate

the deceased man's name on his property so that his name will not disappear

among his relatives or from the gate of his home.

You are witnesses today. I'm going to marry her and we're going to produce a

child, Lord willing, that is going to keep this legacy, this line of family going.

This family is not going to just stop and die in this generation.

I'm going to marry Ruth and I'm going to try to do what Malon would have done

if he had lived. So that's what we're doing.

So his name will not disappear from his relatives or the gate of his home.

You are witnesses today.

And that is how you get to the end of the book of Ruth.

That's how you get to the part that I skipped to last week when I said Boaz

and Ruth got married and they had a kid named Obed and Obed had a kid named Jesse.

And then Jesse was the father of King David, right?

That, what I just read to you is, is how Naomi and Ruth were rescued from poverty.

That story that I just read to you is the way that, that Naomi and Ruth were

redeemed from the family tragedy that had struck.

And that's how Ruth ends up being the great grandmother of King David and therefore

the great, great, great, great,

great, great, great, great grandmother of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

So last week I pointed out the biological connection between Ruth and Jesus.

This week, I want to point out the thematic connection between Boaz and Jesus.

What do Boaz and Jesus have in common? They're both the family redeemers.

Jesus and Boaz are both people who pay a price to fix a huge problem among the family.

Except that Jesus, Jesus is like Boaz, except Jesus is kind of like Boaz times a billion.

Okay? Because he's a much greater redeemer. Boaz redeems this one particular

family tragedy and fixes the situation.

Jesus is the redeemer for like the human family, right? A much bigger redemption.

So let's look at it in the New Testament. Is it true? I mean,

Boaz is clearly a family redeemer. The story says it.

Is it true that Jesus is a family redeemer? Let me show it to you in Galatians chapter 4.

Galatians 4 · chapter mention

Galatians 4, I'm going to read to you verses 4 and 5. And this is definitely

a Christmas verse, just so you know.

I have read this verse at Christmastime multiple times here in the past.

If anybody tries to leave here today and go, well, that wasn't really a Christmas

sermon. It was about Ruth. I'm just going to let you know right now,

this is a Christmas Bible verse.

Okay? So here it is. When the time came to completion, God sent his son born

of a woman. Let me stop right there. That's Christmas, right?

That's Christmas. What do we celebrate at Christmastime?

That at the right time, God sent his son born of a woman. That's what the nativity

scenes are about. That's what Christmas is about. God sent his son born of a woman.

Not only born of a woman, which means he's a human, right? But he's also born

under the law, which is something that is true of all humans.

We are accountable to God's law, right? And we sin and we do things wrong,

but we're supposed to do right and we're not supposed to do wrong.

And Jesus was born under that system as a human being of a woman. Now, why?

If God sent his son born of a woman is the Christmas story, then why did Christmas

happen? According to the verse, right?

God sent his son born of a woman to what? Redeem.

To redeem those under the law, which we've already discussed.

The word redeem means to buy back.

So God sent his son born of a woman, born under the law to purchase people,

to redeem those under the law so that, so this is important.

So we know this is a Christmas verse. We understand that this is about Jesus

paying a price to purchase some people or to restore a bad thing,

right? To redeem those under the law.

What's the whole, why? Why did Jesus come to buy people?

So that we might receive adoption. That means brought into a family.

Adoption as sons.

Do you notice like the family terminology that's being used here?

Christmas happened so that Jesus would purchase people. Why?

So that they'd be brought into a family.

Jesus paid a price to get us back into the family. He is the family redeemer.

The Christmas happened, so Jesus would give his life. He'd die on the cross,

pay the price for people who are under the law, people who are supposed to have

obeyed God's law, and we haven't, and we've messed up. And in our place, he pays the price.

In fact, we are, to redeem those under the law, there's a sense in which you

could say, spiritually, the condition we are in apart from Christ is quite a

bit like what the Old Testament peoples were like financially.

When they found themselves in a bind, right? When things got really bad for

them, they were doomed. And the way you knew you were doomed is you had nothing else to sell.

So you sold yourself and now you're owned by somebody else, right?

They were sold into slavery. They sold themselves into slavery.

God sent his son of a woman, born of a woman, born under the law,

to redeem those under the law.

Like spiritually, we are like them. We have accrued a debt that we could never pay on our own.

We've gotten ourself into a sinful situation so bad, we could never get out

of it on our own. We are essentially enslaved to sin and hell and death.

And so Jesus came to pay the price so that we might, and this is interesting,

what's the result of purchasing us out of that situation?

And sometimes we say it this way, right? He came and he died on the cross so

that, so that, and sometimes we say so that you go to heaven when you die, which is true.

Or sometimes we say so that you won't go to hell because that's the judgment

you deserve, which is also true.

But that's not what this verse says. This verse says so that we might receive adoption as sons.

He died on the cross so that we would be brought back into the family and reunited

with our Father, our Creator forever. That's the gospel.

That's the gospel that we are sinners, we are lawbreakers, we are the enslaved

people that he has paid the price to purchase to get us back into the family

and reunited to our Father. That is such good news.

So let me end with this. Let me end with three observations about family redeemers.

I did not make this up. I found this somewhere.

I don't know who said it first, but I wrote it down at some point.

And so here I have it. I'm going to say it to you.

Someone at some point pointed out to me that in order to be a family redeemer,

you needed to have three things. You needed to be a relative.

You needed to be able to pay. And you had to be willing to pay.

That's what made you a successful goel. You had to be a relative.

You had to be able to pay. And you had to be willing to pay.

Now, I want you to think about those three things in the way that it relates to Boaz and Jesus.

First with Boaz. Boaz had to be a relative. And he was, right?

He was a limolex relative.

Boaz had to be able to pay. And could he pay?

Yeah, he was rich. He owned the land that Ruth just wandered into.

He had enough money to purchase the other piece of land and to take care of

Naomi and Ruth for the rest of their lives.

He was able to pay. And was he willing to pay?

He was willing to pay, right? There was a different redeemer who actually wasn't willing to pay.

There was a redeemer who, it sounds like, from the way the story's written,

had the money to buy the land and probably take care of her,

but went, no, no, no, that's some complications there.

And Boaz was the one who was willing to pay.

All right, now let's think about Jesus. Jesus.

Our redeemer, our family redeemer. So what did Jesus have to be to be the redeemer?

He had to be a relative. He had to be willing to pay. And he had to be able

to pay and he had to be willing to pay. So let's start with the first one.

He had to be a relative. What does that mean?

What? Yeah, he had to be a human. He had to be a human, right?

So what I'm preaching about right now is Christmas. Okay?

Not Good Friday, not resurrection. I'm talking about the incarnation.

I'm talking about Jesus born of Mary. When Jesus was born of Mary, he was a human.

We're talking about divine Jesus who came here as one of us, a human.

In order to redeem the human family, he had to be one of us.

He had to be a human in order to be the Goel. He had to save us from within the family.

He had to be one of us. He had to give a human life in order to save humanity.

And he was. He was a human. Like he was born from Mary, who was the daughter

of somebody, who was the son of somebody, who was the son of somebody,

who was the son of somebody, who was the son of somebody, who was the son of

somebody, who was the son of Adam, right?

Jesus was a human being. In fact, the book of Hebrews, if you look at chapter

two in the book of Hebrews, it talks about Jesus becoming one of us.

It says that he took on flesh and blood.

So it's clearly talking about his humanity. And then in that same context,

the verse just before it calls him our brother.

He took on flesh and blood because he was our brother who shares

the same father with us who saves us and so

Jesus had to be a relative yep he was he was

a human being born of Mary number two he

had to be able to pay was he able to pay yes what did he have to have to be

able to pay in the case of Boaz he had to have enough money Jesus paid the price

but Jesus didn't pay the price with money right Jesus paid the price with his

life and the life that he had to have in order to pay the price for us had to

be a sinless life, right?

He could, because everybody's got a life. Anybody could say,

well, I got a life to give, right?

But a sinful person can't die on behalf of sinful people so that they would

avoid like, well, I want to make sure you don't get judgment for your sins.

So I'll die for you. Yeah, but you deserve judgment for your sins,

right? You can't die in someone's place when you deserve what they deserve.

Jesus, in order to have, in order to be able to pay, had to have all righteousness, right?

He had to be a sinless person and a sinless person and dying on behalf of sinful

humanity in their place.

That's able to pay. And Jesus was able to pay. And then the third thing was

he had to be willing to pay.

Thank God he was willing to pay. He chose the cross. Do you realize that? Like voluntarily?

Sometimes we say things like they murdered Jesus and that's not incorrect.

They did murder Jesus, right? Like it was an unlawful killing.

It was a, you know, like an immoral killing.

But just because that's true doesn't mean that he wasn't in on it.

It doesn't mean that he wasn't like signing up for it or volunteering.

He chose to let them kill him. He chose the cross.

It's not that the Romans or even God was like, I'm going to make you do this,

Jesus, whether you like it or not.

Jesus chose voluntarily to die on the cross for our sins.

You can tell this probably in multiple places in the Bible, but one of the places

it's most clear, I think, is the night that they went to arrest Jesus.

Do you remember that story? Big mob of people came to arrest Jesus and the disciples

apparently were not in on the plan the way Jesus was in on the plan because

Peter, the most famous disciple, pulls out a sword and starts attacking the

people that are trying to arrest Jesus.

Do you remember that? He cut off one of their, he cut off an ear.

And I think he intended to do more damage, except Jesus said something.

And this is very interesting.

When Jesus spoke to Peter that night, do you remember what he said?

For those of you that read the story, he did not say, yeah, that's right, Pete.

Let's take them out. This isn't right.

He said, Peter, put away your sword. And then he said, and I think this is only in Matthew's version.

He said, I could call down legions of angels to stop this if I wanted to.

And the implication is I'm not stopping it. I'm choosing this.

And so Jesus Christ is our family redeemer. And that's what we celebrate at Christmas.

Merry Christmas. Let's pray.

I was thinking about this in the first service, Lord. There's so many pictures

in the Old Testament that come to life and become bigger and better and more

amazing in the New Testament.

And so I thank you for the Goels, the family redeemers. I thank you for Boaz

and for all the other Goels who we don't know their names, who stepped up and

paid a price in order to fix a family tragedy.

But we thank you that those pictures show us what you have done for us, Jesus.

That you would come and be a part of the human family, living under the law

and dying on the cross for those of us who have broken the law to bring us into

your family so that we would be adopted as sons.

That's beautiful. And we thank you for it. And we worship you for it.

And I pray as Christmas happens, that we got a couple of days to Christmas Eve and then Christmas day.

And I just pray that we would at this time, this year, this holiday,

this time of year, that we would worship you for that.

And we thank you. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Let me end with these good words from God's word. When the time came to completion,

God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under

the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. That is good news. Merry Christmas.

Just a jerk.