Boaz did!

J. Vernon McGee wrote the book, “The Romance of Redemption,” which was his commentary on the Book of Ruth, a book that’s really about Jesus Christ as the Kinsman Redeemer.

While people often used to sing at weddings, “Wither thou goest I will go, where thou lodgest I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people,” not many realized it was really a song about Ruth’s mother-in-law talking to he daughter-in-law about life after her husband’s passing.

Ruth’s problem was she was a Moabitess. Deuteronomy 23:3 says, 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 for ever.”

As Jordan explains, “Although Ruth believed in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and though she desired to cleave unto Naomi and make Israel her people and become a part of the nation Israel, the law God gave Israel said, ‘You can’t come in. You have to be separated.’ The law condemned Ruth.

“Now Ruth isn’t like Tamar; she isn’t a wicked person bound by the sins of the flesh. She’s not like Rahab the harlot, the Gentile woman living in Jericho. Ruth is a Gentile woman who has cleaved herself (literally the man or woman shall leave their father and mother and cleave unto themselves) and literally married herself to the nation Israel and yet the law says, ‘You’re condemned.’

“There’s an old saying that says, ‘The law of God condemns the best of us. The grace of God saves the worst of us. And in Ruth, there’s the law condemning her. Well, if the law condemns Ruth, the Moabitess, how come she fits into the genealogy of Matthew 1? She gets in there because of a man by the name of Boaz, who became her husband.

“Boaz is Ruth and Naomi’s near kinsman, so Naomi says, ‘You need to go and tell him who you are and present yourself to him and lay claim on him as one in need, knowing he can be your redeemer.’
“So in chapter 3, Naomi says, ‘My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee?
[2] And now is not Boaz of our kindred, with whose maidens thou wast? Behold, he winnoweth barley to night in the threshingfloor.
[3] Wash thyself therefore, and anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon thee, and get thee down to the floor: but make not thyself known unto the man, until he shall have done eating and drinking.
[4] And it shall be, when he lieth down, that thou shalt mark the place where he shall lie, and thou shalt go in, and uncover his feet, and lay thee down; and he will tell thee what thou shalt do.’

“The typology in Ruth begins to point to the Second Coming of Christ. There’s Boaz winnowing barley. Matthew 3 talks about Lord Jesus Christ whose fan is in His hand and He will thoroughly purge His floor. And He’ll take the wheat and gather it into the garner; take the Believers and the chafe he’s going to burn up with unquenchable fire. You have a picture of that scene in Ruth 3.

"Verse 8 says, ‘And it came to pass at midnight, that the man was afraid, and turned himself: and, behold, a woman lay at his feet.’ Midnight represents the tribulation as the dark hour of Jacob’s trouble. With the feet there’s Israel in Revelation 12 identified as the woman that’s fled out into the wilderness, needing the Redeemer.

“And he said, ‘Who art thou?’ Notice she doesn’t try to cover up who she is: ‘I am Ruth thy handmaid. I’m Ruth the Moabitess She acknowledges just who she is but adds, ‘I’m also your kin. I also desire to be a part of your family. And you can make it happen!’ And she lays claim on him as her kinsman redeemer and he responds.

“Verse 11 is a wonderful statement. He says, ' I'll do everything you need done.’ And in essence what he tells Ruth to do is ‘you just sit down. Trust me and I’ll go do everything that needs to be done to provide your redemption and rest.
Now there’s a problem. Verse 12. There was somebody closer kin to Ruth than Boaz so he says the law of the kinsman redeemer is one you have to be the nearest kinsman and two, you have to be able to redeem the person and three, you have to be willing.

“Verse 13 says, ‘And now, my daughter, fear not; I will do to thee all that thou requires: for all the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman.’ That’s wonderful you know. Naomi says to Ruth, ‘You just sit still and let him do the work because he won’t rest until he’s got the job done.’
“You remember the Lord Jesus Christ hanging on the Cross of Calvary and He says, ‘It’s finished.’ All you and I need to do is rest in what he’s done. That’s what Ruth has to do. There’s no help for what Ruth is going to do.

“In Chapter 4 the picture’s wonderful. Boaz goes and gets 10 men to judge the situation—a picture of the law. How many commandments did God give Israel? 613, I know, but how many are in the 10 Commandments? The law tells the man, ‘Can you redeem it?’ The law says no man can redeem his brother because you can’t even redeem yourself.

“And so Boaz answers, ‘But I can and I will,’ and he becomes her kinsman redeemer. He pays the price. He redeemed her and verse 13 says, ‘So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife: and when he went in unto her, the LORD gave her conception, and she bare a son.’

“Verse 21-22. You’ll see that Boaz begat Obed and Obed begat Jesse and Jesse begat David. You know how Ruth got in the genealogy of Christ? Because of Boaz. Had it not been that she found a kinsman redeemer who was able, not just to be kin, but able to redeem her, and able to do it all himself . . . the other kinsman couldn’t do it! He was kin but he didn’t have the ability to go and redeem her. Boaz did!”

“Hebrews 2 says that the Lord Jesus Christ took upon Himself not the nature of angels but the seed of Abraham. Paul said there’s ‘one mediator between God and men’ and that’s the MAN Christ Jesus. I John 14 says, ‘And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.’

“He became one of us; became our near kinsman. And while others may be kin to you, they literally may be closer kin to you in that they’re just humans, but because of their fallen humanity they couldn’t redeem you. You can’t redeem yourself and no one can redeem you because they can’t—somebody that can’t redeem themselves can’t help you. That’s why religion won’t work. That’s why the prayers of the dead saints don’t do. That’s why you have to have a kinsman redeemer like Boaz and that’s who the Lord Jesus Christ is.

“As the man Christ Jesus He’s our near kinsman. And yet He’s God, thus able. Paul says that God made Him to be sin who knew no sin. He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh but He wasn’t sinful flesh He had, it was just flesh.

“In Luke 1, when Gabriel talks to Mary, he says that ‘the power of the highest shall overshadow thee and that holy thing which will be created in you will be called the son of the highest.’ That holy thing, sometime people complain about a King James Bible, ‘Well, He’s not a ‘thing,’ He’s a person!’ Well, I know that! They knew that! It says ‘holy thing’ because it’s emphasizing not the person but the nature—the nature of who He is.

“And the contrast is in Isaiah 64:6 when it says, ‘But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.’
“In our nature, we’re unclean. In His nature, He’s sinless, harmless, separate from sinners, pure without sin, able to be your Redeemer.”