Ruth 4:1-6
1 Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat there. When the kinsman-redeemer he had mentioned came along, Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down. 2 Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, “Sit here,” and they did so. 3 Then he said to the kinsman-redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech. 4 I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.”
“I will redeem it,” he said.
5 Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi and from Ruth the Moabitess, you acquire the dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.”
6 At this, the kinsman-redeemer said, “Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.”
This whole scene happens because Naomi needs someone to help her and her daughter-in-law Ruth get back on their feet. They have lost so much financially and emotionally through the deaths of Naomi’s husband and sons, and the best way for them to begin building up again is for someone to buy the land that once belonged to Ruth’s husband, Elimelech. Since Boaz is kin to the family, he would be a natural choice, but the kinsman-redeemer is closer of kin.
However, this move would bring with it its own perils, at least financially. Anybody who buys the land would also be obliged to marry Ruth, and could end up losing his own lands to Ruth’s offspring in due course of time. As we see in these verses, the kinsman-redeemer is not willing to take that risk…but Boaz is, because he realizes he is meant to care for Ruth and her mother-in-law, since they have so little left. He takes on the burden for them, and in so doing gives them renewed hope and life.
Here, we see the drama of Christ’s redemption acted out in miniature; this is only a foreshadowing of what Jesus did for us on the cross. Even though His life was sinless, He took on our sin and paid for it Himself; even though His journey to the cross brought Him extreme pain and death, He was willing to do it to redeem us. No one else would have done nearly what He did for us! Just as Boaz took on a seemingly untenable financial burden for Ruth and Naomi, Jesus took on our spiritual burden…and gave us renewed hope for eternal life.