Redemption Through Obedience - Boaz

Ruth told her mother-in-law about the man in whose field she had worked. She said, “The man I worked with today is named Boaz.” “May the LORD bless him!” Naomi told her daughter-in-law. “He is showing his kindness to us as well as to your dead husband. That man is one of our closest relatives, one of our family redeemers.”

Ruth 2:19-20

A man riding some dangerous rapids at work felt tempted one day to just leave his job and let the chips fall where they would, but after thinking of his wife and children, he couldn’t do it.

“If it weren’t for my wife and kids,” he said, “I’d find something else to do. But I can’t do that now. I’m going to stick it out and do what I have to . . . for them.”

That’s a man who puts action behind his love!

A man who truly loves his family will do almost anything to make sure they feel safe, comfortable, and blessed. When he also loves God, he realizes that meeting his family’s greatest needs begins with the simple obedience that characterized a man named Boaz.

Ruth, a young Moabite widow, must have wondered why the wealthy, influential Boaz would show her such kindness. Her mother-in-law, Naomi, recognized Boaz as what Old Testament law called a “family redeemer,” a close relative who had the option of purchasing family land, as well as marrying a poor and needy widow within his own family (see Leviticus 25:25-28).

When Ruth’s husband died, she traveled with Naomi to Bethlehem. There she met Boaz, who compassionately cared for her. Eventually he married her and brought her into the lineage of King David (Ruth and Boaz were David’s great-grandparents), a direct ancestor of Jesus.

The kindness of Boaz toward Ruth did not come from romantic love, at least at first, but from his love for God. When Boaz extended his extraordinary kindness, courtesy, and hospitality to Ruth, he acted out of obedience to the God he so faithfully served.

God blesses nothing more completely than eager obedience. Like Boaz, you can bless yourself and your family when you live with a heart attitude of love and obedience to your heavenly Father.