Ruth's Redemption and the Kinsman-Redeemer

Part One: What Is a Go'el?

The Hebrew word go'el appears 17 times in the book of Ruth. It is one of the most important words in the Old Testament. The go'el is the kinsman-redeemer — the nearest male relative who has four specific obligations under the law of Moses (Leviticus 25:25–55; Deuteronomy 25:5–10):

• To redeem property — if a brother became poor and had to sell his ancestral land, the go'el would buy it back so the inheritance stayed in the family line.
• To redeem the person — if a brother had been sold into debt-slavery, the go'el would pay the price to free him.
• To avenge blood — if a brother had been murdered, the go'el was the one authorized to pursue justice on his behalf.
• To raise up an heir — through levirate marriage, the go'el would marry the widow of a deceased brother so the family line — and the inheritance — would continue.

The whole structure of redemption in the Old Testament rests on one assumption: when someone cannot redeem themselves, the nearest kinsman is the one who is expected to step forward and pay. That is what a go'el is. That is the role Boaz plays in Ruth 4. And it is the role that Christ is going to play for the rest of the Bible.

Part Two: Why the Nearer Kinsman Declined

Before Boaz can act, there is a nearer relative. And the nearer relative passes. Ruth 4:1–6 tells the story plainly. Boaz goes up to the gate — the place where legal transactions in the ancient world are settled — and finds the nearer kinsman. He says, in front of ten elders, "Naomi, that is come again out of the country of Moab, selleth a parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech's: and I thought to advertise thee, saying, Buy it before the inhabitants, and before the elders of my people. If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it: but if thou wilt not redeem it, then tell me, that I may know: for there is none to redeem it beside thee; and I am after thee."

The nearer kinsman says yes. He is willing — at first. "I will redeem it," he says. But then Boaz adds the second clause — the one that changes everything: "The day that thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance."

And the nearer kinsman — suddenly — cannot do it. "I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance," he says. He takes off his sandal and gives it to Boaz. The right of redemption passes to Boaz. The nearer kinsman walked away because the cost of redemption was higher than he wanted to pay.

That is the first portrait of every man who will not pay the price to redeem another soul. He is willing to talk about redemption. He is willing to admire redemption. He is willing to nod toward redemption in a sermon. But when the cost of redemption includes the marriage of a foreign widow, the naming of another man's heir, and the public testimony of the city gate — he takes off his sandal and walks away. "Lest I mar mine own inheritance."

The man who will not pay the price of redemption always protects his own inheritance first. And the inheritance he protects is always smaller than the love he refuses.

Part Three: Boaz — The Picture of Christ on the City Gate

Now the story shifts. Boaz turns to the ten elders who are sitting at the gate. "Ye are witnesses this day," he says, "that I have bought all that was Elimelech's, and all that was Chilion's and Mahlon's, of the hand of Naomi. Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: ye are witnesses this day."

Read that slowly. Boaz bought three things. He bought the land. He bought Ruth. And he bought her in front of witnesses, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance. He did not do it secretly. He did not do it quietly. He did it at the gate, with the elders watching, so that the redemption would be on the public record of the city of Bethlehem.

That picture is the picture of Christ at the cross. The cross is the city gate. The covenant name of the dead — the family line that was about to be cut off — is the bride He purchased. The elders watching are every witness who has ever stood at the gate of a public redemption. And Boaz paying the price for the land, for Ruth, and for the future of the family line, is Christ paying the price for the sin, for the bride, and for the future of the household of God.

And the women of Bethlehem — the witnesses at the gate — say it out loud: "Blessed be the Lord, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman." That is the song of every redeemed soul. The Lord has not left me without a go'el. The Lord has not left me without a Redeemer. The Lord has not left me without the One who paid the price at the gate, in front of the witnesses, so that my name would not be cut off.

Part Four: The Sandal and the Public Record of Redemption

One more detail in the city gate scene, because it is the most pastoral one: the sandal. In Deuteronomy 25:9–10, when a man refused to perform the duty of the kinsman-redeemer through levirate marriage, the widow was to remove his sandal in front of the elders, and he would be called by the elders "the man whose shoe is loosed." The sandal is the public record of who redeemed, and who walked away.

In Ruth 4, the sandal's direction is reversed. Boaz asks the nearer kinsman for his sandal — and the nearer kinsman hands it over. The right of redemption passes from one foot to another. The man who walked away takes off the shoe that says "I am willing to redeem." The man who paid the price puts on the right of redemption in front of the witnesses. And the public record of the city gate now carries the name Boaz — not the nearer kinsman — as the go'el of Ruth.

The cross is the public record of the same transfer. When the Lord Jesus hung on Calvary, the right of redemption passed from every sinful man who had been the nearer kinsman — every man who had said "I am willing" until the cost of redemption was named — to Christ alone. The sandal changed feet at the cross. And from that moment forward, the public record of redemption is in His name, not ours.

Read Hebrews 7:22 slowly in light of the gate scene: "By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament." The surety. The One who stepped into the gate and said, "I will pay the price. The rest of you — go home." The rest of us are the ten elders. We are the witnesses. We are not the go'el. We are not the redeemer. He is. And His name is on the sandal — and the sandal is on His foot, not ours.

Part Five: What This Letter Means for Someone Walking Through Reentry or Recovery

I have walked with men in the prison reentry process who could not name what the book of Ruth is teaching. They know the story. They know the verses. But they have never heard it preached the way the Bible preaches it — as a love story about a Redeemer who pays the price for the person who could not redeem herself.

Ruth could not redeem herself. She was a widow. She was a foreigner. She was without land, without inheritance, without a family line in Judah, and without the cultural standing to walk up to the city gate and demand her rights. She had nothing — except the sentence she had already spoken to Naomi. "Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God."

You may be reading this letter and feeling that you have nothing. No father. No mother. No inheritance. No standing in the city. No clean record. No line to claim. And you have walked into the gate of this page the way Ruth walked into the field of Boaz — not because you were owed anything, but because there was nowhere else to glean.

Then hear this: the go'el is not the man who waited for you to be worthy. He is the man who paid the price for you while you were gleaning. He is the man who noticed you, who watched over you, who told his servants to let the grain fall on purpose, who married you in front of the city gate. He paid the price to redeem a foreigner. He paid the price to redeem a widow. He paid the price to redeem a man coming out of prison. He paid the price to redeem a woman leaving the halfway house. He paid the price to redeem the lineage that ended on every court docket in Camden, in Philadelphia, in every city in this country where the family line was about to be cut off.

The nearer kinsman walked away because the cost was too high. The go'el paid the cost because the bride was worth the price.

You are not Ruth because of what you have done. You are Ruth because of the sentence she spoke: "Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God." That is the only sentence the go'el needs to hear. And the moment you speak it, He is already on His way to the city gate — to pay the price, to give you His name, to make you the mother of a line that did not end on the day your old life did.

"Blessed be the Lord, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous."

The Lord has not left you without a go'el.

He is the One who paid the price at the gate. And the price He paid was not small.

It was the cross. It was always the cross. And the Bride is not the One who paid it.