Ruth 4: Redemption

Read: Ruth 4:1-17

Ruth 4 might feel like a further shock to our 21st century ears.  Is Ruth really being bought along with piece of land?  If that is really the case, then we would have a right to feel anger at such degradation of women.  But let's look into what was really going on, the laws of ancient Israel - accessible to the culture of the time, and yet the heart of God speaking into that way of life.

Let's first take the land.  It is not entirely accurate to be talking of buying and selling.  It seems alien to our capitalist society, in under the law of ancient Israel land could not be sold permanently.  In fact, the people of Israel were not even the ultimate owners of their family land.  Leviticus 25:23 states: “The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers." And so, the people were really 'leaseholders'. When Israel came into the promised land, each tribe, clan and family allotted a piece of land to steward and use to meet their needs. Although someone could 'lease' (often translated as 'sell', which is misleading to us) the land to another, in order to raise sufficient funds to lift themselves out of poverty, but the lease would expire at the next Jubilee year (each 50 years), at which point all land returned to it's original owner (the price of the lease would be reflective of how many years until the Jubilee year). In addition to this, there is the responsibility of the nearest relative, or 'guardian redeemer' to redeem what has been leased if they can. This system should, if implemented correctly, have prevented people from falling into serious poverty in the short term and prevented huge inequality in the long term.

In addition to this, there is the concept of Levirate marriage, as set out in Deuteronomy 25, whereby if a man dies without a son, his brother must marry his widow. As well as providing security for the widow (who would have been left extremely vulnerable), this also plays its role in long term land equality, as the first son born carries the name of the dead brother and inherits his land.

In ancient Israel, God's blessing was signified by two main things: land and offspring.  And it goes back even further than that.  Agriculture and reproduction were the archetypes of the priestly service of humanity in God's 'temple of creation'.  What do I mean by that complicated sentence?  I mean that people were placed on earth to continue God's work of cultivation and stewardship, and building a loving community.  And I mean that this was inherently a 'priestly role', of representing God to creation offering it back to God in service.  Land and offspring were linked mutually dependant - one needed people to work the land, and land to feed the people.  For Israel, this priestly service was encapsulated in building a nation (i.e. land + people) that was to be a blessing to all nations.  

So, in our story, it is probable that Elimelek and Naomi had leased the land as collateral to someone else during the time of famine and hardship which eventually lead them to move to Moab.  However, Naomi is destitute and unable to buy the land back.  Enter the 'guardian redeemer', who is morally obliged to pay the family debt and 'redeem' the land back into the family.  In addition, because Boaz marries Ruth, her son will then inherit what was previously her first husband's land.  Ruth's marriage to Boaz does not just give her and her family acceptance and relationship on an emotional level, but an ability to play her part in the building the nation of Israel.

But what of us?  Living in our fallen world, we have compounded our own situation and sold (or maybe leased?) our lives to another.  Maybe we've done it survive?  Maybe we did it because we thought there was no other option.  As humanity, and individually, we find ourselves away from the secure and fruitful life in which we serve as priests in God's temple.  We are like Naomi, having sold up to seek security elsewhere.  We are like Ruth - foreigners with no place of our own.  It's not land or assets we've sold - that would not really be a problem - it's our very selves, sold into captivity.  As I pointed out in Ruth 1, the writer of Ruth does not portray Elimelek and Naomi's leaving Israel for Moab and their subsequent misfortune as a simple fact of direct rebellion and judgement.  Or situation is also more complicated, but regardless of the complicating factors, there is in each of us, a rebellion, where we willingly sell ourselves to sin.  Other people may aid and abet that transaction, but we always play a role.  And now, the enemy has a hold over us.

The fact is, we have a guardian redeemer who bought us at a far higher price that Boaz could have ever paid.  And that he would pay that price with his very blood.  For:

 ...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood – to be received by faith. (Romans 3:23-25)

As I found myself writing when I looked at Jesus as 'Redeemer' last advent: 

When Jesus hung on that cross, God the trinity was ripped apart by death and paid the price for our delivery and redemption. Why? Because we are his - his joy and prized possession - and there is nothing he will not do to get us back.  The legal and financial language of redemption is nothing dry: it oozes with the very blood of Christ's passion and love for us. This is how much you are worth to God - the death of his son - our redeemer.

God does not just declare his love for us; he sets us free.  This is not just a feeling of affection, but love willing to pay a price.  And this, freedom, alongside the freedom from sin and death which the Bible talks about elsewhere, is a freedom to live and serve and take our place in God's temple.  But the harvest here is not crop, and the offspring not necessarily our own biological children.   God's first temple (the place where he dwells and meets with his creation) was a garden - the Garden of Eden.  God's new temple is his church...

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22; see some echoes of Ruth's situation there?)

Nowadays, for many of us land is not the chief asset we use to carry out our role as 'priests' and image bearers - it may be wealth or our homes, but equally it may be our work or our skills.  Our 'offspring' may not be biological - we are called to build God's church by making new disciples.  In addition, the promised land of the Old Testament points to the inheritance of eternal life that comes from being part of God's family.  This is not just a mystical relationship, where eternal life means our souls being absorbed back into the divine (or something of that sort), but of a future of stability, of harvest, and of worship/service to God (those words, translated two ways in English, are the same word in the Bible - in both Hebrew and Greek).  

This is redemption.  It is costly.  It is belonging.  It is being able to take up our position in the priesthood of believers.