Boaz – The Kinsman Redeemer
In the barley fields of Bethlehem, a wealthy landowner noticed a foreign widow gleaning among the harvesters. What unfolded between Boaz and Ruth became one of Scripture’s most beautiful love stories—and one of its clearest pictures of redemption. Boaz was no ordinary benefactor. He was a kinsman with the legal right to redeem Ruth and her inheritance, and he exercised that right at personal cost. In doing so, he painted an unmistakable portrait of Jesus Christ, our true Kinsman Redeemer who paid the ultimate price to make us His own.
The Setting of Redemption
The book of Ruth opens in tragedy. Famine drove Elimelech’s family from Bethlehem to Moab, where he died. His sons married Moabite women, then both sons died, leaving Naomi with two foreign daughters-in-law and no means of support. Naomi determined to return to Bethlehem, urging her daughters-in-law to remain in Moab. Orpah turned back, but Ruth clung to Naomi with immortal words: ‘Intreat me not to leave thee… thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God’ (Ruth 1:16).
So they returned—two widows with no husband, no son, no income, and no future by ancient standards. Ruth proposed to glean in the fields, gathering grain left behind by harvesters as the law permitted for the poor. ‘And her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech’ (Ruth 2:3). What appears as coincidence was divine orchestration. Providence was positioning Ruth to meet her redeemer.
Boaz noticed Ruth immediately. He inquired about her, provided protection, invited her to eat with his workers, and commanded his men to leave extra grain for her to gather. ‘The LORD recompense thy work,’ he blessed her, ‘and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust’ (Ruth 2:12). Little did Boaz know that he himself would become the means of that reward.
The Law of Redemption
Israelite law contained a remarkable provision for desperate situations like Ruth’s. A kinsman-redeemer—a close family member—could purchase the property of a deceased relative to keep it in the family. More than that, the kinsman-redeemer could marry the widow to raise up children who would carry on the dead man’s name and inherit his property (Deuteronomy 25:5-10; Leviticus 25:25).
Three qualifications were required: the redeemer must be a blood relative, he must have the resources to pay the redemption price, and he must be willing to act. Boaz met all three. He was ‘of the kindred of Elimelech,’ he was a ‘mighty man of wealth,’ and his kindness to Ruth revealed a willing heart. But there was a complication—a closer relative had the first right of redemption.
At the threshing floor, Ruth came to Boaz by night at Naomi’s instruction and requested that he spread his garment over her—a symbolic request for marriage and protection. Boaz responded with characteristic grace: ‘Blessed be thou of the LORD, my daughter… I will do to thee all that thou requirest: for all the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman’ (Ruth 3:10-11). But first, the nearer kinsman must be given opportunity to act.
At the city gate, Boaz presented the situation. The closer relative initially agreed to redeem the land but withdrew when he learned he must also take Ruth as wife. ‘I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance: redeem thou my right to thyself; for I cannot redeem it’ (Ruth 4:6). What the nearer kinsman refused, Boaz embraced. He publicly declared his purchase of the property and his marriage to Ruth. The transaction was complete; the redemption was accomplished.
Christ Our Kinsman Redeemer
Every element of Boaz’s redemption finds its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Christ became our kinsman through the incarnation. ‘Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same’ (Hebrews 2:14). The eternal Son took human nature, becoming our blood relative so He could legally act as our redeemer. He who was from everlasting became one of us so He could redeem us.
Christ possessed the resources to pay redemption’s price. What could redeem souls from sin and death? Not silver or gold, not animal sacrifices offered yearly, but only the precious blood of the sinless Son of God. ‘Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold… But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot’ (1 Peter 1:18-19). He alone had currency sufficient for the transaction.
And Christ was willing—gloriously, sacrificially willing. Where the nearer kinsman in Ruth’s story withdrew to protect his own inheritance, Christ ‘made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant’ (Philippians 2:7). He embraced the cost rather than counting it too high. ‘For the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame’ (Hebrews 12:2). Our Boaz was willing when no one else could act.
The Redemption Transaction
Boaz redeemed Ruth at the city gate—the place of legal transaction and public witness. Christ accomplished redemption at Calvary—in public view, with witnesses above and below, completing a transaction that satisfied divine justice. The cross was the gate where our redemption price was paid, where the certificate of our debt was nailed, where the purchase was finalized.
Boaz took Ruth from poverty to plenty, from gleaning leftovers to sitting at the master’s table, from foreign widow to honored wife. Christ takes sinners from spiritual destitution to unimaginable riches. ‘For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich’ (2 Corinthians 8:9). The bride once gathering scraps now inherits everything.
The union of Boaz and Ruth produced Obed, grandfather of David, ancestor of Christ. The Redeemer’s line came through the redeemer. Bethlehem, where Boaz spread his garment over Ruth, would see a greater redemption when Mary’s son was born in that same small town. The story that began with famine and death ended with marriage, birth, and royal lineage—a pattern the gospel completes with resurrection, union with Christ, and eternal inheritance.
Under His Wings
Boaz blessed Ruth for coming ‘under the wings’ of the God of Israel. Then Boaz himself became the means of that shelter when Ruth asked him to spread his ‘wing’—the same Hebrew word—over her. The picture is tender and profound: God shelters us, but He often does so through mediators who extend His covering.
Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of this sheltering love. ‘O Jerusalem, Jerusalem… how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings’ (Matthew 23:37). He offers refuge to the vulnerable, protection to the exposed, covering to the shamed. Those who come to Him find themselves under wings of infinite love.
Ruth came to Boaz with nothing but need. She did not earn his attention or deserve his favor. She was a foreigner, a Moabitess from a people excluded from Israel’s assembly. Yet Boaz received her, redeemed her, and made her his own. So Christ receives us—not because of our merit but because of His grace. Gentile outsiders become covenant insiders. The excluded become embraced. This is the scandal and glory of redemption.
Are you, like Ruth, in desperate need of a redeemer? Have your resources run out, your options expired, your hope dwindled? There is a Kinsman who has the right, the resources, and the willingness to redeem. He has already paid the price at Calvary’s gate. He waits only for you to come as Ruth came—recognizing your need, trusting His goodness, asking Him to spread His covering over you. The Redeemer of Bethlehem still receives foreign widows, spiritual paupers, and desperate souls. He will do for you what Boaz did for Ruth—redeem your inheritance, restore your future, and make you His own forever.