Devotion #6: More Than a Love Story
Devotion #6: More Than a Love Story
Kendall Hine
One of my dad’s favorite t-shirts reads, “Rules for dating my daughter: you can’t.” To his disappointment, he had to revise that list of rules to be a bit more realistic if I were to ever find a man to marry. Now that I have been in a relationship for a few years with a loving and godly man, dad had to revise the list yet again to “rules for marrying my daughter.” At the top of that list, he must have graduated from college and have a full-time job. To the parents reading this, you probably agree, but to the one still waiting for that engagement ring - graduation feels a million years away!
I can feel for Ruth at the beginning of chapter four. Instead of a college degree standing between Ruth and Boaz, there stood the rule of the kinsman redeemer. Unfortunately for the couple in love, this meant that there was the potential for Ruth to be married off to the man that came before Boaz in familial order. Not only would this other man have the opportunity to buy back the land that rightfully belonged to their family, but also he would take Ruth as his wife.
At the end of this beautiful love story, the guy gets the girl. The man passes his right to marry Ruth onto Boaz. Then Boaz declared before the gathering of people, “You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon. Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day” (Ruth 4:9-10). What a beautiful love story!
Not only do we see how God wove together the love of Ruth and Boaz, but also see how God used them for a greater purpose. We see at the end of chapter 4 that “...Boaz fathered Obed, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David” (Ruth 4:21-22). The gospel of Matthew tells us that our Savior Jesus is in this same family!
If we take another look at the picture of Boaz and his role as kinsman redeemer, we see how ultimately Christ redeemed us. The kinsman redeemer had to be family, and Jesus came down to this Earth in human form in order for us to become part of His family. Boaz was not motivated by selfish ambition but by selfless love for Ruth, just like Jesus gladly took the penalty of our sin upon Himself. There is no greater love story than God loving us so much He was willing to send His son to redeem us.