The book of Ruth describes the Kinsman Redeemer, the next of kin who is empowered by law to redeem his kinfolk and their property from slavery. A debt has placed them in subjugation, but the Kinsman Redeemer, if he be able, can pay off the debt and set free his brethren.
Under the law, the kinsman had a right to redeem, and the creditor or master could not refuse to release the property and persons upon payment of the ransom.
In the story of Ruth, her Kinsman Redeemer was Boaz, but she knew it not! He was a rich man who showed her kindness in her poverty and labor.
But Naomi knew about Boaz, and when Ruth innocently tells her that the benefactor is Boaz, Naomi rejoices "the man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen!"
Oh, the joy of discovering that the man who is kindly disposed to you, and has the ability to pay any debt, is in fact your near kinsman! In the depths of despair and slavery, suddenly the sun shines bright!
It was a puzzle, then, that God repeatedly called Himself the Kinsman Redeemer of His people. How could it be, when He is God and we are mortal men?
But the Lord Jesus is become our near kinsman! The incarnation brought His Deity into union with our humanity, and He was made like unto His brethren whom He would save!
He was made our kinsman so that He might suffer death in our place at Calvary and obtain both the power and the legal right to redeem us from the awful judgment of sin and death.
Christ would have been ashamed to call us brethren had He not gone to the cross and paid the price. But having done so, He steps forward as our Kinsman Redeemer, indeed, our elder brother, joyous to be able to save us forever!
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John Pittman Hey was born in 1961 in Jackson, Mississippi, to Godly parents who from the beginning raised him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. With child-like faith he came to Christ on his fourth birthday at his mother's knee. He received his education at church...