I would invite you to turn in your Bibles this evening. I have in the bulletin Deuteronomy 3, 1 through 8, but I want to take a moment this evening to pause where we are at the end of chapter 2 and to provide what may be helpful, at least it has been for me, some context for the responsibility in Scripture of the kinsmen redeemer and in particular one of the obligations of the kinsmen redeemer that was to play the role of the leveret and the responsibility to marry his brother's widow in the event that his elder brother died without an heir. I want to take some time this evening to discuss that and so what I'm going to do is read from Ruth chapter 2 verses 19 through 23. And then in a moment we'll turn to the book of Deuteronomy chapter 25 where the role or the law of the Leveret is outlined so that we can really understand what's going on in Ruth better, especially in that scene later in Ruth chapter three where she goes into the tent of Boaz and uncovers his feet, what the significance of that is. We'll get to that next week, but tonight I would invite you to turn to Ruth chapter two Verses 19 through 23, I read these things and preached on them last week, but I think the context will be helpful for us as Naomi understands the role of the kinsman redeemer. And I want us to be aware of what's going on in the story as well. Ruth 2, beginning in verse 19. And her mother-in-law said to her, where have you gleaned today? And where did you work? Blessed be the one who took notice of you. So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, the man's name with whom I worked today is Boaz. Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, blessed be he of the Lord, who has not forsaken his kindness to the living and the dead. And Naomi said to her, this man is a relation of ours, one of our close relatives. Ruth Amoabitis said, he also said to me, you shall stay close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest. And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, it is good, my daughter, that you go out with this young woman, young women, and that people do not meet you in any other field. So she stayed close by the young women of Boaz to glean until the end of barley harvest and wheat harvest. And she dwelt there, sorry, she dwelt with her mother-in-law. Let me pray now for the blessing of the preaching of God's word. Lord, we come to you tonight and we ask that you might By your Spirit, impart to us knowledge and wisdom. Lord, we ask that you would take our hearts, that you would mold them and shape them, and all that we are, all that we do would be for your glory and honor, and Lord, even for the good of our neighbor. And so we ask tonight, you would teach us how to love you and how to love those who we are surrounded among, that we would do all this for the glory and honor of Christ, who is our Lord and our Redeemer, we pray in his name, amen. I want to make two points tonight as it relates to the figure of the kinsman redeemer that we find in scripture and how ultimately it is culminated and consummated in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The first point that I want to make tonight is the responsibility of the kinsman redeemer and then I want to talk about the hope the hope of the kinsman-redeemer. Let's look at the first point, the responsibility of the kinsman-redeemer. Now, in a moment, we'll go to Deuteronomy 25, 5 through 10, where we will see one of the responsibilities of the kinsman-redeemer. But tonight, as I've said already, I'm gonna take just a small moment to explain in further detail, though not exhaustive detail, that would take some time. the duty of the kinsman-redeemer, and in particular, that of the leveret marriage. On the topic of the kinsman-redeemer, or goel, is this unifying theme, that in all of his duties, he serves to redeem and rescue and provide that which was lost to a family, to continue a name and the presence of a family in the land of promise, The name or family that is in view most important. Now the reason I say name or family and not primarily the preservation of the land is because the kinsman redeemer is seen even before the giving of the law, Moses and Sinai, and the allotting of the territories later when Joshua leads Israel into the promised land. In fact, we find it all the way back in Genesis 38 with Judah and Air and Onan and Tamar. One of the responsibilities of a kinsman-redeemer was to rescue those in bondage or indentured servitude, which was a legitimate social function. However, if the kinsman-redeemer had the means to buy out of indentured servitude a close relative, he was called to do so. We see this in Leviticus 25, verses 47-49 and Deuteronomy 15. Kinsman Redeemer was also responsible to buy back family or tribal land that may have been sold. We see this in Leviticus chapter 25. He was also to be an avenger of blood for a relative who was killed. We see this in the book of Numbers chapter 35. Here, and my emphasis tonight, is he was to be a leveret participant should his older brother die, Deuteronomy 25, five through six. and endeavored to provide an offspring for his dead brother so that the name of his elder brother might continue. Either, most likely, not just through the birth of a son, but also daughters were also those who could carry on a family name. Now, on the subject of the kinsman-redeemer, this is what John Currid writes, the concept of redemption by a goel, or kinsman-redeemer, was a wonderful picture in scripture of God's work for his people. Throughout the Old Testament the term Goel was used for God interceding on behalf of his people. Job 19, Psalm 19. The exodus out of Egypt was the great redemptive act of the Old Testament wherein God redeemed his people from bondage. Exodus 6, In the New Testament, Jesus is the Goel who brings liberty to his people, Luke 4. He released his kin from bondage, Romans 8. He reclaimed an inheritance for his people, 1 Peter 3. He raised up a seed in his name, Ephesians 1. And he served as a blood avenger. In this, Kurt writes, see the book of Revelation. Jesus is the true Goel. That's significance I will arrive at even more by the end of this sermon. Now, let's look at Deuteronomy chapter 25. If you have your Bibles, you can turn there with me. It's not a long section. Deuteronomy 25, beginning in verse five. If brothers dwell together and one of them dies and has no son, the widow of the dead man shall not be married to a stranger outside the family her husband's brother shall go into her, take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. And it shall be that the firstborn son which she bears will succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name might not be blotted out of Israel. But if the man does not want to take his brother's wife, then let this brother's wife go up to the gate to the elders and say, this is the wife, the widow, my husband's brother refuses to raise up a name to his brother in Israel. He will not perform the duty of my husband's brother. Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him. And if he stands firm and says, I do not want to take her, Then his brother's wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, spit in his face, and answer and say, So shall it be done to the man who will not build up his brother's house. And his name shall be called in Israel the house of him who had his sandal removed." We find an outline here for what is to happen and the consequences if the younger brother, who is a member of the immediate household and, as we read in the very beginning, brothers who live together. What we will find is that the Leverett Law was given not just as a temporal provision for a woman in need who had lost her husband, who did not yet have an heir born to her, but it also speaks even the purpose of marriage and the covenant in the first place. Marriage was in part the means of bringing about a holy seed. Now the reason I mention that is because in the Old Testament those who married in light of God's call, and the call to be fruitful and multiply, which is a mandate given not to individuals, but to the human race, which is why if you refuse to get married, or if it just doesn't work out, you're not in sin. But the human race, people in the main, were called to be fruitful and multiply and take dominion. That calling was not only important to fill the earth, but it was also connected to the promise that God gave that a seed would be born to a woman, and that seed would crush the head of the serpent. And so as those in the Old Testament anticipated the coming of the Messiah, and as they had been brought into the land, it was of absolute necessity that the names of the tribes be preserved. Now I will remind you that the tribe that we are talking about in the book of Ruth, that we are observing, is the tribe of Judah. And already God has promised that a king will come from the tribe of Judah. Judah was the royal tribe, it was the tribe of the lion. Marriage was, in the Old Testament, and not just marriage, but even more importantly, to some degree, the birth of a seed, one who could carry on the family name, was essential as they were anticipating, looking forward into the future, the coming of the Messiah. It was everything. And so what happens in a home where a seed is not born? Well, God makes it possible through law to provide a means whereby a seed can be born. And not just a seed to one family, but as we saw here, that if the older brother dies and the younger brother marries his widow, then the inheritance of that older brother is given to that firstborn child. Now, every subsequent child born to that couple would inherit from the younger son. But that firstborn child carries on the name of the deceased brother. What is a name? My sons and I were talking about that very thing on the way here. What is a name? My surname is Fowler. That name goes back many generations. And not only does my name go back many generations, but my people, came from Germany and England, but more recently we come from Douglasville, Georgia. My great-grandfather moved to Douglasville, and so Fowlers have been in Douglas County for well over 100 years, and even longer, closer to a century and a half. And that should mean something. And so I got my name from my father, my father got his name from his father, and so on and so on. And what is bound up in a name is not just a sound, a collection of syllables, But it is all that that family has done, all that has been achieved. Sometimes a name is not glorious, is it? Sometimes a name is a scandalous thing. Sometimes you have to run to get away from a bad name. But here, this idea of name is the sum and substance of the hope of the people of God, even as they anticipated the Messiah. Now, speaking as it relates to scripture, this was not a one night stand or as many a night stand as needed to be in order to bear an heir. In fact, it appears from scripture that this was a true marriage. In fact, it was usually, as we can tell from Scripture, because in Leviticus 18, 18 we actually see the prohibition against bigamy. Don't let all the red pill guys on Twitter tell you that bigamy is allowed from Scripture. That seems to be a thing now, which is very strange to me. Bigamy is outlawed in Scripture. Bigamy is the taking of more than one wife, if you didn't know. Here, it would be a younger, single brother who lived in the household with his brother. Now, what that seems to indicate is if you are living at home together, you are probably closer in age. So it's not a 24-year-old older brother who has left the house, or left the house at some point, and he has a 10-year-old brother. Because that 10-year-old brother cannot fulfill the obligation of a kinsman redeemer. We actually saw this when Naomi kind of exaggerates that principle in the beginning of Ruth, where she says to Ruth, even if I had a son tonight, that son, you can't wait the amount of time that is needed in order to bear an heir with that younger son. So, it's not a one night stand. It was a real marriage. He would be a true husband. And if he refused, he would be shamed publicly in the gates of the city. And that shame, I'll speak quickly to that, is basically the woman taking off his sandal, which is symbolic of exposing his nakedness, like Adam and Eve were exposed in the garden. Publicly, he would be shamed before all of Israel. and how he would be known as the guy who would not fulfill his obligations to God. And he would bear that shame as the one who refused to perform the role of the kinsman redeemer. So the kinsman redeemer was keeping the seed hope alive. He was keeping the seed hope alive. It is this that Naomi reflects upon in chapter two, going back to Ruth, beginning in verse 19. She sees hope. In fact, this happens to us all the time at church. We who have successfully paired off and have families when we see younger people in the church and we see a single guy and a single gal and they're here and we're wondering, all right, what are their prospects like? And we see a woman walk in and a young man is here, well, they're eligible at least by right of the fact that they don't have someone. And so we begin, if we're not careful, to begin to devise situations wherein they might bump into each other in social situations. What are we doing? We're doing what Naomi did. Hmm. Boaz, you say, huh? You are working in his fields. Boaz, I know he's single. I know he's a relative of ours. Naomi sees something in this. Now, she's not being devious. She's hoping. This is a woman without hope. She calls herself Mara or bitter. In fact, she pronounces a benediction upon him. Blessed be the one who took notice of you, verse 19. And then she indicates to Ruth, blessed be he of the Lord, verse 20. Now the Lord is the one who's not forsaken kindness. That's who she's speaking of in the first part of verse 20, to the living and the dead. And then of Boaz, this man is a relation of ours, one of our close relatives. Already Boaz, though he is not the younger brother, though he is a more distant relative than another, and we will see that in chapter three and four, he is already, in his faithfulness to his family, performing something of the role of a kinsman redeemer. This is why when Boaz, later in chapter three, refuses Ruth because there is a closer relative, is not sinning. because he doesn't fit the terms and the qualifications that we find in Deuteronomy chapter 25, verses five through 10. What does Naomi see? She sees a glimmer of hope. And that is what the kinsman redeemer did. This is what he offered. This is what a Levirate marriage was supposed to be. It was a glimmer of hope in the midst of great tragedy. And throughout the scriptures, There are so many of these. In fact, when we go to Exodus, in the beginning of Exodus, Israel is languishing under enslavement under the seed of the serpent Pharaoh. Pharaoh represents, in every respect, someone who has imprisoned the people of God, not under hard labor, but also genocidal murder. And Exodus opens and a decree has gone out from the Pharaoh to put to death the firstborn sons of the Hebrews. And then you have the maidservants and they are cunning and they are deceptive as it relates to Pharaoh's purposes and they do not do as they had been prescribed by the Pharaoh. And Moses is born. Moses is delivered through water. through a boat of some kind, a basket, discovered by the daughter of Pharaoh and he later comes to rescue the people of God. These glimmers of hope. God does this time and time again. There is a symbolic death and out of death comes life over and over and over again. It is no wonder then that God weaved into the fabric of law and culture, the people of Israel, this element of redemption and life from death and despair. Of course we know that it culminates in Christ and his death, burial, and resurrection. That is the responsibility. Let's look quickly at the hope of the kinsman redeemer. Now we cannot properly grasp the events of Ruth. not only without knowing the responsibilities of the Leveret marriage, or the Leveret who takes the place of his older brother, but also of the history of Judah, and we see that in Genesis chapter 38. Here, Judah finds for his son Er, Er, something, E-R. You would think it'd be easy to say. A wife in Tamar. Well, his son Er is a wicked, wicked man. and God kills him. And so Onan, the younger brother, is called by his father to marry the widow Tamar and give her a son. Well, Onan does not want to give any share of his inheritance whatsoever to the firstborn child of that consummate relationship. And so, though he goes into her, though they marry of some sorts, he does not fully consummate the marriage. He wastes every opportunity so that he might say, well, look, I've tried, it just hasn't worked out. But what does God see? He sees his disobedience and God puts him to death. Now things get worse, it seems, from there between Judah and Tamar. And at the end of this sorry affair, what we end up with is God's judgment upon the tribe of Judah unto the 10th generation, as I've said already, as outlined in Deuteronomy 23.2. And as I've said already, what we find in the birth of David who will come some generations later, Ruth begets Obed, Obed begets Jesse, Jesse begets David. So not far away. David is the firstborn son born to the tribe of Judah after the curse is lifted. After the condemnation of God is relieved. And the point that I made a couple of weeks ago is look at how fast God is to show mercy to his people. This is also the purpose of the Leveret marriage. It is to continue not just the line of Israel, but the line of redemption unto the seed who is the serpent crusher, Jesus Christ. And so we see the Lord not only redeeming his entire people, we see him redeeming a tribe, the tribe of Judah. And I think we would be amiss if we did not see the ultimate application of these things between Adam and Christ. Now here is how I want you to think of this. Paul in the book of Romans speaks of two Adams. There is the first Adam who sinned and for his sin got death. And because of his rebellion, he brought into the seed of men death. a stillborn nature as it relates to the future prospects of man and any hope of inheriting the kingdom of God. There were no prospects whatsoever. Until God covered the shame and nakedness of Adam and made a promise to Adam and to his wife, which is why he named her Eve. When Eve confessed, I got a man, remember what she says in Genesis 4 at the very beginning? She didn't say, I got a man from Adam. She said, I got a man from God. Eve believed the promise. And in this respect, the son of God steps in as the younger son when the older son fails and dies. There is this concept of leveret marriage woven within the entire fabric of the story of redemption. Adam, the older brother, died. Now, he did not die consummately. He did not die fully, for we know he lived 969 years. That's a long time. That's a long time. But he did die. In fact, he died immediately in terms of his ability to fulfill the creation mandate. His seed had woven into it death. And every child born to Adam and to his wife and every subsequent man born of natural generation to Adam had a fatal flaw. in his genetic code, in his moral fiber, as it related to the state of his soul. Every child is born to die. And the moment your little baby is born into the world, the clock, as it were, is ticking. Death reigns. Adam died. And apart from the younger brother, the Messiah, taking upon himself the responsibility to give the widow the inheritance that God had promised to Adam, we would have no hope. This is why it is not coincidence that Abraham's wife, Sarah, could not conceive and bear children, and his own son, Isaac, and his son after him, Jacob. All of those men were married to barren women. What is the testimony of this? That apart from the leverant marriage of the Messiah to his bride, his people, there would come no life, there would be no hope, there would be no heir. Christ is the younger brother who brings life to the dead seed. Christ is the one who brings life even as he is replaced and done his duty. This is why Ruth and Boaz are such a beautiful picture of Christ in the church. And so from Boaz to David to Christ, we see God establishing his name. That's why I entitled the sermon series, The King is Coming. Because Ruth does what? As it relates to pointing to the sum and substance of God's covenant promises. God is bringing his heir. And in this regard, Christ is, in sense, both the husband and the son. He is the one who brings life, and he is the life. And so it is the Messiah from the beginning until the end. Christ has always been with us. Christ is the word of God that opens the womb. Christ is the one who became like us so that we might become heirs of the true and living God. Now this is why the Leveret marriage need not be kept any longer, because the promise has come. Christ is our Leveret husband, our kinsman redeemer. And so again, Ruth reminds us and embeds in our hearts, and I would say in our minds, it should impress, it should push it deep down into our hearts, the faithfulness of the Lord to establish his redeeming work through the fulfillment of the promised Messiah. In fact, as it relates to the church, the bride, we're not just widowed because of Adam, but we're like Gomer. Remember Gomer? Not a great wife. She was a wayward wife. Christ suffered the indignity of pursuing a bride like us and only because the work of Christ is not only the bride reconciled but life comes forth from those whom he came to save. In fact, Christ's name is the one that matters. I read earlier, Deuteronomy 25, that it was for the sake of the name of the older brother that this leveret system existed so that he might have an heir, so that they might dwell in the land, so that the family might continue. That our names, they can die off and it doesn't matter, does it? Because Christ's name is established and is secure. Christ's name is the one that matters. And so as it relates to families today, there is one name that ought to ring through the halls of our homes. If we are to exercise covenant faithfulness, we should be less concerned with the principles of leverant marriage so that we can practice it now, because we are not required to practice it now. There are some, I've heard, strict sects of Jews that do this, they just don't talk about it. But Christ's name is the one that matters. In fact, in our conversation away at church, I said, you ought to consider what it means to bear the name Fowler, and you ought to wear that name well. But more important than Fowler is what? It is the name of Christ, and you are to bear that name well. Make Christ's name be the name that is carried on from generation to generation to generation. And so, you're not Fowler, you're not Grigg or Jarstfer, you are, but above all of those things, above Jew and Gentile, above all national titles and affiliations, is Christian because Christ is the one who has redeemed us. and everything that is Christ's is ours. We are heirs of the fortune of heaven. That is our glorious future and all of this in Christ Jesus. Let's pray. Oh Lord our God, we ask that tonight you might make us very much aware of the lineage to which we belong that is secured through Christ Jesus our Lord. Oh Lord, make us a people who know our name. And that name, not the names we are born with, but the name that we have been born again into, the name of Jesus Christ, the family in the kingdom of which we are members and citizens, Lord, that you would continue through the work of Christ from generation to generation to generation to bear the name that has been so freely given by your grace, the name of Christian, that we would even go forth tonight that we would think of ourselves as those deeply, eternally, and securely beloved. For Christ has wed himself to us. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.