Category: Devotions

The unknown redeemer – Ruth 4: 2-12
The Message:
“The piece of property that belonged to our relative Elimelech is being sold by his widow Naomi, who has just returned from the country of Moab. I thought you ought to know about it. Buy it back if you want it – you can make it official in the presence of those sitting here and before the town elders. You have first redeemer rights. If you don’t want it, tell me so I’ll know where I stand. You’re first in line to do this and I’m next after you.
He said “I’ll buy it.”
Then Boaz added, “You realise, don’t you, that when you buy the field from Naomi, you also get Ruth the Moabite, the widow of our dead relative, along with the redeemer responsibility to have children with her to carry of the family inheritance.”
Then the relative said, “Oh, I can’t do that – I’d jeopardize my own family’s inheritance. You go ahead and buy it – you can have my rights – I can’t do it.”

If the nearest redeemer had a son by Ruth, and that son was the only surviving heir, then Mahlon’s property and part of his own estate would go to Elimelech’s family. Boaz had played the master tactician! He wanted to marry Ruth and he placed the nearest redeemer in a situation in which he can do no other than offer the right of redemption to Boaz.
In Matthew 1 we read, “Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth … Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called the Christ.”
It could have all been so different.
The unknown redeemer could have been in the genealogy of the Son of God, written down in Scripture and held in great honour. He tried to protect his name and inheritance but in doing so, no one now knows his name, or who were his family were and what became of them. He stayed in insignificance and never became what he could have become.

Wait for it! – Ruth 3: 18 – 4: 2

• God has to wait for the right people/right circumstances

Boaz was waiting for the kinsman-redeemer to come along.

As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. Matthew 27:57

God always has someone/something in the wings ready at the right time to come onto centre stage.

God has an appointed time for the promises over your life. No matter how much you beg or plead or try to make it happen, it is for the appointed time.

4:3 Then he said …. and the story comes to its conclusion, Ruth reaches her destiny, she becomes what God intended.

Wait for it! – Ruth 3: 18 – 4: 2
• We have to wait
In waiting we will have to overcome:
The feeling of separation
In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me. John 16:16
Every one of us will experience the ‘little whiles’ of life. It is the rule and not the exception. It is here that God seems to have gone and left us and we have to hang on by faith. We go through times like the disciples during Friday and Sunday they are waiting without Jesus. If we are to live through these waiting times then we need to know His Word not just then, but we need to know it before that ‘little while’ so that we can hold on to it. We need to trust His Word. We need to believe that during our waiting time God is at work.
Away from the disciple’s sight God was powerfully at work defeating the principalities and powers.
Maybe you are in the waiting stage, nothing much may appear to be happening. However something may be happening to you and you are not yet aware of it.
We so often want to make waiting on God the exception and not the rule. We trust in our own wisdom and when there are no open doors we force the locks. In the end we can get the doors open, find places of opportunity but the most important stage, our maturity, our preparation never takes place and we stumble through life never growing in God.

Wait for it! – Ruth 3: 18 – 4: 2

• We have to wait
Choosing to wait and having it forced on you is something else.
Here are a few feelings that we need to overcome during the waiting period.

The feeling of helplessness: Then Naomi said, ‘Wait my daughter’ 3:18. Ruth would have accomplished nothing by following Boaz all over Bethlehem, trying to help him sort things out. So often we want to help God out, make things work and we just make things worse.

The feeling of anxiety: “As Pharoah approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them … Moses said ‘Don’t be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring.” Exodus 14:10,13. Sometimes the pressure and pain become intolerable. We panic because we cannot see a way out or a way through. You may be in a time of waiting now. God wants to replace your worrying with learning to rest in Him despite your difficulty.

The feeling of I’m going to land on my face any minute now!: Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10. Sometimes it would seem that the answer is not coming. It is then we need to ‘Be still’, meaning to take our hands off the situation and relax. He can accomplish the impossible without us. It is then that we will ‘Know’ Him.
Think of the actions of a trapeze artist:
The flyer must never try to catch the catcher. He must wait in absolute trust. The catcher will catch him. But he must wait. His job is not to flail about in anxiety. In fact, if he does, it could kill him. His job is to be still, to wait. And to wait is the hardest work of all.
Henri Nouwen

Will you be still, are you shouting catch me I’m falling or will you wait in stillness trusting that He will?

Wait for it! – Ruth 3: 18 – 4: 2
I’m not sure about you, but I hate waiting. Yet there is much that is so painful to bear.
The waiting of a single person who so hopes that God will one day open the day for marriage can be a heavy burden. Think of the couple longing for their first child but with little success. The waiting of a child who already is feeling isolated and wants just one good friend to come along and like them. The waiting of an elderly person in a nursing home wanting to die but is waiting for that last breath. Waiting can be the hardest thing we do in life.
• God has to wait
Boaz went up to the town gate and sat there. 4:1.
Boaz waited.
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.
Genesis 2:2
If God had to take time out, to rest, to wait, then we should also.
Then again why did God take six days to create the world? Surely He could have done it one. Why did God take so much time before He sent His Son? Why is it taking so much time for Jesus to come again? God also has to wait. God restricts Himself to that which he created – time. Only heaven will show us why.
We therefore see throughout the Bible God’s people having to wait sometimes a lot longer than others.
Abraham received a promise when he was 75 years of age, but it wasn’t fulfilled for another 25 years. At 100 years of age Abraham received his son, Isaac, and a nation was birthed, (Genesis 12:1-4). Moses spent 40 years learning to wait on God, when he 80 years old God felt his preparation was complete. When Apostle Paul first became a Christian he spent 3 years in Arabia before joining the church.
If you are having to wait on something then maybe God is too.

Trust an old-fashioned word a present-day need
Ruth 3:10-17
“And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid.” V11
Boaz was asking Ruth to put her trust in him that he would fulfil her request. Ruth had to step back now and let Boaz do only what he could do. There are times when we simply need to take our hands off situations and stand back and trust.
“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”Psalm 20:7
Whatever God starts, He finishes. What He does, He does well. He can be trusted.
Trusting is easy when there’s nothing to have to trust God for.
Trusting is easier to sing. It is easier to have trusted than it is to begin to trust.
We do become anxious, we do become uncertain as to the way ahead. We do get feelings of insecurity. One moment we can be God’s man of faith and then we can be empty. We can even have times when we question whether we are a Christian at all. We know its possible to defect from Christianity. We know of many who have done this very thing. We read in the Bible of people like Hymenaeus and Alexander who shipwrecked their faith. So it’s very possible. How do I know that I haven’t already shipwrecked my faith? When one problem after another comes, when the clouds of depression gather its easy for anyone to question whether they have fallen from the faith.
What we forget is that we are not unusual. Every person of faith is a sinner and a doubter.
Our security never depends on how sure we are of ourselves, but because we trust in the name of the Lord our God who is sure for us. We cannot put our trust in our performance, in our health, in our righteousness, in chariots and horses. But God is trustworthy. He can be trusted.
The aim of fear is to try and get you to blow your destiny. Trusting in God and His Word will prevent that happening.

You are worth more than that! – Ruth 3: 1-9
Go v3
Everyone needs someone who will lean up close and say, ‘Don’t be average, don’t settle for mediocrity, don’t think like the status quo, aim far higher than what is expected of you, and go for it!’
• Go and risk being criticised.
V9 reveals that Ruth was not trying to seduce him but to request his hand in marriage.
“Boaz had a good time, eating and drinking his fill – he felt great. Then he went off to get some sleep, lying down at the end of a stack of barley. Ruth quietly followed; she lay down to signal her availability for marriage. In the middle of the night the man was suddenly startled and sat up. Surprise! This woman asleep at his feet! He said, “And who are you?” She said, “I am Ruth, your maiden; take me under your protecting wing. You’re my close relative, you know, in the circle of covenant redeemers – you have the right to marry me.” V7-9. The Message.
Her intentions were honourable. However, there may have been some who wouldn’t see it like that. She’s washed, perfumed and has her best clothes on and in she walks. Ruth is risking being criticised from the other harvesters and gleaners of seducing a sugar-daddy for the promise of wealth. Criticism is part and parcel of becoming all that you can become. To move from insignificance to your destiny will mean risking the critics who are either jealous or misunderstand your motivation. If you stop at every turn to explain your actions to everyone, you may never get started and the desire to please people will prove to be a snare.

You are worth more than that! – Ruth 3: 1-9
V1. My daughter, should I not try to find a home for you where you will be well provided for?NIV
My daughter shall I not seek rest or a home for you, that you may prosper? Amplified.
My dear daughter, isn’t it about time I arranged a good home for you so you can have a happy life? Message
At this time it was normal practice that parents arranged their children’s marriage and so Naomi was just fulfilling her duty. She is trying to tell Ruth – Now is the time Ruth for changes around here. Your purpose in life is not to stay single with a poor widow to look after. You are worth more than this!
There comes a time with everyone of God’s people when hope is awakened by the precious name of Jesus, His kindness and His redemption and we begin to hear the Spirit’s prompting – You are worth more than that! You have not been put on this earth to go under, to be overwhelmed and eaten away at the predicament you have found yourself to be in. You were created for something much better.
Not that you should be free of problems and the many difficulties of this life, for your time on earth can have many challenges. But you are worth more than what those challenges can cause in you. You are worth more than just accepting that your life consists of isolation, rejection, defeat, disillusionment, anxiety, frustration, lack of self-worth, loss of identity, and the list goes on. You are worth more than these things. We all need to begin to believe that God has a purpose for our life and its not to wallow in self-pity no matter how hard our life is.
One day Naomi said to Ruth it’s time! Everyone needs someone to jolt them out of mundane Christianity and up a level. To be able to say there is so much wasted potential here, you are worth more than this.

Your hope can be revived. – Ruth 2: 19-23

Through His community
v22,23 Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with his girls, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.” So Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean …

• Community amongst believers will do you good.
Who or what you allow to surround you with is what will eventually be in you. If you only surround yourself with a non-believing community, their attitudes, their agendas will be in you before long. Surround yourself with a community of believers and you will be influenced for the good.

• Community amongst believers will safe-guard you.
People who leave churches smiling (ie.They are glad to leave) are generally people who have lost community. People who leave churches weeping (ie. God has called them but they don’t want to go really) are people who are in community.

• Community amongst believers will take work in staying close to them.
It will never be convenient for you stay close to a group of believers. You will at times not feel like meeting them. But if you are going to experience genuine community then regular, frequent contact is needed.

Reviving hope comes through the power of togetherness.

Awakening hope – Ruth 2: 19-23

Through His redemption
v20. That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers.
The Levitical law (Lev 25: 25-34) stated that a near relative could buy the deceased family’s mortgaged property to keep it in the family. Naomi wasn’t wealthy enough to buy Elimelech’s property back, but Boaz was wealthy and could redeem Elimelech’s mortgaged property. But also the wife of the deceased went with the property. The kinsman redeemer would marry the wife, bring up the children and keep the family name. We’re not told the connection Ruth’s husband, Mahlon, had with Elimelech’s property, but there was some, as Ruth became a likely candidate for Boaz, so Naomi thought.
This idea of redemption is not limited to property, but to animals and people. In the New Testament the word refers to Jesus buying back what has been lost. What was used to buy back our sinful lives? The precious blood of Christ (1 Peter 1: 19)
Would you be free from your burden of sin?
There’s power in the blood, power in the blood;
Would you over evil a victory win?
There’s wonderful power in the blood
There is power … power, wonder-working power.
In the blood … of the Lamb …
There is power … power, wonder-working power.
In the precious blood of the Lamb.
What can wash away my stain?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus:
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Oh, precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus