STUDY 4: THE BIG PICTURE – BOAZ AND JESUS CHRIST
© Rosemary Bardsley 2025
Romans 8:28 tells us ‘we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.’
At one level, the story of Ruth demonstrates how God in his goodness brought a sad story about a human family to a happy ending – despite various sinful choices made within that family. It is good to know that God can and does do this – that his power and his purpose are greater than our choices, greater than our sins, greater than our circumstances; that no situation in which we find ourselves is beyond his power to intervene and redeem. See Section D in this study .
A. GOD’S ETERNAL PURPOSE
But there is another level, far deeper and far grander than God’s intervention in our personal and family lives; greater than his intervention in the affairs of the nations: his eternal purpose, planned before time began, planned before he created the world and us: that, when the time was right, he would send his eternal Son to live on earth as one of us, and to die as our Redeemer, rescuing all who believe in him from the just penalty of our sin.
What do these verses say about that?
1Peter 1:20
Revelation 13:8
2Timothy 1:9
Titus 1:2
1Corinthians 2:7
Matthew 25:34
Throughout the Old Testament, from Genesis 3:15 onwards, God revealed truth about this eternal purpose, in many different forms:
In written and spoken prophecies about Jesus Christ and what he would do.
In the various aspects of Israel’s religion – sacrifice, priesthood, rituals and the Tabernacle/Temple – which spoke in advance of the substitutionary, sin-bearing death, and high priestly mediation of Christ.
In big, dramatic events, such as the exodus from Egypt and Noah’s escape from the global flood – which depicted the salvation, the redemption, that we have in Christ.
And in people, whose lives and whose physical actions foreshadow, in mirco, the life and the spiritual accomplishments of Jesus Christ. Boaz is one of those people.
The New Testament refers to these Old Testament anticipations of Jesus Christ as shadows, copies, a pattern, in which the eternal purpose of God accomplished in and through Jesus Christ was present, but in ‘mystery’ or hidden form. Jesus Christ and his death were always the reality hidden in the Old Testament words and symbols.
B. BOAZ – A PROPHETIC PICTURE OF JESUS CHRIST
When we read about Boaz in the book of Ruth, we are reading, in hidden, prophetic form, about Jesus Christ. For those who know Jesus Christ, and the redemption we have in him, we look at Boaz, and what he did for Ruth, and we can say – ‘Oh! Now I see it! And now I understand more clearly yet another aspect of God’s love for me in Christ!’
Read these verses from Ruth. Answer these questions:
2:1 What was Boaz’ relationship to Naomi?
2:20 What did Naomi call Boaz?
3:9 How did Ruth explain her presence at Boaz’ feet?
3:12 What did Boaz acknowledge?
3:13 What did Boaz promise?
There are two important aspects of the ‘kinsman-redeemer’ concept – (1) who he is, and (2) what he does.
B.1 Jesus Christ – our ‘kinsman’
The role of a ‘kinsman-redeem’ had to be filled by a man of the same family or clan as the deceased husband. It could not be filled by someone outside the family.
For the eternal Son of God to fill the role of kinsman-redeemer for us, he had to be born in the same family as us, that is, he had to be born into the human family. Only as a human would he be qualified to act on our behalf.
Study these verses from the letter to the Hebrews. 2 What do they say about the necessary humanity of Jesus Christ?
Verse 9:
Verse 10:
Verse 11:
Verse 12:
Verse 14:
Verse 17:
Only as a human could Jesus die as our substitute under the judgement of God. Only as a human can he represent us in the presence of God as our mediator/priest. He had to live the hard yards of human life in order to sympathize with us in our weakness and in the pressures that characterize our lives.
B.2 Jesus Christ – our ‘redeemer’
As Ruth’s kinsman-redeemer Boaz rescued Ruth from all that her widowhood involved: he gave her rest, he gave her a home, he gave her physical and financial security, he gave her a position in the community. In addition, he, through his and Ruth’s first born son, secured the name, the land and the inheritance of her deceased husband, Mahlon, so that Mahlon’s name and inheritance in the land would not be lost. What was lost by Mahlon’s death without a child, was restored. See 4:5, 10.
The redemptive actions of the kinsman-redeemer anticipate and demonstrate in micro the grand reality of the redemption that we have in Christ, our Redeemer.
What do these verses tell us about the redemption we have in Jesus Christ?
Mark 10:45
Romans 3:22 – 24
1Corinthians 1:30
1Corinthians 6:20
Galatians 3:13, 14
Galatians 4:4, 5
Ephesians 1:7
Titus 2:14
Hebrews 9:12
Hebrews 9:15
Revelation 5:9
From these verses we learn:
There is a cost involved in being a ‘redeemer’. Note the references to the ‘ransom’ or ‘price’ that must be given in order to redeem. In the story of Ruth the other potential kinsman-redeemer was not willing to incur that cost (Ruth 4:6).
That, as a result of the redemptive action of Jesus Christ, we now belong to him forever.
That when Christ redeems us he sets us free from our guilt, the curse (the law of sin and death), our sins and their punishment – from all that held us in a state of bondage and alienation from God.
As redeemer, Jesus brings us back into the life for which we were created – life in the presence God. He restores to us that which was lost in Genesis 3.
[See this study for a detailed focus on the redemption we have in Christ.]
C. AN UNEXPECTED BLESSEDNESS
All unknown to any of the characters in the story is a blessedness far beyond anything they could have imagined.
What ‘blessing’ did they desire?
Ruth for herself – 1:16 – 18:
Boaz for Ruth – 2:12:
Ruth from Boaz – 2:13:
Naomi for Boaz – 2:19, 20:
Boaz for Ruth – 3:10:
The elders for Boaz and Ruth – 4:11, 12:
The women for Naomi through her grandson – 4:14b, 15:
Most of these desired/prayed for blessings are limited in their focus. They have the present and the immediate future in mind. The last two look beyond the immediate, physical and personal comfort and blessedness to generations of descendants. But the future blessedness that God would freely give through a descendant of this child was bigger than even they had in mind.
The writer of the story takes this expectation up in reporting the family line up to the birth of David – Ruth 4:17b – 22. He knew, and we know, that God blessed Israel greatly through David.
But we know something that the writer did not know. We know of a longer genealogy that takes the family line beyond David to Jesus Christ.
What do these Old Testament prophecies say about a future descendant of Naomi’s grandson?
Isaiah 9:7
Isaiah 11:1 – 11
Jeremiah 23:5, 6
Jeremiah 33:15 – 18
Ezekiel 34:23, 24
Zechariah 12:10 – 13:1
How do these New Testament verses connect Jesus Christ to David?
Matthew 1:1
Matthew 9:27
Matthew 12:23
Matthew 15:22
Matthew 20:30, 31
Matthew 21:1 – 17
Luke 1:32
Luke 2:4, 11
2Timothy 2:8
Romans 1:3
Revelation 3:7
Revelation 5:5
Revelation 22:16
D. GOD OF GRACE
Ruth was a Moabite woman married by an Israelite man in disobedience to God’s revealed law. Tamar (referenced in Ruth 4:12) was a Canaanite woman who out of desperation deceived Judah into using her as a prostitute. In the centre of both of these women’s stories is the kinsman-redeemer concept. Both, along with Rahab, the harlot of Jericho, and Bathsheba, with whom David committed adultery, are included in the genealogy of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1).
Reflection:
What does God’s inclusion of these women (who by his law were excluded from his people and his presence) in Christ’s human ancestry reveal to you about his mercy, compassion and grace?
How does it reassure you that God’s grace and God’s purpose are bigger than your sin?
How does it help you to see the truth of Romans 8:28, which is quoted at the beginning of this study?