FBC Morning Light (2/17/2024)

Good Friday morning, people of faith.

Leviticus 20–25 in Chronological Reading

We are reading this weekend in Leviticus chapters 20 through 25, and let me give you, just since we are doing a chronological reading this year, let me give you a brief summary of each of the chapters before I jump into a part of chapter 25.

Chapter 20 focuses on the penalties for violating the law. Chapter 21 emphasizes the rules that the priests have, particularly in making the offerings that they do, which leads into chapter 22, which is the rules for the offerings and what's to be done with them while making the offering and then what to do with them after the offerings are made.

Chapter 23 is the rules for the different feasts of the nation, and then chapter 24 is care of the tabernacle as well as the blasphemy laws and what's to be done if someone does commit blasphemy. All right, chapter 25, I'm going to focus on verses 23 through 28.

Let me read them to you. The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is mine. In my translation, that mine is capitalized because this is the Lord speaking here. For you are strangers and sojourners with me, and in all the land of your possession you shall grant redemption of the land.

If one of your brethren becomes poor and has sold some of the possession, and if his redeeming relative comes to redeem it, then he may redeem what his brother has sold. Or if the man has no one to redeem it, but he himself becomes able to redeem it, then let him count the years since its sale and restore the remainder to the man to whom he sold it, that he may return to his possession.

But if he is not able to have it restored to himself, then what was sold shall remain in the hand of him who bought it until the year of Jubilee. And in the Jubilee it shall be released, and he shall return to his possession.

So here we have the rules for the kinsman-redeemer. The kinsman-redeemer was a close relative.

He has to be kin.

He has to be able to pay the price to buy back the land that was sold. And finally, he has to be willing to pay the price. Well, in the Old Testament, the most famous example of a kinsman-redeemer is found in.

The book of Ruth.

Ruth, Boaz, and the Picture of Redemption

This whole story of Ruth being a widow and traveling with her mother-in-law, Naomi, back to the land and finding a kinsman-redeemer in Boaz and how that story fits in the grand scheme of redemption.

Let me read here from Ruth chapter 4, starting in verse 13. So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And when he went into her, the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, Blessed be the Lord who has not left you this day without a close relative that is a redeemer, I would say a kinsman-redeemer, and may his name be famous in Israel.

And may he be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons has borne him. Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her bosom and became a nurse to him.

Also the neighbor women gave him a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi, and they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.

Right?

Christ Our Kinsman-Redeemer

So here we have this story all about the kinsman-redeemer relationship and how the Lord used that relationship to produce eventually the greatest Old Testament king in David. And we know through the New Testament now that David was in the lineage of the Christ, and he is our kinsman-redeemer.

This Jesus, let me review for you, he has to be kin, right? Jesus has to be a man, and he has to be God.

Well, why?

First of all, he has to be a man because he has to be our kin to be able to redeem us. Jesus as a man could not redeem by paying the price or penalty for some alien from another planet because he's not kin, right?

He's able to pay the price. He's able to pay a price that we cannot pay. The penalty for our sin is too great. We are imperfect people living in an imperfect land who commit sin on a regular basis. We are not able to pay the penalty that Jesus was able to pay on the cross.

And finally, Jesus is willing to pay the penalty, says, for the joy that was set before him. He endured the cross. He is willing, he is able, and he is our kin. Let's take a moment and thank the Lord this morning that he is, in fact, our kinsman-redeemer if you've placed your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Closing Prayer of Thanksgiving

Let's pray.

Lord, thank you this morning for your word and that you are our kinsman-redeemer, that you left your throne and became a man, and yet you are God. So you are able to pay the penalty for us on the cross and that you willingly paid that penalty for us.

May we walk faithfully with you this day. It's in your son's name, Jesus we pray, amen. Have an excellent day, people of faith.