(The Book of Ruth) 2. Boaz - the Kinsman — Roy Hession

Yesterday, Nemi seemed to be the character that filled most of the picture, and her sad experiences. Today, Boaz, her near kinsman, is going to be the one who fills the picture. We don't have to read very much of this to cover the necessary ground for this morning study, but we'll just read the few necessary verses.

Boaz and Naomi’s Poverty

Chapter two, verse one. And Nemi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth. And in my Bible, I've drawn a line and linked it up to that phrase in verse twenty-one. The Lord hath brought me home again empty.

The poorest person in Israel was Nemi and her daughter-in-law, Ruth. But in contrast to her poverty, she had a kinsman of her husband's who was a mighty man of wealth. And the story is the story of how her poverty and Ruth's poverty was met by Boaz and his wealth.

And Nemi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabite said unto Nemi, Let me now go to the field and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace.

And she said unto her, Go, my daughter. And she went and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And her hat was to light upon a part of the field belonging unto Boaz who was of the kindred of Elimelech.

And then over in verse twenty, the last half of that verse,. And Nemi said unto Ruth when she got back, The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen. And the margin of the revised version of 1881 says, The man is nigh of kin unto us, one of them that hath the right to redeem for us.

Yesterday we heard Nemi saying with sorrow, I went out full and the Lord hath not, I'm sorry, I went out full and the Lord hath brought me home again empty. And we said yes, she did indeed come absolutely empty.

But she wasn't going to remain empty. And the same was true of Ruth her daughter-in-law. She came back empty, but neither was she going to remain empty. But rather she became a princess in Israel. And all because Nemi had a kinsman who was a mighty man of wealth.

His name was Boaz. And as a near kinsman, according to the law of Moses, he had the right to redeem all that his relative had sold. And we said that this word applies so much to us. We went out full, didn't you?

You thought you knew it all, you had the ideas, you knew what was best, you made your own choice, you went out full. Hasn't turned out too well, has it? But thank God it can be true of you if it isn't already that the Lord's brought you home again, but although thank God you've come back to Bethlehem, you've come back empty.

Come back to him, we trust, in some measure of repentance, to face complicated situations and loss, which in some cases have been due to your own actions. But although we've come home empty, we're not going to remain empty.

And all because, like Naomi, we've got a kinsman, a man of mighty wealth than ever Boaz was. His name is Jesus, and he has, as his supreme right, the right to redeem for flops and failures all they've lost, and to do so in the grandest style.

Redemption in the Old Testament

This is grace. And we see Jesus, full of grace and truth, having the right to redeem, on our behalf, every failure, every loss, and make things better for us at our end than they ever were at our beginning.

Now here we come to the very heart of the Bible teaching on redemption. Did you know that the whole teaching of the Bible on this great word of redemption is based on this right given to the next of kin?

Redemption is an Old Testament word before it's ever a New Testament word. Redemption in the New Testament is based on the teaching of redemption in the Old Testament. And you and I will never understand the fullness of redemption in the New unless we've in some measure apprehended how it all began in the Old.

And nowhere is the Old Testament teaching on redemption more fully exemplified than in the Book of Ruth. And it is that which makes this Book of Ruth such an important one. It's not a nice little sentimental love story.

I've got a book on Ruth, I've found some helpful things in it, it's called Love at Harvest Time. My dear friends, it is. It is a love story. Now the Gospel's a love story in any case. But it's got something of tremendous importance.

I would say the whole meaning of redemption for us today is based first on the ancient law of Moses with regard to the matter and it is shown how it's exemplified and works out in this Book of Ruth. So this book is of paramount importance.

In fact of course with me, any book I'm studying in the Scriptures seems to be the best book in the whole Bible. Or this is the greatest book. Then I move on to another one and that's the greatest. Well that's how it should be I suppose.

I wanted to look at the law of Moses as to the matter of the rights that were given to a kinsman to redeem on behalf of his brother. Would you turn to Leviticus chapter 25 verse 23. And you know these laws of Jehovah are all kindly laws.

They're not severe. Even the death penalty prescribed in the law of Moses for murder was a kindly law. It was designed to inculcate respect for human life and to protect innocent people. And in rescinding the death penalty today we seem to be more concerned to be kind to the criminal than to those whom he may attack.

But God's laws are kindly laws. And so it is with this one. Verse 23. The land shall not be sold forever. That promised land was apportioned among the Israelites by Joshua and it was not to be sold. And God never intended that any family should lose its family inheritance.

For the land is mine and ye are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land if thy brother be waxen poor and has sold away some of his possession.

And if any of his kin come to redeem it then shall he redeem that which his brother hath sold. And so there you have this clearly stated. That the next of kin had the right to redeem anything that his brother or relative had sold because of poverty and dire need.

In other words such sale of land was never to be regarded as final. There was no freehold in a sense except to the original owner. And there was always a possibility. And the right conferred on the next of kin to go to that purchaser and buy it back on behalf of him.

And the purchaser couldn't say him nay. Indeed he bought it on that understanding. But not only could lands be sold but a man could get to a far greater worse state of need and he could sell himself. To be a slave of another.

To liquidate his debts and to extricate his family. Pathetic situation. And it says in verse 47. If a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor and selleth not his lands only but himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee or to the stock of the stranger's family after he is sold, hallelujah, he may be redeemed.

Even the sale of a man's person wasn't final. One of his brethren may redeem him. Of course there was another law that was a kindly law and that was that every 50 years there was what was called the year of jubilee.

When in any case every land that had been sold was returned to the original family free of charge and every person who'd sold himself was set free. But that was only every 50 years. A man might not live as long as 50 years and he'd have to spend the rest of his time in slavery and his family spend the rest of their time without their family farm.

And so it was that meantime, ere the jubilee came, the next of kin had this beautiful right conferred upon him to step in right there and redeem and restore what was lost. The next of kin had another right, indeed it was in this case a responsibility.

Turn to Deuteronomy 25, verse 5, brethren dwell together and one of them die and have no child. The wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger. You see the land wasn't a pass out of the family, neither was the widow.

If of course, only if, she died childless. You see in that case the name would vanish, the father's name and God never intended either that land should be alienated from the original family or that a name of a family should die out in Israel.

Her husband's brother shall go in unto her and take her to him, to wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her. And it shall be that the firstborn which she bears shall succeed not in the name of the new husband, but in the name of the dead brother.

And he shall take over those family estates. He can't give to his own original firstborn those family estates. It was that child was accounted, the second child that he bore by the other woman was to be counted as the true heir to take his dead brother's place.

That his name be not put out of Israel. This looks, as I've said, not only a right, but a duty. And the passage goes on to say that if a husband's brother is unwilling to perform that duty, he is to be regarded as a disgrace.

There was a little ceremony performed to show their utter contempt for the man who would not raise up seed to his dead brother to inherit those other family estates. Now the one who had this right in our authorized version is called a kinsman.

Goel: Kinsman and Redeemer

But actually the Hebrew word, of course, and it's well known, is goel. And goel is the word in Hebrew translated kinsman. And it is elsewhere translated redeemer. So kinsman and redeemer are exactly the same word.

I looked up in my concordance, my beloved, beloved young analytical concordance. That's the reason why I'm sticking by the old authorized version. Because if I give up the authorized version, I have to give up my lovely young's analytical concordance.

How can I tell you what the Hebrew word is? I didn't study Hebrew, but I got my young's. I've stolen the march and all the scholars. So can you. If first you stick by your authorized version, and then you acquire, and then you acquire for yourself a young's analytical concordance, which is, of course, based on the authorized version, there's nothing like it produced for the revised standard version.

And so, as I've said, according to my dear brother young, goel is translated 14 times as kinsman, 59 times redeemer. And whenever you read that word redeemer in the Old Testament, it's always goel. And it brings back the whole of this picture, which puts into the word something very tender, very touching, as we shall see.

But in order for a man to be a goel, he had to be a near relative. And the word there is another Hebrew word. As I just said, kinsman in the book of Ruth is goel, but not in every place. In some places, the word kinsman is another Hebrew word which means a relative, a straight, plain, straight relative.

Modah is apparently the word. And if a man was to be a goel, one that had to write to redeem for his poor relatives, he had to be a relative himself. He had to be a modah. And it's very interesting in those, there are one or two verses where you can see the two words, at least if you've got a Young's Analytical Concordance.

Chapter two, verse one. And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, that is, a relative, a modah. She knew him as a modah, but it didn't dawn on her that as a modah, he was also a goel, one that had this peculiar right.

And you see the two words in the one verse, in verse twenty, the last sentence. And Naomi said unto her, the man is a modah, a goel. The man is near of kin to us, an ordinary relative. And then comes this wonderful word, a goel.

And the margin of the 1881 revised has one of them that hath the right. To redeem for us. She realized that her modah, her ordinary relative, was a goel. Who had this extraordinary right, the right to redeem.

Jesus as the Near Kinsman Redeemer

Well now, what's the meaning of all this for us? Jesus is our goel, because thou art my nearest kinsman. Jesus is the one upon whom the Father hath confirmed the extraordinary right to redeem on behalf of flocks, failures, sinners, people who find themselves in extraordinary messes, who've broken the laws and done the wrong things, who've adopted the wrong attitudes and got themselves into extraordinary messes.

And if they're unsaved, they're bound for hell. But God has found one upon whom he's confirmed this extraordinary right to redeem, to restore, to recover on behalf of all such people as I've described.

Of course, there is the year of jubilee coming, when all the saved will get to glory. And when every problem that hasn't been fully solved down here will be solved up there. When every tear will be dried.

When everything will be resolved. That glorious year of jubilee, and don't we love to sing those hymns of that great and glorious day. But that's quite a way off, perhaps, for some. Meantime you've got to go on dragging your steps, burdened with your problems, beaten with a sense of reproach.

Go on with situations for which we don't seem to have an answer. Go on with all sorts of unresolved things in the depth of your personality. You could anticipate that year of jubilee, so could I. And we could know something fuller than we've ever realised of that mighty redemption that will be consummated then, but we can have a thousand times more than we've realised.

You don't have to go on with tears. You don't have to go on with burdens. You don't have to settle for less than the best. You don't have to make do with that unresolved problem, and that difficult situation, that past in which there's skeletons in the cupboard.

Jesus is your kinsman redeemer, your go-out, who wants to anticipate for every one of us that glorious final culmination in the jubilee. Praise the Lord. I want myself to lift my sights higher. Why, can't Jesus really redeem and deliver me from this and that?

Have I really got to go on bearing burdens from which he would release us? Of course not. And so we have our nearest kinsman, our go-out, the one who has the right to redeem for us. Now, going back to the picture here, for a man to redeem for another, three things were necessary.

Christ’s Incarnation as Near Kinsman

First, he must be a near kinsman. To be a go-out, he's got to be a murderer. And if Jesus is to be this sort of saviour for people like us, he must acquire the right to redeem us by really becoming our brother, our kinsman.

And this is the whole argument of Hebrews 2, I believe. It's all based on all this Old Testament truth we've been thinking about. Hebrews 2, verse 14,. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death.

That is the devil. Have you got it, Hebrews 2, verse 14? Don't be ashamed to look at the index, that's what it's for. Some people always look at the index a bit quietly. They don't want to be seen to be defeated.

Well, I want to tell you, to this day I'm defeated in the order of some books of the Bible, especially those minor prophets. Hebrews 2, verse 14,. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death.

That is the devil. And delivered them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage for verily. He took not on him the nature of angels. He was made little lower than the angels and he took on him the seed of Abraham.

Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren. In all things, not a tear, not a sorrow, not a test, that he'd been in that place for us all. He sat in the deepest way possible where the most deprived are sat.

It behoved him to be made like unto his brethren. We're his brethren, he says so. I hardly dare call him my brother, but he calls me his brother. And when I'm suffering most and most upset, he says, I'm your brother.

I'm your near kinsman. I be made like unto you in all things, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God. I believe it would be a most interesting study, I've never engaged upon it myself, to go through every loss and deprivation which men suffer.

And ascertain, if it isn't a fact, that Jesus suffered the same deprivation. I don't think the man on the poverty line that can go to Jesus, cry and say, Jesus, I'm poor, whatever you became. I don't think so.

He really identified himself with human flesh and the human condition in the deepest way, made like unto his brethren. He really is our murderer. In order that he might become our Goel. I was reading a bit of history, and I love biography and history, I expect you do, it's so instructive in many things.

And I read, I can't remember the book now, but I copied out the comment about Elizabeth, one of the daughters of Charles I, who you will remember was beheaded in Whitehall. And they put this girl, one of his daughters, Elizabeth, in the Tower of London.

She was a weakly soul, and she had consumption. And of course, lying in the Tower of London made things worse. And eventually she died of TB in the Tower of London. And when they went in one morning, they found her body dead.

And her head was lying on an open Bible, on the very text. Come unto me, or ye that labour, and a heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And the historian added this beautiful comment, she found comfort in the one who, as her brother, was made like unto her in all things.

Can't you do the same? No loss, no pain, no deprivation, no hurt, no wrong that you suffered, that he suffered at an even greater depth. In his life, and upon the cross. Please turn the cassette over now, do not fast wind it in either direction.

No loss, no pain, no deprivation, no hurt, no wrong that you suffered, that he suffered at an even greater depth. In his life, and upon the cross. And Jesus Christ has acquired the right to redeem, in that he's partaken of our flesh, our blood.

But the Incarnation, while it has made him our near kinsman, hasn't made him near enough, if he's going to redeem us from our troubles and follies. Because very often our troubles and situations, and this great lack in our experience, this dryness, and this out of touchness with God that we suffer, and for the saint that's a suffering indeed.

So often these losses in which we are involved are as a result of our own fault. As a result of our own culpability. And the Incarnation, in itself, hasn't got an answer to sin. And so the one who partook of our flesh and blood went further.

And he climbed the hill called Calvary, and he died our death, and he bore our guilt. He accepted our culpability as his own. And he was numbered with transgressors. In the Incarnation at the manger he was numbered with men.

At the cross he was numbered with and classed as a transgressor himself to redeem them from that which has caused all their many troubles. You see, a criminal in a cell, bearing the shame and disgrace of his own crimes, might say to us, You talk about Jesus being made like unto us, he said, I don't think he's been made like me.

Just look at this, I've made such a mess and now I'm here. You're wrong, man. He knew what guilt was. He knew the shame and disgrace arising from guilt. He did that on the cross, it wasn't his but ours.

But he knew it as if it was his own. And even for the man who's messed things up, has made a mess, it's his own fault. Jesus is being made like unto him. And we can say to the man who's as low as can be, this one is your nearest kinsman.

And so it is. He has acquired for himself the right to redeem in becoming our brother in humanity. And can you believe it? Identifying himself with our sin. That was the first thing that a man had to have if he was to redeem for another.

He had to be next of kin, he had to be nigh of kin. The second thing he had to have if he was to redeem was the means with which to redeem. A man might have the right to redeem what his poor relative has sold, but he might be pretty poor himself.

Christ’s Power to Redeem Impossible Situations

And have no power with which to redeem his brother. In the case of Burys, it was otherwise. He was a mighty man of wealth. He not only had the right to redeem, but he had the power with which to do so.

And Jesus Christ, if he's to be my nearest kinsman that redeems, must not only have the right, he's got the right. He can defy hell, I've got the right to take that sinner's part. I've got the right to be on the side of the poor and needy, even when it's their own fault.

I have the right. But has he got the power? Has he got the power not only to forgive sin, but what about the results of sin? What about the complicated circumstances? What about the broken relationships?

What about the lost experience? Everything. You know, that's the area, the area of recovering all that we've lost in which he excels. And in Isaiah 50 it says, Is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem and recover?

Even that situation. Even that marriage situation. Even that affair with the teenagers. Even that problem. Or it may not be all that big, it may be these day-to-day things that go wrong. And you're in despair.

I am. But Jesus says, listen, if you're prepared to take a sinner's place in the matter, the mess that you've made becomes my responsibility. Have I no power to deliver? Is my hand shortened that it cannot redeem?

On Sunday afternoon we heard Bill Gator sing that lovely song, Jesus is Lord of all. And there's one line in that song that helps me very much, All my failures His power redeems. Not only His blood, which deals with culpability, but His power that deals with impossible situations in which we despair.

All my failures His power redeems. It seems to me, at the moment I'm prepared to admit I'm the one who's to blame, if not initially I've contributed to the situation, I'm the one. That situation, as I've just said, becomes His raw material.

The element of culpability on your part is gone forever. Although that situation may last a time, if you've been to Jesus for the cleansing power, you do not need to take a stick to yourself any more.

Once David had confessed that he'd sinned, the consequent situation he saw to be God's responsibility, the element of culpability was gone, he ceased to beat himself any more, and he looked to God with the utmost confidence to undertake for him in the matter of absence rebellion.

That was prophesied as one of the disciplines arising out of his sin. But in Psalm 22 nobody could have prayed with greater boldness and confidence that God would smite his enemies upon the cheekbone and break their teeth.

I tell you, he didn't mind using language, he was so bold. But David, why haven't you got your tail between your leg? You know why this has happened. God doesn't. It's gone. There's no record of it. And this now that's happened is simply neutral, raw material, for God to work a new thing out of.

Can you believe it? And is he able to? All my failures. He not only forgives, but his power redeems. If the man of the heart is being to the cross over the situation, then you can rest, and you can pray and trust with utter confidence for a glorious recovery out of all that you've contributed in going wrong.

I mean, if it isn't this way, what other saviour have we got? This is the Gospel. And a great multitude of men can stand up and tell us how Jesus made the mob vessel over again another vessel. And so to redeem a relative had to be a relative.

As Jesus is ours. Not only that, he had to have the means with which to do it. And Jesus has. I tell you, it takes some believing. Especially when you're blaming yourself. Especially when memory arises to accuse you.

Oh, praise the Lord for the power of the precious blood of his Son that covers the culpability with the might of his right hand that makes all things new, sometimes quite suddenly, sometimes progressively over a period.

Because you are the only one that's got to change their attitude sometimes. God's got to work in somebody else. And we don't know what the new thing is going to be that he's going to work out. It may not be always a mere restoration of the status quo.

It may be another vessel, as seems good to the potter to make it, but he's going to make it out of the very clay which got marred. And then, more than that, a relative had to be willing to do this. He might have the right, he has the right.

Christ’s Willingness to Redeem

He might even have the power, but he might not have the willingness. Indeed, there was a nearer kinsman than Boaz, as the story tells, who at first was willing to do it on behalf of Ruth. But when he realised that marrying Ruth was part of the package deal, it wasn't so keen, he said, oh no, I can't do it.

But what about Boaz? Was he willing to redeem the lost inheritance of his brother? More than willing. It wasn't merely good-naturedness on his part, but he understood the package deal meant raising up seed to his dead brother.

That meant marrying Ruth. And the fact is he'd already lost his heart to her. And when he had to offer it to the other fellow first, he was holding his breath, he said, I hope to goodness he turns it down.

And the very thing that made the first man turn it down, Ruth, was the very thing that made the whole transaction so attractive to Boaz. No doubt of his willingness, for it meant possessing Ruth, as well as restoring that family's lost inheritance.

And you know, Jesus is not only concerned with restoring what you and I have lost, and getting you rejoicing again, and getting you happy again, and getting you to feel your problems are now in his hands, and on the way to being solved.

No, no, he's concerned about you. It's a package deal for Jesus, as it was for Boaz. It's not only your lost inheritance, but you go with it. And I want to tell you, you are the great attraction to Jesus in the whole deal.

Oh, he'd do it if it didn't involve you, but involving you is really what makes the deal so attractive. You're just loved. He's lost his heart to you. I want to tell you, I can understand Jesus losing his heart to a man, especially when that man begins to admit his poverty.

When, like Ruth, he doesn't profess to be a reaper, only a pathetic corg leaner, the lowest in the land, confesses of a stranger and a foreigner who's got no rights. Oh, I tell you, my heart's always touched when I hear a person take that place.

My heart is drawn out how much more his. And the fact of the matter, dear one, who sighs over his problems, he's lost his heart to you. And it's you that makes the whole thing so attractive to him. This, then, is the meaning of redemption.

Redemption as Revival and the Redeemer of Lost Causes

Not merely the forgiveness of sins, but this wider aspect. As I've said the other day, I really equate it with revival. This is revival teaching God doing something again, and doing it in grand style.

And as I've already said, this word goel, translated here kinsman, elsewhere is translated redeemer 59 times. And thus it is when Jehovah says to Israel, his people, I am the holy one of Israel, thy redeemer.

It was the most touching, pathetic word. I am thy kinsman, and as such I have the right to redeem you. And the interesting thing is, this word redeemer, with regard to Israel, in the book of Isaiah, does not appear until after chapter 40, after which it's all the time there.

It's only after chapter 40 that you see Israel, in prophecy, as taken captive, a nation peeled and robbed. It's only when the worst, because it hasn't actually happened, but it has in the words of the prophet, the worst has come to the worst, that Jehovah says, all right, now, no problem, I am.

And I don't think Jesus really comes into his own until the worst has come to the worst. That's where he's at his best. Thy redeemer. You're in Babylon, at least the prophet says you're going to be there.

It's a fact as far as I'm concerned, but I've anticipated that condition. And I'm on your side. Thou art my people, my chosen. And that's the meaning for the great change in note from Isaiah 40 to the rest of that great book.

He's revealed as the redeemer of lost causes, of captive nations, of lost hopes, of complicated situations. As I said the other day, when Jesus comes to a life, he doesn't expect to find things right, and he's usually not disappointed in his non-expectations, but he's got the answer.

Whatever it is, a major matter, just the fact that you're all wrong today, you've got out of touch, you've got across somebody, so what? So what, he says, I'm thy redeemer, I've got the answer. And rightly understood, you may misunderstand this, it makes me not afraid of sin.

Not afraid to sin, but not afraid of sin. Some people, they're so fearful, they fail. They're all holding on tight. And of course they do fail. They're like a rabbit fascinated by a snake, because it's fascinated, it walks toward it.

Jesus has got the answer. I don't want it to happen. But I've got the answer, he's got the answer. And that makes me free, it makes me confident, it gives me courage and strength to say no. But if that person feels everything depends on me walking this knife edge, if I fall off, it's all finished.

Don't you believe it? My nearest kinsman. And you know, this truth doesn't make me want to sin, it takes me to the very reverse. Love replaces a sense merely of duty. And every new experience of recovering grace fills my heart with praise and love to him, which, of course, leads me to hate sin.

The Redeemer Who Continually Restores

Redeemer. It's a lovely word, redeemer. This word er, on a word, on a vowel, on a noun, means the one who does something. There's work, and then there's a worker. That is one who does work. When we talk about a worker, we don't mean one who does work once, we mean he habitually works.

There's the word write, then there is a writer. We don't mean one who writes just occasionally, he habitually is a writer. And so we could go on with every other word. There's the word redeem, and there is the word redeemer.

That doesn't mean he's one who just redeems once for all. He is habitually in the business of redeeming lost causes, and lost situations, and lost experiences. My redeemer. My nearest kinsman. And he doesn't come to blame.

Two times in this chapter two comes the word of Boaz to his workers in the field about Ruth. Reproach her not. He's here to redeem. And so I believe there's every cause for you and me, every encouragement, to say with poverty stricken Ruth, spread thy skirt over thine handmaid, for thou art my nearest kinsman.

You've got the right to redeem for me. Take me on. Bail me out. Take me over. And there's nothing he wants to do more. Are you prepared to take a sinner's place, a needy one's place? Not all our troubles are a result of sin.

But it doesn't matter, either one or the other, he's your nearest kinsman. I'm not suggesting that girl in the tower was there because of sin. But in her trouble she found comfort in the one who, as her brother, was made like unto her in all things.

Ah, but you see, my troubles are a result. So what? Even that's been anticipated. Oh, I just feel the Holy Spirit needs for each of our needy hearts to give us a new vision of our nearest kinsman, my nearest kinsman.

We're all so needy underneath. All of us have got our troubles and problems and battles. But thou art my nearest kinsman. Cover me. Spread thy skirt over me. Take me on. Bail me out, Lord, as you've so often done before.

Prayer for Christ’s Redeeming Covering

Let us pray. Shall we sing our chorus there softly to Jesus himself? You're taking the place of one who's a poverty-stricken one. You bring it all to Jesus. Lord Jesus, we're all of us this morning lying at thy feet as Ruth lay.

And we're here, Lord, as candidates. And we're asking thee this morning to extend the border of thy garment over us. Lord, we never realized that those unresolved things were really within thy scope. We thought they lay outside the extent of thy mantle.