Relative Redeemer - [Ruth 2:17-23]

We say that God took our heads out. We say that God took our heads out. Your face says something right now, by the way, in response to that. We say that God took our heads out. A missionary in West Africa was trying to convey the meaning of the word, redeem, in the Bambara language.

What does redeem mean? How do you describe redemption? Missionary asked the question, and the man responded. He said, years ago, our ancestors were captured by slave traders, chained together, driven to the seacoast, and shipped overseas.

And as they walked by, the prisoners each had a heavy iron collar around their necks. Slaves would pass through a village, and maybe a leader or a chief would see a relative or someone close to him, and he would offer to pay the slave traders gold, ivory, silver, to redeem them, to pay for the ransom.

And then the head of the prisoner would be taken out of the iron collar. We say that God took our heads out. What a wonderful illustration of Jesus dying on the cross, purchasing our freedom because we had the yoke of slavery around our necks.

Ephesians 1 says, in Him, we have redemption through His blood. In Christ, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. Can you imagine if you're a Christian, your head has been taken out of the collar of sin, and you are set free?

God's taken your head out. Let's turn our Bibles to Ruth chapter 2 this morning as we continue going through this wonderful book, the book of Ruth. If you think about the continuum between creation and consummation, Genesis 1 through Revelation 22, Ruth sits about right here.

And what does it contribute in this drama of redemption that unfolds? We're going to find that out today in the book of Ruth. This Christian book, this wonderful book, reminds me of Galatians 4, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Why was Ruth written? Well, some say, you know what, it's just an interesting story. It's a wonderful story, well-written, but it's just a story. Some say, you know, Ruth is written because we don't know what happens to David in the sense that we don't know what happened to him in the past.

Does he have the royal pedigree to become the king? Some say, oh, you just read Ruth because you want to be like Ruth, you want to be like Boaz, good moral characters. So what do we do with this book, the only book in the Bible named after a foreign woman?

Esther is a Hebrew woman. Here we have Ruth, a foreigner. And the thing is, it's not even about Ruth, it's about redemption. Now, Chapter 1, as we know, there was a problem. Famine in the land of Israel, they go down to Moab, barren land, barren wombs, anything but barren graves.

Naomi's husband dies, Ruth's husband dies, Orpah's husband dies. There's a problem in Chapter 1, and it is a story in the sense that there's a problem. How is it resolved? And we move to Chapter 2. Chapter 2 reminds us, as we've seen the last few weeks, that Ruth had some rights as an alien.

God, in His generosity and in His love, said, you know, there are corners to these fields and don't cut the corners, men. When you're harvesting the grain, don't cut the corners. Let that be for the people who need them.

Let the Moabites, let the aliens, let the widows, let other people take those. Leave some of the stalks for them. And if you drop a stalk, leave that as well. And then we move today to our passage, Ruth 2, 17 through 23.

Now, some days I think, I can't believe I have to preach the same message for Second Service too. I'll admit it, some days I think that. But I'm happy to do it today because I don't want to quite leave this passage.

Ruth Chapter 2 gives us such insight. You know, if you're a congregational member and you like the book of Ruth, you know what I call you now, don't you? And I'm one of them as well. You're a Ruthie, for those of you that now love the book of Ruth.

I don't know if we're going to have a good rhyme when we get to Esther, but we'll figure that out later. Chapter 2, verse 17. So she gleaned in the field, all in a day's work, until evening. She worked all day.

Then she beat out what she had gleaned. So you've got a stalk and it's got some grain in it. Now, you've got to take a stick and you've got to whack the thing, so the grain falls out. That's hard work as well.

And it was about an ephah of barley. And so the narrator takes us and starts focusing on what happens the rest of the day. Now, here's the good thing about storytelling and Samuel, who most likely wrote Ruth.

He's going to write in such a way that you're going to want to have disclosures of information that you know, but Ruth doesn't know, that Naomi doesn't know. You know things because the narrator tells you and the characters don't know.

And so when they find out, you go, oh, that was great. And there's building tension and there's building narrative with great drama. And here, Ruth is making up for lost time. She's hardworking. It takes a lot to get all this grain.

What's an ephah? Well, it's probably 29 to 50 pounds of grain. You need probably a pound to live on, so it's about 30 to 50 days worth of food. And she hasn't had any food for how long? She's been scraping things together down in the plains of Moab for how long?

And now, don't you see the generosity of Boaz? Don't you see the hard work of Ruth? 30 pounds. How'd you like to throw that over your shoulder? Boaz is generous. She's followed Boaz's instruction. Don't go down the field over there.

People are going to hurt you, molest you, attack you. Boaz's people must have done what he said because she's got so much. The generosity of Boaz. Verse 18, she took it up, slung it over her shoulder, as far as I know, put it on her head, carried it that way, and went into the city.

Now, what do you think Naomi's been doing now? I know what she's been doing. She's been biting her fingernails. I wonder if she, Ruth, is going to get any food. What's happening? Pacing back and forth.

I've been reading some stuff about the capture or the death of Osama bin Laden, and they called him the Pacer because in his compound, he was the one who was pacing all the time, and the drones could tell that he was the Pacer.

They nicknamed him Geronimo in the mission, but they were wondering where the Pacer was. Before UBL, I think the Pacer, you can just imagine, she's working all day. What's happened to her? Her mother-in-law, verse 18, saw what she had gleaned.

How did she see it? Because she's got a huge, big sack on her shoulder or on her head. I don't know how she carried it. Dragging it, as far as I know. 30, 50 pounds. She saw what she had gleaned. She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied.

Here is Ruth. She eats a cooked meal, and there's plenty left over. She's eaten to the full. Boaz is generous. And everything, remember, Boaz, keep your eye not on Boaz, but on who God is, because God is generous.

God gives so much food, she's never seen it. And there's prepared food. A while ago, our family received a gift certificate from Cheesecake Factory. It's kind of a nice certificate. I'll take any gift certificate.

I have never done it, but you can actually redeem gift certificates by sending them someplace. And so you get like a $500 gift certificate from a store you don't like. You send it to them, and you get 95 of it back just in cash.

I'd never do something like that, especially with the Cheesecake Factory. And so I said to Kim, and I'm working, and, you know, how'd the day go? How was Cheesecake Factory? But I didn't really want to know how Cheesecake Factory was, ultimately.

What did I want to know? Did you bring any doggy bags? Just a little bit of leftovers. Bertrand's ate most of it, I know, but just please. Everything's pointing in this drama of redemption to look at how generous Boaz is.

It's over and above. When I think of New Testament language like this, the giving God, I always think about this verse in Luke. Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.

Unlike your cereal boxes. This is my cereal verse, Luke 38. Because when I open up that cereal box and look in there, that Trader Joe's box to see that kind of vanilla cluster, cashew, almond, ginger thing, and I look down there, the box is this big and there's cereal this big.

Contents might, you know, seem less due to settling. But when God gives, it's more than you can carry. That's the point. And extra cooked leftovers, doggy bags. She's looking out the window. Look at what she's carrying.

Look what she's got. And see, the narrator knows. Ruth knows something that Naomi doesn't know. I've met this generous benefactor. Naomi knows something Ruth doesn't know. We've got a near kinsman, a near relative who can redeem us, and his name's Boaz.

And we're waiting to put these two things together. When will she know what she knows, and when will she know what she knows? I don't know. See, that's the problem. Too often we're just in the Scripture.

We're going way too fast without trying to say, okay, what's the picture here? What's going on? How long has it been since Naomi's eaten a cooked meal? And she gave her what food she had left over after being satisfied.

Verse 19, and her mother-in-law said to her, where'd you glean today? Where have you worked? Asking one question after another. You ever ask somebody a question with excitement, and you don't even give them a chance to respond?

She asked a question, where'd you glean today? She doesn't even give her enough time to respond. It's not really, where did you glean today? Whose field were you in? Where'd you glean today? Where have you worked?

And now she just blesses the man who did this. She doesn't know the name of the guy, but she knows it's 30 to 50 pounds worth and leftovers. Blessed be the man who took notice of you. She told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, don't miss it.

Don't miss, this is building to this climax through this pregnant pausing, waiting to the last second to reveal the guy's name. This is the art of storytelling. I love to tell stories to kids, and here's what I love, and even if I tell a story to an adult, they're like, well, what happens?

What's the guy's name? No, I'm trying to tell you a story. I want you to go. When EF Tutton talks to people, what? They listen. There's a reason why I didn't say that at first service. You can see it here.

The man's name with whom I worked, the man's name with whom I work today is, finally, it's just like the relief. I know what you don't know. You know something I don't know. Now we both know it, Boaz.

Who's so generous? Who does that? Where were you? He said he blessed. Where are you from? Where'd you go? What you got? The man's name with whom I work today is Boaz, Hubbard said, thus the audience, who knew the secret which Naomi did not, anticipated this moment with delight.

The owner of the field is Boaz. Could this be the first excellent thing that's happened to Naomi since chapter 1? Verse 20, And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, May he be blessed by the Lord. All capitals, do you notice?

May he be blessed by Yahweh, the personal name of the covenant, loyal, faithful, generous, giving God of Israel. May he be blessed by Israel whose kindness, whose refers to Boaz, whose refers to the Lord.

Grammatically, we don't know. Maybe we're not supposed to. Is this kindness from God through Boaz? That's what I think she's trying to say. May he be blessed by the Lord whose kindness has not forsaken the living, regarding marriage, or the dead regarding keeping the name going for the inheritance.

Now notice, what about the next five words in English in the ESV? Naomi also said to her, Those don't need to be there. Naomi keeps talking. The man is a close relative of ours, one of our Redeemers. Why is it that the writer puts in, Naomi also said to her?

That's not how you write. But if you want to emphasize something, if you want to underline it, if you want to highlight something, that's exactly what you want to do. Naomi said to her daughter, verse 20, early part, Now she also said, because here is the key point.

Naomi also said to her, The man is a close relative of ours, one of our Redeemers. Key information. Now look back at chapter 1, verse 20. Naomi's discussion of who God is has dramatically changed. Ruth 1 .20,.

And she said to them, Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, but the Lord Yahweh has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me?

And now she's saying the kindness of God and the goodness of God and what He does. And God just gives. And here, He's giving temporally, wonderfully. Key information. This man's a relative. He's a Redeemer.

Now take a look at chapter 3 and 4 with me for this theme of Redeemer. Because when I was a kid, here's what people would say, Mike, what's the theme of Ruth? And I'd say, Kinsmen Redeemer. I don't even know what a Kinsmen Redeemer is.

Is it like a hyphenated last name? I have no idea. Martin Lloyd-Jones? I didn't get it. So let's see what's going on here. And with emphasis, with the word repeated, we're going to know a key theme in Ruth.

The theme in Ruth. Ruth 3 .9. Just make sure we get it. Ruth 3 .9. Toward the end, Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a Redeemer. Chapter 3 verse 12,. And now it is true that I am a Redeemer, yet there is a Redeemer nearer than I.

Chapter 4 verse 1,. Boaz had gone up to the gate, sat down there, and behold the Redeemer. Verse 3,. Then he said to the Redeemer, Ruth 4 .6,. Then the Redeemer said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance.

Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it. And then two more verses, verse 8 of Ruth 4,. So when the Redeemer said to Boaz,. And finally, see the theme? Then the women said to Naomi, Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a Redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel.

Redeemers buy back. Did you ever have some old green stamps and you could put them in a little catalog or keep them and then redeem something? Nobody here wants to admit that they're old enough for some of those S &H, what kind of stamps?

Green stamps, of course. See, back in those days, they all knew. There's somebody in trouble, you get a close relative, and they fix it. You've probably got people like that in your family now. They're fixers.

You get in trouble, who do you call? Who's the patriarch? Somebody that's got the cash and the influence, they fix things. And here, something needs to be redeemed. Someone needs to be redeemed. Closest maybe we have to redemption today, we don't have S &H green stamps, I don't think, maybe they're still around, is we pawn things.

You go down to the pawn shop and you give them something, they give you a little bit money back, and if you are someone who's legally representing you, wants to buy that thing back, you can buy it back from the pawn shop.

You can be the redeemer of your gun, sword. Something that maybe is close, but it's interesting, and so I offer this up to you as well because I did find it fascinating, learned this for the first time in my life, ten days ago.

Mortgage. How many people of you have a mortgage? Mortgage. Mortgage. What's mortgage mean? Well, it's what I got to pay back the bank. Yeah, but what happens if you don't pay it back? I'll tell you what happens.

The mortgage, the muerte gage. Mort, mortuary, death. It's the death gage. What's gage? Pledge. It's a death pledge. When you sign up for a mortgage, you've signed a death pledge. I'm not kidding. It's a death pledge.

Mortgage. Yeah, you'll laugh when you're about 25 by your first house. Laugh it up, buddy. Yuck it up right now while you can. The land or the house or whatever else I have becomes dead to me if I don't pay.

I don't pay, or if I don't have a legal representative, pay that mortgage. That land, that building, that thing is dead to me. And if I'm hurting, and I can't pay, I need somebody to redeem me, to step in for me, to legally represent me, so I don't lose my land.

And most likely, when Naomi and her husband leave Israel and go down to Moab with the famine in the land, most likely they have had to sell their land. Certainly, there needs to be a providing, protecting husband of either Naomi or Ruth because you've got Naomi's husband dead, Ruth's husband dead, Orpah's husband dead.

Who's going to be the redeemer? Who's going to be the protector? Now, the Hebrew word for redeemer, the one used here at least, is G-O-E-L. Kind of like with a little space in between. You could put a dash there, a hyphen, a minus sign.

G-O-E-L. And if you lived in the Bible days, you'd automatically go, Oh yeah, that's the G-O-L. That's the G-O-L. That if somebody killed somebody in your family, you'd send the redeemer to go avenge the death.

Numbers 25. If you had land that had been sold because of hardship economically and you wanted the land back in your family, Leviticus 25 says this, G-O-E-L is the one sent off to redeem. If you need help with a lawsuit, the G-O-L would do that.

If there's a needy member of the family, Leviticus 25, the G-O-L would help. And this is all pushed in here because you've got ladies who need help and they need to be redeemed. Here's the thing. To be a redeemer in Israel, you had to be a blood relative.

You've got to be next of what? Kin. I hate to tell you, but whenever I used to hear next of kin, I'll tell you exactly what I'm thinking about when I hear next of kin. Daniel Boone. Remember watching Daniel Boone in Fess Parker, the only and the original Daniel Boone?

Daniel Boone was a man. Yes, a big man. He had an eye like an eagle and as tall as a mountain was he. Hey, if Alistair Begg can quote songs from the pulpit that are secular, I can too. The rippinest, roarinest, fightinest man this country ever knew.

Well, Daniel Boone, Fess Parker, also was Davy Crockett. He was the actor for Davy Crockett and I never could figure out. I thought as a kid Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone were the same person. But anyway, I remember Fess Parker sitting there talking about the next of kin.

Next of kin? Next of kin. What do you mean next of kin? A relative. A blood relative to be the redeemer in Israel for land, for avenging death, for marrying the wife of a dead brother. You had to be related.

That's the point. Leviticus 25. Then he shall have redemption right after he has been sold. One of his brothers may redeem him. Or his uncle. Or his uncle's son. They may redeem him. Or one of his blood relatives from his family may redeem him.

Or if he prospers, he may redeem himself. For redemption, you have to be next of kin. For redemption, you have to be a blood relative. The word kinsman, Webster's Dictionary, 1847, man of the same race, family are related by blood.

If you need to be delivered, ransomed, rescued, reclaimed, there has to be a blood brother. And I don't mean the kind of blood brother that I had when I was a kid because we'd watch Daniel Boone and then we'd both cut our fingers and touch the fingers.

We'd be blood brothers. I didn't tell the first service any of that. We're learning in Ruth. He's a relative. He's not just generous, but he's a relative. Take a look at verse 21. And Ruth, you think this is subtle?

You've got another thing coming. The Moabite. Remember the cave? The foreigner said, besides, he said to me, you shall keep close by my young men, you know, the workers that will protect her so she's not accosted and assaulted and molested by other workers.

You keep close by my young men. I'm going to protect you until they have finished all my harvest. What? I got 30 to 50 pounds in one day and now he says I can stay for the next two months. I don't know about you, but I've been thinking to myself, if I were in her shoes, 50 pounds one day, two more months, 60 days, 50 pounds, 60 days, 50 times 60 is what?

Well, of course, it's 1 ,750. But that's not my point. No, of course not. This is the generosity. Ruth says, he said stick close to me. He said be glued to me. He said the same word in chapter 1, verse 14, cling to me and my workers.

Look how generous Boaz is. Verse 22, Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, it's good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women lest in another field you be assaulted. Stay under the watchful eye of Boaz.

As long as you can turn around and look at his workers in the eyes, you're under his care. Protected. Listen to what Hubbard said. Ruth was protected for as yet an unknown purpose, perhaps even to bear a child of destiny.

Verse 23, so she kept close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvest a couple months later. 60 times 30. And she lived with her mother-in-law. Now, look back at verse 20.

We're going to park here and this is where we're going to think through this issue. Christianly, Ruth is a Christian book. It's in the Christian canon from Genesis to Revelation. Creation to consummation, where does it fit in?

What's it trying to show us? Look at verse 20, there's a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers. That's the man right there. The Redeemer. Now here's the thing, listen, by nature, God is a Redeemer and by choice, He's a kinsman.

How can you redeem sinners unless you're related to them? God, by nature, is a wonderful Redeemer. What does Exodus 20 say? I'm the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, powerfully redeeming.

Jeremiah 50, their Redeemer is strong, the Lord of hosts is His name. He will plead their cause. He's a kind Redeemer as well. Psalm 82, rescue the weak and the needy, deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

Proverbs 23, He's a powerful Redeemer, but He's kind. Don't move the ancient boundary stones or encroach the fields of the fatherless for their defender is strong. By nature, God is a Redeemer, powerfully redeeming, but by choice, He becomes a kinsman.

Friends, if you worship Jesus Christ and celebrate His incarnation on December 25th alone, you're impoverished. The incarnation of Jesus Christ, Adam, the first Adam, sells His own birthright and yours to sin and in slavery we go with the yoke around our necks because when it went around Adam's neck, guess whose neck it also went around?

New England primer. This is New England, isn't it? New England primer, A. What's the New England primer for A? In Adam's fall, we sinned all. He was the one who sold us into slavery. The man did it. By the way, I love X too.

New England primer, X. What's X? How do you figure out X? Xerxes must die and so must you and I. Adam sells us into slavery as a man. God's a Redeemer by nature, but by will, He, the Son, cloaks Himself with humanity because you've got to be a kinsman, Redeemer, to redeem sinners that have been sold into sin by Adam, the man.

The man sins. The man redeems. Do I love the resurrection? Absolutely. Do I love the atonement? Absolutely. But if you don't have the incarnation, no salvation, no forgiveness, and your head's still in that yoke.

Listen to this verse in light of that. 2 Corinthians 8, 9. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, we're not talking about money, though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor by cloaking Himself with humanity so that you through His poverty might become what?

Rich. You've got to be redeemed. Our hell is for you. But to be redeemed, God is not just a Redeemer, He has to cloak Himself with humanity and that's exactly what the Son does and that's why when you watch Boaz, you say He's a kinsman Redeemer and He points to the greater kinsman Redeemer.

Turn your Bibles please to 1 Timothy 3. I want to highlight the importance of the incarnation. God in the flesh. This is an amazing passage. It's a pastoral epistle. How do you live in a church? How do you do things in a local church?

And 1 Timothy 3, verse 16 gives us a confession. Most of the confessions in the early church history were defending the incarnation. God and man together. Not God and man, but God slash man. God hyphen man.

Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, Ashkenazis Creed. I love creeds. Westminster Confession, 1689, Heidelberg Catechism, 39 articles. But those aren't biblical. This one is in the sense that this is inspired.

Read that by God. 1 Timothy 3, verse 16. Great indeed we confess. And you can even see by a lot of the white spots in your Bible that this looks like some kind of poem. This looks like some kind of hymn.

This looks like some kind of verse or something because it doesn't look like the rest of the epistle. Because it probably was a poem. It probably was a song. Great indeed we confess. What's that word great mean?

It means superior quality and usually with religious significance. Something's really great, but it's of religious significance. It's the best quality. Great indeed we confess. What do we confess? What's at the top of the list of this confession that stems from the last verse, the verse just before it about the pillar and ground of the truth?

What are these pillars? That Jesus was manifest in the flesh. That's the mystery of godliness. The mystery of godliness, He was manifest in the flesh. That's the confession. This is a great confession.

You want to know what a great religious confession is? Jesus Christ cloaked Himself with humanity. Yeah, but I got that and it's not Christmas. That's the wrong attitude. I want to ask you a question.

Could any of you say you were manifest in the flesh? Hi, my name's Mike Ebendroth and I'm a pastor and I was manifest in the flesh. 1960. I hope you look at me like I'm crazy, as crazy as if I would say, Hi, my name's Mike Ebendroth and I'm a Taurus.

Stubborn. See, that's why I'm stubborn. I'm a Taurus. You're like, what are you talking about? To a higher degree, I was manifest in the flesh. What does that mean? That means I had pre-existence. I already existed.

I existed before I was born. Jesus exists as the eternal Son before He's born and He is manifest in the flesh. Why? Because if you've got to redeem sinful people, you've got to be the next of kin. John Walvoord is not prone to hyperbolic statements.

The incarnation of the Lord Jesus, he says, is the central fact of Christianity. The central fact of Christianity. Wayne Grudem said, it is far the most amazing miracle in the whole Bible. The incarnation.

Far more amazing than the resurrection and more amazing than the creation of the universe. The fact that the infinite, omnipotent, eternal Son of God could become a man and join Himself to a human nature forever so that infinite God became one person with infinite man will remain for eternity the most profound miracle and mystery in all the universe.

No wonder Jesus said, I have come. I have been sent. To this end I came into the world. God with us, Emmanuel, He had to become human to redeem humans. George Whitfield said, Jesus was God and man in one person that God and man might be happy together.

God by nature redeems. He's a strong redeemer. But if He's going to redeem sinners, He's got to become human. You say, we know all this. Well, I have a great privilege is to remind all of you what you're prone to forget.

And I'm prone to forget. 1 Peter 1, He was foreknown, speaking of Jesus, before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times. Did you know if you deny the incarnation of Jesus, like those people that knock on your door and they ride bicycles or they come with another friend and they smile and want to give you Watchtower literature.

Do you know those people have the spirit of the Antichrist? Why? Because they're denying the most fundamental truth of Christianity. And it makes sense, doesn't it? They don't come to your door and say, well, you know, let's talk about this and let's talk about that.

They're smarter now, so maybe they do. But that's why I go back to this immediately. You must believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God and He cloaked Himself with humanity because if He didn't, there's no redemption.

Because you need a kinsman redeemer. Listen to 1 John 4. This is kind Apostle John. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they're from God. For many false prophets have gone out in the world and by this you know the Spirit of God.

Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus coming in the flesh is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist.

They don't have horns, but they say Jesus isn't the eternal Son and He didn't cloak Himself with humanity. That's the spirit of the Antichrist because Christ means Messiah and they are anti the Messiah of the Bible.

John Howe, the great Puritan, said, The wrong that man had done to the Divine Majesty should be expiated by none but man and could be by none but God. Boaz foreshadows the great kinsman-redeemer Jesus Christ.

How can Boaz extricate these people from whom they cannot extricate themselves? The kinsman-redeemer Boaz. Blood, relative, able, and willing. We cannot extricate ourselves from our own sin nature, our own sin.

We're enslaved to sin. We need someone who is blood relative, who's willing, and who's able to identify with us. That's why I said even last week, if Jesus dies at the hands of Pharaoh as a two-year-old boy, sins aren't cleansed because we need a man, a God-man to live the life we were required to live and Adam didn't.

No wonder 1 Peter 1 says,. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

So if you're a Christian, God, who by nature is a redeemer, cloaked himself with humanity, the second person of the Trinity did, and came to earth. And do you think that was condescension? Do you think that was humility?

Would you do that if you were God? And to think of the love of our God, no wonder Paul shouts out with, though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he made himself, speaking of Jesus, regarding the incarnation, nothing.

Taking the form of the servant, being born in the likeness of sinful men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven, on earth, under earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God.

I want you to bow your knee today if you haven't, because you will one day. And you'll bow before the incarnate Jesus, and instead of being a savior, as he pleads with you today to be, he to be, he'll be your judge, the incarnate Jesus, your judge.

Who could ever turn their back on such condescending love of a redeemer kinsman? Naomi sees the generous, temporal love of Boaz, and she stutters. And for us as Christians, or if you're not a Christian, when you see the generous benefactor of Christ Jesus, we should stutter in our praise, or submit with our knees.