Boaz Pictures Christ: The Redeemer the Law Could Never Be

Introduction

In Ruth 3 and 4, there's a detail that often slips by unnoticed: there isn't one redeemer, there are two. A closer relative than Boaz has first right to redeem. He agrees, then backs out. Only then can Boaz step in, redeem Naomi, marry Ruth, and make her an ancestor of King David, and of Christ.

This story isn't just beautiful. It's prophetic. The first redeemer, the one who fails, pictures the Law. The second, Boaz, who follows through to the end, pictures Jesus. What the Law could never do for you, Christ has done. This article draws on JM Botteron's sermon on Ruth 3-4 and invites you to lie down at the feet of your true Redeemer.

Article outline

1. Naomi's inspired words: wash yourself, anoint yourself, put on your garments

The previous Sunday's sermon had covered Naomi's first three words to Ruth: wash yourself (sanctification), anoint yourself (the anointing of oil, picturing the Holy Spirit), put on your garments (the garment of praise). Naomi, who had once spoken with such bitterness ("The Lord is against me," "I am full of bitterness"), had changed her tone. She is now filled with the Holy Spirit and speaks inspired words.

The principle is clear: as long as you speak carelessly, God is unlikely to use you to speak inspired words. Jesus says as much in Matthew 12:37: "By your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." So seek to speak words that are right in God's eyes, in line with His Word.

2. "Notice the place where he lies down": a prophetic announcement of the resurrection

In Ruth 3:4, Naomi tells Ruth to "notice the place where he lies." Boaz, historically, is a real man. But in the Old Testament he is also a type of Christ, and Ruth a picture of the Church coming to her Bridegroom.

Open the New Testament. When Jesus dies, he is laid in a tomb. On the third day, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary come to anoint his body. They worry about the stone, but the stone has already been rolled away. The angel tells them in Matthew 28:6: "He is not here, for he has risen, just like he said. Come, see the place where the Lord was lying." The exact same phrase Naomi used. She had no idea yet how prophetic her own words were.

That tomb is empty. It's our hope. In 1 Corinthians 15:20, Jesus is called "the first fruits of those who are asleep." When you reach the end of your life (if the Lord hasn't already returned), you will rise just as he did. Look at that tomb: it's empty.

3. "Lie down at his feet": Jesus as Savior and Lord

The next instruction is bold: "uncover his feet and lie down." Ruth had to humble herself at Boaz's feet. You too are called to lie down at the feet of the Lord.

Remember the house of Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7:36-50). There are two ways to approach Jesus. Simon keeps his distance: he invites Jesus in, but judges him, analyzes his words, stays guarded. Then a woman comes in, a sinner, carrying an alabaster jar of expensive perfume, worth a full year's wages. She lies down at his feet, pours out the entire jar, wipes his feet with her hair. She has given everything. Her sins are forgiven. Simon, meanwhile, leaves without forgiveness because he never humbled himself.

To lie down at Jesus's feet is to give yourself entirely to him, to let go of your own plans, to die to yourself. That's what Paul means in Galatians 2:20: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ living in me."

Many Christians have accepted Jesus as Savior, a necessary first step without which no one can be saved. They're baptized, they take part in communion, they serve. But when it comes time to hand over their plans, their work, their finances, their relationships to his direction, they pull back. At that point, Jesus is not yet their Lord. John the Baptist said this of Jesus (John 3:30): "He must increase, but I must decrease."

4. The first redeemer: the Law that backs out

In chapter 4, Boaz sits down at the city gate. A first redeemer arrives, and Scripture doesn't even give us his name. Boaz calls him simply "so-and-so" (Ruth 4:1). He agrees to redeem the field: "I will redeem it." But when he learns he'll also have to marry Ruth the Moabite and raise up an heir for the deceased, he withdraws: "I can't redeem it for myself, lest I endanger my own inheritance."

This first redeemer represents the Law. The Law of Moses, with its 613 commandments, promised life to whoever kept it fully. But no one ever managed it: not Moses, not the priests, not a single human being. Galatians 3:10 puts it plainly: "For as many as are of the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who doesn't continue in all things that are written in the book of the law, to do them.'"

The Law offered a path (animal sacrifices provided a temporary covering for sin), but it could never bring things to completion. Like the first redeemer, it backed away when the true weight of the task became clear.

5. The second redeemer: Boaz, a picture of Christ and grace

Once the first man steps aside, Boaz can step in. In Ruth 4:9-10 he declares: "You are witnesses today that I have bought all that was Elimelech's, and all that was Chilion's and Mahlon's, from the hand of Naomi. Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, I have purchased to be my wife." He goes all the way. He redeems, he marries, he restores a name.

Boaz pictures Christ, the second Redeemer. Where the Law failed, Jesus triumphed. John 1:17 sums it all up: "For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ." Jesus did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17), for you, in your place.

Before Christ, you were, like the Ephesians (Ephesians 2:12): "separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world." Today, the door is open through faith. Galatians 3:11: "The righteous will live by faith."

And Galatians 3:13: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.'" Like a lightning rod drawing the strike away from you, the wrath of God that should have fallen on you fell on Christ instead.

6. Blood sufficient for all the sins of the world

The blood of animals could only cover sin temporarily. Even if every animal on earth had been sacrificed, that blood would never have been enough to cover all the sin of the world. But the blood of Jesus belongs to a different order entirely: spiritual, powerful, final, even retroactive. Believers of the Old Testament received the benefit of that sacrifice in advance.

Romans 3:25 puts it this way: "God set him forth to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God's forbearance."

To be redeemed today, there is no other way: come to Jesus, give him your life, ask him to forgive your sins.

7. Ruth's descendants: Rahab, Ruth, and grace for the excluded

The story doesn't end with the wedding. Ruth 4:13-17 tells us that Boaz and Ruth have a son, Obed ("servant"). Obed becomes the father of Jesse, and Jesse becomes the father of David. And Matthew 1's genealogy reveals a striking detail: Boaz's mother was Rahab, the prostitute of Jericho, from an enemy nation.

In the direct line leading to Jesus, then, you find Rahab (a foreign prostitute) and Ruth (a Moabite excluded from God's people). The Redeemer of the world wove into his own family line the very people who were despised, excluded, fallen. No one is too far gone for grace.

Jesus himself was born in a stable, in the most humble of conditions. 1 Corinthians 1:27: "God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong."

Key takeaways

• Two redeemers, two outcomes. The first (the Law) agrees, then backs out. The second (Christ) carries the promise all the way through.
• The empty tomb was already foretold. "Notice the place where he lies down": words Naomi spoke without realizing it, the angel would confirm one Easter morning.
• Savior isn't enough, he must also be Lord. To lie down at his feet is to hand him your whole life: plans, work, finances, relationships.
• No one could keep the Law. That's why Christ redeemed us from its curse by bearing our curse himself on the cross.
• Grace reaches the excluded. Rahab the prostitute and Ruth the Moabite stand in the Messiah's family line. No past disqualifies you.

Personal application

1. Which sound more like your words this week: the bitter words of Naomi in chapter 1, or the inspired words of Naomi in chapter 3?
2. In what concrete area (work, finances, a relationship, a project) is Jesus still only your Savior, not yet your Lord?
3. Is there a "first redeemer" you keep secretly turning back to: religion, performance, your own efforts to get right with God?
4. Like the woman with the perfume, what are you willing to "pour out" at the Lord's feet this week: time, money, reputation, a personal project?
5. If Rahab and Ruth are in Christ's family line, what shame from your past are you still hiding from the one who includes the excluded?

Scriptures cited

• Ruth 3-4 · The account of the two redeemers
• Matthew 12:37
• Matthew 28:6
• 1 Corinthians 15:20
• Luke 7:36-50
• Galatians 2:20
• John 3:30
• Galatians 3:10-13
• John 1:17
• Matthew 5:17
• Ephesians 2:12
• Romans 3:25
• Matthew 1 · Genealogy including Rahab and Ruth
• 1 Corinthians 1:27
• Galatians 3:24

FAQ

Why doesn't the Bible give the name of the first redeemer in Ruth 4?

Boaz simply calls him "so-and-so." That silence is theological: this figure exists to represent, as a type, the Law that promises redemption without being able to deliver it. He needs no proper name, because what matters is the role he plays. The legacy, the memory, the name all belong to the second redeemer (Boaz), who pictures Christ.

If Jesus fulfilled the Law, do you still need to obey it?

Christ redeems us from the curse of the Law, not from God's will. You no longer obey to earn your salvation (impossible, as the first redeemer shows), but because you are already redeemed. Obedience becomes a fruit, not a condition. You move from "I must, in order to be saved" to "I can, because I am saved."

How do you know if you've truly made Jesus your Lord, not just your Savior?

Look at the point where you refuse to give in. If in some area (work, money, marriage, a project, your reputation) you answer "no" when the Lord asks you to let go, that area doesn't yet have a Lord. To lie down at his feet, like the woman with the perfume, is to pour out the whole jar, not half of it.