December 3: Boaz Foreshadows Christ, the Ultimate Kinsman Redeemer
♫ Music:
Tuesday, December 3
Title: BOAZ FORESHADOWS CHRIST, THE ULTIMATE KINSMAN REDEEMER
Scripture: Ruth 4: 1-6, 13-15
Now Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there, and behold, the close relative of whom Boaz spoke was passing by, so he said, “Turn aside, friend, sit down here.” And he turned aside and sat down. He took ten men of the elders of the city and said, “Sit down here.” So they sat down. Then he said to the closest relative, “Naomi, who has come back from the land of Moab, has to sell the piece of land which belonged to our brother Elimelech. So I thought to inform you, saying, ‘Buy it before those who are sitting here, and before the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it; but if not, tell me that I may know; for there is no one but you to redeem it, and I am after you.’” And he said, “I will redeem it.” Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you must also acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of the deceased, in order to raise up the name of the deceased on his inheritance.” The closest relative said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, because I would, jeopardize my own inheritance. Redeem it for yourself; you may have my right of redemption, for I cannot redeem it.”
So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife, and he went in to her. And the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed is the Lord who has not left you without a redeemer today, and may his name become famous in Israel. May he also be to you a restorer of life and a sustainer of your old age; for your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.”
Poetry:
Prayer for My Immigrant Relatives
By Lory Bedikian
While they wait in long lines, legs shifting,
fingers growing tired of holding handrails,
pages of paperwork, give them patience.
Help them to recall the cobalt Mediterranean
or the green valleys full of vineyards and sheep.
When peoples’ words resemble the buzz
of beehives, help them to hear the music
of home, sung from balconies overflowing
with woven rugs and bundled vegetables.
At night, when the worry beads are held
in one palm and a cigarette lit in the other,
give them the memory of their first step
onto solid land, after much ocean, air and clouds,
remind them of the phone call back home saying,
We arrived. Yes, thank God we made it, we are here.
THE CHILD WHO RESTORES HOME
Naomi’s restoration is at the heart of the book of Ruth, and it a rich and surprising redemption. The women say to her at the end of the story, “blessed is the Lord who has not left you without a redeemer today,” and we may expect them to be talking about the kinsman redeemer – Boaz – but they aren’t. Boaz has redeemed Ruth by marrying her, but Naomi is redeemed by Obed. As we see in Rooke’s painting, her redemption comes in the blessing of being reintegrated into family life through the care of her grandson: “He shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age.” We see in the following passage that Naomi becomes his nurse, and the women say to her, “A son has been born of Naomi.”
When Naomi tries to send Ruth away from her, it is because she believes that her life has dried up. Like the immigrants in Bedikian’s poem, she looks back on a life that had been rich and sweet, and now seems shriveled. She says to her daughters-in-law in Moab: “Have I yet sons in my womb?” Without a husband and without sons or grandchildren, she is like Sarai and Hannah – barren women longing for children and crying out in bitterness to the Lord. We see this despair most clearly when she returns to Israel. The law has provided her with a recourse in her kinsman redeemer, but she doesn’t seek him out. She believes she has been forsaken, and it is Ruth who suggests that they trust that Boaz will be generous as the law instructs. But despite Naomi’s despair, God brings a redeemer. Naomi has a miraculous son in her old age, this time through the generosity of a godly Israelite man and the wisdom and faithfulness of her Moabite daughter-in-law.
The gospel is the story of God bringing life out of nothing. In Genesis we see God making the world and all the living creation ex nihilo. When we look at the chosen line of matriarchs (Sarah, Leah, Naomi), we see women who are barren in body and in spirit being brought back to life by God’s kindness to them. And when we look at Mary’s son, another miraculous life seemingly from nothing, we see God restoring the life of a whole world bound up in death. Christ fulfills the pattern of Boaz, the faithful husband who redeems and cares for the destitute widow and refugee, bringing her into the family of God. But he also fulfills the pattern of Obed, the child who brings new life and restoration to those who are barren and bitter, to redeem those who believe that God has left them empty and to bring them home.
Prayer:
God of the refugee, God of the widow, God of the despairing and the bitter,
Help us to believe in the love you have for us.
Resurrect our spirits to trust again in your redemption,
And draw us into the life of your family this Christmas.
Amen.
Dr. Janelle Aijian
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Torrey Honors Institute
Biola University
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Artwork:
The Story of Ruth (3 panels from left to right)
Naomi, Ruth, and Obed
Ruth and Boaz
Naomi and Ruth
Thomas Matthews Rooke
1876-1877
Oil on canvas
66 cm x 39 cm
Tate Museum, London, England
This three-panel work by Rooke illustrates the story of Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz. This story of love, loyalty, devotion, and redemption tells of Ruth's eventual marriage to a compassionate and wealthy man named Boaz, by whom she bears a son, Obed, who becomes the grandfather of David. In her obedience and loyalty to her mother-in-law Naomi, Ruth is brought into the privileged lineage of Christ. Through Boaz’s righteous response to the plight of Ruth and Naomi, he foreshadows Christ, the ultimate Kinsman Redeemer of humanity.
About the Artist:
Thomas Matthews Rooke (1842–1942) was an English watercolor artist. He worked as a designer and assistant to other artists and was commissioned by English art critic John Ruskin to make architectural drawings of European cathedrals. Rooke attended the Royal College of Art and the Royal Academy Schools. He is known primarily for his landscapes, architectural drawings, Biblical subjects, and watercolor portraits.
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/thomas-matthews-rooke-458
About the Music:
“Daphnis et Chloe, M. 57: X. Lever Du Jour” from the album Simply the Best Classical Passion
About the Composer:
Joseph Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) was a French composer, pianist, and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy. In the 1920s and 1930s, Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer. Ravel attended France's premier music college, the Paris Conservatoire where he was not regarded by its conservative establishment. After leaving the conservatoire, Ravel developed a style of great clarity by incorporating elements of Baroque, Neoclassicism, and Jazz. Ravel composed fewer pieces than many of his musical contemporaries. His many works include pieces for piano, chamber music, two piano concertos, ballet music, two operas, and eight song cycles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Ravel
About the Performers:
Christoph von Dohnányi and The Cleveland Orchestra
Christoph von Dohnányi (b.1929) is a German conductor. His uncle on his mother's side was Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor and theologian/ethicist. Christoph’s father, uncle, and other family members participated in the German Resistance movement against Nazism and were detained in several Nazi concentration camps before being executed. Dohnányi's fame in America stems from his relationship with the Cleveland Orchestra. He was appointed Music Director from 1984 to 2002. As Music Director he initiated The Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, an outreach for the appreciation and education of symphonic music. Since retiring from the Cleveland Orchestra, Dohnányi has been a guest conductor with the Boston Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
http://christophvondohnanyi.com/en/
The Cleveland Orchestra, based in Cleveland, Ohio, is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the "Big Five.” Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Severance Hall. As of 2017, the incumbent Music Director is Franz Welser-Möst. In 2012, Gramophone Magazine ranked the Cleveland Orchestra Number 7 on its list of the world's greatest orchestras and in 2018, The New York Times referred to the orchestra as "America's most understatedly amazing orchestra."
https://www.clevelandorchestra.com/
About the Poet:
Lory Bedikian received her BA from UCLA with an emphasis in creative writing and her MFA in poetry from the University of Oregon. Her poems have been published in multiple journals, including Connecticut Review, Portland Review, Poetry International, Poet Lore, and Heliotrope. Her work has also been included in Blue Arc West: An Anthology of California Poets. Most recently, she authored The Book Of Lamenting (2011). She teaches poetry workshops in Los Angeles, California.
http://www.anhingapress.org/loribedikian
About the Devotion Writer:
Dr. Janelle Aijian
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Torrey Honors Institute
Biola University
Janelle Aijian is an Associate Professor of Philosophy teaching in the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University. She studies religious epistemology and early Christian ethics, and lives with her husband and their two children in La Mirada, California.