3 gifts redeemed

 

#264    Psalm 107:2  

“Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story…”                                                                                                                   

Today’s suggestion was to hunt for 3 gifts redeemed. 

This morning I open the Word to read the Scripture I’m currently studying.  Today’s reading is Ruth 2:19-23.

“Her (Ruth) mother-in-law asked her, ‘Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!’

Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. ‘The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,’ she said.

‘The LORD bless him!’ Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. ‘He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.’ She added, ‘That man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers.’”

Today: Look for gifts redeemed…kinsman-redeemer found me.  I don’t believe that was just a fluke.   I’ll take it as a gift.

 

Redeemed is something purchased or to buy back.  It is to set free, rescue or ransom. 

Naomi and her husband and sons had moved to Moab from Bethlehem to avoid the drought.   Her sons got married there and then died along with her husband.  Now both being widows, Ruth wanted to go back to Naomi’s hometown of Bethlehem with her.  She didn’t want to feel abandoned from the love of God that she felt through Naomi. 

Abandoned…the opposite of redeemed.

This love story continues and Ruth ended up working for Boaz, a well-known and respected man in Bethlehem who owned much land.  She began working for him. He noticed her.  I think she noticed him, too.

At the end of the work day, Ruth went to tell Naomi about her day.  Naomi praised God for it.  When she learned Ruth worked for Boaz, she became excited because she knew him.  He was a relative… a kinsman-redeemer.

Back then, a kinsman-redeemer was a relative who offered to take responsibility for the extended family.  Moses had written the laws and one law said if a husband died, then his brother should marry his deceased brother’s wife.  If he couldn’t or didn’t want to, then she would be passed down to the next relative.  If no one would take her, especially if she was a foreigner, then she’d probably end up living in poverty.  (There’s more detail to that so look up Deut. 25:5-10)

So, a kinsman-redeemer is a rescuer, one who purchased to save a life…to love.   Boaz was a man who redeemed and saved Ruth. 

Jesus Christ redeemed and saved us.  Because of his death on the cross, he rescued us from sin and hopelessness.  He purchased us to be his own...

#265  Jesus is our Kinsman-Redeemer.

“You, Lord, took up my case; you redeemed my life.”   Lamentations 3:58

 

I have that redeemed life because He saved me.  Tim Keller wrote how there are three tenses of our salvation, “When we are in Christ, our past is redeemed (our old record of rebellion and sin is put away and we have peace with God), our present is redeemed (we have a personal friendship with God), and our future is redeemed (we have the promise of glory).”

#266  Jesus is willing to redeem me.

Jesus Christ "gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds" (Titus 2:14)

Isaiah 35

Joy of the Redeemed

¹ The desert and the parched land will be glad;
   the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.

Like the crocus, ² it will burst into bloom;
   it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
   the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;
they will see the glory of the LORD,
   the splendor of our God.

³ Strengthen the feeble hands,
   steady the knees that give way;
⁴ say to those with fearful hearts,
   “Be strong, do not fear;
your God will come,
   he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution
   he will come to save you.”

⁵ Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
   and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
⁶ Then will the lame leap like a deer,
   and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
   and streams in the desert.
⁷ The burning sand will become a pool,
   the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
In the haunts where jackals once lay,
   grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.

⁸ And a highway will be there;
   it will be called the Way of Holiness;
   it will be for those who walk on that Way.
The unclean will not journey on it;
   wicked fools will not go about on it.
⁹ No lion will be there,
   nor any ravenous beast;
   they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there,
¹⁰ and those the LORD has rescued will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
   everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
   and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

 

Those words…that redemptive promise… brings me joy!