Normally, I would be watching Wisconsin Badger basketball at this time.  But they are getting taken apart by Mich. St. and will have to make their comeback without me.

Tomorrow morning, I hope to finish the study of the OT book of Ruth in the Friday men’s Bible Class. After Boaz and Ruth have a baby boy, the women of Bethlehem come to Naomi who is grandma through her daughter-in-law Ruth.  The women tell the new granny, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you without a redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel.”  The women are thinking of Boaz who has not only married Ruth, but also redeemed, purchased the land which Naomi’s deceased husband had owned.

Of course when Christians read that passage (Ruth 4:14) we can’t help but think of Jesus who is our Redeemer sent from Yahweh.  As Luther says in his explanation to the second article of the creed, “He has redeemed me a lost and condemned person and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with his holy precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death.”

Boaz made a great sacrifice in redeeming Elimelech’s property and taking on the care of Naomi and Ruth as his wife.  But Jesus sacrifice far outweighs what Boaz did.  Perhaps the greater contribution of Boaz, is that he placed with Jesus’ lineage Ruth, a foreigner.  Their son Obed, was the grandfather of David.  When the angel appeared to Mary, the angel said of the son she was to bear, “And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end.  Little did they know that Jesus would receive his crown in the form of thorns and his scepter as a reed.  His enthronement ceremony would on a barren hill where he took his place on a cross suspended between heaven and earth.