HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXT
In the Hebrew Bible, Ruth is one of the Megilloth (Festival Scrolls) and is read during the feast of Pentecost. In accepting the God of Israel, Ruth foreshadows the gentiles becoming a part of spiritual harvest — the church. The story takes place during the time of judges during the Barley and Wheat harvest.
The book of Ruth is permeated with ancient Israelite customs that seem strange to us: the gleaning of grain by the poor (Ruth 2:2), inheritance laws (Ruth 4:9–10), the removal of sandals in business exchanges (Ruth 4:7). Another custom alluded to in the story is that of levirate marriage (Ruth 1:11–12).
THE LEVERITE MARRIAGE.
If a married man died without any children to carry on his name and inheritance, it was his unmarried brother’s responsibility to marry the widow so that: “The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel” (Deuteronomy 25:6). This is known as a levirate marriage from the Latin word for brother-in-law, levir
Since there is no heir to inherit Elimelech’s land, the Levirate Law is triggered by the redemption in this unusual situation.
THE KINGSMAN REDEEMER
Deuteronomy 25 From the idea of the human “go’el” as a redeemer of his kinsmen in their troubles, there are to be found many allusions to God as the Divine Go’el, redeeming His people from their woes (compare Ex. 6:6, 15:13; Ps. 72:2), and of the people themselves becoming the “redeemed” ones of YHVH (Ps. 107:2; Isa. 62:12).
The law of redemption is detailed primarily in Leviticus 25 and covers both the loss of property and the loss of freedom. Adam suffered both these losses when he sinned and from that time forward all of his progeny were held captive to sin by the one who had stolen their kingdom, awaiting the Great Kinsman Redeemer.
(a)Israel is redeemed as a nation out of Egypt (Ex. 6:6; cf. Isa. 63:4). (b) One animal should be redeemed by another (Ex. 13:13). A lost estate could be redeemed by a kinsman (Lev. 25:25). This practice becomes a type of Christ’s redemption.
The concept of redemption and the goel, the man who redeems, are of primary importance in Ruth. One of most important duties of the redeemer was to aid a member of his extended family who had been forced to sell his land due to severe poverty.
Le 25:25 If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold (mortgages or pawned) away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold. 26 And if the man have none to redeem it, and himself be able to redeem it; 27 let him reckon the years since he sold it and pay back the overpayment to the man to whom he sold it; and he shall return to his property.
It is important to remember that Israelites could never sell the land itself because they did not own it—the LORD was the true owner and the Israelites were His tenants. Lev 25:23 The land shall not be sold for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.
The clans of the various tribes of Israel had received the land from God as a permanent inheritance that was to be passed from fathers to sons. If driven by extreme financial necessity, an Israelite was permitted to temporarily sell his land’s usufruct (the right to use the land and profit from its produce) to someone else.
God instituted the redemption laws out of love for Israel. When through the loss of land or freedom an Israelite became alienated from God’s covenant promises, he could be fully restored through the work of a goel. This reflected the reality that the LORD Himself had acted as divine goel when He redeemed Israel from bondage in Egypt to be His own people (see Exodus 6:6–8). The redemption laws therefore are an Old Testament type of Christ, the goel of the whole world.
