Ruth 4:4

Boaz goes up to "the gate" with the promptness and energy of a heart fully engaged. This was the place of rule, where people settled every matter and made every transfer. It matches the courts of today, where people complete all legal business. In the matter he had in hand, nothing could happen "in a corner." Everyone concerned had to agree, and men with legal authority to approve it had to witness it all in broad daylight.

In the gate of Bethlehem, Boaz shows himself to be a man full of gracious care for the two widows. He also shows the utmost regard for the righteous requirements of Jehovah's law in the land of Israel... The inheritance was Jehovah's gift to this family, and for that reason it had to be recovered and made secure for them... Jehovah was the landowner: "the land is mine" (Lev. 25:23). Any question about who inherited the land, or who lived on it, had to be settled in a way that was right in Jehovah's eyes. Redemption was a sacred transaction, not a mere matter of human bargaining.

Boaz was not the nearest kinsman. So he could only use his right to redeem after the man with the closer claim had either refused that duty or shown that he could not carry it out.

The kinsman-redeemer who could claim a closer relationship than Boaz was certainly willing to redeem, but his willingness was limited by his ability. He could say, "I will redeem it," yet twice he had to admit, "I cannot redeem it." He had his own inheritance to look after, and he found that more than enough to deal with. To try his brother's redemption was beyond him. I suggest that something like this was in the Psalmist's mind when he wrote, "Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life" (Ps. 49:7). He was not saying that none of them would redeem his brother if able to; he was saying it was an impossible task.

When Boaz challenged the kinsman nearer than himself about redeeming Elimelech's inheritance, the man at first offered to act. All that occurred to him for the moment was the question of buying, and it might have been a profitable deal. Then Boaz reminded him that redemption went further than buying. It meant taking up all the rights and duties tied to the estate, lifting up the fallen, and entering into personal relationship with Ruth, and through her with Naomi. At that, he declined.

This close relative pictures the covenant of law. The law had a claim on Israel from the time they came out of Egypt (Ex. 20)... It did have a claim on them. But could it act on that claim and restore the nation after its long centuries of disobedience? This hearing before the ten witnesses gives the answer. The ten witnesses remind us of the ten commandments, which stand there to bear witness to what the law cannot do.

These actions of Boaz... give us an advance picture of the ways of our Lord Jesus. He made Himself our Kinsman, and He has done a Kinsman's part in ways that outshine every comparison... Like a more self-sacrificing Boaz, at a price that cost Him everything, He has brought relief not only to a childless, penniless Kinsman, but to one guilty and ruined and sold into dishonourable captivity.