The One With More Right

             Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat down there just as the guardian-redeemer^[a] he had mentioned came along. Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down.

            Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, “Sit here,” and they did so. Then he said to the guardian-redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelek. I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.”

            “I will redeem it,” he said.

            Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.”

             At this, the guardian-redeemer said, “Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.”

             (Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.)

            So the guardian-redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it yourself.” And he removed his sandal.

            Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelek, Kilion and Mahlon. I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from his hometown. Today you are witnesses!” (Ruth 4:1-10)

 

            Today, we switch perspectives, and follow Boaz in his small part in the tale. He finds the guy who has a greater right to marry Ruth and a number of town leaders. When the other guy hears that he has a chance to buy land, he’s happy, but when he hears that Ruth comes with the land and the land must be given to Ruth’s child, he loses interest. They perform a ceremony that leaves us culturally scratching our heads, in which the guy with the rights legally, officially, and publicly says, “Thanks, but no thanks.” And Boaz did something that provided him with no benefit, at least in the short term.

            The spiritual parallel that comes to mind is a lot more interesting than the event. The guy I called “Gaston” yesterday has other names: Lucifer… Satan. He’s the arrogant guy who has more of a right to “marry” us than God does because of what happened in Eden and because of  our sin. God invites him to sit down and calls together some angels, and God tells Satan that Satan has the right to take the property (us) if he wishes.

            Of course, Satan wishes.

            Then God says, but on the day you take her/him, that Satan also gets our sin. He is responsible for paying our debt.    

            And Satan says, “Uh, no thanks.”

            Then God says, “OK, then I’ll do it.