HE DREW OFF HIS SHOE

In Ruth chapter 4, Boaz was about to take Ruth to himself as his bride, but there was a kinsman nearer than he who must be given the first option. Boaz asked him if he wished to redeem the field that belonged to Naomi’s husband, Elimelech. Indeed, he wanted the field but, once he knew that Ruth must also be redeemed with the field, he declined. Boaz then stepped in to take the position of kinsman and the transaction was witnessed before the elders of the city. It was customary in those days that when a transaction was to be ratified one of the parties should give his shoe to the other thus surrendering all rights to him. In this case, the nearer kinsman acceded by giving his sandal to Boaz, signifying that the redemption was complete. Both the field and the bride now belonged to Boaz.

This narrative corresponds to our experience with the Lord in our redemption. The law had been given by God, and the terms were, ‘This do, and thou shalt live’, Luke 10. 28. But the law could not redeem and in fact it brought a curse. It was then that Christ appeared as our kinsman, taking upon Him ‘flesh and blood’. In coming, He did not set the law aside but fulfilled it to its last ‘jot and tittle’. As it were, He took the shoe, He ‘walked the walk’, that the law demanded. We read concerning John the Baptist, And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!’ John 1. 36. Having fulfilled the law, He went to Calvary and completed the work of redemption. The complete­ness of the transaction was sealed in His mighty cry, ‘It is finished’, John 19. 30. Not only so, but the acceptance of His work was shown when God raised Him from the dead. We read, ‘Jesus our Lord … who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for [because of] our justification’, Rom. 4. 24, 25. Done is the work that saves,

Once and forever done, Finished the righteousness, That clothes the unrighteous one, The love that blesses us below, Is flowing freely to us now, [H. Bonar]