The Enemy Within | Part 1
As we continue our teaching through the book of Ruth, we explore Boaz’s wise and intentional plan to become Ruth’s kinsman redeemer. But just as hope rises, an unexpected obstacle emerges—a nearer kinsman stands in the way. We examine Boaz’s confrontation at the city gate when he confronts the mysterious “Mr. So-and-So” and consider who he represents in the broader redemptive story.
Checkout these other Family Fortress Ministries Podcasts:
TIME FOR THREE daily couples devotional: https://time-for-three.captivate.fm/listen
FORTIFYING YOUR FAMILY: https://fortifying-your-family.captivate.fm/listen
MINISTRY WEBSITE: https://familyfortress.org/
Transcript
Welcome to the Fortifying youg Family podcast.
Speaker A:It can be daunting to navigate through an anti marriage and family culture.
Speaker A:Our teacher will expound biblical principles to help fortify our families and keep these sacred institutions strong.
Speaker A:And now, here's this week's teaching from Sam Wood.
Speaker B:Turn in the Book of Ruth.
Speaker B:We're going to continue this morning to Ruth, chapter four.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Where to chapter chapter four.
Speaker B:So turn to chapter four.
Speaker B:And God willing, I have really planned two more messages on Ruth.
Speaker B:Actually, as Brother Rogers said this morning, I could preach probably 40 or 50 messages on Ruth.
Speaker B:This is a rich, rich book.
Speaker B:It's a beautiful, beautiful book in the Bible and pictures so much as we have seen from the Word of God.
Speaker B:So I hope that you'll pay close attention to the Word of God this morning.
Speaker B:We left off last week and I just want to give a brief introduction, chapter three.
Speaker B:And finished chapter three.
Speaker B:And in the last message, we saw the picture of Ruth going to the threshing floor and really proposing to Boaz.
Speaker B:There's a beautiful, beautiful picture.
Speaker B:If you missed that, I hope you'll go back and maybe get that message and listen to that.
Speaker B:And I stated, for the lost sinner, the first act of worship is to come and bow at the feet of the Savior, saying, I'm destitute without hope.
Speaker B:I'm a sinner in need of a Savior.
Speaker B:And then we also saw, I think in this picture, a beautiful picture of the saint who enters into rest through worshiping the Lord.
Speaker B:Ruth went to the right person.
Speaker B:She went to Boaz, which is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, her kinsman Redeemer.
Speaker B:And she made the right preparations.
Speaker B:She had the right posture.
Speaker B:That is, she came and laid at his feet and Boaz agreed to marry her.
Speaker B:And what a beautiful, beautiful picture that was.
Speaker B:And really, we might say it appears at the end of verse 11.
Speaker B:If we were to stop right there in chapter three at the end of verse 11, we could have just ended the story right there.
Speaker B:We could have drawn the curtains closed and the words could come up and say they lived happily ever after.
Speaker B:I mean, that could have been the end of the story at the end of verse 11 in chapter three.
Speaker B:But there's a wrinkle in the story Debbie would tell you, like in the Hallmark movies that I often watch with her, that you come to a point in every Hallmark movie where everything looks like it's just going to go and they're going to get married and they end.
Speaker B:Then there has to be one little crisis.
Speaker B:There has to be one little wrinkle.
Speaker B:And so I'm sitting there thinking, when is the wrinkle?
Speaker B:When is the crisis?
Speaker B:There's going to be a crisis.
Speaker B:They're going to get over the crisis.
Speaker B:Then in about five minutes, at the end of the Hallmark movie, they're going to get married and everything's going to go great.
Speaker B:And y' all know what I mean.
Speaker B:And so, you know, in this story, it's kind of the same way you've got Here is Boaz.
Speaker B:He agrees to marry Ruth, and everything looks like everything is settled.
Speaker B:They're going to live happily ever after.
Speaker B:But then we read in verse 12 of chapter three, Boaz says, and now it is true.
Speaker B:It's true that I'm your near kinsman.
Speaker B:Howbeit there is a kinsman nearer than I.
Speaker B:He says, it's true, I'm your kinsman.
Speaker B:But there's one little wrinkle in our story.
Speaker B:There is a nearer kinsman, that is, he's a closer relative to you than I am.
Speaker B:So I've got to settle that matter with this nearer kinsman.
Speaker B:And because of this, Ruth gets, I think in the story, as we go down through the end of chapter three, she gets a little bit anxious.
Speaker B:She gets a maybe a little bit worried that maybe he won't be able to settle this.
Speaker B:And so in verse 18.
Speaker B:Let me just read it to you again.
Speaker B:Naomi says this to her when she gets back home.
Speaker B:Then she said, sit still.
Speaker B:I love that.
Speaker B:Just sit still.
Speaker B:Don't worry.
Speaker B:Don't be anxious.
Speaker B:Sit still and rest, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall.
Speaker B:For the man will not be in rest until he hath finished this thing today.
Speaker B:And so we see this beautiful exhortation by Naomi at the end of chapter three to Ruth.
Speaker B:She says, listen, you don't need to worry because you can be at rest because Boaz is not at rest.
Speaker B:And what a beautiful that picture that is, and I shared this last week, is that as a Christian, we don't have to worry, we don't have to be anxious.
Speaker B:We can be at rest because our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, is never at rest.
Speaker B:That is, he's at the right hand of God, and he's interceding for you and I.
Speaker B:He never sleeps, he never slumbers, so we can be at rest because Jesus is never at rest.
Speaker B:He's there interceding for us.
Speaker B:So we pick up the story with this little wrinkle in chapter four and verse one.
Speaker B:So look at it with me there, and I'm going to read down through verse 11, chapter 4, and verse 1 in your Bible.
Speaker B:Then went Boaz up to the gate and sent him down there.
Speaker B:And behold, the kinsman of whom Boaz spake came by, unto whom he said, ho, such a one to turn aside, sit down.
Speaker B:And he turned aside and sat down.
Speaker B:And he took 10 men of the elders of the city and said, set ye down.
Speaker B:And they sat down.
Speaker B:And he said unto the kinsman, Naomi, that is come again out of the country of Moab, selleth a parcel of land which was our brother Elimelech's.
Speaker B:And I thought to advertise thee, saying, buy it before the inhabitants and before the elders of my people, if thou wilt redeem it, redeem it.
Speaker B:But if thou wilt not redeem it, then tell me that I may know, for there is none to redeem it beside thee, and I am after thee.
Speaker B:And he said, I will redeem it.
Speaker B:Then said Boaz, what day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth amorbitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.
Speaker B:And the kinsman said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance.
Speaker B:Redeem thou my right to thyself, for I cannot redeem it.
Speaker B:Now this was a matter manner in former time in Israel, concerning redeeming, concerning changing.
Speaker B:For to confirm all things, a man plucked off his shoe and gave it to his neighbor.
Speaker B:And this was a testimony in Israel.
Speaker B:Therefore the kinsman said unto Boaz, buy it for thee.
Speaker B:So he drew off his shoe and and Boaz said unto the elders and unto the people, ye are witnesses this day that I have bought all that was Elimelech's and all that was Chilion's and Mahlon's of the hand of Naomi.
Speaker B:Moreover, Ruth, the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from among his brethren, and from the gate of his place ye are witnesses.
Speaker B:And this day, then look at the beginning of verse 11.
Speaker B:And all the people that were in the gate, and the elders said, we are witnesses.
Speaker B:As I unpack this passage this morning, I really want to answer just two questions.
Speaker B:This is not a three point message, this is a two point message, so it'll be a lot shorter.
Speaker B:So these are the questions I want to answer, and that is, what is this near kinsman's identity?
Speaker B:What is his identity?
Speaker B:Then the Second question is, what is his intention?
Speaker B:So, number one, what is his identity?
Speaker B:And number two, what is his intention?
Speaker B:So let's look at the first question.
Speaker B:What is his identity?
Speaker B:Look at chapter four, verse one.
Speaker B:Go back to verse one.
Speaker B:And I just want to read the beginning of that verse.
Speaker B:Look at what it says.
Speaker B:Then went Boaz up to the gate.
Speaker B:Set him down there.
Speaker B:Notice the word then.
Speaker B:You know, I believe that after what happened on the threshing floor in chapter three, that Boaz had a long night.
Speaker B:I believe he had a hard time probably sleeping that night.
Speaker B:Don't you?
Speaker B:Perhaps if you.
Speaker B:If you knew the song.
Speaker B:I remember the song.
Speaker B:It came to my mind as I was studying back from the 60s.
Speaker B:I couldn't sleep at all last night.
Speaker B:Some of y' all remember that song.
Speaker B:He said, I was tossing and I was turning, Tossing and turning, Tossing and turning all night.
Speaker B:I believe Boaz was tossing and turning probably all night.
Speaker B:Thinking about tomorrow morning.
Speaker B:I need to get down to a place called the Gate, and I need to settle this matter with this nearer kinsman.
Speaker B:So we see that in the morning, Boaz finally gets up and he goes down to a place called the Gate.
Speaker B:And now the Gate, we might say, is a place where you settle all legal matters in that day and time.
Speaker B:Now, all these little cities like Jamestown in the south have a courthouse, like we do, usually in the center of town.
Speaker B:And the courthouse is kind of the.
Speaker B:We might say, the meeting place.
Speaker B:It used to be anyway, the meeting place of the town.
Speaker B:If you had a dispute or you had something to settle some legal matter, you would go down to the courthouse.
Speaker B:And if you were going to meet somebody and talk about something, a good place in a town would be to go to the courthouse.
Speaker B:That is where you would meet.
Speaker B:That is, I mean, in Jamestown, if we're going to have a time of prayer for the whole city, where do we meet?
Speaker B:We meet at the courthouse.
Speaker B:So back in this day and time, the villages, that is, Bethlehem was a very small place.
Speaker B:All the houses were close together.
Speaker B:It was very, very compact.
Speaker B:And so they met at a place called the Gate.
Speaker B:They would go to the Gate, and that is where they would settle all of their legal matters.
Speaker B:And so Boaz in the morning, goes down to the Gate and he sits down and he's waiting for somebody to come by.
Speaker B:He's waiting for this nearer kinsman to come by the Gate so that he can settle this matter legally at the place where they settle legal matters at the Gate, that is in Bethlehem, Judah.
Speaker B:And it so happens that the near kinsman happens to just, in the providence of God, happens to come by as he sits down there.
Speaker B:And when he sees him, he says this.
Speaker B:And I think it's.
Speaker B:It's kind of neat what he says.
Speaker B:He says he said shout, and that word said means shouted.
Speaker B:He actually shouted to him.
Speaker B:He said, ho, such a one.
Speaker B:You know, ho, such a one.
Speaker B:And then he said, turn aside, sit down.
Speaker B:And he turned aside and he sat down.
Speaker B:He calls him such a one.
Speaker B:Literally, what that means is so and so.
Speaker B:Hey, so and so.
Speaker B:Come over here and sit down right here.
Speaker B:I've got something I need to talk to you about right now.
Speaker B:It's very interesting.
Speaker B:He doesn't give him a name.
Speaker B:He probably knows his name, but he doesn't give him a name.
Speaker B:He just says, such a one or so.
Speaker B:And so I want you to sit down right here.
Speaker B:And he didn't ask him to sit down.
Speaker B:He really commanded him to sit down.
Speaker B:Boaz is probably an elder in the city.
Speaker B:He's someone who commands a lot of respect, we might say.
Speaker B:It's kind of like the OEF Hutton commercials.
Speaker B:When EF Hutton talks, people listen.
Speaker B:When Boaz talked in the city, people listened to him.
Speaker B:And I believe this Mr.
Speaker B:So and so, we'll call him.
Speaker B:And that's what I call him.
Speaker B:He, in this message, meet Mr.
Speaker B:So and so.
Speaker B:I believe when Boaz said to him, sit down, he immediately went over and he listened and he sat down right where he told him to sit down.
Speaker B:Then look at verse two.
Speaker B:What happens next?
Speaker B:And he took 10 men of the elders of the city and said, sit ye down here.
Speaker B:And they sat down.
Speaker B:Now, even though the law only required three witnesses to testify a legal matter, it's very interesting that Boaz asked 10 elders of the city to come and sit down and to be a witness of this transaction that was about to happen, this legal matter that was about to happen.
Speaker B:You might say, preacher, why did he ask 10 instead of asking 3?
Speaker B:I believe that these 10 elders represent the law, or the 10 commandments personified, that is, they represented perfectly the law of God, all of the 10 Commandments.
Speaker B:He didn't just get three, he got 10.
Speaker B:It's a beautiful picture here of perfectly keeping the law.
Speaker B:So he gets these 10 elders and they sit down here beside him.
Speaker B:And everything that Boaz is about to do in this transaction is according to the perfect law of God.
Speaker B:Look at verse three.
Speaker B:And he said unto the kinsman, Naomi, that is, come again, out of the country of Moab selleth partial land which was Their brother Elimelech and I thought to advertise thee what he means there, or disclose this to you and say this, buy it before the inhabitants and before the elders of my people.
Speaker B:If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it.
Speaker B:But if thou wilt not redeem it, then tell me that I may know, for there is none to redeem it beside thee, and I am after thee.
Speaker B:Now.
Speaker B:Notice what this nearer kinsman, this Mr.
Speaker B:So and so, says to him, he says, I will do what church.
Speaker B:He said, I'll redeem it.
Speaker B:Wow, what a good deal.
Speaker B:Sound like a good deal to me.
Speaker B:I'll redeem it.
Speaker B:I have to put up with Naomi a few years, but then I get all her land.
Speaker B:So that seems like a pretty doggone good deal.
Speaker B:I'll redeem it.
Speaker B:You know, can you imagine maybe if you put yourself in Boaz's sandals at that moment, how he felt?
Speaker B:Maybe his heart skipped a beat.
Speaker B:I mean, he's in love with Ruth and he's about to marry her.
Speaker B:He wants to marry her.
Speaker B:And all of a sudden now this New York kinsman says, oh, I'll do it, I'll redeem her.
Speaker B:But we see in verse five that Boaz had an ace in the hole.
Speaker B:He really had a strategy going on here.
Speaker B:He was a very, very smart and prudent man.
Speaker B:And we look in verse five.
Speaker B:Then said Boaz, what day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth, the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead and upon his inheritance.
Speaker B:Boaz says, there's a little something else I didn't tell you to begin with.
Speaker B:There's something else that you need to understand before you make a final decision.
Speaker B:When you get the land, you don't get to just get the land, but you get an old bitter mother in law by the name of Naomi.
Speaker B:And on top of that, not only do you get Naomi, which you may have to put up a few years and pay for her care for a few years, but you're going to have to marry this pagan.
Speaker B:Notice what he calls her?
Speaker B:Moabitis, referring to her original place of origin.
Speaker B:Now, of course, we know that Boaz knows that she's a virtuous woman.
Speaker B:She's been transformed by God into a believer, but Boaz calls her a Moabitess.
Speaker B:You're going to have to marry this young lady called Ruth, a Moabitess, and you're going to have to marry her.
Speaker B:But also you're going to have to raise up her children.
Speaker B:Then when you raise up her children.
Speaker B:Let me just throw this in too.
Speaker B:When you raise up her children, then when they get older, they get the land.
Speaker B:You don't get it anymore.
Speaker B:They get the land and their name goes on the land so that their father's name will pass down to them.
Speaker B:Isn't that a great deal?
Speaker B:You know, so you get all of that.
Speaker B:I believe Boaz was trying to make this deal sound as sour as it could be.
Speaker B:I mean, after all, you get.
Speaker B:Listen, you get Naomi, she's a bitter old mother in law.
Speaker B:And you get Ruth and you're gonna have to raise Naomi.
Speaker B:She's gonna be in your house upstairs probably somewhere or something.
Speaker B:And you, you get Ruth and she's going to be hanging around the house.
Speaker B:You get to marry her.
Speaker B:Yeah, she's pretty, but you have to raise up her kids and you don't get any land.
Speaker B:You don't get nothing, really.
Speaker B:All you get is you get to take care of them and do what you ought to do.
Speaker B:Do what you ought to do as a nearer kinsman.
Speaker B:And look at how Mr.
Speaker B:So and so responds in verse six.
Speaker B:And the kinsman said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine own inheritance.
Speaker B:Redeem thou my right to thyself, for I cannot redeem it.
Speaker B:When Mr.
Speaker B:So and so heard these words, he backed away from the deal quicker than I would back away from a snake on the path where I'm hiking out in the woods.
Speaker B:I mean, I believe he jumped back.
Speaker B:You kidding?
Speaker B:You know, I'm not going to do that.
Speaker B:I'm not going to take Naomi and I'm not going to take Ruth and care for them and raise her children.
Speaker B:And then they get all the land and everything.
Speaker B:What kind of deal is that for me?
Speaker B:I mean, the first part sound like a sweet real estate deal.
Speaker B:This has turned into a nightmare.
Speaker B:Ain't no way that I'm going to do that.
Speaker B:In other words, Mr.
Speaker B:So and so was interested in ministering listen to the poor.
Speaker B:Only if there was a payoff to himself.
Speaker B:He said, I'll minister to the poor if I get something out of it.
Speaker B:And it doesn't involve too higher cost for me to get it.
Speaker B:But in the long run, what I'm really interested in, I just want to tell you, is me.
Speaker B:All I'm interested in is me and mine.
Speaker B:Now, this is a nearer kinsman.
Speaker B:Now, folks, listen.
Speaker B:I believe this is a vivid picture of the Christian life.
Speaker B:I believe that this is a picture of the new believer who has been delivered out of Moab from their sin, their sin, their guilt is gone.
Speaker B:He's crossed.
Speaker B:This new believer has crossed the Jordan river just like Ruth had.
Speaker B:And they passed from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light in a new relationship with Jesus Christ.
Speaker B:They've gotten under the wings of God by putting their trust and their faith in God.
Speaker B:And they have been redeemed.
Speaker B:They're born again and they're saved by grace.
Speaker B:And they're shouting, I am saved by grace.
Speaker B:I am a new creation in Jesus Christ.
Speaker B:Can you remember when you first got saved when you first came to Lord Jesus Christ?
Speaker B:Now listen, folks, really that should never change.
Speaker B:I mean, we ought to be excited about our salvation, more excited today than we were when we first got saved because we know know more about what God did for us.
Speaker B:But now listen, this is a big but too.
Speaker B:But all of a sudden this Christian, this new creation in Christ, very soon after they believe in Christ, realizes that there's something else inside of them that rears up its ugly head that they have to contend with, that they really never knew that they ever had.
Speaker B:They realize that they have a Mr.
Speaker B:So and so who is a nearer kinsman to them living within them that they never knew about until they came to Christ and became a Christian.
Speaker B:Now if you're lost and do not know Christ, then Mr.
Speaker B:So and so is all that belongs to you because you don't know Christ.
Speaker B:But once you trust in Christ as your kinsman, redeemer, now you have Mr.
Speaker B:So and so, but also you have the Lord Jesus Christ inside of you.
Speaker B:Now you've got both, we might say, living within you.
Speaker B:And as a Christian, we realize that even though we have Christ living within us and that we are in Christ, we also have something else living within us that causes us to do things that we never ever imagined when we became a Christian that we would do.
Speaker B:We think to ourselves, I don't know what's happening to me inside.
Speaker B:The things I never thought I would do since I came to Christ, I do.
Speaker B:And the things that I should be doing and know I should be doing since I came to Christ, I find that I don't do those things the way I should.
Speaker B:And because of this battle that is within us, some Christians even to begin after a period of time, if they continue to yield, and Mr.
Speaker B:So and so began to believe that they maybe were never saved to begin with.
Speaker B:Look with me at first Corinthians, chapter 15 and verse 45, it talks about it there.
Speaker B:Turn your bible there with me first Corinthians, chapter 15 and verse 45 the Bible says and so it is written, the first man, Adam was made a living soul.
Speaker B:The last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
Speaker B:Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural and afterward that which is spiritual.
Speaker B:The first man is of the earth earthy.
Speaker B:The second man is the Lord from heaven.
Speaker B:In other words, the first Adam is the flesh and the second Adam is the kinsman Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who is now living within us.
Speaker B:In our story, I believe Mr.
Speaker B:So and so represents the flesh and Boaz the kinsman redeemer, that is Jesus Christ.
Speaker B:And when we come into a relationship with Jesus Christ, we're converted and become a new creation in Christ.
Speaker B:We don't get rid of Mr.
Speaker B:So and so.
Speaker B:That's the first Adam.
Speaker B:We still have him, but now we've got our kinsman Redeemer, Jesus Christ also.
Speaker B:So the Identity Answering the question that I first raised, what is the identity of this nearer kinsman?
Speaker B:I believe the identity in this story is the newer kinsman represents the flesh that we have to deal with as a new believer in our life.
Speaker B:You have listened to the first part of a two part message by Evangelist Sam Wood.
Speaker A:Thank you for joining the Fortifying your Family podcast.
Speaker A:And if you feel encouraged by today's teaching, give us a follow so we can invite you back and share us on your socials so more marriages and families can be strengthened and fortified through the truths of God's Word.
Speaker A:Remember, fortifying your family starts with a strong belief in God's Word.
