The Book of Ruth ~ Devotion Seventeen

"Greatest Love"


The situation between Ruth and Boaz is strange to the eyes of the 21st century population, but for the time and traditions of the ancient Hebrews it wasn't. When Ruth lay down at the feet of Boaz and asked him to spread his cloak over her, he knew what she had meant. It wasn't sexual by any means. Rather, she was asking him to take her as his wife and protect her as her "Kinsman-Redeemer." (Leviticus 25:25)


What a different kind of love story we read about between Ruth and Boaz. What kind of love story have you experienced or wish that you've experienced? 


Well, when we come to Jesus and lay down at His feet, we enter into the greatest love story ever told. No, it isn't romantic by nature rather, it is a redeeming love. It is a real forever-love.


Today we read more about the first steps this relationship took. 


Ruth 3:10-13 (NLT) “The Lord bless you, my daughter!” Boaz exclaimed. “You are showing even more family loyalty now than you did before, for you have not gone after a younger man, whether rich or poor. Now don’t worry about a thing, my daughter. I will do what is necessary, for everyone in town knows you are a virtuous woman. But while it’s true that I am one of your family redeemers, there is another man who is more closely related to you than I am. Stay here tonight, and in the morning I will talk to him. If he is willing to redeem you, very well. Let him marry you. But if he is not willing, then as surely as the Lord lives, I will redeem you myself! Now lie down here until morning.”


Boaz accepted Ruth's offer and set out to marry her. He was a proper gentleman and he knew someone else had a right to marry her before he did. There was someone else who was her closest kinsman-redeemer. Boaz wanted to protect Ruth's virtue and he did just that.


Our "Kinsman-Redeemer" is the closest one for you and me. In fact, there is no other Redeemer available. In fact, our Redeemer lay His life down for us.


John 15:12-14 (NLT) This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.


There is no greater love than laying one's life down for a friend. This is what Jesus did and he calls us to do the same thing. How is this even possible? We are commanded by Jesus Himself to love as He loves and that means to lay our lives down for them. What does this mean?


Laying your life down means to let go off selfishness. We must let go of wanting things for our benefit and not the benefit of those we encounter. This kind of love doesn't care what other's opinion is of us. It loves as Jesus loves. It loves for the best of others. It doesn't, however, love for the selfishness of others. By this I mean, we aren't supposed to love someone a certain way to gain their approval. We love them according to God's best for them.


For example, if we are being abused and we are made to perform a certain way in order for that person to accept us, then we are not loving as Jesus loves. Jesus kept His dignity and willingly lay down His life in spite of those who murdered Him. They had no idea that He would use the death they sentenced Him to for their own good and those to come afterwards.


Can you think of someone that you desperately want to love you? Are you loving them with the kind of love that Jesus loves them with? Do you stand for their violence, pettiness or control? 


The kind of love Jesus gives is only dependent on the response of the other person. (Though, His love remains constant in spite of our response.) We can reject His love. And when we reject His love, we don't receive the benefits of it. He doesn't stop His love. Our rejection stops His love from enveloping us. We refuse His blessings. We rebuff His attention and therefore we turn-down the greatest love ever known.


God's love through Christ involves having our hearts changed. He molds and shapes our minds and thus the way we should behave as we submit to Him. He doesn't hold back. He loves as He must love and this may entail discipline. We must trust that His love knows what is best for us.


Proverbs 3:11-13 (MSG) Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track. Don't assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil! Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life! Honor God with everything you own; give him the first and the best.Your barns will burst, your wine vats will brim over. But don't, dear friend, resent God's discipline; don't sulk under his loving correction. It's the child he loves that God corrects; a father's delight is behind all this.


Just like Boaz' and Ruth's love story is unusual and perhaps strange to us, so is the love God has shown through His Son. Who would have thought that such a perfect love would require death, the death of the One who loves us most. It also requires our death ~ death to ourselves so that we can live. This make no sense in this world. But, our lives, when we lay our old lives down, is not set in this world, it is set in the eternal.


Colossians 3:1-3 (NLT) Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.

Live and love in the eternal goodness, 
grace and promise

 of the One who knows you best 
and loves you most.