Ruth 4:6

New International Version (NIV)

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.”

For meditation

He readily accepted to buy Elimelech’s field Naomi was selling, as Boaz wisely put it before the elders of the town (Ruth 4:2-12). The kinsman-redeemer did not want to lose it to Boaz, the next in line.

“I will redeem it,” he said.

“On the day you buy the land from Naomi and from Ruth the Moabitess, you acquire the dead man’s widow in order to maintain the name of the dead with their property.”

“Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it for yourself,” the kinsman-redeemer said.

1. Do you see how quickly we claim the promises of God, but struggle with the conditions that come with them?
2. If we love the Lord and acknowledge His righteousness, why do we think His requirements are unfair or against our welfare?
3. Is it because we see God’s righteous requirements as infringement on our wills and desires? But are they really? Do they not rather deliver us from our selfish and wicked ways?
4. Was Christ exalted without the cross? How then do we expect the blessings of God’s promises without their righteous conditions? See what the kinsman-redeemer in the Ruth story missed – a place in the lineage of Christ, our Kinsman-Redeemer (Matt. 1:5).
5. Unlike the contracts of this world, are you not glad that God does not conceal the conditions of His promises in fine print that are easy to miss; or with difficult to understand language? So, how can we miss them unless we prefer our ways to His?

I pray you will realize that the conditions of God’s promises are designed to sanctify and make us more like Jesus. They are packed with benefits for now and eternity. The more you yield to them, the more fruitful you become.

So: Claim the promises of God, but love the conditions much more; and as you do, may the blessings of God flow freely unto you and your family in accordance to His sovereign will.

 Shalom