Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat down there just as the guardian-redeemer 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!” Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”

--Parallel Verses
John‬ ‭12‬:‭46‬ [Jesus speaking]
I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.

Some people are on mission to do God’s work at a high level or in a unique way. They have received the good gifts of God’s Spirit and they live with these gifts on FULL DISPLAY. There is a lightness in their step and a light in their eyes that sees into the hearts of men. Jesus had this light when he ministered to others. I believe Boaz did as well. We see here the interesting interaction between Boaz and the other guardian-redeemer. This man was all about acquiring property. He was all in for that. But when it came to taking a Moabite woman into his home as his wife, he was not willing to do that. We don’t know why: it could be he already had a wife, it could be that his wife or wives would not get along with a foreigner, it could be that he just did not like foreigners. Whatever the reason, the risk of the responsibility was too great for him to bear.

In contrast, Boaz, before he knew who Ruth was, was kind to outsiders, letting them glean on his fields. He saw her as God saw her, not a possession or a requirement but a wife, a life partner, a gift from God. Notice the difference in how he refers to her when he talks of her to the other guardian-redeemer vs. when he talks of her himself: in the first case she is a part of the property purchase, and then, after the other man declines to redeem her, Boaz refers to her as his wife.

This is a picture of how the world sees us verses how God sees us. The world values us only for what we can give them. God values a personal, intimate relationship with us that is real, even if we can give nothing. In reality, Naomi did not have much to sell. She was destitute. But what the world did not understand was that Ruth was the real treasure, not the land.

To God, we are a treasure. And when we treat others as his treasures too, we let his light shine through us. The Elders saw this light in Boaz’s eyes and in his life-actions and they prayed a strong prayer of blessing over him and Ruth and their offspring.

Lord, give me a light in my eyes and a lightness in my step today. Help me to see the ways I can see and value of the gifts you have placed in others, instead of judging them because they are different. Help me to connect with and love and enable and support your servants around me!