Ruth 4:14, commentary and pictures

The verse stands at the close of Ruth's story in a pastoral picture of sweet, simple home life in Israel. It belongs to the account of Ruth's filial love in Bethlehem after she and Naomi arrived at the opportune time of the beginning of barley harvest in the spring. The word kinsman means redeemer, a near relative who can redeem the family. The women are blessing the Lord for not leaving Naomi without such a redeemer. That redeemer was provided through Ruth's marriage to Boaz, who preserved the family name by marrying Ruth and restoring the inheritance. The child born through Ruth and Boaz was Obed.

The prayer that his name may be famous in Israel means his family line would be honored and remembered in Israel. That blessing was fulfilled by bringing Ruth into the royal line. That line runs from Obed, the grandfather of David, so that Ruth the Moabitess became a progenitor according to the flesh in the ancestry of Jesus. Her great-grandson David was later chosen by God as king of Israel, and the line led ultimately to Christ the Messiah, shown to be a descendant of Abraham. In this provision the verse shows God's care for the Seed in preserving the line leading to Christ. It also shows the Lord rewarding Ruth's fidelity, faithfulness, and virtue.

The provision of the near family kinsman is a type of the Lord. It illustrates the kinship basis of redemption, that to redeem humanity the Son of God became Son of Man and shared human nature. The verse shows Ruth the Moabitess being gathered into Israel and becoming an ancestor of Christ. As a proselyte to Israel's religion she was fully received into Israel, married into Israel, and bore a son in the land, so that Gentile blood was introduced into Jewish veins. This proves that under Moses the truth and altars of God were accessible to Gentiles through naturalization and proselytism, by which heathen who came to Israel became citizens with all the rights of native Jews and their children born in the land were regarded as native Jews. It illustrates that God added people from among the Gentiles to Israel. Her proselytism was the first fruits of the future grand gathering of Gentiles in Christ Jesus. It shows that to be brought from the darkness of idolatry into the tent service of an Israelite where God's institutions shone was honor, exaltation, and even salvation.