Ruth 4:5
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 upon his inheritance. 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 upon his inheritance.
Ruth stands as a beautiful, brief pastoral tale from the time of the judges, whose close brings out the ancestry of the Lord Jesus by bringing in a Moabite woman, a book written by Samuel or in the early days of David, perhaps by Nathan the prophet. At the city gate Boaz told the nearer kinsman that buying the field of Naomi, Elimelech's field, required also taking Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon's widow and wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance. The man who acquired Naomi's field was thus required to marry Ruth the Moabite widow, so that the dead man's name and inheritance would be preserved and continued through his inheritance.
Redemption of the land and marriage to the childless widow belonged together as the duty of a man's Goel, his nearest kinsman by blood whether brother or more distant relative, to perpetuate the dead man's family and keep his name and inheritance from perishing in Israel. Under the law set forth in action here, redemption of one of the children of Israel who had lost his inheritance or had himself been brought into bondage belonged first to himself if he was able, and if he was not able then fell not merely to one who was near of kin but to the one who was nearest of kin by blood-relationship who was able. If a man died without an heir his homestead in Canaan would pass out of his family into other hands, but if his kinsman married his widow the firstborn would be counted as the dead man's heir so the inheritance was retained.
The closer kinsman held the first right to redeem the property and fulfill this family obligation, and when he refused Boaz was free to do so, taking Ruth as his wife and restoring the family inheritance. The near kinsman is a type of the Lord, and Boaz's buying the field and taking Ruth the Moabitess to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance shows God's care for the Seed, by which Ruth became one of the fleshly progenitors of the Lord and part of the line through which Christ came. The scene also gives a picture of sweet, simple home life among the children of Israel.
The law of the kinsman-redeemer illustrates humanity's lost inheritance and bondage, for man has lost his inheritance and is himself in bondage and cannot redeem himself nor his inheritance. The right of redemption therefore falls to Jesus Christ as the only one in all the universe who is able, who to be Redeemer became blood-relative and nearest of kin by taking part of the same flesh and blood as the children of man. The redemption of Naomi's inheritance points forward to Christ, who had the right to redeem and did so by giving His life, coming to redeem the lost when no one else could rescue them. For those who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead all this marriage arrangement to keep the inheritance in the family will be unnecessary, for they cannot die anymore, so there is no need of any arrangement for keeping the inheritance in the family, and each man's inheritance in the new earth will remain unimpaired throughout eternity.