Transcription

Connor:
You’re listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun and practical ways.

Chris:
Well, good morning, everybody. My name is Chris. It’s good to be back, Chris.

Jeff:
I’m Jeff.

Chris:
Yeah, you’re Jeff.

Jeff:
That’s right.

Chris:
I was waiting for that. We are The Bible Guys. We want to welcome you. Thank you for tuning in and or, you know, watching.

Jeff:
Yes. Yes.

Chris:
This is a big day. Big day.

Jeff:
It’s a big day. It’s a big day.

Chris:
Today is going to be awesome.

Jeff:
And the reason is we have a repeat of a really cool game that we played.

Chris:
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. It says actually this, the way that Desiree wrote it says, she says a couple weeks ago we introduced a different segment called Wrong Answers Only, where Jeff had to intentionally give wrong answers to Chris’s questions. This time Jeff is going to ask questions and we’ll see how out there Chris can be with his answers.

Jeff:
Right. What a challenge. I think one of your questions last time was something like, What’s a good gift to give your wife on the anniversary or something? You said a scale. I said a scale. So that’s the kind of thing you’re looking for. So it’s an absurd answer or a terrible answer to a legitimate question.

Chris:
Yes. Yeah. Which is why it’s called Wrong Answers Only. You know, it’s so appropriately titled, Jeff.

Jeff:
Okay. Okay. So, so you’re looking for absurdly wrong answers. Yeah.

Chris:
And by the way, just so everybody knows you have not even thought about the question.

Jeff:
No, no, no. So I just, uh, yeah, I’m struggling. So, um, here we go. What is the most impressive thing you could think to say at dinner with Zac Efron?

Chris:
Um, uh, Ever since your car wreck, you look terrible.

Jeff:
Oh, wow. Really?

Chris:
Yeah. People think he has like Botox and like he had work done, but he actually got in a massive car wreck and had to have reconstructive surgery. Yeah. It looks terrible.

Jeff:
So he looks terrible. So you’re telling him the truth, but you feel like, you feel like that’s the best answer, the best worst answer you can come up with.

Chris:
I mean, it’s the one thing, it’s the gaping thing. I mean, it’s, it’s the, it’s the elephant in the room.

Jeff:
Yeah, that’s true. Uh, if you could add one incredible talent to your, to your list of talents, what would it be?

Chris:
Uh, gee whiz.

Jeff:
Wow. You’re an incredibly talented person. I mean, just loads and loads of talent.

Chris:
Um, to master the art of doing nothing.

Jeff:
Let’s go like, Oh no, he’s got that one down.

Chris:
I just need more practice.

Jeff:
Honey, leave me alone. I’m practicing. I’m deep in practice.

Chris:
You’re breaking my concentration. I gotta be better than the breakdancers from Australia.

Jeff:
Okay. What would be the best thing you could think to text to our entire text group for Fantasy Football? Because you are texting like a fiend right now to the fantasy football. Yeah. Everybody sends a, somebody sends out a message and Zarba is the first one to respond.

Chris:
Yeah. The best thing I text the fantasy football league is this.

Jeff:
That Jeff’s probably going to win again this year.

Chris:
Um, no, no. Um, the NFL is rigged and it doesn’t matter anyway.

Jeff:
Okay. How about that? This is hard. Yeah, it is. Uh, okay. And then if you had to name your pet after the last thing you ate, what would it be called?

Chris:
Um, the squirts.

Jeff:
Did you have, did, is that, did you have a pop then? Is that it? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay, those are hard. It’s hard to come up with good questions along those lines too. Do you need another one?

Chris:
Yeah, you know what, to be honest with you, I thought your answers were great last time, but being on the receiving end of this, this is really tough.

Jeff:
They’re hard.

Chris:
You’ve got to come up with absurd answers that aren’t like, yeah, it’s just hard.

Jeff:
It’s just difficult. How about this one? what is the best, if you had to change your voice to a movie character’s voice, what’s the best movie character voice? Maybe you have to answer with a bad answer.

Chris:
See, that’s like, I can’t do that. I can’t do an impressive movie character’s voice. Okay. That’s correct. How about Bueller?

Jeff:
Okay, there you go, or I would think as far as like a terrible movie would be like Peewee Herman. Oh my word terrible terrible Yeah, that’d be terrible okay, it’s Okay, well hey, that’s a hard one. That is really a tough segment. I’m not sure I like that game anymore. I think you should ask all the questions from now on, and I’ll answer all the answers from now on. I don’t know why my brain didn’t work today. No, no, it’s a hard one, man. I wasn’t asking great questions either.

Chris:
Well, yesterday I went to work, and we were in meetings, and I was getting every… Good for you. But I was getting everything wrong and Trey’s like, Trey goes, what’s the matter with you today? And I was like, I don’t know. And then I’d come out and then I, then I’d like somebody would say something and I would like talk for like 10 minutes and say, no, that’s no, don’t do that. And then Trey goes, I was just meaning this. And I was like, oh, he’s like, what’s the matter with you? I’m like, I don’t know.

Jeff:
Poor Chris. I need to like eat. Well, listeners pray for Chris. You know, mine comes and goes at this age.

Chris:
My wife bought me gummies for each ADHD. Oh, yeah. These little natural, all natural. How are they working? Apparently not good. I need a double. I need to up my dosage of gummies.

Jeff:
No, stop it. Good gravy. All right. So we have been in the book of Ruth. And just to really, if you missed last week, I think it’d be worth going back and catching up on a few of those. It’s just a few, I think, what, three episodes last week, but such a beautiful story. of, well, quite honestly, you’re going to find out today, a beautiful story of redemption. So we’re going to look at Ruth chapter four, and Ruth has approached the guy that could be what is called the kinsman redeemer, which we’ll talk about. He is very interested in her and is trying to find a way to marry her. He’s a cousin. Uh, cousin of her, uh, deceased husband, deceased husband.

Chris:
Yeah. And so, yeah. And so she was, uh, she was picking corn from his grain from his brain. And then he actually said, no, no, no, no, no, no. Come, come with me. You can have anything you want. Right. And he sends her home with, with gifts, with extravagance. And this is where we pick up today.

Jeff:
And she lets him know, Hey, if you asked, I’d probably say yes to marriage. And so he goes, Hey, let me go sort this out with, because there was somebody else that was closer to her in the opportunity to marry her. Right. So they had this whole hierarchy. We’ll talk about it as to how people can get married. But anyways, so in Ruth chapter four, verse one, it says, Boaz went to the town gate and took a seat there. Just then, the family redeemer he had mentioned came by, so Boaz called out to him, So they sat down together, and then Boaz called ten leaders from the town and asked them to sit as witnesses. And Boaz said to the family redeemer, who came back from Moab, she’s selling the land that belonged to her relative Elimelech. And I thought I should speak to you about it so that you can redeem it if you wish. If you want the land, then buy it here in the presence of these witnesses. But if you don’t want it, let me know right away because I am next in line to redeem it after you.” And the man replied, all right, I’ll redeem it. And then Boaz told him, of course, your purchase of the land from Naomi also requires that you marry Ruth, the Moabite widow. That way she can have children who will carry on her husband’s name and keep the land in the family. Then I can’t redeem it, the family redeemer replied, because this might endanger my own estate. You redeem the land, I cannot do it. Now in those days it was custom in Israel for anyone transferring a right of purchase to remove his sandal and hand it to the other party. And this publicly validated the transaction. So the other family redeemer drew off his sandal as he said to Boaz, you buy the land. And then Boaz said to the elders and to the crowd standing around, you are witnesses that today I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Kilian, and Malan. And with the land I have acquired Ruth, the Moabite widow of Malan to be my wife. This way she can have a son to carry on the family name of her dead husband and to inherit the family property here in his hometown. You are all witnesses today. Then the elders and all the people standing in the gate replied, we are witnesses. May the Lord make this woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah from whom all the nation of Israel descended. May you prosper at Ephrath and be famous in Bethlehem and may the Lord give you descendants by this young woman who will be like those of our ancestor Perez, the son of Tamar and Judah. There you go.

Chris:
That’s a big long speech. Yeah. Well, yeah. What weird traditions.

Jeff:
Yeah.

Chris:
It was customary for him to take off the sandal and hand it to the person. Yeah. Like, what is that about? Why, why the sandal? I don’t know. Yeah. And he’s like, and he’s like, you’re all witnesses. I’m holding the sandal. You see the sandals. So weird. Uh, I’m sure there’s a good reason for it. I’m sure there is too, but I’m not smart enough to know it. Well, everything was so symbolic. Everything was so great.

Jeff:
You want it? You want to ask, uh, AI or seriously? Yeah. Yeah. I’ll ask right now. Oh, wow. Uh, let me see in Ruth.

Chris:
Wow.

Jeff:
Four. Why did Boaz exchange sandals?

Chris:
With the Redeemer?

Jeff:
With the Redeemer. Here you go. Let’s see what it says. It was a symbolic act that was customary in ancient Israel as a way to confirm and legalize the transfer of property or rights.

Chris:
Right, but they don’t say why.

Jeff:
In the context of this story, it just explains what he was doing. The sandal likely symbolized walking on or owning the land. So giving it away was a way of saying, I give up my right to walk on this land or to own it. And I give that right to you.

Chris:
You know what? AI isn’t that smart. I don’t believe it. That’s pretty slick.

Jeff:
It is pretty slick. That makes sense, right? So this act was a public legal gesture witnessed by the elders and the people at the city gate, making the transaction official and binding.

Chris:
Well, I mean I figured it had something to do with walking. I wasn’t really thinking about walking.

Jeff:
I’m giving up my right to walk on this land.

Chris:
I thought it had something to do with like symbolizing the journey of life or something, right?

Jeff:
So I’m not saying I think the AI is always right, but that’s a pretty good answer to me. Hey, good job AI.

Chris:
If you’re listening. What do they say? If you can’t make it, fake it.

Jeff:
Yeah, that’s funny. So that might be it. Giving up his right to walk on the land.

Chris:
So a kinsman-redeemer, right? Yeah, this is so important. Yeah, it really is. So when I was looking up the kinsman-redeemer, many of us know that Jesus is called the kinsman-redeemer, right? So it actually gave me, it referenced Hebrews chapter 2, verses 11 through 18. is sort of a good passage that talks about that. Also references Psalm 119. For instance, Psalm 119 says, he has sent redemption to his people. He has ordained his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name. And there were four requirements of a kinsman-redeemer. This was the law of the kinsman-redeemer, if it is listed four qualifications which were necessary for a man to fulfill the role of a kinsman-redeemer. It was only when a man possessed these four qualities, blah, blah, blah. Okay, number one, he must be a kinsman. The passage is very explicit that this redeemer must be related to the one whom he is going to help or buy out or assist. Number two, he must be free himself. Number three, he must be able to pay the price. And number four, he must be willing to pay the price. Right. And so, and so Jesus then, you know, buys us.

Jeff:
Yeah. So, so let, let me just clarify, um, this passage didn’t use the word Kinsman Redeemer. It said Family Redeemer. And it’s the same, right? So you and I, we grew up with King James. And so we think of that theologically with the phrase Kinsman Redeemer.

Chris:
and all the songs that talked about it.

Jeff:
That’s right. But kinsmen just means family member. Right. Right. So this is a family Redeemer. And so in that context, then using those four things that Jesus was the, is our kinsmen Redeemer. The idea being, so if you don’t know, Ruth’s husband died. She’s a Moabite. She’s not a Jewish woman. Her husband had died. Naomi is her mother-in-law. Naomi decides to move back from Moab back to Bethlehem. In Bethlehem, Ruth notices this guy Boaz, and she starts harvesting the extras, the leftovers in his field, which was part of the Jewish law at the time to take care of poor people. And he noticed her and went, oh, hey, you can pick these better things and was kind of flirting a little bit in the way that, you know, the sophisticated way that they would have flirted without being inappropriate. So then Naomi goes, hey, wait a minute. He’s in line to be your kinsman redeemer. And what that is, is there was a law, there was no safety net. for a social safety net for widows, right? And so the law opened up this opportunity that a family member of the deceased person, so in this situation, Ruth’s husband, a family member, the next in line, a brother, a cousin, whatever, could marry the wife of the deceased man and then provide for her. whether that meant that they were going to enter into, you know, physical relations or not, what he’s doing is he’s bringing her in her house to take care of her. If she is young enough and does not have any children and he doesn’t have any children, then he can, then they can have children together. And partly what that does is continue the line of the other family member too. So there’s all these things. So the requirement then would be, first of all, that he would be free, that he would be a family member, that he would be willing, I mean, able to pay the price and that he would be willing to do so. And that’s exactly what Jesus did. So, you know, we are hopeless and without help, there is no safety net for us. unless somebody rescues us. Right. And that’s what Jesus did is he was free. He was free from sin. He could pay the price for us when we couldn’t. And he had the ability to and did.

Chris:
Yeah. And if you think about it, it’s, it’s so awesome to try to think of all the number of ways, the millions of ways, it just seems like mathematically, it’s probably not millions, but the odds are beyond billions and trillions and quadrillions. that Jesus would be able to fulfill every prophecy, right? And over three to, you know, sometimes people say up to 400 prophecies, but at least over 300 prophecies. And then he has to be related. So Jesus then was born of a virgin and he becomes human. And so he becomes one of us. Therefore, he is one of us. He is a kinsman of the human race. The God who created us became one of us. Right. Right. And so he can qualify them.

Jeff:
Because we’re all sons of Adam.

Chris:
Yes, we’re all sons of Adam. That’s right. And he’s the second Adam, right? That’s right. So, yeah. And by the way, this law of marrying widows, that carried on from this time in Ruth all the way up till Jesus’ day.

Jeff:
Yes. Yeah. Right.

Chris:
Which is why I remember when they asked, they had a question for Jesus and they said, okay, let me give you a scenario. If one guy, you know, if one guy dies and then the brother marries her and seven brothers marry her, who’s she married to in heaven? Right. And it’s because of this law. Yes. It’s the law of the Pentateuch. It’s found in Leviticus, where it talks about, you know, this social safety net that you’re referring to.

Jeff:
So then, it might seem weird for our listeners, right? He bought land and got Ruth? Right. That feels weird a little bit to our sensibilities that, what in the world? He’s purchasing a wife? Feels weird. So you have to understand the concept of a dowry. You and I, we’ve done a lot of work around like the pocots and they do a dowry as well, right? And this also is a part of the fact that there is no social safety net. So he literally, he says, so that she’ll have an inheritance. So what he’s doing is he’s purchasing her dowry which then if he dies, that’s her, basically what he does is before they say, I do, he paid for her life insurance, his life insurance policy, right? That’s what he did. So he went and bought this land that is now permanently her dowry. If he didn’t own the land and he died six months later, she would have nothing because she wouldn’t technically be qualified for his land. If he had other family members that could qualify for it. So, instead what he did is he went and bought her former husband’s land and her brother-in-law’s land and her father-in-law’s land. He bought it all. That let him provide for Naomi. That’s what he was doing, was providing for Naomi. That’s her retirement. And he purchased this life insurance policy for himself so that Ruth would be taken care of for the rest of her life, no matter what happened. It was a brilliant system. So when you and I look at it, he seems to be buying land and Ruth gets thrown in on the deal. or on the other hand at one point there’s a sentence in there it seems like what he’s doing is he’s purchasing Ruth. Um, but that’s not it. It’s what he’s doing is he’s paying the price so that she could be provided for forever, which again is what Jesus did.

Chris:
It’s more about responsibility and the law. Right. And, um, as opposed to an exchange of, you know, a price.

Jeff:
Right. Right. But I mean, it’s, it would be like if, if a guy goes to a girl today in our culture and said, uh, Hey, uh, I’d like to marry you. And she goes, Oh, that’d be really nice. And then he says, just so you know, I just bought a $10 million life insurance policy. And she goes, Oh yeah, I’ll marry you. So, so, or, or they stand in front of the pastor and the pastor is like, you know, do you Bob Johnson take this woman? And he goes, yes. But before we get to that point, I have, I just purchased a $10 million life insurance policy. Right. And so then the dad goes, Oh yeah, that sounds good. Go ahead. Right. That’s kind of what happened is it’s a, it’s, it’s making sure that she’s forever cared for and taken care of, which is again, what our kinsmen redeemer did. This is why the Bible talks about Paul. You know, Paul says this in Corinthians, he says, don’t you know that your body is not your own, for you were bought with a price, right? Therefore, glorify God in your body. And there’s multiple times where the Bible says, as Christians, we’re not our own anymore, that Christ bought us. He paid for us with his blood. It’s why Jesus said on the cross, to telestite, right? It’s paid in full, is he paid the price, that kinsman redeemer. But what he did is he didn’t just buy us for himself. He provided for us for the rest of eternity. Right? Right. It’s really neat.

Chris:
It’s a neat picture. Yeah. You know, the idea of redeeming, you know, we, we, we don’t, uh, you know, you, you take one thing and you, you exchange it for another, you know, we could redeem like with a coupon, right? This coupon is equal to that. It’s, it has value.

Jeff:
Chuck E. Cheese, back when you used to work at Chuck E. Cheese. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You redeem the… Sure, you redeem the tickets. Yeah, redeem the tickets.

Chris:
Yeah, but that’s what you do. You have to have something in order to get something else, and that something has to be value, and that thing that you hold is valuable. So we redeem in our lives all the time. It sounds like a word that is reserved for a lot of churches. A lot of churches use the word redeem a lot in a lot of the songs. And I would just say, no, no, redeeming is a part of our everyday lives. It’s just that we probably don’t view it that way.

Jeff:
Right. Well, we were owned by our sin. Right. Right. So the debt that we owed, we were owned by our sin. And then Jesus came in as our kinsman redeemer, as our family redeemer, and he paid everything necessary because he was able to, and because he wanted to, and he provided for us for the rest of eternity. And the whole story, the whole concept of redemption is based and rooted in love, right? The king loved us and paid the price when nobody else could or would, and when we didn’t have the ability to either.

Chris:
Do you remember that old song, He Paid a Debt He Did Not Owe? Yes. He did not owe, I owed a debt, I could not pay, I needed someone to wash my sins away.

Jeff:
And I haven’t thought of that song in like a thousand years.

Chris:
I know, right? It always comes up in my brain. You know, all these old songs. Did I ever tell you the prank that I paid with a dowry? Did I ever tell you that prank? A good friend of mine had a son-in-law engaged to his daughter, right? So just a future son-in-law. And she was crazy about Kroger organic produce. And so he fabricated a stationery and emailed them and said, this is Kroger. Apparently all the produce that you’ve been buying for the last five years has not been organic. Right. And so, and so like, uh, it was this elaborate prank. Right. And so she literally called them and like chewed them out. And they’re like, what are you talking about? Like, it was hilarious. And so anyway, she was so upset and I was the one doing the wedding. Right. And, and, and, you know, they’re like a really rich, fancy kind of, kind of a family. And so she says, uh, I want you to think of a way to help me pay him back. So I came up with this. I, I, I literally went online, like Canva, you know, and did like this entire packet and sent him a packet and said, okay, well, in order for me as a pastor of this church that they belong to, in order for me to perform this wedding, you have to choose which dowry you’re going to pay to the church. Okay. Now listen, I had like, uh, 3,000, 7,000, 10,000 and 25,000. Right. Based on how much he loved her.

Jeff:
Based on how much he loved her.

Chris:
And by the way, it was, I did, I did a lot, baby. I think the 25,000 was like, uh, like, like buying goats, like for our global partners and like, you know, buying sewing machines for the women of India. I mean like, or adopting children. Right. Like I had it all like attached to something. It all looked legitimate. I wrote it all out and everything else. And I sent it to him and he goes, what’s this? And I call him on the phone. I was just legit. I mean, I was totally legit. I said, listen, you can choose whatever you want. The 3000, the 7,000, the 10,000, the 25,000. I said, but just so you know, I’ve been doing this for like 17 years and I don’t know a single person that has not chosen the 25,000, but it’s up to you. That’s what I said. I go, but it’s up to you. And I was like, so I’ll let you know. And then, and then literally he goes back to the, to the, to the wife, to the, you know, and, and says, and says, is this real? And, uh, and, and they’re like, yeah. And they let it play out for like, for like a month. Well, it wasn’t a month. It was probably like two weeks. Yeah, that’s pretty funny.

Jeff:
That’s crazy. So then they wind up, literally, if you’re wondering how the story ends, they live happily ever after. This is one of the great love stories of the Bible. I wish we could have dug in just a little bit more, but we read most of it. And then they are the great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, I think it’s eight generations, grandparents of King David.

Chris:
Wow.

Jeff:
How’d you figure that out? Because there’s a list there at the end of the chapter. No, no, no, no, no. I’m sorry. I read it wrong. Perez. I went from Perez. So Boaz was the father of Obed. Obed was the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David. So these are just the great-grandparents.

Chris:
Yeah, four generations.

Jeff:
So that’s really cool because Boaz and Ruth become the great-grandparents of of King David. David is the lineage, the line, the family, the royal line of Jesus. And so ultimately, Boaz and Ruth are in the lineage of Jesus, right? That’s awesome. Family members. So just a really beautiful story. Anyways.

Chris:
Very cool. Listen, that is our time. So hopefully we will see you next time on The Bible Guys.