The opening chapters of the Bible describe 4 major events: (1) all things have been created by the word of God’s power; (2) all mankind is descended from Adam and Eve; (3) all mankind is fallen in sin and death through Adam; (4) all who trust in the Redeemer, a second Adam, would be free from the fall and its curse. This promise of redemption (Gen 3:15) is called the protoevangelium or the first gospel, and its scarlet thread runs through the Bible as a major theme.

I. The Perspective (Ruth 2:17-19). When Naomi saw the result of Ruth’s labor and heard of Boaz, she erupted in praise to God. The God who made her bitter and took all from her (Ruth 1:20-21) had now been kind to her and not forsaken her. Calamity was replaced by kindness, and groaning by grace. God hadn’t changed (Num 23:19; Mal 3:6; 2 Tim 2:13; Jas 1:17), but Naomi’s perspective of Him was altered. If we ever think God is unkind, unloving or unfaithful, it’s we who are wrong.

II. The Provider (Ruth 2:20). God had been continually kind (hesed) to both the living (Naomi and Ruth) and the dead (Elimelech and Mahlon). His loving-kindness (Tit 3:4-7; 1 Pet 5:6-10) was changing the outlook of the future; bitterness was dissolving in the blessing of God.
Boaz was Naomi’s kinsman (goel). The word is used 20 times in Ruth, and the root of this Hebrew word means redeemer. Under the Law of Moses, a kinsman-redeemer had a four-fold duty under the Law (Lev 25): to make restitution, carry out justice, protect family land, and continue the family line through levirate marriage.
Practically, this meant that a poor man could sell his land or himself into slavery, but only until the year of Jubilee every 50 years. At Jubilee, all loans, mortgages, and contracts were cancelled, and everything sold reverted to the original family. God demanded the Jubilee return of land and people because both belonged to Him (Lev 25:23-28; Ps 24:1). A kinsman or goel, however, could buy back (redeem) something sold at any time (Lev 25:23-25; 47-55). The family member who bought back was called a kinsman-redeemer.
The main salvation word in the Old Testament dealing with sin is atonement and means to cover over (used more than 100 times); but the New Testament uses a wide variety of salvific terms like save/rescue (Mt 1:21), ransom (Mk 10:45), propitiate (Rom 3:25), justify (Rom 5:9), reconcile (Rom 5:10), purify (Heb 1:3), sacrifice (Heb 7:27), remove (Heb 10:4), and redeem (Eph 1:7). Redeem means to pay a price to obtain freedom.
Under the Mosaic system of sacrifices, sins were covered over by the blood of animals, but Christ our Redeemer has paid for them with His own blood, removing them and the penalty associated with them, setting us free. “Redemption is the most glorious work of God. It is greater far than His work of creation. He spoke a word and worlds were formed, but it cost Him the life of His beloved Son to redeem the world” (Henrietta Mears).

III. The Promise (Ruth 2:21-23). Naomi told Ruth to stay in Boaz’s Bethlehem field and stay close (Gen 2:24; Mt 19:5) to his workers for the duration of the 6 week barley and wheat harvest, unlike she and Elimelech had done earlier. Ruth would now labor not to survive, but to enjoy the love and hope given to her.
Ruth 2 ends by creating a question in the mind of the reader: what happens when Boaz’s harvest comes to an end? But neither Naomi nor Ruth wondered. They both trusted that the promise making and promise keeping God, Jehovah, would be faithful to them. They rested in the work of their kinsman-redeemer.