Ruth 2:1 says, “Naomi had a relative of her husband’s, a man of great wealth, from Elimelech’s family; and his name was Boaz.” Boaz belonged to a renowned family of Judah and was rich in wealth. Furthermore, he was a relative, even a kinsman, of Ruth’s father-in-law, Elimelech, and was qualified to redeem Elimelech’s property (4:3-6). As a kinsman of Mahlon, the dead husband of Ruth, he was willing to redeem the lost right of Mahlon’s property, and he took Mahlon’s widow, Ruth, as his wife to bear a son for the establishing of her husband’s name (vv. 9-10). In all these things Boaz typifies Christ.
In Luke 19:12 the Lord Jesus likened Himself to a man of noble birth. This signifies that the Lord Jesus, who is of the highest status, is the God-man, both honorable in His deity and noble in His humanity. Hence, as a man rich in wealth and generous in giving, Boaz typifies the Savior Christ, who is rich in the grace of God. His divine riches are unsearchable (Eph. 3:8; 2 Cor. 12:9), and He takes care of God’s needy people with His bountiful supply (Phil. 1:19b).
The first kinsman of Ruth’s deceased husband, Mahlon, typifies our natural man, who cannot and will not redeem us from the indebtedness (sin) of our old man. Boaz, the second kinsman of Ruth’s deceased husband, was qualified and willing to redeem the lost right of Mahlon’s property and took Mahlon’s widow, Ruth, as his wife for the producing of the needed heirs (Ruth 4:9-10, 13). Hence, Boaz typifies Christ, who partook of blood and flesh to be like us and who has become the believers’ Kinsman (Heb. 2:14). Having shed His blood to accomplish redemption for us, He can and will redeem us from our sin, recover the lost right of our natural man in God’s creation, be our new Husband that He may have a divine organic union with us, and take us as His counterpart for His increase (Eph. 5:23-32; John 3:29-30).
Ruth and Boaz are a complete prefigure of the Gentile sinners’ being brought with Israel, God’s elect, into the divine inheritance through the redemption of Christ in their union with Him.
Ruth was one of the Moabites, who were forbidden to enter the holy congregation of Jehovah, yet she became a part of Israel and partook of her husband’s inheritance through marriage. She chose God and His kingdom and exercised her right to glean the harvest of God’s elect and partake of the rich produce of the inheritance of God’s elect. Eventually, she gained a redeeming husband, and she conceived and brought forth a son to bring in the royal house of David. Thus, she became an important ancestor in the genealogy of Christ to continue the line of the God-created humanity for the incarnation of Christ to accomplish the eternal economy of God. She typifies the Gentile church, before her salvation, as men in God’s creation and sinners in man’s fall, yet the church with her old man as her crucified husband was redeemed by Christ for the recovery of the lost right of her natural man in God’s creation. Furthermore, after being saved through the regeneration of her natural man, the church became the counterpart of Christ. The Gentile sinners were thus attached to Christ to partake of the inheritance of God’s promise, producing a home for rest and bringing forth Christ and spreading Christ.
Boaz was a man rich in wealth and generous in giving. Furthermore, he was a kinsman of Ruth’s father-in-law, Elimelech, and he was qualified and willing to redeem the lost right of Ruth’s deceased husband’s inheritance and to take Ruth as his wife to bear a son for the establishing of her husband’s name. In all these aspects Boaz typifies Christ, who is of the highest status, is rich in God’s grace, has the unsearchable riches, and takes care of God’s needy people by His bountiful supply. Christ partook of blood and flesh to be like us and became the believers’ Kinsman. He shed His blood to accomplish redemption for us, and He can and will redeem us from our sin, recover the lost right of our natural man in God’s creation, and take us as His counterpart for His increase.