Ruth chapter 4, Psalm 69, Isaiah 12:2-6, Isaiah 55:6-11. I remember a song from my childhood sung as part of the processional into the church on Palm Sunday. It is about Jesus our Redeemer King.

The story of Ruth is all about redemption, not as we hear it on Palm Sunday or intoned on various occasions in reference to Jesus' atoning death and sacrifice for our sins, but in its practical application in the culture of Israel at the time of Ruth.

Briefly, the book of Ruth is about a Jewess, Naomi who had lived among the non-jewish Moabites. She had two sons who had married local girls of Moab. When the book of Ruth begins, Naomi is widowed and her two sons have died, leaving her with her two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth. These were young women and of marring age. Naomi charged them to return to their people and find husbands for themselves and announced that she was going to return to her people. Orpah returned, but Ruth begged to accompany Naomi back to her home land. Naomi's dead husband had owned land in Israel, but she could not claim it because she was a woman and women could not hold property. It was Naomi's plan to return to Bethlehem of Judah where she and her husband had come from, find her husband's nearest male relative and get him to redeem it for her. To keep this brief, the rest of the story is about how Naomi, with the help of Ruth redeemd her dead husband's property and got a husband for Ruth. Nice story. But what does it have to do with Jesus the Redeemer King? How can we apply redemption to ourselves as practiced in ancient Israel? And why do we need a Redeemer King anyway?