God is a Redeemer! – Ki Teitzei – August 29

When I first came to Israel I heard about the option for new immigrants to spend a half of a year in a kibbutz program to learn Hebrew and learn about the kibbutz life.  This greatly intrigued me and as I investigated this option I learned that of the approximately 270 kibbutzim in Israel there were a few kibbutzim that were actually part of this program.  I also learned that there is an age limit for the program participants, from 18-30 years old.  I was 37 years old at the time and as I talked to my representative I was told that she would try to find a kibbutz that would make an exception for my age.

Through the course of a few months I learned about the various kibbutzim that were part of this program and I became interested in one particular kibbutz that is an organic farming kibbutz as well as an orthodox religious society.  This was the kibbutz that I wanted to become part of for my program.

To make a long story short, there were several kibbutzim there were open to having me come to their kibbutz despite my being seven years over the age limit, however, the kibbutz that I wanted to join said NO!  The manager of the kibbutz program which I wanted to join told me no not just once but about ten times over the course of a couple of months.  I was very disappointed but the rules were the rules and I was rightly excluded because of my age.

Sometimes in life there are obstacles and challenges that seem impossible for us to overcome.  There is only so much that we can personally do but we need to always remember that God is not limited as we are.  God is a powerful Redeemer and He enjoys showing compassion and providing for His children when they face impossible situations.  We see this illustrated in this week’s study.

The Law for the Ammonite and the Moabite

This week’s Torah Portion contains many different laws and regulations regarding how to live life according to God’s holy Law.  Among the various laws given is a strict command forbidding an Ammonite or a Moabite from ever entering into the assembly of the LORD:

No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the Lord, because they did not meet you with food and water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. – Deut. 23:3-4

The reasons given for this strict prohibition were as a result of the actions of the Ammonites and Moabites against the children of Israel both in not aiding the children of Israel in their time of need and for seeking to literally curse them.  This prohibition was not simply for the duration of ten generations, but literally forever.  What does it mean to be excluded from the assembly of the LORD? 

Exclusion from the Assembly of the LORD

In Hebrew, the term “assembly of the LORD” is “קהל יהוה” – “kehal Adonai.”  Some believe that the term used in this context is only referring to the religious system established by God for the people of Israel.  According to this perspective the Ammonites and Moabites were simply prohibited from being involved in Israel’s worship service (Deere, Jack. The Bible Knowledge Commentary. Old Testament. p. 259).

However, the term “assembly of the LORD” is used in other places in the Torah to refer to the people of Israel in general (Numbers 20:4).  Furthermore, in the same context of the Ammonites and Moabites in Deuteronomy 23 it is stated, “You shall never seek their peace or their prosperity all your days” (Deut. 23:6).  The prohibition against the Ammonites and Moabites was relational and was permanent, Forever!

The instructions found here in the book of Deuteronomy were the final words of Moses that were intended to be the Israelites “handbook for life” as they entered into the Promised Land and walked according to all that God had instructed them through Moses.  The Israelites were to be a separate people, holy unto the LORD, and this included the exclusion of the Ammonites and Moabites from joining themselves to the people of Israel.  The sons of Israel were to be careful to not permit them into the nation of Israel and neither were they to seek the peace or welfare of these two people groups.

If all of this is true, how did Ruth the Moabitess ever enter into the assembly of the people of Israel?

The Story of Ruth

The story of Ruth begins with a famine in the Land of Israel.  There was a man from the town of Bethlehem of Judah, named Elimelech, who chose to leave Bethlehem and settle in the fields of Moab to survive during the time of the famine.  Elimelech was married to his wife Naomi and they had two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, and they settled together in the land of Moab.

During the course of time Elimelech died leaving Naomi a widow in a foreign land.  Both of Naomi’s sons married Moabite women but then her two sons died as well.  Naomi was now totally alone with her two widowed daughters-in-law in the land of Moab.

One day Naomi heard how God had remembered His people and provide bread so Naomi decided to return to her home and to her people.  Naomi tried to send her daughters-in-law back to their mothers’ homes so that they could remarry.  One of the daughters-in-law returned but the other, Ruth, would not depart from her Israeli mother-in-law.  Naomi tried to insist but Ruth was resilient and then said these famous words:

Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the LORD do to me, and worse, if anything but death parts you and me. – Ruth 1:16-17

It was because of these words that Naomi realized that nothing would deter Ruth from leaving her and she said no more.  Naomi and Ruth traveled together to Bethlehem.

As Naomi and Ruth entered into Bethlehem the women of the city began to stir and ask if this was Naomi who had left so many years before.  The name “Naomi” means “pleasant” and when the women began to ask if this was Naomi, she responded with these words:

Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.  I went out full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the LORD has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me? – Ruth 1:20-21

The word “Mara” in Hebrew means “bitter.”  Naomi felt like all of the pleasantness of her life had been turned to bitterness and she couldn’t even stand to hear her name anymore.  Naomi’s life had hit rock bottom and she felt abandoned by God.

From Tragedy to Redemption

We all know the story of Ruth and how the story turned from immense tragedy to unbelievable joy and delight.  The rest of the story of Ruth centers on the man Boaz who was a relative of the family and was able to redeem this whole situation by marrying Ruth and acquiring the property of Naomi.

Boaz was considered a “redeemer,” which in Hebrew is the word “גואל” – “goel.”  He was considered a redeemer because he was a close relative and by the law that God had given the people, a brother or close relative was to raise up seed (a descendant) in the name of the man who had died and left no children.  This was the case of Naomi and Ruth as Ruth had married Naomi’s son but was left childless.  The fascinating dilemma in this story is that Ruth was not originally from the people of Israel but rather from one of the “excluded people,” the Moabites.  How did Ruth overcome this law of exclusion?

It was through this law of redemption by the kinsman redeemer that Ruth’s status of exclusion and failed marriage turned into an elevated status in the assembly of Israel and a marriage that brought joy to the kingdom.  This law of redeeming the seed of a brother who has died and left no children is also a part of this week’s Torah Portion.

God’s Provision of Redemption

When God gave the Law to the children of Israel at Mt. Sinai and during their desert wanderings, God provided a framework of holiness, which God expected the children of Israel to obey.  Parts of the Law were already known and common practice such as the Sabbath, which was given at creation (Gen. 2:1-3) and then added as part of the Ten Commandments to emphasize that this was important to God.  The Law was given to remind and reinforce God’s holy ways through a particular nation.

The practice of raising up a descendant for a brother’s widowed spouse was also previously known before the giving of the Law, as we read in the account of Judah and his sons (Gen. 38:6-8).  By making this practice part of the Law God was emphasizing its importance and making it obligatory for the children of Israel:

When brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. – Deut. 25:5

This practice has come to be called the “the levirate law.”  The word “levir” is a Latin word which means “husband’s brother.”  In Hebrew the term is “יבמה” – “yevamah” and it simply means “husband’s brother” as well.

The point of this law was to “redeem the dead,” to provide a child in the place of the lost brother and to also provide the widow with a family rather than her simply remaining alone as a widow (Deut. 25:5-6).  God desires to provide redemption in situations that seem unredeemable and to provide life in place of death.  God’s redemptive nature reminds me of a song titled “God is!”  Click this link to listen to this song: God is!

Boaz the Redeemer

This law of the “levirate” was completely fulfilled in the story of Ruth.  Boaz was not the brother of the husband of Ruth but he was a close relative and he was in line to fulfill this law (Ruth 3:2).  There was another relative who was a closer relative than Boaz and he had the first right to redeem Ruth.  This closer relative decided not to redeem Ruth and took off his sandal as a sign (Ruth 4:7-8).  This custom of removing the sandal was in keeping with the law for the one who would not fulfill his duty of the husband’s brother (Deut. 25:8-10).

Boaz then redeemed Ruth and married her (Ruth 4:9-10).  Ruth the Moabitess, who was formerly married to an Israeli man in the land of Moab, was now married to her kinsman redeemer in Beth Lehem of Israel.  Ruth, the childless widow was now the happy wife who would bear a son through Boaz her redeemer (Ruth 4:13).  The one who had been forbidden to enter the assembly of Israel was redeemed from this curse and blessed beyond measure.

Ruth is the perfect example for us all of the grace of God towards humanity.  Ruth had no earthly right to be included in the assembly of the LORD.  Ruth was born into exclusion and was destined to remain there, however, Providence shined upon her and gave her a door of opportunity.

Ruth married into the family of Israel through Naomi’s son but was then left desolate when he died.  Naomi tried to send Ruth back to her family but she wouldn’t go.  Ruth committed her life to Naomi and to the God of Israel.  Ruth pursued the God of Israel and was faithful to serve her mother-in-law despite having no hope of the future for herself, through marriage or children.  Boaz chose to redeem Ruth from the curse, the pain, and the disappointment of her past.  Through fulfilling the Law, Boaz was a redeemer to Ruth.

God is a Redeemer

God loves to redeem.  God’s heart is to restore the brokenness of our lives and give us the fulness of joy that He alone provides.

This week’s reading from the prophets is from the first ten verses of Isaiah chapter 54.  In these few verses of Isaiah we read of God as the Redeemer of His people.  I’ve included a few of these verses below which focus on the redemptive nature of God:

“Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no child;

Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed…

For the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous

Than the sons of the married woman,” says the LORD.

“Fear not, for you will not be put to shame;

And do not feel humiliated, for you will not be disgraced;

But you will forget the shame of your youth,

And the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more.

“For your husband is your Maker,

Whose name is the LORD of hosts;

And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel,

Who is called the God of all the earth.

“For the Lord has called you,

Like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit,

Even like a wife of one’s youth when she is rejected,”

Says your God.

“For a brief moment I forsook you,

But with great compassion I will gather you.

“In an outburst of anger

I hid My face from you for a moment,

But with everlasting lovingkindness I will have compassion on you,”

Says the LORD your Redeemer. – Isaiah 54:1, 4-8

I don’t know what you’re dealing with in your life today but always remember that the God of heaven and earth sees you.  You may feel like there is no hope and no way to keep going but don’t give up.  Even though it may seem like God has abandoned you, don’t lose hope.

In conclusion to my kibbutz story, after four months of hearing “NO” from the same person God prompted me to have the representative ask him one more time.  She asked again and this time he said YES!  There was no reason for him to change his mind but God in his mercy changed that man’s heart and I was permitted to participate in the kibbutz program from which I was legally excluded.

The Holy One of Israel loves to redeem us from impossible situations so that He gets all of the glory and not man.  Never forget that the LORD sees you and that He is your Redeemer!

Shabbat Shalom!

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Torah Portion: Deut. 21:10 – Deut. 25:19

Hafatara: Isaiah 54:1-10

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