7. NEARER THAN THE NEAREST.

Chapter 4:Continued from page 161.

The nearest kinsman promptly consents to redeem the inheritance for Naomi. The law, as we have seen, had this merciful provision, and whenever one or the people turned truly to God and kept His law, He would be "merciful unto His land and to His people." So long as it was of Naomi's hand that the purchase was to be made, and for her, the kinsman consents at once, for she was the widow of "our brother Elimelech." So long as it is Israel according to the flesh, and merely disobedient, the law, with the merciful provision to which we have referred, could interpose and bring back the forfeited inheritance.

We have more or less complete illustrations of this in the history of the people. Again and again, during the period of the Judges, they sinned against the Lord, and were delivered over to the hands of their enemies to be oppressed. But when they turned in penitence to Him, He raised up a deliverer who restored them to their heritage. But the nation went on in the downward path of declension, until the ten tribes were carried off into hopeless captivity and merged into the Gentile nations by whom they were taken captive, beyond all human recognition. The two tribes also were carried off to Babylon and the throne of God, the ark of the covenant, permanently left Jerusalem. Truly a brighter Light shone in the temple at a later time, but not to be accepted by the people. Of this we will speak in a moment.

Even after the captivity at Babylon there was a partial recovery (though the throne had passed from the house of David to the Gentiles). It was as though the law, the nearest kinsman, was going as far as possible in seeking to buy up the inheritance.

But at last after the restoration from Babylon, God sends His Son, the rightful heir of the inheritance. "This is the heir, come let us kill him and the inheritance shall be ours "-how fully this shows a mind absolutely alienated from God and His thoughts. God's Son, the true redeemer, the only deliverer, is slain. The blinded leaders cry "we have no king but Caesar," and thus they deliberately and permanently forfeit all right to be considered the people of God. They have identified themselves absolutely with the Gentiles and are now on the same ground as the despised Moabites or Ammonites. They are " lo-ammi, not my people," and are as fully Gentiles as though they were not of the seed of Abraham.

The law, even with the most merciful construction, could no longer interpose. "An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord forever" (Deut. 23:3). The apostate people had deliberately given up all claim, and so far as the law was concerned, were cut off.

This explains why the kinsman, no matter how willing he might be to restore the heritage to Naomi, could not take it to raise up by Ruth the name of the deceased kinsman. His own inheritance would be marred. How truly that law, "holy, just and good" would be marred if the smallest jot or tittle of its righteous demands were abated. It abides in all its majesty and perfection. It is not made void, as it would be were a single item of its requirements ignored. So for the guilty people who rest in the law and vainly boast in their privileges as a nation there is nothing but condemnation. They are in the place of the Moabite.

But if the law does not and cannot do aught in such a case, it does and can relinquish all right to the inheritance, and transfers those claims to Another. The kinsman draws off his shoe, the usual mode of procedure when property changed hands. The shoe was that which trod upon the land, and to draw it off and pass it to another would seem to indicate that all claims upon the property had passed from the one to the other. How good it is to know that "the law was our schoolmaster till Christ." That it transfers all its own claims to Him.

But let us notice also that this is done before a jury of ten men, witnesses of the law and facts. These ten may well remind us of those "ten words" or commandments which bear full testimony to the claims of God, the ruin of man, and their own powerlessness to redeem. All is done legally. '' I through the law, died to the law," says the apostle. The law itself witnesses to its own powerlessness to redeem. "That I might live unto God," he adds-the law transfers its claims to Another. All is settled righteously and "witnessed by the law and the prophets." Thus "we establish the law."

Boaz is now left free for his heart to act upon its own gracious impulses, and in presence of the same ten who had witnessed the refusal of the first kinsman to purchase the inheritance he buys all-the inheritance and Ruth too, the Moabitess, as she is called to remind us of the grace of the transaction. It is now his, and she is his, truly owned as his bride, and yet linked with poor Naomi the barren, widow of the dead Elimelech.

How beautifully does all this speak of the grace of Christ shown to a poor and unworthy people! Christ risen, beyond death, beyond all claims of the law, betroths to Himself forever in righteousness; the poor stranger and the wanderer finds rest at last.

Such, in some feeble measure, is the teaching of this lovely portion, and we will presently look at the further teaching of the prophets upon this subject. But it is important to dispose of that which too often disturbs the beloved people of God, through ignorance or misapplication of the word of God.

This nearest kinsman, the law, was, as we have just seen, absolutely debarred from taking a gentile into association with himself. And yet, in face of this plain fact, Christians will persist in looking upon all men as under law, and then upon the saints now being still under it as a rule of life.

As to the first, the apostle in the early chapters of the epistle to the Romans, shows the difference between those "without law "-the Gentiles, and those "under law"-the Jews. The law was given only to Israel. God was trying man under the most favorable opportunities. A nation was rescued from servitude, brought into an inheritance and fenced off from the surrounding nations. They were the recipients of God's bounty, the object of His constant care. What more could He do for a people? He challenges the disobedient nation, and waits in vain for a reply. Thus the law was tried under the most favorable circumstances and proved helpless.

But this practically settled the question of justification by law for all mankind; so it is written, "By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin." Thus "every mouth is stopped, and all the world becomes guilty before God." In the trial of Israel, God has tried the world, and settled forever the question of justification by the law. That trial need never be repeated, it is final and conclusive.

But should one say that he desired to be put under the law, he is not as a fact under it, though as a matter of fact it always works in the same way, and he will find-if he truly and honestly makes the effort-that he is condemned before God. He will learn that God's trial of Israel was perfect and complete, and he has but confirmed the results of that divine probation.

A great deal has been made, however, of the distinction between the law for justification, and as a rule of life. It is impossible to separate these two- in fact Scripture does not separate them. Under law, in any way at all, is to be under the curse. The law can only pronounce a curse upon disobedience. Thus if a saint were under the law as a rule of life he is, "debtor to do the whole law," and if he sins in one point is guilty of all, and condemned. Sinai has but one voice. What folly to think of a rule of life from a place which but thunders out death and judgment for the least disobedience. " If there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law" (Gal. 3:21). As a matter of fact the law is "the strength of sin,' and the apostle, in that wondrous seventh chapter of Romans, shows that it is as powerless to produce righteousness in a saint as in a sinner. Would to God that His people realized this. How much abortive effort, and despairing longing would they be spared!

No, beloved brethren, we are in no sense under the law; as a matter of fact we never were. Let us then not mar that perfect witness which perfectly declares God's mind for man, but as perfectly declares he failed to answer to God's mind. We leave it with its testimony, and bow our heads to that testimony, humbly acknowledging that were life or liberty to be gained in that way our case was as hopeless as the widowed Naomi, or the Moabitess Ruth.

But, blessed be God, this leaves our risen Lord free to pour out His heart's love to us in fullest measure. We are dead to the law by the body of Christ that now we might bring forth fruit unto God, being joined in links of everlasting union to Another, even to Him who is raised from the dead. So our Lord has His way, and the very law but witnesses to it, and to its own relinquishment of every claim upon the poor helpless "sons of strangers," who find their home close the heart of the Mighty One.

( To be continued.)