Good Morning Gorgeous,

It’s a brand new day! A fresh, new start!!! A new day to grow in our knowledge and revelation of Jesus Christ!

Friends, these blog posts on the Names of Jesus have been so revelatory to me.

I have learned so so much digging into the scriptures and learning His Names. My soul feels re energized, my faith feels strengthened, and my spirit feels His Power and Might.

I’ve been falling behind because each post has taken alot of study and meditation, and of course we are gearing up to celebrate Christmas!

Today, I am going to catch up by connecting and sharing two Names of Jesus: Our Redeemer and Bridegroom.

These are intertwined and related through the story of Boaz and Ruth.

A quick synopsis of the story. The story begins with Ruth’s mother-in- law Naomi and the death of her two sons: Ruth’s husband and also her other son. Women who had been widowed were left vulnerable and without provision unless they remarried or were cared for by their son or other family members. Naomi had no sons left and her daughter in laws had no children. So, she gathered her two daughter in laws together and tearfully released them to go back to their homelands and remarry and she was going to return back to her homeland as well. You can tell there is love between them. One agrees and goes home. And the other is Ruth. She declares full loyalty to her mother in law even though it means she is giving up her chance of a good future. She tells Naomi that wherever she goes, she will go too. She declares that she will join her people and serve her God.

Ruth is not Jewish by heritage, so as she chooses to return with Naomi to her people, it also means that she will be an outsider as well. Ruth is choosing a very difficult life to remain with Naomi..

They head back to Naomi’s homeland and Ruth provides for Naomi by picking barley from the leftovers in Boaz’s field. He takes notice of her and protects her by telling his workers to leave her alone and not harm her as well as to let her continue to glean the fields as much as she wants to. He even instructs them to leave some barley that is easy for her to collect.

And then, through a series of events orchestrated by Naomi, Ruth goes to Boaz and tells him that he is a guardian redeemer to their family.

In those days that meant that Boaz had the right to all of the property of his relative, but to redeem or save it, he also had to take Ruth to be his wife. Which he did willingly and gladly!

He turned Ruth and Naomi’s sorrow into joy when Ruth had a son. And that son was part of the genealogy of Jesus.

To redeem is to pay the price for someone, to restore them, to pay a ransom, or to pay off a debt for someone

Boaz was Ruth’s guardian redeemer because based on Levitical law, the close relative of a deceased man was responsible to pay off all debt to buy back his property as well as receive the man’s widow as his wife so that she would be restored to protection and provision.

The marriage was a new covenant. Boaz redeemed Ruth and restored her dreams as well as those of her mother in law, Naomi.

These two women were destitute, without a family, without provision other than collecting leftovers in the field, and without any children. Boaz redeemed them by marrying Ruth who was a foreigner from the land of Moab.

This was a huge redemption! Through marriage, he grafted her into the Jewish faith AND the lineage of Jesus. She becomes the mother of Obed, and her grandson is Jesse, and her great grandson is King David!!! And, through the lineage of King David, Jesus came!

God used Ruth, a foreign woman, not a Jew to be the great grandmother of David and ultimately in the genealogy of Jesus Christ!

How beautiful is God’s ability to redeem hope when all seems lost.

To redeem and revive lost dreams.

To redeem and revive relationships.

To redeem your story!!!

Ruth had lost everything when her husband died. Whatever land he owned was lost. Any dream of having a new husband was lost when she didn’t return to her own homeland, because for a Jewish man to marry her in that culture was rare. Her first husband was Jewish, but he was living in the land of Moab. Now she was in the Jewish territory of Bethlehem She didn’t fit in. She didn’t belong, and the culture was difficult for foreigners.

But God.

And how amazing is it that she bore a son in Bethlehem, and then many, many generations later another son was born in Bethlehem as well!

Our guardian redeemer was born in that same town of Bethlehem! Our redeemer who would save us from our sins, pay our debt in full, redeem earth by canceling the curse against it, and restore humanity back to original design.

Jesus has redeemed you and me. He has paid our price and restored us. He removed our shame and sorrow and has given us joy in it’s place.

We now have a hope and future in Christ. The Lord has goood plans for us.

When you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you are redeemed. Jesus pays the price to redeem you back.

AND

There is a wedding feast in store for us!!!

Just as Boaz redeemed Ruth by paying the price for her property and redeemed her story by marrying her for all to see. He elevated her status from widow and foreigner to wife, mother, and sealed into the Jewish faith. He saved her and then celebrated her!

Friends, you may be reading this and feeling discouraged because things are not fully restored in your family or your life. You may have been faithfully following Jesus for a long time or a short time, and just feeling lonely and disappointed with how things in life have played out so far.

You may not feel restored, filled with joy, or hopeful.

Friends, may I encourage you! We are going to be sitting at a wedding feast with Jesus Christ as His bride and He will be the groom! He is going to celebrate ALL who have placed their faith in Him and made Him their Lord and Savior by feasting with us.

He is going to celebrate with us when all sorrow and pain is erased and those who kept the faith in Him will be the spotless, bride of Christ fully redeemed and restored.

This is another amazing truth of Jesus that is sooo hard to fathom.

But check out the scriptures!

You may read these and have a hard time even imagining such a celebration. How could this be? Is this promise really for me?

Do you love Jesus? Then read this scripture!!

Friends, we CAN’T even imagine it because it’s beyond our scope of anything we have ever experienced before! The Lord has such beauty in store for you. This life is so temporary, so short and fleeting. But for those who love the Lord, there are truly amazing things planned for us for all of eternity!

A few more scriptures to illustrate this!

John the Baptist refers to Jesus as the bridegroom.

Jesus calls the kingdom of heaven like a wedding banquet.

And the book of Revelation, blesses all those invited to the wedding supper. That’s us!!

This is our amazing future. We have NOTHING to fear in Christ. There is an amazing future ahead for us!

Just as the people of God expectantly waited for His birth into the earth, so we wait expectantly for Him to return and fully restore the Kingdom of God.

And we will celebrate with Him as His redeemed, restored, spotless bride.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Give us mindsets that keep us eternally focused. Help us to see the earth through the eyes of heaven. Help us to boldly proclaim the hope of Jesus to others this Christmas. Help us to view our temporary afflictions as just that temporary. Remind our spirits that there is truly joy up ahead and help us to cling to the promises in Your Word that we are Your Bride and you are preparing a great wedding celebration for us!

In Jesus’s name, Amen.

Zac and Makaela Camp, the worship leaders from my church, wrote and recorded this song. It is such a beautiful depiction of what Christ does for us. Remember, you are His bride and He is the bridegroom who redeemed you.

Blessings!

Vanessa Lynn