At this, the kinsman-redeemer said, "Then I cannot
redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I
cannot do it." Ruth 4:6 NIV.
This is the second to the last post we are writing on this series. The first post dealt with the moral strength of Boaz which is indispensable in our lives as leaders if we are to finish strong in this ministry the Lord has committed into our hands. The tragedy that has come upon us as a generation is a situation where sex is promoted and advertised as if it is normal for everybody that wants sex to have sex, no matter your estate, whether married or not. We are even being bombarded with advertisements of sexual perversions and unnatural sexual affections and in some cases hounded to accept them as normal no matter what we believe. This has made most church leaders to accept what seems to be the 'lesser evil' - just having sex is not the worst thing after all. Hence, among church members and even leaders, every now and then, sexual scandals hit us, as it were, below the belt. Boaz showed character in his dealing with the young beautiful lady, Ruth.
In the second post, God taught us that we should not take the opportunities the enemy presents to us, no matter how cheap they may seem. As leaders, we should also be careful in our dealings making a conscious effort to avoid scandals. Read it.
In this post, we are dealing with the other character in the passage, the kinsman-redeemer who it was his right to inherit the properties of Ruth's late husband, including marrying Ruth in order to produce children for the deceased. When he was confronted with the matter, he agreed. However, when the issue of Ruth was added to it, he declined "because I might endanger my own estate". No games; no hypocrisy; no dancing around. He was truthful and transparent which helped the elders to quickly take decisions and the matter was resolved amicably. Elders' meeting that day at the gate did not drag unnecessarily, because this man was truthful to himself. Boaz married Ruth.
In our churches, every now and then, we have situations where elders rigmarole up and down in matters because of hypocrisy and personal interests. Matters have often complicated because elders who have the relevant information refused to open up and say what they know. Matters drag, sometimes very messy, even the church unity is affected and yet elders will not take the risk to be straight in their talk and pure in their interests and actions. Currently, there is a very big denomination in this country that is in a serious crises due to leadership tussle. In some cases, they have even called in the police to separate fights in order to avoid 'brethren' killing themselves. It is crazy and unfortunate. This is a clear example of the failure of elders to speak the truth strongly. When elders live in comprise for a very long time, they lose the right to exercise spiritual authority over young people, hence in crises times, their words will not have any power.
