Sermon Cloud

***NOTE*** Because of a digital recording glitch, the last ten minutes or so of the sermon were lost in the audio recording.

·        I’ve spent the last month and half studying prayer.  It has been the most productive and effective study in my entire Christian walk, and I say that without any sense of hyperbole.

·        You might ask, “How does one study prayer?” and the answer comes in different forms depending upon whom you ask. 

o       Some would do a concordance study of every instance of the word “pray” or “prayer” in the Bible.

o       Some would do a study of the Psalms.

o       Some would read books like “Prayer by E.M. Bounds or “Prayer:  Finding the Heart’s True Home” by Richard Foster

·        All of these are good plans and I think you could learn a lot by doing them.  I however followed the example of a good friend who just….prayed. 

·        Now, I’ve written my prayers out in journals for years because closing my eyes means going to sleep, so with a few helps, I have journaled through the various petitions of the Lord’s Prayer now for about a month and a half, and I think I’ve learned as much about myself as I have about God.

·        You see, one of two things happen when you prayer continually about a desire:

o       You either grow comfortable with God’s plan and His timing or

o       You grow discontent and bitter with it.

·        This contentment or bitterness of course rises out of whether or not you think God is giving you what you really think is best. 

·        I guess a good question to ask would be, “What happens to the heart when you ask God for something for 40 straight days and nothing seems to happen?”

o       Let’s be honest.  Praying for 40 days in a row may seem like a pretty long time in terms of discipline and passion, but 40 days in a row ain’t nothing in light of eternity and how God works His plan.

o       Don’t get me wrong.  I would love to hear from any of you folks at Sovereign King that you are experiencing the joy of a disciplined, prolonged time over prayer over the last 40 days.  It is just that none of us have any right to get too proud of ourselves because we got 40 days closer to obeying I Thessalonians 5:17 that says, “Pray without ceasing.” 

·        We have to remember.  God is not impressed with our obedience.  It is what He expects from us.

·        Yet still, what happens to the heart if we continue to pray for something and we feel that those prayers are going either unheard or ignored? 

o       You know there is a story about how Augustine came to faith.  If you read his book “Confessions”

o       Augustine’s mother Monica was a godly woman who prayed for her very rebellious son, Augustine.  In fact, at one point, she kicked him out of the house he was so rebellious.

o       Day and night, Monica prayed and cried that Augustine would repent of his sins and profess faith in Jesus Christ.

o       After praying and praying and crying and crying, Monica sought the wisdom of a local bishop.  His response was that she should be consoled because the son of so many tears could not be lost to Christ.

o       Of course, years later, Augustine finally professed faith in Christ and became an incredible early church father articulating great doctrines for the church.

·        That story ends well, but it doesn’t always.  I wish we could say with that Bishop that enough perseverance and enough tears could change God’s mind, but the God of the universe doesn’t have a beaker full of your tears where He measures your sincerity.  He is not waiting for you to hit some unknown amount of sorrow before He relents.

·        No, the promise of answered prayer comes in 1 John 5:14-15

o       14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

o       Pray the will of God and God answers our requests.  But the problem is, outside of the commands of scripture, we don’t know the will of God which leaves us petitioning and waiting.

·        As we approach Ruth Chapter 3 this week, we are going to see Ruth and Naomi have high and big hopes for what God might do.  They do their part by obeying and keeping to God’s word, but along the way, they too have to wait and see what God will do.

·        So as we approach the scriptures this week, let’s ask this Big Picture Question.

Big Picture Question:  Knowing that all of God’s decrees and desires come to pass, what is the proper posture of the believer while they wait?

3:1 Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? 2 Is not Boaz our relative, with whose young women you were? See, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. 3 Wash therefore and anoint yourself, and put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor, but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. 4 But when he lies down, observe the place where he lies. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he will tell you what to do.” 5 And she replied, “All that you say I will do.”

·        To catch us up, last week we saw Ruth the Moabite begin to glean in Boaz’s fields.  Boaz is a relative of Naomi’s, and He begins to show grace towards Ruth.

o       He forbids his employees from hurting, molesting, or rebuking her.

o       He gives her free access to water.

o       He allows her to glean from not only the whole field but the bundles that have already been gleaned.

o       In fact, he gives her enough food to last for 3 months.

·        Ruth goes home and tells Naomi all of this, and that is where we pick up here in chapter 3.

·        Naomi begins to hatch a plan if you will.  Somehow, she knows that Boaz will be winnowing the Barley in the threshing floor that night.  This is hard arduous work and apparently Boaz sleeps on the threshing floor whenever he is doing this.  Naomi’s advice is this:

o       Go get cleaned up so you don’t look like you have been working the fields all day.

o       Put on nice clothes and some perfume.

o       Don’t let Boaz see you, but whenever he is done eating drinking and goes to sleep, uncover his feet and lie down.  Whatever he says to do, do it, and Ruth says she will.

·        Now, up until the uncovering of the feet, I think we were with her.  Getting cleaned up, putting on nice clothes, wearing some perfume; these things make sense if you are trying to attract a man.

o       Uncovering a man’s feet while he is sleeping?  Not so much

·        Well a couple of things here.

o       The washing and anointing may very well speak to Ruth signifying that the mourning time for her husband is over.  It is not just that she was getting ready to hit the club.

o       Customarily, uncovering a man’s feet was a sign of dependence.  It was a socially acceptable way of stating that she was in his service and at his mercy.

o       There is nothing inappropriate going on here.

·        You see, Ruth is completely placing herself and her future in the hands of Boaz.  She has experienced his grace, so she knows that he is a graceful and merciful man. 

o       This causes her to have great faith in reaching out.  In a lot of ways, this exactly how we grow in trusting Jesus.  We experience His grace and then we grow to trust Him more.  As we know that Christ is all-powerful, all-wise and all-gracious, we too sit and express our utter dependence on His mercies.

·        Let’s see what happens. 

6 So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her. 7 And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then she came softly and uncovered his feet and lay down. 8 At midnight the man was startled and turned over, and behold, a woman lay at his feet! 9 He said, “Who are you?” And she answered, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread your wings over your servant, for you are a redeemer.” 10 And he said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have made this last kindness greater than the first in that you have not gone after young men, whether poor or rich. 11 And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for all my fellow townsmen know that you are a worthy woman. 12 And now it is true that I am a redeemer. Yet there is a redeemer nearer than I. 13 Remain tonight, and in the morning, if he will redeem you, good; let him do it. But if he is not willing to redeem you, then, as the Lord lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until the morning.”

·        So Ruth does exactly what Naomi tells her to do.  Boaz finishes his work, eats a big meal, has a glass a wine and decides its time to pack it in for the day.

o       Ruth creeps into the room, uncovers his feet and lays there saying, “I am your servant.”

o       Boaz wakes up startled around midnight and what to his wondering eyes do appear?  But near his feet a women lying near. 

o       In his half sleep, half awake daze, he asks, “Who are you?” and she replies, “I am Ruth your servant.  Spread your wings over your servant for you are a redeemer.”

·        Now this language is very specific and purposeful.  Last week in chapter 2, we heard Boaz make this statement to Ruth.  He said, “The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!”

o       Boaz is the answer to his own prayer.  In chapter two, he says that Ruth is taking refuel under the wing of the Lord and He asks the Lord to bless her.

o       Here, Ruth asks to take refuge in Boaz’ wing.

·        We saw the image of taking refuge under the wing of the Lord in our Call to Worship from Psalm 104.  There, God spread his garment or wings over the whole earth expressing His care and promise to protect the world.

o       Ezekiel 16:8 says I spread the corner of my garment or wing over you and covered your nakedness.  I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign Lord and you became mine.

o       This is who our God is:  a redeemer, protector that spreads His wings over His children to redeem and protect them.

·        Ruth says, You are a redeemer.  What she means here is that Boaz is technically a “kinsman-redeemer.”     

o       This was a concept that came from Deuteronomy 25:5-6 which was given to preserve family lines.

o       God tells the Israelites that if a married man dies and his widow is left without children, a brother of the man is responsible for marrying the widow and producing offspring through her preserving the dead man’s line.

o       If Boaz were to marry Ruth, this would fulfill this commandment.

o       Its funny, every time I read this passage, I shake my head.  I love my two brothers, but Amy would not have wanted to marry either of them. 

·        But Boaz is gushingly falling in love here.  He basically says, “Wow, I never thought you would like me; there are younger dudes to choose from you know.   I am little flabby in the middle and starting to get some gray hair.

·        So Boaz does the respectable thing:

o       He says that Ruth has a tremendous reputation among the men of the city.

o       He then pledges to go ask the Kinsman Redeemer that is technically closer in relation that he is if he intends to marry Ruth.

o       If he does not plan on marrying Ruth, then he pledges to marry her. In fact, he pledges to do so by saying, “As the Lord Lives” saying, “if God remains sovereign for another day, which he will, I will be good on my word.”

14 So she lay at his feet until the morning, but arose before one could recognize another. And he said, “Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.” 15 And he said, “Bring the garment you are wearing and hold it out.” So she held it, and he measured out six measures of barley and put it on her. Then she went into the city. 16 And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, “How did you fare, my daughter?” Then she told her all that the man had done for her, 17 saying, “These six measures of barley he gave to me, for he said to me, ‘You must not go back empty-handed to your mother-in-law.’” 18 She replied, “Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out, for the man will not rest but will settle the matter today.”

·        Ruth lays at Boaz’s feet that night I imagine dreaming of her and Naomi’s life might change. 

o       Ruth will go from a pagan, widow, outcast to child of God, married, part of a family.

o       Naomi will go from hopeless widow to rescued mother.

·        Boaz does something very interesting here before he heads into town the next morning.  He secures and protects Ruth’s reputation and cares for her well-being.

o       He instructs his servants to tell no one that Ruth came to the threshing floor.  I imagine he does this for one of two reasons:

§         He doesn’t want anyone to think anything illicit happened when nothing did.

§         Also, he wants to make sure he is the one that gets to speak to the kinsman redeemer who is first in line.

o       The second thing Boaz does is to give Ruth more food saying, “You must not go back to your mother-in-law empty handed.”  Boaz wants to show his intentions. 

§         He saying by his actions that he plans on caring for Ruth and Boaz so that they will never experience need again.            

·        Ruth runs home and tells Naomi everything, and Naomi encourages her to….wait.

o       She says, “Wait until you find out what happens.  A lot has got to come together for this to work, but I do know this.  Boaz is a man of his word and he is not going to rest until he settles this matter today.

·        Now, I cannot wait to tell you what happens and no one is keeping you from reading your Bibles this week and finding out.  But I think we need to stop here because there are plenty of things that we need to learn about God and about ourselves. 

·        First of all, continually, we see a picture in Ruth of God as our refuge and our redeemer. Let’s talk about each one of those for a moment.

o       How is Christ our redeemer or more specifically, how is Christ our Kinsman Redeemer.  To answer that, I’m going to borrow greatly from “A View of the Covenant of Grace” by Thomas Boston – a wonderful Scottish Presbyterian from the early 1700’s

·        Christ the second Adam as scripture calls Him, saw sinners, his ruined kinsmen quite unable to act for themselves. Not one of them all was able to redeem himself.

o       Isaiah 63:5 says "I looked and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation," Jesus took on himself the character of their Kinsman-redeemer.

o       Job 19.2 says the same thing when he said "I know, my Kinsman-redeemer lives: and the latter one he shall stand up upon the dust." In which words Job comforts himself with a view of Christ as his Kinsman-redeemer living. 

·        Now, there were four things the kinsman-redeemer was to do for his kinsman, unable to act for himself; all which Christ the second Adam undertook in the covenant.

1.      He was to marry the widow of his deceased kinsman, to raise up seed to his brother.

a.       Our nature and the image of God was in a comfortable and fruitful condition before Adam chose to sin.  But that image was horribly marred  in the spiritual death caused by Adam’s sin.  Since then, we became barren unable to produce the fruits of holiness.  .

b.      Yet, being necessary for our redemption, Jesus consented to be our Kinsman-redeemer.

c.       He was made of a woman, a daughter of Adam's family, Gal. 4:4, and so was a son of Adam, Luke 3:23-38.

d.      Thus was a foundation laid for the mystical marriage of believers with Jesus.

2.      He was to redeem the mortgaged inheritance of his poor kinsman,

a.       Lev. 25:25, "If thy brother be poor, and has sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold

b.      The second Adam, Jesus as our Kinsman-redeemer, took the burden of the redemption on himself, and agreed to pay the price of that purchase; "dying for us, that we might live together with him," 1 Thess. 5:10.

3.       He was to ransom his poor kinsman in bondage, paying the price of his redemption:

a.       1 Tim. 2:5, 6. 5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time

b.      The ransom was great, soul for soul, body for body; a person of infinite dignity for his poor kinsmen in bondage. But he consented to take on him the form of a servant, that he might be set free; to have his ear bored at the law's door-post, that they might be delivered out of their bondage.

·        Jesus, took on human flesh to purchase us and redeem us when we were without hope and as spiritually desperate as Ruth was physically. 

o       Jesus is your kinsman redeemer and has rescued you.

·        Understanding that, what practically does it look like for you to live knowing that God is your refuge?

o       More specifically, how does your heart react while waiting for the answer of a prayer that you so eagerly want?  Is God your refuge or is He your spiritual slot machine that you are just waiting to get lucky?

·        The answer I think is found in Psalm 40 which presents a wonderful picture of waiting on the Lord who is our redeemer and refuge.

40:1 I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.  2 He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog,  and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.  3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.  Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.

·        We wait patiently as Ruth did.  God hears your cry and He has rescued you. 

·        Focusing on Christ as your Redeemer causes you to have a new song of joy and many will see it and praise God.

4 Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie!  5 You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you!  I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.

·        God does not want you to give up on waiting and to take things into your own hands or as he says turn to the proud.

·        Consider God’s multiplying or blessing to you and then your waiting will turn into praising.

6 In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear.   Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.  7 Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: 8 I delight to do your will, O my God;  your law is within my heart.”

·        As you wait for God, He is not asking you to deliver offering or a certain amount obedience to answer you. 

·        Get your Bibles out, return to the truths of God, find comfort, delight in God’s will and not your own and you will find joy.

9 I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord.  10 I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.

·        Once you have focused on God’s redeeming you and submitted your will to His as revealed in His scriptures, then you proclaim that redemption and deliverance and proclaim God’s faithfulness and salvation. 

·        You cannot but help to tell others of God’s steadfast and faithful love to you.

11 As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me!  12 For evils have encompassed me beyond number; my iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head; my heart fails me.

·        God has not run out of mercy to forgive you. 

·        You will sin and you will sin a lot…more sins that you can number, but fear not.

13 Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me!  O Lord, make haste to help me!  14 Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether who seek to snatch away my life; let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt! 15 Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, “Aha, Aha!”

·        God takes great pleasure in delivering you.

·        You let God worry about those that would mock you for your faith.

·        Ultimately every knee will bow and confess the glory of Christ and Christ’ return so the avenging is His responsibility, not yours.

16 But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the Lord!”  17 As for me, I am poor and needy,
but the Lord takes thought for me.  You are my help and my deliverer;  do not delay, O my God!

·        Do not look for bad things to happen to those that doubt you.

·        Rejoice that they too may see God’s salvation.

·        Your posture is to be poor and needy always dependant upon your deliverer.

·        So you wait and say, “do not delay O my God.”

Christ the Kinsman-redeemer in the Covenant

          From “A View of the Covenant of Grace” by Thomas Boston.

Thomas Boston (1676-1732) was a pastor of God's flock in Ettrick, Scotland, whose preaching God abundantly blessed in the saving of many souls. The son of a Presbyterian who knew the Lord and was imprisoned for non-conformity, Boston was raised in times of murderous persecution. Nevertheless, he lived to see God’s people flourish and multiply, as “the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:47). He is perhaps best known for his part in the reprinting of “The Marrow of Modern Divinity”, a book which distinguishes the Covenant of Works from the Covenant of Grace.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, the second Adam, giving his consent to the covenant, as proposed to him by the Father, sisted himself Kinsman-redeemer in the covenant: Job 19:2, "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth."

Under the law, when a man was not able to act for himself, to assert and use his own right, one that was akin to him, had a right to act for him, coming in his room, and standing up in his right. And such a one was called his Goel; which properly signifies a Kinsman-redeemer. Hence that word is sometimes rendered a kinsman; as Numb. 5:8, "If the man have no (Goel) kinsman to recompense the trespass unto." Ruth 3:12, "I am thy (Goel) near kinsman: howbeit there is a (Goel) kinsman nearer than I." Sometimes it is rendered a Redeemer; as Prov. 23:11, "Their (Goel) Redeemer is mighty." Isa. 47:4, "As for our (Goel) Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name." One's acting in that capacity, is called doing the kinsman's part, or redeeming, to wit, by right of kin, Ruth 3:13; and 4:6. Howbeit, such a one might refuse to do the kinsman's part; as Ruth's kinsman-redeemer did, who resigned his right to Boaz, and in token thereof drew off his own shoe, and gave it to him, Ruth 4:6, 7, 8.

Now, Christ the second Adam saw sinners, his ruined kinsmen quite unable to act for themselves. Not one of them all was able to redeem himself, and far less his brother. Withal, the angels, near akin to them in the rational world, durst not meddle with the redemption; being sure they could not have missed to mar their own inheritance thereby, nor having delivered their poor kinsmen neither. If he should have declined it, and drawn off his shoe to them, or to any other of the whole creation, there was none who durst have ventured to receive it, or his foot in it. "I looked," saith he, "and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation," Isa. 63:5. He took on himself the character of their Kinsman-redeemer; and of him as such Job speaks in the forecited passage, which I conceive to be thus expressed in the original: "I know, my Kinsman-redeemer liveth: and the latter one he shall stand up upon the dust." In which words Job comforts himself with a view of Christ as his Kinsman-redeemer living, even in his day, in respect of his divine nature; and as the latter or second one, (in opposition to the former or first, Exod. 4:8, 9; Deut. 24:3, 4) namely, the latter or second Adam Redeemer, in opposition to the former or first Adam destroyer; firmly believing, that the one uniting to himself a human nature, should as sure stand up upon the dust of the earth, and do the kinsman's part for him; as the other, having the breath of life breathed into his nostrils, stood up upon it, and ruined all.

Now, there were four things the kinsman-redeemer was to do for his kinsman, unable to act for himself; all which Christ the second Adam undertook in the covenant.

1. He was to marry the widow of his deceased kinsman, to raise up seed to his brother. Hereof Boaz was put in mind by Ruth, chap. 3:9, "I am Ruth thine handmaid; spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid, for thou art a near kinsman." Compare ver. 10-13; chap. 4:10; and Ezek. 16:8. I spread my skirt over thee – and thou becamest mine." Our nature was in a comfortable and fruitful condition, while the image of God impressed thereupon in Adam, remained with it; but that image being removed, in the spiritual death caused by his sin, there ensued an absolute barrenness, as to the fruits of holiness, in our nature thus left. But our Kinsman-redeemer consented to marry the widow. Being to take to himself a human nature he undertook to take on our human nature in particular, taking his flesh of Adam's family. Thus it was provided, that his body should not be made of nothing, nor of anything whatsoever that was not derived from Adam as its original. It was a low match indeed for him; and would have been so, even if the family of Adam had been in its primitive state and splendour: but now it was considered as in the depths of poverty and disgrace. Yet, being necessary for our redemption, he consented thereto, as our Kinsman-redeemer. Accordingly, in the fulness of time, he was made of a woman, a daughter of Adam's family, Gal. 4:4, and so was a son of Adam, Luke 3:23-38. Thus was a foundation laid for the mystical marriage of believers with him; which mystical marriage doth not belong to the condition and making of the covenant properly so called, but to the promise and administration of it, being a sinner's personal entrance thereinto. And the great end, in subordination to the glory of God, for which this more intimate union and match with our nature was gone into by our Kinsman-redeemer, was to render it again fruitful in the fruits of true holiness: and without it our nature had for ever remained under absolute barrenness in that point, even as the nature of fallen angels doth.

2. He was to redeem the mortgaged inheritance of his poor kinsman, Lev. 25:25, "If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold;" or rather, "then shall come in his kinsman-redeemer, that is near unto him; and he shall redeem that which his brother sold." Our father Adam waxing poor through the deceitful dealing of the tempter with him, quite sold away the inheritance of eternal life for a morsel of forbidden fruit: and his children waxing poorer still, through their own personal fault, had set themselves farther and farther from it. They could not have raised amongst them all, what would have redeemed so much as one man's part of it. Howbeit, except it was redeemed, they could never have had access to it. Wherefore the second Adam, as Kinsman-redeemer, took the burden of the redemption on himself, and agreed to pay the price of that purchase; "dying for us, that we might live together with him," 1 Thess. 5:10.

3. He was to ransom his poor kinsman in bondage, paying the price of his redemption: Lev. 25: 47, "If thy brother wax poor, and sell himself," ver. 48, "After that he is sold, he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him." Ver. 52, "According unto his years shall he give him again the price of his redemption." Being sold in the loins of our first father, we were brought into bondage under the curse of the law. So we are by nature the law's bond-men, and consequently slaves to sin and Satan, never to have been released without a ransom, the full worth of so many souls. This ransom was stated in the covenant; to wit, that the Kinsman-redeemer should give himself a ransom for his poor kinsmen: and he agreed to it, for purchasing their liberty, 1 Tim. 2:5, 6. The ransom was great, soul for soul, body for body; a person of infinite dignity for his poor kinsmen in bondage. But he consented to take on him the form of a servant, that he might be set free; to have his ear bored at the law's door-post, that they might be delivered out of their bondage.

4. Lastly, He was to avenge the blood of his slain kinsman on the slayer: Deut. 19:12, "The elders of his city shall send and fetch him thence, and deliver him into the hand of the (Goel) avenger of blood, that he may die." Our Kinsman-redeemer saw all his poor kindred slain men. And the devil was the murderer, John 8:44. He had ministered poison to them in the loins of their first parent; yea, he had smitten them to death, killed them with an arrow shot through the eye. But no avenger of their blood could be found, till the second Adam, as their Kinsman-redeemer, did, in the second covenant undertake the avenging of it. Meanwhile, the murderer had the power of death, Heb. 2:14; and "the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law," 1 Cor. 15:56. Wherefore there was no disarming and destroying of the murderer, without taking the sting out of death which he had the power of. And that was not to be done, but by removing the guilt of sin, whereby sinners were bound over to death: neither was this to be done, but by satisfying the law, whose awful sanction of death strongly kept fast the guilt of death on the sinners. These were the iron gates to be broke through, ere the Kinsman-redeemer, the avenger of blood, could get at the murderer. But the mighty Redeemer undertook, by his own death and sufferings, to satisfy the law; and by that means to remove the strength of sin; and by this means again, to take away the sting of death; and thus to avenge the blood of his slain kinsman upon him, Heb. 2:14. So did Samson, a type of our Kinsman-redeemer, avenge Israel of the Philistines their oppressors, pulling down the house on the Philistines, and dying himself to destroy them, Judg. 16.

Reference

“A View of the Covenant of Grace” by Thomas Boston. Focus Christian Ministries Trust, 1990. pp 40-44.