Kinsman-Redeemer

The idea of a kinsman-redeemer was established back in the Old Testament. The person who had this role had several obligations:

• If any one from poverty was unable to redeem his inheritance, it was the duty of the kinsman to redeem it (Leviticus 25:25,28; Ruth 3:9,12).
• He was also required to redeem his relation who had sold himself into slavery (Leviticus 25:48,49).

The Hebrew word for redeem is "goel". It also had the meaning of revenger, avenger, deliverer and ransom. In the Hebrew culture, the nearest male blood relative could act as a person’s redeemer. Recall in the book of Ruth that Boaz became Ruth’s kinsman-redeemer (Ruth 3:9 - 4:8).

God is the great "goel" of his people. Consider the following passage in which we see all of the salvation and redemption definitions we have covered.

Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I [am] the LORD, and I will bring you out (yesa) from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage (deliverance), and I will redeem (purchase back) you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments (avenger): And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians (deliverance). And I will bring you in unto the land (goel), concerning the which I did swear to give

it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage (kinsman) I am the LORD.

Exodus 6:6

This idea of kinsman-redeeming lead to the idea of Messiah-Servant. The prophet Isaiah is given magnificent revelation of this idea. Isaiah tells us about the Messiah in Isaiah (9:6). He then explains about the task of being a servant in order to affect salvation to the world (Is 49:1-6). In Isaiah 53, we are given one of the most comprehensive explanation of the work of the Savior. This kinsman-redeemer bore our grief, was bruised of our iniquities (unrighteousness), chastised for our peace, and was beaten for our healing.

Consider This

By definition, the kinsman-redeemer must be related to the person being redeemed. Are we related to Jesus Christ? The New Testament goes to great lengths to establish the fact that we are just servants of God, but are children of God (Roman 8:16). Since Jesus is the Son of God and we also are sons of God, we become joint-heir with Jesus (Roman 8:17). By virtue of our adoption (Romans 8:15), Jesus is not only our Savior, but He is also our brother, our kinsman-redeemer, our closest male blood relative.