Our Daily Homily

Devotional For

April 24

      His kinsman that is next unto him. Lev 25:25 (R. V.)
      
      In the case of Naomi this was Boaz; in our case it is Jesus Christ. Redemption, as described in this chapter, had to do with persons and lands; and each illustrates Christ's work on behalf of believers throughout all ages.
      
      He has redeemed our Persons. - It often happened that a Hebrew waxed poor, and was compelled to sell himself to some wealthy Gentile who sojourned in the land. He who had owned his own patrimony now wrought as a bondservant for another. But after he had sold himself he might be redeemed by his next kinsman. So we had sold ourselves for nought; we wrought the will of the flesh; we were enslaved to the fashions of the world; we obeyed the promptings of the prince of the power of the air. Alas for us! But we have been redeemed, not with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Christ. We have been made free by right, and have only to claim and act upon the freedom with which the risen Christ has made us free.
      
      He has redeemed our Inheritance. - What we lost in the first Adam we have more than regained in the second. For innocence, we have purity; for external fellowship with God, His indwelling; for the delights of an earthly paradise, the fullness of God's blessedness and joy.
      
      He is our nearest Kinsman. - " My brother, my sister," He says of each who will do the will of His Father. He has made Himself one with us by taking on Himself our nature, and identifying Himself with our race. We know that Jesus, our God and Redeemer, liveth; and that He will come to redeem us from the power of the grave, and receive us to Himself.