Exodus 6, beginning with verse 2. God spoke further to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord. And I appear to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty. But by my name, Lord, I did not make myself known to them. And I also established my covenant with them. to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they sojourned. And furthermore, I have heard the groanings of the sons of Israel, because the Egyptians are holding them in bondage, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the sons of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. And I will take you for my people, and I will be your God. And you shall know that I am the Lord, your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians." And then turning over to the book of Leviticus, chapter 25, on page 155 in the Pew Bible, I'll be reading verses twenty three to twenty six and then on forty seven the end of the chapter. The land moreover should not be sold permanently for the land is mine. And you're but aliens and sojourners with me. That's where we piece of your property here to provide for the redemption of land. If a fellow countryman of yours become so poor. he has to sell part of his property in this year's kingdom is to come and buy back from Israel what is wrong with the soul or in a case of man has no kinsmen. It's a recovery system means to find sufficient for redemption. They shall calculate the year since the sale and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold and so return to his property. And I'm going on to the end of the chapter, verse forty seven. Now, if the means of a stranger or of a soldier and are with you become sufficient and a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to him, it's a sell himself to a stranger who are sojourning with you or to the sentence of a stranger's family. Then he shall have redemption right after he's been sold. One of his brothers may redeem him. or his uncle or his uncle's son may redeem him, or one of his blood relatives from his family may redeem him. For if he prospers, or if he prospers, he may redeem himself. He then, with his purchaser, shall calculate from the year when he sold himself to him up to the year of jubilee, and the price of the sale shall correspond to the number of years. It is like the number It is like the days of a hard man that he shall be with him. If there are still many years, he shall refund part of his purchase price in proportion to them, for his own redemption. And if few years remain until the year of Jubilee, he shall so calculate with him. In proportion to his years, he is to refund the amount for his redemption. Like a man hired year by year, he shall be with him. He shall not rule over him with severity, in your sight. Even if he is not released by these means, he shall go out in the year of Jubilee, he and his sons with him. For the sons of Israel are my servants, and my servants whom I bought, brought out from the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. Growing up in my hometown, We had an S&H green stamp redemption store. And I wonder how many of you remember those places. For the younger ones, it used to be that as you go to the grocery store or the gas station, they would give out sort of a bonus. They would give out these green stamps. And then as you accumulated them, they had books that you could put them in, and you'd glue them in, and you'd fill up a book. And when you got maybe several books all full, you could take them to this redemption center. You'd take the completed books, and you'd turn it in, and you could get merchandise. And maybe a toaster, or a clock radio, or a hand mixer, or whatever you wanted. Now, they would often have pictures of boats and cars, and if you had, you know, 100,000 books, you could get one of those. I never knew anybody that got more than two or three books. How you would ever get that many, I don't know. But there was a redemption taking place, and it was why it was called a redemption center. You would take what you would have, and you would exchange it, it would be redeemed, for something more valuable, for something you would want to have, something maybe you didn't have at home. Now, sadly, we don't have redemption centers anymore. But the idea of redemption, the idea of being redeemed, is a crucial word. It's not maybe used very much, and maybe not in the sense that it used to be used, But it is a very key biblical idea. In Scripture, an important idea is the idea that we are redeemed. Something is exchanged for us. And that's at the heart of what God is doing. He's redeeming us. And as you go and begin in the Old Testament, there's a particular word that's used for redeeming and redemption. It's a Hebrew word, goel, that's used 188 times in the Old Testament. It's foundational then, too, for what comes later in the New Testament. And it often carries the idea that the goel is the kinsman redeemer. The kinsman redeemer. And so the first point, the basic meaning of that word goel, that word that is often translated redeemed, redemption, really has at the root of it the idea of a kinsman, someone who is a blood relative, someone who is a near relative to you, who sees you in your distress, who sees you in danger and difficulty and acts on your behalf. As Boaz would talk to Ruth, and you find it in chapter 3, verse 13, he says to her about the close relative. There was one who was a close relative to Ruth, and he was, if he will redeem you. Or it could be translated like the King James, if he will act as a close relative to you, let him act as a close relative. If he will redeem you as a close relative, let him do so. And thus we see, really, the core meaning of the word. It involves a relationship. It involves a closeness, a consideration, regard, and affection for someone who is a close relative. But more than that, it implies you act on that person's behalf. You show yourself to be a good and true loyalist. As they would have it each, you would step in. and take care of that need. And that's the word points really to those two ideas of a blood relationship who acts on behalf of his relative for their good. And that sometimes this word is translated kinsmen redeem. And that really does get at both the idea of someone who's related, but someone who also who just doesn't sit on the sidelines and say, oh, that's too bad it happened to my uncle, to my cousin, my nephew, my brother, but who acts on their behalf. So the second point that we can see as we look at the scriptures are three situations in the Old Testament that involve a kinsman redeemer. The first is what we read in Leviticus 25. And there it talks about the redemption or the repurchasing of a field or a piece of property which has been sold in a time of need, in a time of desperate situation. And Israelite gets so low that they have to sell their property, their field, their means of production of livelihood, and they can only do it until the year of Jubilee. But maybe they get to the point where they have to do that. But that field can be redeemed. A close relative can see the need and go and purchase the field back. And at the end of that same chapter, we saw a situation where the person gets so desperate, he sold everything that he's forced to sell himself. They become, in essence, an indentured servant to someone. And so, as you look at verse 44 and following it, it talks about that. He doesn't sell himself to fill up Israelite. You couldn't do that, but maybe there's a soldier in there, someone rich, a stranger in your community who is willing to take you on. And that person is to have the kinsman redeemer, that person, that relative that comes. and purchases from that slavery. And it's a note that in this there's always a purchase price, a ransom that has to be given that's proportional to the bondage that the person is in. The second type of redemption by a kinsman is that which is founded in Deuteronomy 25 verses 5 to 10. And this is a case where there's a married woman whose husband dies, maybe at a young age, before they've had children, leaves no son, no one to carry on the family name. And so the kinsman redeemer, in this case, it'd be the brother, the one closest to the man who died, is to marry the widow in order to establish a name for that house. In order to bear a son, so that son, that firstborn son, would carry on the name of the deceased brother. That's what's called love-right marriage. The brother, in essence, redeems the situation, provides the means for carrying on that family name that would be lost without his intervening, without his stepping in to salvage the situation. In that case, He acts as a kinsman redeemer. And we may recall the situation of Ruth. She and Naomi fall into desperate situations. They've had to sell their land. Her husband has died. She goes back home. And we approach the nearest relative. To see if he would act as a kinsman redeemer, if he would take on those two responsibilities of redeeming the field that she owns. But it's been sold and hot and to marry her to raise up a fee. And you may recall that the closest relative was not willing to do that. He was willing to do half. He was going to redeem the field. But he wasn't willing. to do the other part of being a kinsman-redeemer, of raising up a seed for the deceased husband. And thus it fell to Boaz to show that true kinsman-redeemer to do what the Scriptures required in that time. And of course, we know that from that relationship would come Obed and Jesse and David, and eventually the Messiah. And Boaz is honored in that way. And an heiress relative, we don't even know his name. The third way in which the kinsman-redeemer shows up is in terms of what's called the adventure of blood. But literally, it's that same word redeemer of life. That when someone's been murdered, it was to be someone. Their closest relative that was in essence to avenge and redeem his life. Now, in the Old Testament, they distinguish between manslaughter, the accidental taking of the life. And so you look at numbers thirty five twelve and Deuteronomy, nineteen six. It talks about that when there's an accidental killing that the last of the city's a refuge. The Avenger blood cannot go there and execute the one because it was unintentional. It was not murder. But if you go on to Deuteronomy, nineteen twelve. It's the case of someone who commits murder and goes to that city of refuge. You know, is he safe? Can he hide out there? Well, the instruction at birth says, then the elders of his city, the ones who know the case, the ones who decided that this man is a murderer, that he didn't do it accidentally, that it was murder on his part, then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, those cities of refuge, and deliver him into his hand into the hands of the avenger of blood. Why that he may die in the understanding is that this murder. Once he's delivered to that avenger of blood, that Redeemer of the blood will put him to death. That that next to him. Will affect the payment that's due the life for life. And just as a house or one sold in the bondage was to be redeemed by paying a purchase price, a ransom price, so the lost life had to be redeemed, had to be ransomed, had to have the equivalent payment. And that would be the life of the one who committed the murder. And so the kinsman redeemer was to exact that payment of blood. by the execution of the murderer. And thus we see this idea of a kinsman redeemer. One would be a close relative who acts for the good of another. It may be by redeeming his property or his person himself as they've fallen into a difficult situation. It may be raising up A seed in offering to carry his name. Difficulty when the husband dies without leaving children. And might be avenging the murder. That's the idea of a kinsman redeemer. And it stands then in the background as we see God's work of redemption. Because the third point that we need to see is that God. is a kinsman. God acts on behalf of this people as our kinsman redeemer. We could see it in the Old Testament. We see God acting on behalf of this people in vindicating their cause. We read that in Exodus six, where God promises, I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgment. And why does he do it? Well, the next verse goes on to talk about the relationship. It's because of the close relationship because he is our God and there is people that God is going to act on behalf of his people. And so God acts powerfully in delivering his people from captivity. And thus we see really the work of God. of being, as it were, a friend and a kinsman to us, the one who acts in our need to help, just as he did in ancient Israel, in delivering them from the bondage of the Egyptians. And ultimately, as you agreed, in Exodus, the story of the people being redeemed. It took the Passover and the death of the firstborn. and sacrifice, and the blood sprinkled to accomplish that redemption, to accomplish the release of God's people from Pharaoh and the Egyptians. And of course, we know that all of that prefigures Christ looks to the greatest redemption of all that we find in Jesus Christ. Psalm 130 verse 7 reminds us that God's people have hope in the Lord. For with the Lord there is lovely kindness, and with him there is abundant redemption. That with God there is redemption. And of course, all this points us forward to the New Testament, to Jesus Christ as the kinsman-redeemer, the kinsman-redeemer par excellence. The greatest redemption of all is that which Jesus Christ did, as he freed us from the slavery to sin, as he freed us from death. As we're saying in Psalm 49, the redemption of a soul is costless. And the earlier part of that psalm tells us that we don't have what it takes to redeem our brother or to redeem ourselves. If you have all the wealth in the world, and you're trying to give it to God, you would not have enough money to redeem one soul. And what's impossible for us to do, God has done it by His Son. Jesus remarks in Mark 10, 45, that the Son of Man gave His life as a ransom for many. He acted on behalf of his people, being the Redeemer, giving his life as the ransom price that would need to be paid. That's a reflection of what we're saying in Psalm 49, 15. God alone can redeem the soul. And he did that in Jesus Christ. The ransom which Christ paid was his own life. given in exchange for our lives. And children, as you draw that, you might draw a picture of yourself and a picture of a cross to emphasize that Christ gave his life, redeemed us by giving his life for us. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 20 and 7, verse 23, it makes the same point. You have been redeemed, you have been bought by a price. There's been a purchase price paid for your redemption in Ephesians 1, 7 makes it very clear. In Christ we have redemption through his blood. The redemption we have was paid by the blood of Jesus Christ, his life being poured out on the cross. In this, Jesus Christ acted as the ultimate kinsman redeemer. So for the lives, for the sake of his brothers and sisters, gave his life in exchange for ours so that we could receive the ultimate good there is. In a few moments, as we sing from Psalm 19, And after the benediction, I'll be singing the final stanza. And notice how that psalm ends. It ends with the phrase, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. That Jesus Christ is that Redeemer. The one who has redeemed us from sin. The one who has redeemed us from death. I don't want. To get to that occasion. It's been redeemed by the blood of Christ. And for instance, that is a mention of the fact that you've been purchased. I. It goes on to give it to me. The first in chapter six is and glorify God in your body. that if you understand Jesus Christ has given himself for you, then you should seek to glorify God in what you do daily. The way you live, the choices you make, that you would glorify Him. And in chapter seven it says, do not become slaves of men. Do not become under the control and influence of men and women around you, of society. Your life is given to Christ. Your life is to honor Him because He has redeemed you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we give thanks for your son, who is the kinsman redeemer. The one who is our elder brother. The one out of deep affection and love for us. Did not sit on the sidelines, but acted. acted to redeem us, to give his life in exchange for ours. So we might enjoy eternal life and adoption in your family, inheritance reserved for us in heaven, the pledge of the Holy Spirit, and all the other things that go along with being one of your children. How we give thanks for that. and what it means. That we're no longer aliens and strangers cut off from your promise. So we've been purchased by the blood of Christ. Help us then to glorify you in our bodies. Not to be slaves and servants of those around us. But to be serving you day by day and moment by moment in the choices we make. We pray these things in Christ's name.