Baby Obed is born in Ruth 4. The women in town call baby Obed redeemer, saying that he has restored life to Naomi. He didn’t really have to work for it. It was his lot, what he was created to be. He just had to be born.

The chapter starts with a miracle conception after the wedding of Boaz and Ruth. The Lord gives Ruth conception. There is no record of any other children being born in this marriage. You also have to remember that Ruth was married before but had come childless to Israel. She seems to have been barren. This child saves the family line from being cut off.

But, in all this, calling Boaz and Obed the redeemers, we can’t forget it was all only ever the Lord’s redemptive work. Yes, He uses us in His work, but all our work comes to absolutely nothing without God being the One actually accomplishing it. There is nothing good in us apart from what good God put there. We accomplish no lasting good works unless it’s God doing the work. All our efforts and striving and what we think are good works, are hay and stubble to be burned, unless the Spirit is at work in and through them bringing lasting, eternal value to them.

The Lord is our Redeemer. The Lord is our Restorer of Life. He bought our lives back out of the grave. He breathed new life in us by His Spirit, with His resurrection power. God made us alive in Christ and raised us up together with Christ and seated us with Christ in the heavenly places, all by the same mighty power by which Christ was raised from the dead. It was all His work, by His power. For it is by grace that we are saved, not by works, through faith, but even that is a gift from God. No man can boast. We can do nothing but humbly praise the God who saves, redeems, restores!