Blog #14 11/5/26

Our Nearest Kinsman, Roy Hession – Book Review

This is a moving study of the book of Ruth.

Roy Hession shows how God’s eternal plan of redemption is worked out in the lives of Ruth, Naomi and Boaz, the three principal characters in the book. Taking each section of the story in turn, the writer compellingly shows how their actions illustrate the mistakes, challenges and joys of our walk with the Lord.

He starts by commenting on the departure of the family from Bethlehem to Moab due to a famine, explaining how this is a picture of how we are tempted to find strength in the wrong places, because our relationship with God has dried up and we are experiencing a ‘famine’. Instead of repenting and looking to God to restore us, we run off, like the prodigal son, to satisfy ourselves elsewhere. After a long time in the wilderness of Moab, Naomi finally recognised God’s severe mercy in her life, drawing her back to Bethlehem.

Roy Hession then explores God’s gracious grafting in of the Moabitess, Ruth. God’s heart is and has always been for all the nations. The book is particularly helpful in showing how the nearer ‘kinsman-redeemer’ of the Law, has had to relinquish its claim on us. Jesus, like Boaz in this story, is now our nearest kinsman.

The book is available to purchase through our website, click on the cover below to be taken to the page.