“Now if the means of a stranger or of a sojourner with you becomes sufficient, and a countryman of yours becomes so poor with regard to him as to sell himself to a stranger who is sojourning with you, or to the descendants of a stranger’s family, then he shall have redemption right after he has 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;”
In Hebrew culture if a person fell into debt he might have had to forfeit his possessions or his land to the person he was indebted to. Or he may even have had to sell himself and his family to his debtor and serve him until the debt was paid back.
Oftentimes however, a family member or close relative would buy back or redeem the person who was in debt by paying the debt for him thus fulfilling the role of the go’el (or redeemer).
In Jeremiah 32:6-15 Jeremiah is acting as Hanamel’s go’el when he buys the field from him…
Jeremiah 32:7
“Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle is coming to you, saying, ‘Buy for yourself my field which is at Anathoth, for you have the right of redemption to buy it.’”
In the book of Ruth, Boaz is Naomi’s go’el…
Ruth 2:20
Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed of the LORD who has not withdrawn His kindness from the living and from the dead.” Again Naomi said to her, “The man is our relative, he is one of our go‘els.”
Because of our sin and our rebellion against God you and I were once indebted to Satan and under his rule. We sold ourselves to the prince of this world - he was our master and we were his slaves.
But Jesus, our Go’el, redeemed us. He sacrificed Himself on the cross and paid the debt for us. Jesus did for us what we could never have done for ourselves.
And because Jesus has redeemed us not only are we no longer slaves of Satan but we have become children of the Father and the Bride of Jesus…
Isaiah 43:1
But now, thus says the LORD, your Creator, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine!”
So…
Has the Go’el redeemed you?
