Shoe Exchange

O. T. #419  "Shoe Exchanged"
December 15, 2014
Deuteronomy 25, 2014
I know that my Redeemer liveth. (Job 19:25)


LET IT GLOW

Since my foot has always been on the small side, (size 4 1/2-5) my girlfriends did not try mine on, nor did I theirs either.
A simple shoe exchange. I don't return my shoes, for I try them on while in the store. That's all it took for a man's life to be changed forever. Read on to find out the significance and symbolism.

In verses 5-10, Moses explains about the Levirate marriages, according to David Guzik Bible Commentary:

• In ancient Israel, it was viewed as a tragic thing if a man died without leaving any descendants to carry on his name, and to give his family an inheritance.
• Therefore, if a man dies and has no son, it was the responsibility of one of his brothers to take the deceased brother's widow as a wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her.
• The first born son she bares would be counted as a son of the deceased brother, not the surviving brother.
• If brothers of the deceased man refused to take responsibility, they were called to open shame by the widow. The shame was compounded as they would remove his sandal and the widow would spit in his face. 

This is called the law of the kinsman-redeemer, whereas a single surviving brother was to marry his brother's widow.

Kinsman, in Hebrew, means to free, redeem.
It is found in several verses in Isaiah, as well as Job 19:25, where Job says he knows his Redeemer liveth.

Redeemer means to be the next of kin (and as such to buy back a relative's property, to marry his widow, etc.); deliver, purchase; ransom; redeem.

Kinsman-Redeemer. Have you heard of that term before? Looking at the story of Ruth, the Moabitess, we see that her Israelite husband died, and she married another Israelite named Boaz, her deceased husband's closest kinsman. When he applied this law and raised up a son by Ruth, he perpetuated the line of the Messiah. (Ruth 4:17-22)

Liberty bible Commentary has this to say:
 

Now if a man refused to become the kinsman-redeemer, the widow was to bring him before the town magistrates at the city gate. She was to loose his shoe from his foot, symbolic of the exchange of property. Therefore, exchanging shoes was symbolic of exchanging property. When the man refused to raise up his brother's kin, she took his shoe, which was symbolic of his losing the inheritance. He was thus deprived of a position which he ought to have had via receiving the inheritance of the deceased brother.

What can we gleam from this? Family takes care of family. Often families have conflict within it. Love should rule out above such things so divisions are not made.

LET IT GROW

Jesus is our Kinsman Redeemer. He purchased our salvation by His death on the cross. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice, which God required for sin. How do we respond to such love?

Isaiah 48:17 says, Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. 

How grateful we should be that Jesus redeemed us.
I've been redeemed, by the blood of the Lamb!!

LET IT GO

Trust and obey my Redeemer.

Love my family and extended family.