One Sunday, a friend of mine stepped into the pulpit to read a section of Scripture. Our church was making its way through the Pentateuch, and this poor soul had been assigned a genealogy chapter. He was a seminarian, a fledgling pastor, and an optimist, but even he stumbled over a few unfamiliar names as he read about the fathers of, the sons of, and the sons of the sons of long-dead patriarchs.
I come from a straight-laced church background, but when he got to the period at the end of the last sentence, someone let out a whoop, and we applauded because he had made it!
I thought about him often when I read through the Bible last year. My tendency is to skim over the genealogies with a dismissive, “We get it.” But if my friend could stand up in front of an entire congregation and read every name, then surely, I could give those names a moment in my quiet time.
When we make it to Ruth 4:18–22, it can be easy to skim over the names we find there: Perez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, and David. Especially if we grew up in the Western church, when we see names that feel odd in our mouths or tinny in our ears, we give that dismissive nod to the foreignness of it all: they’re just names.
But they’re so much more than names. In this small grouping of ten names, we see the promises of God fulfilled and the promises of God foretold.
The promises of God are fulfilled in the very survival of this family tree. Way back in Genesis 12, God promised a man named Abraham that his barren wife would bear a son and that he would be the father of a nation (Genesis 12:1–3). God kept this promise through ten more years of infertility. Within two generations, He kept the promise through brotherly betrayal and famine. He kept the promise through harsh slavery in Egypt four hundred years later. And forty years after that, He kept the promise while Abraham’s offspring wandered the desert.
He would keep that promise through judges and kings; through captivity; through exile. He would keep that promise through generation after generation until the promise bore its fruit in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Ruth 4 is just one moment where we see God keeping His word to Abraham: the nation would continue to have fathers and sons.
And in that fatherhood and sonship, we see a promise not just kept, but also, foretold. Because although Ruth’s name is not present in this chapter, we will find her in Matthew’s genealogy in the New Testament as the mother of Obed. This woman—whose name would have been foreign to Israel’s tongue—was grafted into the genealogy of the Messiah.
Much the same way that we who are not of Abraham’s lineage have been grafted into the family of faith.
It would be easy to skim those names in the genealogies with little care. But imagine them as just a foretaste of what it’s like to read the names that God has written in the Book of life—the names of the people grafted into His eternal family.
Imagine you will find your name there.
And then read carefully—because each and every precious soul therein is part of the plan God has been mighty to see to the end.
I have to admit that I skimmed over the names in Matthew. I did read through in Ruth and Isaiah. Thank you ANGIE for giving us the meaning of these names!
Won’t this be a great day when “the land will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the sea is filled with water.” Isaiah 11:9
Good morning sisters. Would love your continued prayers. Yesterday was such a rough day for me mentally. I felt so anxious at work. It may not have helped that I drank some caffeinated tea, so that may have had an impact. But I am so tired of feeling this way and I am honestly mad at God. I want to get a different job and I don’t see any options open. My management is great where I am, which stinks because I still don’t feel well. I am so tired and just want to feel well during the day. Physically I’m tired because I am nervous every day. I’m thankful to be working from home, so that I have time to make lunch and walk around my neighborhood. Please pray that I would rely on God’s promises and who he is, and that he would provide another job. I am finding it hard to keep pushing through, even though I know he will use this for his glory and it won’t last forever. Thank you all.
Thank you Angie for the insight on the names in the genealogy. Loved it! And Jennifer, I always am blessed by your words! Thank you. Praying for all requests and for a joyful and peaceful weekend for everyone. Glory to God in the Messiah down all generations! ❤️
The tiny day-to-day details of our lives matter. Each ordinary thing we do is a thread woven into our stories. And each of our stories are woven into God’s story. It is necessary to focus in and focus out to see the hand of God working on His creative masterpiece. The story of Ruth is full of unexpected details that I could never have connected to directly to goodness. She lived in a pagan, foreign land. Her people served other gods, yet they had plenty. Naomi and her family served the true God of Israel, yet they were struggling under famine in thier homeland. God’s land. God used the famine to push a covenant covered family into a foreign land for food and relief from hunger and death. And He used the tragedy of their story to reach in and pluck Ruth out of darkness to usher in light and ultimately the salvation story for all of mankind. Focus in, focus out. If I stay too long on the tragedies, I miss the light of God’s greater blessing. The threads of salvation woven with ordinary lives, even when all seems lost. Life and death is not the point. But rather life and eternity. Like grass and flowers fade and wither away, so people fade out of this world. But, thanks be to God, who laid a pathway to eternal life with Him. He uses broken steps, broken people, and difficult things to pave a smooth and beautiful road for us to travel. This life is an adventure, and we are equipped with Messianic strength and hope when we trust God and grow in our faith. Every gift of sunrise, every breath I take, every good thing from the hand of God, I keep as treasures in my heart. I carry the goodness with me, and lay down the heavy things at His feet. I remember how God has answered my prayers. And I trust Him with my prayers now. As I keep my heart open to Him, ears tuned to His voice, eyes open to His light, I am ready for this day. Lord, hear my prayers, and Thy will be done. Guide my feet to Your peace, and let my heart remain open to You like a harp in the wind. Play the best music from my life, and sift away the chaff. Selah. Maranatha. Amen.
So thankful we serve a God who is faithful and who keeps His promises! May I be faithful and obedient to walk into those promises. I hope everyone has a blessed weekend <3
@Sharon Jersey Girl Praying for you, your dad, and your siblings
BEAUTIFUL! The faithfulness of the Lord will never cease.
I wanted to spend a little more time on the genealogy than I normally do. I usually do skim over them, thinking of them as just names. Today, I looked up the meaning of each name.
What a rich heritage of faith these names seem to portray. They knew the truth about God. They knew the following about God:
-He exists (Jesse).
-He is Father (Abijah).
-He judges & governs (Jehoshaphat).
-He is exalted & exalts (Joram).
-He is strong, powerful, & our strength (Uzziah).
-He is perfect & complete (Jotham).
-He strengthens (Hezekiah).
-He heals & supports us (Josiah).
-He is able, He prevails, He completes, He establishes (Jeconiah).
-He sets up (Eliakim).
-He establishes (Achim).
-He is majestic (Eliud).
-He helps (Eleazar).
-He adds & increases (Joseph).
-He saves (Jesus).
They knew these truths in their heads, but many of them did not love the truth, neither did they live out the truth with their lives.
May we be found faithful in knowing who God has revealed Himself to be, wholeheartedly loving Him & trustingly living out that truth. Amen!
Thank you Father God that Your promises are and always will be Yes and Amen!