Ruth’s Legacy
Open Your Bible
Ruth 4:18-22, Isaiah 11:1-10, Matthew 1:2-16, Ephesians 2:19-22
BY Jasmine Holmes
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.
41 thoughts on "Ruth’s Legacy"
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Yes indeed there is a great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us. May we keep that witness list growing!
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Such a wonderful study. Thank you SRT & fellow She’s. I hate to see it end. So rich! Thank you Molly R & Angie for your comments today. Sharon Jersey Girl, praying for your dad & family, & for you to be safe on the road when you’re traveling back & forth. Going thru the prayer requests. Love & hugs to all for a blessed weekend.
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I loved this study and sad to see it end (but also excited for the next study!). I love seeing how God restored everything and then gave more to both Ruth and Naomi. Their tragedies turned to triumps. A broken story made whole by our God. So thankful that He’s in the business of mending things- when life seems hopeless and broken, God is still there, working behind the scenes.
Prayers for all you She’s requesting praye.
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Every time I get to end of a study I just feel overwhelmed with gratitude, and truly honored, to be able to study the living, breathing Word of God! I feel so small and feeble, but He deems me worthy to soak in this Living Water – filling my soul with worship, filling my heart with thankfulness, filling my mind with resources to tap into for all that I may face, and He fills my hands and feet with good works to do for His glory!
So thankful for this beautiful story of redemption; thankful to be shown in yet another form of literature (after the poetry of Psalms) and to see the thread of steadfast goodness, grace, and provision for His Covenant People, His Family….ME!!! -
Every once in awhile I will mention a family member and my grown children will say “Why am I just now hearing about this person?!” But when I start sharing how this person is related…it isn’t long before their eyes start to glaze over trying to keep all the connections straight. So much to absorb and each story unique. Passing along family info often turns into hitting the highlights of memorable moments both good and bad. Humbling to know that God knew them and their circumstances just as much as he knows mine. Praising God this morning for redemptive love.
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I’m reading the Chronological Bible also and I am amazed and love seeing how these names fit in to the actual picture and where they fit in. As I was reading the verses in Matthew I was saying yes I remember reading about this person and this person. Our family line may not seem so great but we must remember we ALL BELONG to GOD.
Be blessed and give God the glory to today.
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2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. – Isaiah 11:2. I always perk up when I hear attributes of the Holy Spirit. The one person of the Trinity that seems to be cloaked in mystery yet incredibly active in the church. Seeing the Spirit here this morning made me feel light hearted. I’m headed to Angie Mills post to discover the meaning of Eleazar’s name. I’ve always liked the way his name sounds! -
I used to skim over the chapters with all of the genealogies because (just like Jasmine said) the names were foreign and hard to pronounce/understand. But lately I have tried to read through each name, remembering that God fearfully made each individual in those genealogies and loved each one of them dearly. I remind myself that God made them each with specific traits and to live in the specific time, place, moment that He placed them. He cared for each one of them, seeing them and knowing them each by name. It blows my mind to think about how many people that have lived so far and yet, God made each one, knows each one, loves each one and ordained each one to live in the timeframe that they did/do. The lists of names doesn’t mean much to me at times but each of those names represent a person that God loves and deeply cares for. He cares for the seemingly “insignificant” people that don’t have a huge role to play or a story dedicated to them in the Bible and he still had a wonderful purpose for them. He was faithful to each one, providing for them and leading them, all the while making way for the Messiah, our Savior!
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