Reflection
- (Rth 4:18 ESV) Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron,
- (Rth 4:19 ESV) Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab,
- (Rth 4:20 ESV) Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon,
- (Rth 4:21 ESV) Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed,
- (Rth 4:22 ESV) Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.
Discussion
Have you started a plan to read the Bible all the way through? How did that go when you hit places like Numbers or 1 Chronicles? These places where you read name after name after name in a seemingly endless list of dead people. Oftentimes our minds glaze over at these lists and we can miss the lives lived between those few words. If my life were fit into such a list you would read:
Joseph fathered Douglas, Douglas fathered Steven, Steven fathered Jeremiah by KaCee, daughter of Charles.
Exciting, isn’t it? Not really in that structure. We also can see that there are all the aspects of life and family, vocation and avocation. Of successes and failures. The struggles of life and the victories, large or small.
Not all of these names give us more detail, but know that all of the names represent real lives lived out on the earth. Each of these people is a deliberate creation of God – men and women made in His image and likeness with a plan and purpose. God willed all these lives for His glory and purposefully recorded each of them in His Holy Scriptures.
One of my favorite tools for looking at these names is the OpenBible.info cross-referencing search. Next time you come across a list of names, run the verse through that tool and chase the story of those people. You might be very surprised at what you find connected to that boring list of names.
Connection
If your name was listed in a structure like the end of Ruth, what would it say?
If you were to tell the story of what God has done in your life according to His will, what would that story be?
How does God’s plan of redeeming you to Himself fit into the story of your family lineage and history?
Expansion
Salvation and Preservation
God saves people by their faith in Him alone according to His grace alone through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ alone, not on the basis of any human work. All of the redeemed are immediately indwelt by the Holy Spirit and justified before God beginning the transforming sanctification of the whole person the fruit of which is shown by their attitude and conduct. Having been saved by faith, we are justified in Christ before God, forgiven of our sins, and held eternally secure by Christ alone forever where we will one day assume a glorified condition with Him forever. From beginning to end the salvation of people is entirely a work of God to bring glory to His name.
Acts 8:27-30, Ephesians 1:3-14, Ephesians 2:1-10, 2 Timothy 1:8-9, 2 Timothy 2:24-26, John 1:12-13, Romans 6:16-18, Romans 9:10-24, John 6:43-45, 1 Timothy 2:3-4, Ezra 18:23, Romans 10:10-21, 2 Peter 3:9, John 12:32, Romans 14:10-12