To Perpetuate The Name (Ruth 4:10)

 

Saturday, June 14, 2025

Psalms 108; 109:20-30

Ruth 4

Acts 3:17-4:4

To Perpetuate The Name (Ruth 4:10)

Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day.”

There was a certain European aristocrat, a man of noble birth. One day he received a call from God to leave his wealth, his palace, his family and his homeland to go and be a missionary. His humility and love for the Gospel over his own self-interest is admirable. Ironically, he is remembered for a quote: “preach the gospel, die and be forgotten.” Far from being forgotten, Nikolaus Ludwig, the Count von Zizendorf, is still remembered over 300 years later, both for his famous quote, and his famous aversion to fame.

Our desire to be remembered after our death; to have done something of worth with our lives; to leave this world in a better place than we found it: this is something I think all of us have inside us to some degree or another. And it seems to be recognised by God, as well. The promise to Abraham, held so tightly in faith by all who came after him, is about creating a great nation, a great homeland, a great people group.

God does desire, in some way, for our memory to continue in perpetuity. Part of what made Boaz so noble in his intentions was that he wanted Ruth and Naomi to have descendants; for Ruth and Naomi to know that all their efforts in life was worth something after they were long gone from this world. And when we get to the end of the reading, we learn that God’s blessing to these women in this way was actually far more astounding than perhaps Boaz realised: Ruth was to be the grandmother of Israel’s greatest king, David. And David was merely the precursor to the King of the Universe: the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Christ, our names live on forever. In Christ, our heritage is none other than the people of God, and our descendants are none other than the redeemed saints, saved by Christ’s blood. Through Christ our names perpetuate long after our death, and our inheritance, and theirs, is the inheritance given to Christ which he shares with us.

If your story was included in the Bible, where would the connections to Christ be found? How does your name live on through him?

God of our ancestors, through whom we have our name written in your book of life: grant to us such a life story that Christ may beam through it all in his glorious brilliance.