We have come to the end of Ruth, but instead of ending the story with Ruth living happily ever after with Boaz, we end with a genealogy.
If we are honest we’ll admit that most of us don’t like reading biblical genealogies. We often skim over them or skip them all together. They are usually filled with names we can hardly pronounce and people we have never heard of. But genealogies are important – otherwise God would not have included so many of them in Scripture.
Through genealogies we see how God uses ordinary people for His extraordinary work.
As beautiful of a love story the book of Ruth is, we see that Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz are part of a much larger story: a story guided by the hand of God in order to bring about the future events that would lead to the coming of a Savior. We see Him accomplish this by using normal people, like Ruth, with common lives, like that of a field owner, in a small insignificant town called Bethlehem. God, in His sovereign wisdom, uses what we might deem as insignificant and humble to bring about the extraordinary. And what is more extraordinary than the true Kinsman Redeemer being born to the undistinguished descendants of Ruth and Boaz?!
Genealogies also show that we belong. When you study your genealogy you will quickly find out that you belong to a family and a heritage; to a certain culture and ethnicity. But for those of us whose trust is in Jesus, we have the unearned privilege of belonging to the family of God. We have been gifted with a heritage rich in grace, mercy, forgiveness, and sacrificial love.
We belong to a culture where beauty is measured by a changed heart, not the shape of our bodies or the style of our hair; where acceptance is received and given because of the shared blood of Jesus that runs through our veins.
Genealogies are important because in them we see God using imperfect people for His perfect plan. In Matthew 1 we see the genealogy of Jesus and in this list we find a bunch of people who messed up. We have Jacob who was a liar and a thief, Rahab who was a former prostitute, and David – an adulterer and murderer – and yet God brought the Messiah through this line of misfits.
This should give us encouragement. There are no perfect people, and yet God uses us anyway. He uses us through our ordinary lives in order bring about His kingdom work.
Continue in your faithfulness to the calling God has for you no matter how ordinary you may feel it is. You, also, are part of a larger story… a story that involves the kingdom of God.
Looking To Jesus,