FAMILY inheritance, according to the Bible, is secured on the blood relationship and lineage of a person. The male line of family descendants would inherit what his family owned, the priority being given to sons then to daughters only if no son existed. The widow would need to be supported by her blood brothers (or other male blood relatives related to her father) if she never had any children with the deceased.
A case in point involving inheritance centers around Naomi, the mother-in-law of Ruth. Naomi received the land of her husband when he, and both their sons, had died. The problem was that when she wanted to sell the land, she had to sell it to a family member who also had to marry Ruth (i.e., the widow of one of Naomi's sons). The couple also had to have children in the name of Naomi's dead husband. A close relative turned down his right to buy Naomi's land, and all it entailed, because it would endanger his own family inheritance. His actions made it possible for Boaz to buy the land and marry Ruth (Ruth 4:3 - 11).
This family circumstance paved the way for Boaz and Ruth to eventually produce a son named Obed whose own son, Jesse, was the father of king David. And down thru fourteen generations from king David, Jesus the Christ was born! (Matt.1:17)
Applying this rule to your own timeline, think of what it took for just anyone of your ancestors-- the choices he/she made so you could be born today! I found this "ancestral mathematics" profoundly interesting, and check these figures:
In order to be born, you needed --
2 parents
4 grandparents
8 great-grandparents
16 second great-grandparents
32 third great-grandparents
64 fourth great-grandparents
128 fifth great-grandparents
256 sixth great-grandparents
512 seventh great-grandparents
1,024 eighth great-grandparents
2,048 ninth great-grandparents
For you to be born today from 12 previous generations, you needed a total sum of 4,096 ancestors over the last 400 years.
Think for a moment – How many life struggles? How many challenges, and battles? How many difficulties? How much sadness? How much happiness? How many love stories? How many expressions of hope for the future? – did your ancestors have to undergo for you to exist in this present moment!
Hence the Feast of Pentecost should also remind us to be grateful with our parents and families in the Faith--the community of believers we are in. Without their selfless sacrifices, always seeking the true God, and having godly humility, we won't be here today.
Your inheritance is your profound calling!
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“Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, And there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me.” --Ruth 1:16-17
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