Last night I signed up for a free trial for a website which helps you discover your family ancestry. Through my research I found a book about my name, Ransom. People sometimes comment, “What a cool name for a Christian!” What I found, however, was not very Christianly.
My ancestors landed in England during the Danish Invasion and overthrow of the Anglo-Saxxon rule in 1017-42. The British began to call the Danish invaders as “Ransomes” because after they pillaged and plundered they would capture wealthy men and women and hold them captive until they received a certain amount of money for their release. The name was used by the British as a polite word for robber or pirate (Historical Outline of the Ransom Family of America.)
Stephanie Joy Pirate–Glad that one didn’t stick.
Going through the genealogies, I thought about how I didn’t go through the maternal line at all. After all, I was curious about the name which I inherited which was passed down from my dad and his dad and so on. I thought about how interesting it is that women usually give up their name which was carried on for generations and generations and adopt a new one in adulthood.
This morning I read in I Kings 9:3 that the LORD told Solomon that he would consecrate the house he built for Him by putting His name there forever (with the condition that Israel not worship other gods, which didn’t happen.) He consecrates a place by putting his name on it.
It’s interesting to see where God has decided to reside. In the dessert, he lived in a tabernacle surrounded by a tent–a portable temporary dwelling. David tried to make a new dwelling place, but the LORD told him, as if you could make me a proper dwelling place, don’t worry your son will make great temple later (highly paraphrased.) Solomon built a fancy temple, and then he married a lot of women and set Israel up for a downward spiral of idolatry which lasted 400 years until his temple was reduced to rubble just as the LORD promised would happen if his people did not stay faithful. 70 years later, the next temple was built by some of my favorite biblical people and lasted another 400 years UNTIL Christ made a way for the LORD to have a truly permanent dwelling place among his people, in his people. Peter (which means “stone”) fittingly got the revelation that we are the living stones which compose his spiritual temple (I Peter 2).
The Church is referred to as the bride of Christ. Through marriage, we receive a new name, HIS name. Thus, we are consecrated as his dwelling place forever.
Like the poor British folks which my ancestors kidnapped, I was in captivity. Apart from Christ, I was bound in an ancient generational curse which began in the garden. But now, instead of being stuck in a place of captivity, I become a place for the Lord to dwell in. I am now free to give up the name I inherited in the natural and receive the one which will never fall into a curse and crumble, but is my eternal inheritance.
