“The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.” (Proverbs 10:7)

What more miserable thought can we conjure than that all our words and deeds will fade and be forever forgotten? This should motivate us to seek how we can find and hold significance that persists beyond our brief stay on Earth. This proverb helps answer our deep longing for lasting meaning.

The name of the wicked will not be remembered, but memories of the just will endure. For example, the Lord chose not to name the mightiest man alive during the Exodus—a recalcitrant Egyptian pharaoh. Yet, in that same narrative, the Lord named the just and brave midwives. “And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah” (Exodus 1:15). Those women’s names are blessed, being recorded and preserved in Scripture. Despite building monuments to himself, that pharaoh is now dust, and his name decayed with him.

How can we avoid this fate and be counted among the just? Malachi 3:16 says, “Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.”

We must fear the Lord. We often labor for significance by trying to make ourselves great in this world. If that’s all we have, then our names will die with us. However, those who fear the Lord find forgiveness, justification, and sanctification. God will likewise bless the memory of our words and deeds in a “book of remembrance.” What joy we’ll find in those blessed pages! BDT