Jesus's Family Tree (part 2)

Matthew 1:3-6

When I worked at the prison, there was this really nice inmate. Unlike most, he never tried to run a con on the officers. He was there to do his time and that was it. To make his time easier, he obeyed orders. His uniform was nicely pressed, boots polished, and he stood at attention when officers passed him on the sidewalk. He was the model inmate. Then I learned what his crime was. This REALLY NICE inmate had been a hitman for a white supremacist group. The government literally had no idea how many people he had killed. All they knew for sure was how many he plead guilty to. It was proof that who people are at the end of their life, may be vastly different from who they were when they were younger.

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Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram. 4 Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon. 5 Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, 6 and Jesse begot David the king.

Matthew 1:3-6

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Last week we ended with Judah. Tamar on the other hand needs to be mentioned again. She knew that Judah had not kept his promise to provide her with a husband. So, she dressed up like a prostitute and propositioned her father-in-law (remember her husband had died). Judah did not have anything to pay her with, so she took his signet ring and staff as collateral until he paid her. Then she disappeared before he could pay her. She got pregnant and had twins. When Judah was going to punish her, not knowing that she was the prostitute, she said that they guy who owned the ring and staff was the other party. Suddenly Judah was not interested in punishing her any more.

We honestly do not know much about most of these people. We will skip down to Salmon. This is again someone we don't know much about, but his wife is a different story. Rahab was a harlot in the city of Jericho. When Joshua sent the two spies into the city, they had to hide for their lives. They found themselves in Rahab's house. She bargained with them. She told them that if she saved their life, they had to save hers. They agreed, and the promise was honored. Rahab lied to the soldiers when they came to her house. When the Israelites entered the city to conquer it, the two spies went to Rahab's house to protect them. Rahab became a part of the Hebrews and married this man Salmon.

They had a son named Boaz. There is literally nothing negative to say about Boaz. He is a type or picture of Jesus in the story, and I will not try to find fault with him. I am not going to rehash his story because we just finished it. He was a good man, and God honored him with his and Ruth's story being put in the Bible.

Ruth is a little bit of a different case though. Ruth was from Moab. Moab was a country founded by a man named Moab who was born of an incestuous relationship between Lot and one of his daughters. The people worshiped a pagan god named Chemosh or Molech. This god was worshiped with child sacrifices. There was also a goddess who was worshiped by rituals with temple prostitutes. This is part of the religion and people that Ruth was born and raised in.

Next we skip to Jesse. This is again a man that we do not know much about. The only thing I have to say about him was that he did not obey Samuel. Samuel told him to bring all of his sons to stand in front of him because God would pick one of them to be Israel's next king. Jesse picked the oldest, but ignored David who was tending to the sheep. When God rejected all of the other sons, Samuel asked, "Is this all of your sons". Jesse responded that there was one more, but he was tending to the sheep. Jesse did not think David was worth bringing to stand before the prophet. I'm not saying that he did not like his son. I am simply saying that he did not consider him worthy of being a king, but God did.

This covers three of the four women mentioned in the lineage of Jesus (besides Mary). We also talked about Jesse, the father of David. Again, we see that they started out with rough beginnings, but God still saw fit to honor them by mentioning them in the family tree of Jesus. There is no mention of Tamar repenting, but Rahab and Ruth both placed their faith in God. It saved their lives, and they are spoken highly of in scripture. Rahab is mentioned in both Hebrews and James because of her faith. Ruth had an entire book written about her. They finished their race better than they started.

Father, You call us to run this race of life. We stumble, fall, and take wrong turns, but You want us to keep going. We should try to take each step better than the last. Thank You for giving us examples of people who did not start well, but they finished well because they chose to follow You.