Tue, 1 January, 2008: Today’s Bible readings.

Matthew 1:1-17

¹ The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

² Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, ³ and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, ⁴ and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, ⁵ and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, ⁶ and Jesse the father of David the king.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, ⁷ and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, ⁸ and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, ⁹ and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, ¹⁰ and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, ¹¹ and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

¹² And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, ¹³ and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, ¹⁴ and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, ¹⁵ and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, ¹⁶ and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

¹⁷ So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.

Matthew gives us Joseph’s lineage, showing that Jesus as Joseph’s presumed firstborn son, has the right to the throne of David. Luke gives Mary’s lineage that also runs through David, but not through the kingly line.

In this list of many men, there are three women. But I’ve always loved how God has ordained that these three women have been included in this lineage of Christ.

These three women are:

1. Tamar, who tricked her father-in-law to impregnate her with the twins Perez and Zerah.

2. Rahab, the harlot from Jericho who protected the Israelite spies and joined Israel.

3. Bathsheba, here referred to as “the wife of Uriah”, who committed adultery with David.

These three women aren’t exactly the people you would expect in the lineage of the sinless Son of God. But there they are.

What do we learn from this?

We have our expectations of who God can use, and who God can not. We have our standards of who is “good” and who is “bad”. Usually, we define “good” and “bad” in such a way that we are “good” and those others are “bad”. Naturally, those who are “good” in our eyes are the ones we expect God to use.

But in God’s eyes, there is none righteous, no not one. All our righteousness is like filthy rags in His sight. And so the fact that God uses anyone is because of His grace.

God clearly shows this in the lineage before us today. God uses these women to bring Jesus Christ into the world. And instead of trying to hide them from public view as if embarrassed about them, God has them listed prominently. Every time we read this lineage, we are reminded that God uses those we would be inclined to rule out. He raises them to prominence in His kingdom, when we would be inclined to hide them.

We need to overcome our own desire to judge people and dismiss them because they do not live up to our own standards.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Jesus Christ is the culmination of this lineage of Matthew. God worked all the history involved in this list of names for the purpose of bringing Mary and Joseph together to raise Jesus Christ, the virgin born incarnate Second Person of the Trinity.