Matthew 1:1-6

An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon,  and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, - Matthew 1:1-6

I started reading Matthew again last night, it starts out with a genealogy of Jesus.  While it obviously ties Jesus back to King David, Judah, and all the way back to Abraham.  This is important because Jesus fulfills the promise that everyone will be blessed through the offspring of Abraham.  Jesus is also the Messiah from Old Testament scripture.

However, there is more going on here though, there are four women mentioned. Which is not normal.  All of them have a scandalous story around them and three of them are foreigners.  

The first woman is Tamar (Genesis 38), which has the craziest story..  Judah had moved away from his father and taken a wife and they had three sons.  He gets Tamar as a wife for his oldest son then God kills the oldest son because he was wicked. It was expected that the next eldest son would father a child for his brother.  He refused so God killed him as well. The third son is too young, so Judah tells Tamar to move back to her parents and wait.  Then Judah decides he is not taking any chances; his eldest two sons died after being with Tamar so Judah does not give him to her. When he is old enough, the youngest not given to Tamar to start a family.  She dresses as a prostitute and Judah sleeps with her (not knowing who it was) Judah gives Tamar his signet, cord and staff as a pledge until he can pay her.  When Judah tries to pay her and get his pledge back, she is not found.  Once Judah hears Tamar is pregnant, he wants her killed.  She produces the pledge so Judah knows that it was because he did not give her his son that she tricked him into getting her pregnant. He admits that she was more right than himself 

The next lady is Rahab (Joshua 2).  When Israel was about to enter the promised land, Joshua sent spies out to Jericho.  Rahab is a prostitute in Jericho and hides the spies from the King in return the Israelites spare the life of her and her family. In addition to being a prostitute she is not an Israelite.  The Israelites were commanded not to intermarry with the people currently living in the promised land.

The third lady is Ruth. (She has a whole book) Naomi is an Israelite lady who moves to another country (Moab) with her husband and two sons.  Her sons marry then her sons and husband all die. Her two daughter-in-laws both stand by her; however, she urges them to go back to their parents.  Ruth is determined to stay with Naomi, so they move back to Judah.  Ruth goes to glean (pick up pieces left behind in a grain field) to provide for them. The land owner, Boaz takes notice of Ruth, he respected her because of how she was caring for Naomi.  He is also a close relative to Naomi’s deceased husband; he is able to “take over” as Ruth’s husband because of this. Ruth sneaks in and sleeps at the feet of Boaz. Boaz then becomes Ruth’s husband and provides for her and Naomi.  It ends with Ruth having a child completing a happy family. Here is the thing though, Israelites were not allowed to marry anyone from Moab. This is not the general rule not to marry people from other nations. Deuteronomy 23:3 - “No Ammonite or Moabite shall come into the assembly of the Lord even to the tenth generation. None of their descendants shall come into the assembly of the Lord forever,”  So King David, Solemn, all the kings of Judah and even Jesus were not allowed to come into the assembly of the Lord. Least according to the law, but not according to the narrative. 

The fourth is Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11), not even mentioned by name by Matthew, but as the wife of Uriah. King David had seen Bathsheba bathing on the roof and had her brought to him so he could sleep with her. He gets her pregnant, her husband (Uriah) is at war so they had not been together. David brings him back, but he refuses to sleep with her because other troops were at war. David then sets Uriah up to be killed in war. It is my experience that this story gets watered down to David having an affair, then God punishes him. It is more accurate to state that David rapes a woman whose husband is one of his might warriors then kills him to cover up his sin.  It is at this point that God sends a profit to confront David.  Solemn is their second child. 

I want to add to the story of Bathsheba; when David is old and feeble, Bathsheba is instrumental in getting her son Solomon to be King over his older brothers.

The Gospel of Matthew has more Old Testament references than the other 3 gospels.  Matthew clearly includes these women to make a point or maybe several points. He expects his readers to know the stories behind these women. Here are my thoughts…..

Radical inclusion - Three of these women were not Israelites, and Solomon is the result of an illicit relationship. I don’t think Matthew is validating all these actions, but that the Good News of Jesus is for everyone.

Woman power - All these women took bold action to advance their family.  Tamar needed to take action to not be a childless widow her entire life.  Rahab needed to take action to prevent her family from being destroyed.  Ruth needed to take action to provide for herself and her mother-in-law as well as to have a family of her own.  Bathsheba needed to take action to get her son the kingship and maybe security for the safety of herself and her son.

Imperfect people - Jesus became human and had a human family.  Just like every family, there are crazy stories.  He was born to an imperfect family.  He came for imperfect people.

In the Bible it is not normal for women to be included, Matthew did this on purpose, we need to pay attention.