From Promise to Birth–the Lineage of Christ (part 2)

We left off part one of Jesus’ genealogy with Jacob’s family. Remember, he was renamed Israel after wrestling with God, and his twelve sons would form the 12 tribes of the nation of Israel.

Jacob’s son, Judah, not the firstborn, I should add, and also not Jacob’s most righteous son, is next on our list. Judah’s oldest son married Tamar, but because of his wickedness, he died leaving Tamar a childless widow. In their culture it was the duty of the next born son to marry the widow and give her a child to carry on her first husband’s name. Tamar married the second son, but he was also wicked and died without providing Tamar with a child. Judah chose not to allow his third son to marry Tamar for fear he would also die. Tamar, in her pursuit to get what was owed to her, posed as a prostitute to entice Judah to sleep with her and provide an heir for her deceased husband. (You really should go read all of this story in Genesis 38–it’s pretty wild). Tamar becomes pregnant with twins, and one of those is an ancestor to Jesus. Scholars are somewhat divided on whether Tamar acted in sin. Regardless of whether God viewed it as sin, I don’t believe it is the way He would have instructed Tamar to get what she was owed. Yet, He still chose to use the situation and the people to carry out his plan of redemption.

On, down the line we go until we reach the next group of people whose story is well known among the Jewish people because it was written in their scriptures. We have Boaz, the son of Rahab, who married Ruth and fathered Obed. Rahab had been a prostitute in Canaan (the land God had promised to give to the Israelites). When Israelite spies were sent into Jericho (part of Canaan) as they prepared to take it over, Rahab helped them. She helped them because she had heard the stories of the God of Israel and believed He was the true God. She feared Him over her own leaders. Rahab’s family was saved when Jericho was conquered by Israel.

Rahab’s son, Boaz, eventually married Ruth, a Moabite who had come to Bethlehem after the deaths of her husband, brother-in-law, and father-in-law. She came with her mother-in-law, Naomi, who assisted her in getting Boaz to marry her in order to care for her family. Ruth and Boaz had a son, named Jesse, who was the father of Israel’s greatest king, King David.

This ends the first group of 14 generations and begins the next. David fathered Solomon through Bathsheba (the wife of Uriah). David and Bathsheba had an affair, and David had her husband, Uriah, killed because she had become pregnant by David while Uriah was away at war. David then took Bathsheba as his wife, but the first child born to them died. They had another child, Solomon, who would be David’s successor on the throne. Solomon was a good, wise king at first, but he allowed fame and fortune to mar his character and actions. Because of this, God stripped much of the kingdom of Israel from his family, and the kingdom was divided into two parts–ten northern tribes known as Israel, and two southern tribes, Judah and Benjamin.

Some important notes: It was very rare for women to be listed in genealogies. The women listed in Jesus’ genealogy are essential to the narrative and demonstrate that God did not favor Israel over other nations, as Israel believed. Tamar and Rahab were both Canaanites, and Ruth was a Moabite (a group of people who descended from the incest that occurred between Lot and his two daughters). Along with Bathsheba, God is also showing us again that He can take any mess and any person and use them for his purposes and glory. His redemption power is for all, and there is no sin too great that God cannot forgive it.

In the final part of Jesus’ genealogy we’ll discuss the various kings of Israel that followed David and Solomon, as well as that final list of 14 generations.