The Women…

MON., DEC. 18, 1995, 6:50 AM
FARM, STUDY

This title, to be complete and specific, should be … “in Jesus lineage”. It is, and should be, a fascinating facet of My story, as Jesus, even somewhat appropriate to remember at this time of year. The lineage information is in the Gospel of Matthew, who had been the tax collector. As I told you before, some of My lack of credibility as the Messiah, in the minds of the people, came because I selected him as a disciple. In his former “profession” he needed to know something about the lineage of people who paid taxes, so he started his Gospel with his version of the lineage which would establish Me as “of the house and lineage of David.” The Messiah would be the proper King, but it would be more legitimate if His ancestry went back directly, to David, My favorite king.

But because of his own experiences Matthew decided to “tuck in” the names of 3 of the women who were mothers in that ancestry… plus Bathsheba, identified through her “too-good”, “departed” husband, Uriah. There obviously were many other women who bore the babies who became the men in that family tree, but these were the most “unusual” and the most sinful, by conservative Christian standards. So, in effect, My lineage, as Jesus, through Joseph, who was My “legal” father, was a sin-stained one, yet, as is often the case this sin was countered by courage.

Rahab was a prostitute who made her living by meeting sexual needs in men. You have heard this called “the second oldest profession”, which implies that sexual needs, outside of marriage, have been “around for a long time”. When Joshua’s spies (and here’s that intriguing idea that the spirit that was in Jesus was, earlier, in Joshua) came into the city and were about to be caught, this “fallen woman” hid them and saw that they escaped safely. When the Jericho walls came down (apparently not where her house was) she and some others in her family were spared, and, according to the lineage, she was the mother of Boaz, through Salmon, who was only memorable as a man in the ancestry. The story does not indicate that Rahab repented and became a righteous woman.

Now, you’re right, the first one named was Tamar, who disguised herself as a prostitute and seduced her father-in-law, Judah, who laid with her and impregnated her. And she was crafty enough to get Judah, the one of Jacob’s 12 sons selected to be in the lineage to Me, to give her, in exchange for her “favors”, the evidence that would later establish her as the mother of his twin sons, one, Perez, being chosen over the other as part of the ancestry. Thus, another “imperfect” woman to be part of My heritage.

Now Ruth was a “better” woman. She even has her story told in a “book” named after her, as part of Holy Scripture. But she was a “foreigner”, meaning, again that My ancestry was not pure Jewish. As a hard-working widow woman she attracted the attention of old Boaz, the offspring of Rahab, who took her as a wife. From this union came Obed, who was the father of Jessee, (by an unnamed woman), whose youngest son was David.

Then came Bathsheba, identified by Matthew (for his own reasons) as the wife of Uriah. She was seduced by David, then king, and she willingly laid with him. From that union came a pregnancy. David tried to do the “responsible thing”, but Uriah was “too much a warrior”, so David arranged for him to be killed in battle, and Bathsheba became one of his wives. But I did have My standards. That child had to die.