God chooses women the world would use and discard Matthew s record of the genealogy of Jesus is positioned at the beginning of the first book of the New Testament. Matthew writes to show that Jesus is descendant from the tribe of Judah to prove He is the Messiah to his Jewish audience. This important genealogy acts as a bridge to show Jesus is the fulfilment of the Old Testament. However, Matthew breaks with custom and records the names of five women in the genealogy. By recording the name of women and in particular some gentile women, Matthew may be indicating at the very outset of his gospel that God s activity is not limited to men or to the people of Israel. 1 When you read the story of these women you see that God s activity includes choosing women the world would/and has, used and discarded. The five women are: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba (who is only mentioned in the genealogy as the wife of Uriah) and Mary. God chose women in a time where they were of little value. More incredibly, He chose women who were foreigners, despised by the Israelites for being gentile, rendered powerless as widows, shamed by their profession, acted against unjustly by men, raped/forced into adultery, young and single and pregnant. He chooses unlikely heroes to be in His story. These women recognised the action of God and were faithful to Him. History knows their name (except for Bathsheba!). Here is a short summary of who they are. There is a longer story to follow for all but Mary whose story will appear through Sticky Note Thoughts Journey with Jesus, as she is His mother. When reading the stories don t get caught up in the morality of lying for Rahab, the ruse Tamar creates or whether Ruth seduced Boaz. Instead see in the story of God choosing the unlikely, the person the world labels as less valuable or a sinner. See the women surrender to Him. Tamar is most likely a gentile who pretends to be a prostitute in a scheme to claim what is rightfully hers that has been denied by her father-in-law. Rahab is a gentile who saves her family and declaring faith in God, encourages the Israelite Army when they are struggling with this concept.
Ruth is a gentile who cares for her mother-in-law at the expense of herself. Some commentators would say she uses her feminine wiles to capture Boaz s attention. Bathsheba is possibly an Israelite but is married to a gentile, raped/forced into adultery, loses her son as a consequence of David s sin and has the role of the King s mother thrust upon her at the actions of David. Mary is a young Israelite girl betrothed to a descendant of David and finds out she is pregnant with the Messiah. She responds in faith to the words of the Angel, even though she must have been terrified of having an Angel speak to her (we know that is scary because Angels always begin their speech with fear not). She would have been shamed for being pregnant and not married and would potentially lose that relationship. Yet she responds, I am the Lord s servant, Mary answered. May your word to me be fulfilled. (Luke 1:38) Do you label yourself unlikely? God chooses unlikely heroes. God has not chosen you based on what you have done, but rather by His great love for you demonstrated in Jesus dying on the Cross. Jesus removes your shame label. God writes your story into His story. Tamar Tamar (Genesis 38). Judah, one of the 12 sons of Jacob marries a Canaanite woman and has three sons. The eldest is called Er and Judah acquires a wife for him called Tamar. But the Bible says that Er was wicked in the Lord s sight; so the LORD put him to death (38:6-7). In the culture of the time, if a woman s husband died when she didn t have a son then it was her husband s brother s duty to take her on and any children born of that union born would inherit for the dead brother (a custom known as levirate marriage). Judah ordered his next son Onan to sleep with her as per his duty but Onan new that the child will not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from providing offspring for his brother. What he did was wicked in the Lord s sight; so the Lord put him to death also. (Genesis 38:9-10). As his next son is too young Judah discarded Tamar (his daughter-in-law) sending her back to live as a widow in her father s house supposedly until Shelah grew up. Years later Judah still had not given his third son to Tamar. In fact he married him off to another woman.
After Judah s wife died Tamar enacted a plan. She disguised herself and sat on a road that she knew Judah would be walking on. Judah thought she was a prostitute and asked her to sleep with him. She agreed after setting a price and kept his staff and other items from him as a pledge that he would pay the price. Three months later Judah was informed that Tamar was guilty of prostitution and as a result was pregnant (38:24). Judah ordered for her to be burned to death. In a dramatic twist in the story Tamar sent a message to her father-in-law, I am pregnant by the man who owns these See if you recognise whose seal and cord and staff these are. The Bible says Judah recognised them and said that she was more righteous than he. Tamar gave birth to twin boys, the eldest was called Pérez and it is through him that Jesus birth lineage is traced. Tamar was used and discarded by Judah, left without hope or access to justice to live as a widow in her father s household with no one to provide for her. Tamar acted for faithfulness to family obligations. 2 Rahab After 40 years of wandering in the desert, the Israelites are camped on the other side of the Jordan River preparing to cross into the Promised Land. The leader Joshua, sends out spies to check out the land and fortified town of Jericho that they will encounter when they first cross the river. The spies walk through the front gate of Jericho (not great spy behaviour) and enter the house of the prostitute Rahab. Rahab is named and shamed from the first mention of her in the bestselling book ever the Bible labelled by her dishonourable profession. Later in the book of Joshua she is just referred to as the prostitute (Joshua 6:22) not even a name. Soldiers come looking for the spies and Rahab lies to protect them sending the soldiers on a wild goose chase. She speaks to the spies reciting the miracles of the LORD who dried up the waters so His people left Egypt on dry land and of battles won. She declares, For the LORD your God is the supreme God of heavens above and the earth below (2:11). She bargains for the life of her family and helps the spies escape (again you have to question their competence but God is covering their ineptitude with Rehab s ingenuity and her faith). When the spies return and speak to Joshua regarding Rahab s confession about God, it
becomes the encouragement to the Israelite people that God is fulfilling His promise to them (2:24). Rahab recognises the activity of God and chooses to align herself with it. She is a reminder that from the beginning, the purpose of Israel was to bless other nations (Genesis 12:3), to draw others to God and not to be exclusive. When the Israelites conquer the city of Jericho, Rahab and her family have followed the plan and are unharmed. They go to live with the Israelites. Rahab, the gentile, marries Salmon and has a son who is a not too distant ancestor of Boaz who you are just about to meet. Ruth Ruth has a book in the Bible named after her, one of only two women who do. Ruth is the daughter-in-law of Naomi. Naomi who really is the central character in the book of Ruth is an Israelite lady who moves to the land of Moab during a famine in Israel with her husband and two sons. The sons marry gentile Moabite women. Naomi s husband dies. When her two sons die she labels her life as bitter and empty. Naomi chooses to go back to Israel and sends her daughters-in-law back to their families free to marry again. Ruth says to Naomi, famous words often recited at weddings (including mine), Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. (Ruth 1:16 NIV) Ruth and Naomi return to Bethlehem. Ruth goes to pick up grain left by the harvesters to feed the two women in the fields belonging to Boaz. Boaz is a distant relative of Naomi s husband. He sees Ruth gleaning in his field and asks who she is. When he finds out her story he provides for her and protects her ordering his men to leave her alone. Naomi, aware the Boaz is a possible kinsman redeemer (another example of levirate marriage using a more distant relative than the brothers in Tamar s story) encourages Ruth to wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes (3:3), to go and visit Boaz and lie at his feet when he is sleeping (3:8). Boaz wakes up, again provides and protects Ruth and sends her on her way, before going to speak to another relative who was a closer kinsman redeemer than Boaz. The upshot is Boaz marries Ruth and they have a son, Obed who is the grandfather of King David who appears in the next story. At the end of the book Naomi is referred to as full with a renewed life.
Ruth is an example of loyalty, obedience and self-giving love. Bathsheba One spring David, King of the Israelites, chooses not to go to war and stays in Jerusalem, his capital city. From the roof he sees a beautiful woman bathing. He inquires about her and finds out she is Bathsheba, the wife of one of his prominent soldiers who is a gentile. David sends men to get her and he sleeps with her: adultery and potentially rape. Bathsheba discovers she is pregnant and sends a message to David. David enacts elaborate plans to have her husband Uriah return from the front to sleep with her. Uriah returns to Jerusalem, but as a soldier on duty, fulfils the expectation to refrain from sexual activity. David sends Uriah back to the fighting on a suicide mission with instructions for the head of the army to ensure Uriah is killed in action: murder. Bathsheba mourned for her husband and when the time of mourning was over David had her brought to his house, she becomes his wife and bears him a son (2 Samuel 11:27). Now God wasn t happy and sent His prophet to confront David s secret sins and announces the conceived child will die. David repented and when the child became ill pleaded with God. He fasted, spent nights lying in sack cloth on the ground and prayed (2 Samuel 12:13-17). He was appealing to God s mercy. His behaviour concerned his servants so much that when the child died after seven days they worried David might do something desperate. But David overheard them and on hearing the news of his son s death, he got up from the ground, washed, changed clothes and worshipped God before eating and then going to comfort Bathsheba (2 Samuel 12:18-24). Bathsheba gave birth to another four sons. The eldest, Solomon, was chosen by David as his successor but not publicly named. Bathsheba appears of few more times in the Old Testament, as she fights to protect Solomon s succession to the throne when David is old and frail and his other older sons are gathering support to take the throne (1 Kings 1). A commentary says of Bathsheba, Bathsheba s well-conceived strategies with both David and Solomon succeed in winning the kingdom for Solomon. 3
Finally, Bathsheba is recorded in Jesus genealogy not by name, but by her adultery, query rape. No secret sins there! She suffers the consequences of David s actions in the loss of her son, but accepts the new life and role thrust upon her, shows cleverness and strategy to ensure her son gets to sit on the throne, and she sits there beside him (1 Kings 2:19). References 1. Zondervan NIV Study Bible Fully revised, ed. K L Barker, Zondervan, Michigan, 2002, p. 1466. 2. Life Application Study Bible NIV Zondervan, Michigan, and Tyndale, Illinois, 1991, p. 80. 3. J Olley, The Message of Kings, inter-varsity press, Nottingham, 2011,p. 56.