Matthew 1:5-6 “Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David the king. David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah.”
Jesus is the Gift of God to the world; The Holy Spirit is The Gift to the Church.
In ancient times, biographies commonly began with a genealogy. A man’s ancestry was a vital part of his credentials. Matthew begins his gospel account by tracing Jesus’ blood line back to King David. He did that to show that Jesus had a claim to the throne of Israel. But The Gospel writer’s list of ancestors includes some names you wouldn’t expect to see in a typical Jewish genealogy.
First century Jewish society was exclusively patriarchal; a person’s genealogy was typically traced through the male blood line alone.
In spite of this, Matthew included women – Gentile women – in his list. What’s more, some of them were women with an unsavory past. The list included Rahab, the prostitute of Jericho; Tamar, who dressed as a prostitute and seduced her father-in-law; Ruth, who, though she was a Godly woman, was a Moabite, a despised race among the Jews; and the wife of Uriah, Bathsheba, who committed adultery with King David.
If the aim of The Gospel writers was to paint a Whitewashed Picture of Jesus, they would not have included these women in his bloodline. These were included in Matthew’s genealogy to underline a simple truth: Jesus is The Messiah for all people: Jews and Gentiles, men, and women, rich and poor.
We have A New Covenant with God and in His Kingdom, there are no second-class Citizens in The Kingdom of God. The people in The Ancestry of Jesus shows us that God Will not Judge us based on the sins of our ancestors. Neither Will The Lord Keep us bound to the spiritual heritage of our bloodline. When we come to Christ, He Sanctifies us from our past and Makes us fit for His Kingdom.
In His Kingdom He Takes the sinful and Washes them; He Takes the old and Makes them new; He Takes the rejected and Finds places for them. He Takes the despised and Gives them honor and dignity.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, You own my past, present and future. Use my history to Work out Your Purposes in my life.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
