Is Matthew’s genealogy any way to begin a best seller? Especially because after citing forty-two names, we notice that the last one—the subject of the biography—isn’t physically related to the others! Joseph, “as was supposed,” is His father only in a legal sense.
Then we discover that the genealogy, being the royal line of Judah, was sabotaged by the exceedingly wicked Jechoniah. All in the line physically after him (including Joseph and his offspring) were disqualified from ruling by the curse God placed upon him. Apart from the virgin conception (Mary’s line comes through David but avoids Jechoniah) there would be no hope of Judah having another ruling monarch in David’s line.
On top of that, we note the exclusion of certain progenitors (e.g., Ahaziah, Joash, Amaziah) and the inclusion of certain women. What are they doing there? Israel was patrilineal; the law would never have put them there (Luke’s genealogy contains no women; Joseph stands in for Mary). Only grace could do such a thing.
But we may have settled the matter in our minds too quickly if we conclude that the reason they are there is because they were sinners. Sinners they were, some of the most ill-famed sinners in the Old Testament. Only Ruth of the four is untainted by personal scandal, and she was a member of the accursed Moabites. We are inclined to hurry past the story of Tamar and her star-crossed marriages, and of the darkest chapter in David’s life and his adulterous affair with “her that had been the wife of Urias.” Even in our reading of the dramatic rescue of Rahab, we spend as little time as possible on her unseemly profession—even though the New Testament never lets us forget it, appending her name with the stinging words, “the harlot.”
Is there a richer reason these four are placed in the lineage of the Messiah? I think there is. After all, that they were sinners hardly distinguishes them from the other 38 names, many of whom were as notorious, if not more so. The reason, I believe, is linked with God’s plan of the ages.
The first ray of hope for the recently fallen human race is found in the promise of “the seed of the woman,” a remarkable turn of phrase since the seed is thought to be the man’s contribution. But if it was a woman who first was deceived by the devil’s lie and brought the whole creation crashing down, then it would be by a woman that the Kinsman-Redeemer would come who would “bruise the serpent’s head.” Portrayed in the cosmic battle in Revelation 12, we watch breathlessly as the great red dragon waits to devour the man child as soon as it is born…but astoundingly the woman and the child triumph in the end!
It was not a problem-free path from Eve to Mary, however. We watch with amazement as, time after time, the devil does his worst to sever the Messianic line and destroy any hope of a Saviour. Just as insidious, beside the active subterfuge of Satan, was the cavalier indifference of Judah’s men. The four women mentioned had been failed by, taken advantage of, and disappointed by, the men in their lives. Each woman in this list persevered heroically, pled her case, and triumphed in the end. And in their triumph was your triumph as well, indeed the triumph of God Himself. To find their pleadings for the continuation of the Judaic line, the inclusion of Gentiles in God’s salvation, a Kinsman-Redeemer for Jew and Gentile alike, and for the great son of David’s right to rule, read Genesis 38:1-30; Joshua 2:1-24; 6:21-25; Ruth 1:6-18; 3:8–4:22; 1 Kings 1:5-46.
We know other noble women who, having been disappointed by what life has brought to them, did not retreat. They may have been taken advantage of, misused. But because men failed them, they tenaciously clung to the belief that God hadn’t failed. They have carried on, resolute, making the best of life, and laying claim to God’s promise that those who put their trust in Him in the end will not be disappointed. Along with Matthew’s four, we salute them and their strategic place in the annals of the Lord.
Written by J.B. Nicholson Jr