1 Chapter a Day’s take
This chapter begins with the family tree of Jesus. This is important for several reasons, one being that God had prophesied the family tree from which the Messiah would come. The family tree mentioned here illustrates that Jesus indeed came from the family tree that was predicted in the Old Testament.
But I want to turn your attention to something interesting. Matthew lists five ladies in this family tree. This was very strange and out of the ordinary for genealogy listings during Bible times. Here is a list of these ladies along with an interesting fact about her:
- Tamar: she tricks an older man to sleeping with her
- Rahab: a harlot
- Ruth: born of incest…conceived during a drunken orgy…and a Moabite. The Moabites were cursed by God and hated the Jews!
- Bathsheba: had an illicit affair with King David
- Mary, the mother of Jesus: a virgin who conceived Jesus by the Holy Spirit. She was blamed by the Pharisees of being a fornicator (John 8:41). They would not believe that she was a virgin who conceived Jesus by the Holy Spirit.
I am not picking on females here! I have a wife, three daughters, and a girl dog 
And I am more sinful than all of them put together! Every male in this genealogy list is every bit of a sinner as any of these ladies. But I did want to feature the uniqueness of listing women in genealogy listings of that day.
Three GREAT LESSONS from this chapter:
- God created women to be as importation as men, equal to men, and as valuable as men. And He made sure that women were mentioned in this genealogy list even during a time when that never occurred to demonstrate it. Christianity is the most liberating “religion” for women in the world. (There are differences between women and men…thank goodness! But in terms of value, equality, importance, etc. we are the same).
- Regardless of your past, regardless of your sin, regardless of your heritage, regardless of your behavior, regardless of your former questionable lifestyle, Jesus wants you in his family
- This is a picture that God loves EVERYONE! His grace, mercy, and forgiveness is for EVERYONE!
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What is your take?
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