Mathew Ch 1 Vs: 1-16. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the
son of Abraham…..
Many of us have read this portion of the
bible a number of times. I have at times skipped the same also as it only deals
with the family tree of Jesus Christ beginning from Abraham. Verse 17
summarizes this as three periods of Fourteen generations each.
Many of us would have missed out that
there are actually five women in
this narration. Mary the mother of Jesus and four other interesting women. Whose
stories we all know but I am sure we have not linked the stories to them being
the grandmothers of Jesus Christ. Let
us briefly introduce these four women
1
Tamar – The daughter in law of Judah.
She begat twins Zerah and Pharez through her father in law. She played
the role of a prostitute and slept with her Judah. (ref: Genesis 38)
2
Rahab - She was known as a harlot. She is the one who hid the spies at
Jericho. She later became the wife of Salmon the mother of Boaz. (ref: Joshua 2:1 and 6:17)
3
Ruth – She was a foreigner in the land of the Jews. She was a widow and
she followed her mother in law Naomi to Israel. Ruth was married to Boaz one of
Naomi’s relatives. (ref: Ruth 1 and 4)
4
Bathsheba - Was the wife of Uriah the Hittite and she and an adulterous
affair with David and begat Solomon. (ref:
2 Samuel 11: 1-27)
What is the most common thing among the 4 women? Except for Ruth, all the others did not lead
a good life as per our worldly views. Ruth was a Moabite .She decided to follow
the God of her Mother in law Naomi and through her we have we have linkage to
David.
What more interests me is that part of the other four women. None of
them were of a clean character. All of them bore the children through an
adulterous relationship. Let us not go to that right now.
Why are they significant in the lineage? Why did God choose his Son to
be of this lineage? Why are the women in this lineage having an adulterous
relationship?
I think that God just wants to show us that no matter what circumstance
we are in, He will forgive us and completely wipe out the past. That is really
significant as this shows our redemption, our Salvation. No Matter how our past
has been. We need to surrender to Him, He will then lead us to greatness which
we must use for His glory
What ever be our past , He is more than willing
and able to forgive us . Submit to Him and God bless you 