THE WOMEN GOD PUT IN THE LINEAGE OF JESUS

When Matthew began the genealogy of Jesus, he could have simply listed generation after generation of men and moved on. But he did something unusual. He stopped to mention women. And not just women whose stories were easy to celebrate. He deliberately placed five women around the story of the Messiah: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba and Mary.

If you look closely at their stories, you will discover something profound. Their backgrounds were different. Their struggles were different. Their circumstances were different. Their stories contained pain, scandal, vulnerability, foreignness, complicated relationships and, in Mary's case, a pregnancy that would become the subject of misunderstanding. Yet all five somehow appear in the lineage of the most magnificent Person who ever walked the earth.

Jesus Christ.

This should make us pause. Perhaps God was teaching us something about grace.

Tamar's story was complicated. She was Judah's daughter-in-law, widowed twice and left without the family future that had been promised to her. In desperation, she disguised herself and Judah unknowingly slept with her. When her pregnancy became known, Judah initially condemned her until he discovered that he himself was responsible. Tamar eventually gave birth to Perez, and Perez entered the lineage of Christ. What a complicated beginning to a royal lineage.

Then comes Rahab. Rahab lived in Jericho and Scripture introduces her as a harlot. Yet she heard about the God of Israel, believed, protected the spies and aligned herself with God's people. She was delivered when Jericho fell. She later became the mother of Boaz and therefore an ancestor of David and ultimately of Christ. The woman who began as “Rahab the harlot” became part of the lineage of the Messiah.

Then comes Ruth. Ruth's story is different. She was not presented as immoral. Her difficulty was her identity. She was a Moabite woman, a foreigner outside Israel's ethnic community. She had lost her husband and faced an uncertain future. Yet she clung to Naomi, embraced Naomi's people and Naomi's God, and eventually became the wife of Boaz. From their union came Obed, then Jesse, then David. A foreign woman became part of the ancestry of Israel's greatest king and, ultimately, the Messiah.

Then Matthew arrives at David and says something very interesting. He does not simply say David fathered Solomon. He says Solomon was born through “the wife of Uriah.” Matthew deliberately reminds the reader of Bathsheba's painful history and David's sin involving her and Uriah. Again, God does not hide the complicated parts of the story.

And then comes Mary.

Mary's story is completely different from the others. She was not a prostitute. She was not a foreigner like Ruth. She was not involved in the circumstances surrounding Tamar. Yet she too entered a situation that could easily have brought shame upon her. She became pregnant before she was married, and although the pregnancy was divine, the social appearance of the situation was complicated. But Mary believed God.

She said, in essence, let God's word be fulfilled in me. And through her came Jesus. Look at the picture. Tamar. Rahab. Ruth. Bathsheba. Mary.

Five women with five different stories. Five different kinds of complications. Five different encounters with God's purpose. And all of them appear in the genealogy of Jesus. This does not mean that everything these women did was morally right. It does not mean Scripture approves every circumstance surrounding their stories. Rather, it shows something much deeper: God is sovereign enough to work through complicated human stories without becoming the author of human sin.

God's redemptive purpose is bigger than human brokenness. The genealogy therefore becomes more than a list of names. It becomes a testimony. It tells the person with a complicated past that your past does not automatically disqualify you from God's purpose.

It tells the outsider that God can bring you into His family. It tells the broken that your brokenness is not necessarily the end of your story. It tells the person carrying shame that God can write a new chapter. It tells the person who has been rejected by people that rejection is not the same thing as divine disqualification.

And perhaps most importantly, it tells us that Jesus did not come from a perfectly arranged human family tree. He came into a world already marked by human complexity. The genealogy of Christ contains stories of deception, sexual scandal, widowhood, foreignness, violence, grief, questionable decisions and social vulnerability. Yet God was working through the generations until the fullness of time came and Christ was born.

That is grace. Grace does not mean that sin does not matter. Grace means that sin, failure, background, nationality, social status and human complications do not have the authority to frustrate God's redemptive purpose when a person comes under His transforming work.

And there is something else. Matthew begins his Gospel with a genealogy that leads to Jesus, but the genealogy itself seems to whisper the message that Jesus will later proclaim: God's kingdom is not reserved for the people we consider qualified.

Rahab was a Canaanite. Ruth was a Moabite. Tamar's story was complicated. Bathsheba's story was entangled with David's sin. Mary carried a pregnancy that would be misunderstood by many. Yet God brought all these stories into one magnificent redemptive narrative.

That is why we should be careful when we look at somebody and conclude, “Nothing good can come from this person.”

Rahab's past could not tell the whole story.

Ruth's nationality could not tell the whole story.

Tamar's circumstances could not tell the whole story.

Bathsheba's pain could not tell the whole story.

Mary's unusual circumstance could not tell the whole story.

God had the final word. And perhaps that is one of the greatest lessons hidden in the genealogy of Jesus: God is not embarrassed by the complicated stories of people He has chosen to redeem.

He does not need a perfect family tree to produce a perfect Saviour. He does not need a flawless human history to accomplish a flawless divine purpose. He does not need people with spotless pasts to become instruments in His hands. He needs surrendered lives.

The genealogy ultimately points away from the women and toward Christ. That is important. The magnificence of the lineage was not that every person in it was magnificent. The magnificence was the Person to whom the lineage was leading.

Jesus.The Messiah.

The Son of David.

The Son of Abraham.

The One through whom God would bring salvation to the world.

So when you read Matthew 1, do not rush through the names.

Stop at Tamar.

Stop at Rahab.

Stop at Ruth.

Stop at Bathsheba.

Stop at Mary.

And remember:

Grace has a history.

Sometimes that history is messy.

Sometimes it contains pain.

Sometimes it contains people who came from places nobody expected.

Sometimes it contains stories that human beings would rather hide.

But when God begins to write, He can take complicated chapters and weave them into a magnificent testimony.

The genealogy of Jesus is therefore not merely a record of who came before Christ. It is a testimony of what God can do with human stories.

And if God could take these women, with all the complexities surrounding their stories, and place them in the lineage of Christ, then perhaps we should stop believing that our past is powerful enough to cancel God's future.

Grace does not deny the story.

Grace takes the story and gives it a new ending.

Reference: Matthew 1

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