By Pastor Bob DeKlavon
Tomorrow is Mother’s Day.
With that in mind, I prepared a sermon that focused on some of the mothers in the line of Jesus.
When we think of mothers—it is normal to think of those who have stellar character.
When we think of followers of Jesus—it is easy to think of those who are holy and righteous.
When we look at the genealogy of Matthew 1—we find neither of those to be true.
I am not going to go into detail—you will either have to:
ONE-- look at the other verses listed here to do that and/or…
TWO—listen to the sermon tomorrow to get more insight
This genealogy in Matthew 1 shows us a couple of things:
ONE--God’s desire was to break down barriers
This is shown in two ways through this genealogy:
First—there are women included which would not normally happen
Second—2 of the women for sure and possibly all but Mary are Gentiles
TWO—God’s desire was to show that perfection was not needed for Him to work
This is where it gets quite interesting as we consider the particular women listed in this genealogy.
I am going to offer just snippets of their life as a way to remind us of the people God chooses to use.
The first is Tamar.
She is mentioned in verse 3 as the woman who bore Perez through Judah.
What it doesn’t say is that she had to trick Judah into thinking she was a prostitute for this to happen.
That story is told in Genesis 38.
The second woman is Rahab.
Whenever she is mentioned in scripture, she is called Rahab the harlot.
That was her profession but that didn’t define her—
she became a follower of the true Lord {Joshua 2} and an example of faith and works {James 2:25}.
The third woman is Ruth—Matthew 1:5.
She lost her husband and went from Moab back to Bethlehem to be with the woman called “bitter.”
Her descendants, obviously, were Moabites.
They came about through the incestuous union of Lot and his daughter. {See Genesis 19:37}.
Her past didn’t define her and her willingness to sacrifice resulted in being an ancestor of Jesus.
The fourth woman is Bathsheba—Matthew 1:6.
It is interesting that Matthew does NOT mention her by name.
Solomon was born through the union of David and ‘by her who had been the wife of Uriah.’
David had 19 sons but God chose Solomon.
David had several wives but the Lord picked Bathsheba.
The fifth woman is Mary, mentioned in Matthew 1:16.
She exemplifies God’s choice of all these women and, indeed, of all people.
In Luke 1, twice, it is shared that she has been chosen because of God’s favor.
It was not what she did that gave her the favor of God.
God simply reached down and chose her.
In the same way, He chose the other women who are here AND—He chose us.
Imperfect, failed people who are chosen simply because of the grace of God.
Now—having been chosen—live up to the fact that you are just the type of person God chooses to use.