A Prostitute And An Unbeliever Series

AMAZING BITHS

A Prostitute and an Unbeliever

Matt 1:5 (P 681) December 9, 2012

INTRODUCTION:

Have any of you seen those “ancestry.com” commercials. I love this one that features Santa Clause.

(Show video)

Maybe some of you have great stories about famous or infamous people in your family tree…I really would love to hear them.

Kair is a direct descendant of Genera George McClellan from the Civil War…Sherry Clark shares with me the story of her maiden name….LAWLESS…Her descendant were named Macintire, until they were forced to flee to Ireland because of unsavory and illegal actions…thus the name….”Lawless”

My Mom, Mary Ann Bach (pre-named “Back”) when you’re from Breathitt County KY…Always said we were related to Johann Sebastian Bach…because of my musical gifts…I ask her if “those gifts” were like baldness….do they skip a generation …because I was skipped!

I don’t know if you have a horse thief or a cattle rustler in your genealogy…or something more glamorous…like “Airing a Pirate…

But Matt does something radical for his time…he traces the genealogy of Jesus through His mother…Mary…Luke, the beloved physician traces the genealogy through Joseph…even introducing that lineage like this…”Now Jesus himself was about 30 years old when he began his ministry. He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Matthew… (and so forth, all the way back to Adam) (Luke 3:23)

Matthew’s genealogy…of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, and the Son of Abraham includes the mention of 4 women…the first in verse 3…Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar…

If you’re not familiar with Tamar, don’t feel bad…Tamar was Judah’s daughter-in-law. Her first 2 husbands died and they died before Tamar had any children. So, (this story is recorded in Genesis chapter 38) she disguised herself as a temple prostitute and slept with her farther-in-law. Judah…she got pregnant and gave birth to twins…Perez and Zerah. It’s quite a story…better than any soap opera...but Tamar; guilty of incest...is in the lineage of the Messiah.

Our text today is from Matt 1:5 and it includes 2 of the four women mentioned by Matthew in Jesus family tree…

“Salmon the father of Boaz whose mother was (Rahab), Boaz the father of Obed whose mother was (Ruth).”

I don’t want to make this too complicated but…the great grandparents of King David were Boaz and Ruth…the great great grandparents of King David were Solomon and Rahab.

I WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT GREAT GREAT GRANDMAN?

Rahab is introduced early in the Book of Joshua, After Moses’s death…Joshua takes command…He’s commissioned by God to be strong and courageous…to cross the Jordon and conquer the people who like in the land of Canaan…the Promised Land…He’s realized the people and they’ve promised “whatever you have commanded us…we will do!”

So before they cross the Jordan Joshua sends 2 spies into the land of Canaan, he tells them “Go look over the land, especially Jericho” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named “Rahab” and stayed there” (Josh. 2:1)

Evidently the King of Jericho has his own spies because he discovers what’s happening…He sends a message to Rahab…”Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house because they’ve come to spy on the whole land.”

Instead of “Narcing” out the 2 Israelites spies, she hides them…misdirects the King’s men and then lowers them down by a rope through the window of her house, which was part of the city wall…she tells them “go to the Hills hide yourself for 3 days so the pursuers want find you.

“Our lives for your lives” was the promise the spies made to Rahab and her family…they took an oath before God. Listen

Joshua 2: 17-21 (p 152)

You know the story…Joshua and the walls of Jericho…God gives a tremendous victory when the trumpets sounded, the people shouted the wall collapses and the army of Israel rushes in…but

Joshua said to the 2 spies…

Joshua 6: 22-23

Rahab was a prostitute in the city of Jericho. She saved the lives of the two spies because she had faith...She feared the God who divided the Red Sea…She’d heard of this God of the Israelites who demonstrated His power…She saved her family and became the Amazing Great-Great Grandma of King David…because she hung a scarlet thread of faith on her window…Hebrews11…the faith chapter even mentions her…”By faith the prostitute Rahab was not killed with those who were disobedient because she welcomed the spies.” (Heb 11:31)

And just like Rahab…our salvation comes through faith.

Eph 2:9 says “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith..and this not from yourselves, It is the gift of God.”

Rahab and her family were placed outside the camp…why…because she’s a prostitute, and a Gentile, and she’s unclean according to the law….