Look Who Is In the Family Tree!
Matthew 1:1-17
Introduction: Whenever anyone begins to study their family’s lineage and history, they are usually warned that they might find out things they weren’t expecting. They might find out that their great great uncle was a horse thief or that one of their ancestors was a deserter. When you study your family’s history, you are usually in for some surprises. In the genealogy of Jesus there are some surprises also; people that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to find in His family tree.
I. The Two Genealogies of Jesus.
A. Luke’s genealogy (Luke 3:23-38)
1. Traced through Mary. From Mary to Adam
2. Establishes the physical descent from David
3. Includes the names of no women. [Note Luke 3:23 "And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli." - Joseph the son of Heli by marriage]
B. Matthew genealogy (Matthew 1:1-17)
1. Traced through Joseph, Jesus’ legal father. From Abraham to Joseph
2. Establishes Christ’s legal royal lineage
3. Includes the name of five women
II. Five Women in the Genealogy
A. Tamar - Matthew 1:1-3 "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 2Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren; 3And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Tamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram"
1. The story of Tamar is located in Genesis 38.
2. Judah had taken a Canaanite wife by whom he had three sons. He chose a wife by the name of Tamar for his oldest son, Er. Er was according to Genesis 38:7 "was wicked in the sight of the Lord; and the Lord slew him." He died leaving no heir.
3. Judah then followed the law of the day: he gave Tamar as wife to the oldest surviving son, to Onan (Genesis 38:8).
4. This was the law that was later to become known as the Levirate custom (Deuteronomy 25:5-10; Matthew 22:24). The law stated that if a man died without children, then the next oldest son was to marry his wife and bear a son. By law, the son was legally the first-born son and heir of the deceased brother. This assured two things: (a) that the family name continued, and (b) that the property holdings were kept in the family.
5. Onan failed to obey this law and was slain by God (Genesis 38:9-10)
6. Judah’s only surviving son, Shelah was too young to marry. Thus Judah told Tamar to return to her father’s home until Shelah was old enough to marry her. But Judah had no plan of letting Tamar marry his third son. He considered her bad luck. As far as he was concerned, she was either directly or indirectly the cause of his two sons’ death.
7. Tamar realized that Judah had no intention of ever letting Shelah marry her. She worked out an elaborate scheme where she could trick Judah and bear a son through him (Genesis 38:14). She dressed in the clothing of a temple prostitute, veiled herself, and sat down out by the side of the road where the temple prostitutes usually sat. He had not faintest idea that the woman he thought to be a prostitute was his daughter-in-law, Tamar.
8. Judah voluntarily agreed to have sex with Tamar after which she returned to her father’s house and put on her widow’s clothing once again (Genesis 38:19). She became pregnant with twins Perez and Zerah.
9. This first born of prostitution to Tamar came into the messianic line that would go through David.
10. An unlikely member of the family tree
B. Rahab - Matthew 1:4-6 "And Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and Naasson begat Salmon; 5And Salmon begat Boaz of Rachab..."
1. Her story is found in Joshua 2:1-21 and 6:17-25.
2. Rahab was a prostitute in the city of Jericho, whose house was on the city’s wall.
3. She became convinced that Israel’s God was the true as she stated in Joshua 2:11 "...the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.
4. She hides the Israeli spies from Jericho’s soldiers, asks for and receives mercy and deliverance by Israel for herself and her family when Israel destroys Jericho.
5. She became the wife of Salmon and the mother of Boaz in the lineage of Jesus.
6. An unlikely member on the family tree.
C. Ruth - Matthew 1:5 "And Salmon begat Boaz of Rachab; and Boaz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse;"
1. Ruth 1- 4
2. An Israelite, Elimelech, his wife Naomi and their sons - Mahlon and Chilion - left Bethlehem to live temporarily in Moab until a famine in Israel had passed.
3. The country of Moab originated when Lot fathered Moab by an incestuous union with his oldest daughter after having escaped the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
4. In Moab, Elimelech’s son Chilion married a Moabitess named Orpah.
5. Mahlon married a Moabitess named Ruth.
6. The Moabites idolatrously worshipped a false god called Chemosh.
7. Both Ruth’s and Orpah’s husbands died in Moab as well as their father-in-law Elimelech. They left no heirs.
8. Orpah returned to her family and as far as we know her false religion. Ruth on the other hand turned from the worship of Chemosh to embrace the true and living God.
9. Going to Israel as foreigner and not of Abraham’s seed, without any hope of every having children or heritage, Ruth through the law of the kinsman redeemer became the wife of Boaz, the son of Rahab, and the mother of Obed, and Great Grandmother of King David.
10. Ruth a former idolater in the direct line of Christ.
D. Bathsheba Matthew 1:5-6 "And Salmon begat Boaz of Rachab; and Boaz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse; [6] And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Uriah;"
1. Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah, the Hittite; one of David’s mighty and high ranking soldiers.
2. She was the daughter of Eliam, granddaughter of Ahithophel.
3. Bathing outdoors, she was spotted by King David, who was overcome by her beauty.
4. She has an adulteress relationship with David becoming pregnant with his child.
5. Attempting to hide his sin David finally arranges for Uriah to be killed.
6. After going through the prescribed mourning period, Bathsheba married David.
7. Later Bathsheba would give birth to Solomon and Nathan. Solomon is listed in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew; Nathan in the genealogy given in Luke.
E. Mary - Matthew 1:16 "And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ."
1. Matthew 1:18 "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost."
2. It was against the law for an unmarried woman to have sexual relations. She was to remain a virgin until after the marriage ceremony. If anyone could prove that a woman was not a virgin when she married, according to Deuteronomy 22:20-21 she was brought to the door of her father’s house and the men of the city stoned her to death.
3. Even Joseph, Mary’s betrothed husband was utterly shocked at what appeared to be the fruit of terrible sin on Mary’s part. In Matthew 1:19 we read "Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily."
4. When an angel explained the situation to him, he married Mary and kept her virginity until after the birth of Christ.
5. Mary while being a virgin and having committed no act of immorality still bore the stigma within the Jewish community of pregnancy outside of marriage.
III. The Message of the Genealogy
A. Christ came to save sinners
1. The earthly genealogy of Jesus Christ was filled with not just the good but with the bad and the ugly also.
2. Luke 19:10 "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."
3. 1 Timothy 1:15 "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief."
4. Zig Zigler put it this way; "On the planet earth there are many kinds of people. But in God’s sight, there are only two kinds. Not rich or poor, old or young, tall or short, fat or thin, black or white -- only saved or lost. In God’s Kingdom the mighty and the humble join hands when all of them become the children of God."
B. Christ came to save all who would come - Jew and Gentile
1. In the line of Christ were Gentiles, strangers to the promises made to Abraham, Israel and their seed. Four of the five women mentioned were gentiles.
2. Genesis 22:18 "And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice."
3. I John 2:2 "He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."
4. Ephesians 2:12-13 "That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: [13] But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ."
C. Forgiveness and Reconciliation
1. Four of the five women were notoriously sinful. Tamar played a harlot. Rahab was a prostitute. Ruth had worshipped a pagan stone god. Bathsheba committed adultery. But all found forgiveness and reconciliation.
2. It doesn’t matter where you have been. It doesn’t matter what you have done. What matters now is what you allow God to do in your life through Jesus Christ.
3. II Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
4. When one brings the shattered pieces of his or her life to Christ will find that He takes those broken pieces and makes something beautiful out of the ashes.
5. Oswald Chambers said, "It does not matter who or what we are; there is absolute reinstatement into God by the death of Jesus Christ and by no other way, not because Jesus Christ pleads, but because He died. It is not earned, but accepted. All the pleading, which deliberately refuses to recognize the cross, is of no avail; it is battering at a door other than the one that Jesus has opened. Our Lord does not pretend we are all right when we are all wrong. The atonement is a propitiation whereby God, through the death of Jesus, makes an unholy man holy."
