The Family Tree of Jesus
Ruth and Bathsheba Matthew 1:1-17
Scripture Reading: Ruth 1:8-18
INTRODUCTION:
Last week and this week, we’re looking at the lives of 4 women who are listed in Jesus’ family tree. Why were these specific women named in Matthew chapter 1 as ancestors of Jesus? It must be because their lives contain lessons for all of us. Let’s Review what we learned last week, and take a glimpse at what we will discover today.
· Tamar represents those who are forsaken and lonely
· Rahab represents those who are fearful of the future
· Ruth represents the friendless ones who are victims of prejudice and poverty
· Bathsheba represents those who have fallen into sin and must live with its consequences
Since we’re taking about family trees, I found a few proverbs about ancestors. Starting in January, we’ll be studying the book of Proverbs, so it seems like good timing for a few proverbial statements.
· You can’t choose your ancestors, but that’s fair enough. They probably wouldn’t have chosen you.
· Maybe our ancestors had to haul the wash-water from the well, but at least they didn’t have to sit up nights figuring out how to meet the payments on the bucket.
· The true measure of a man’s character is not what he gets from his ancestors, but what he leaves his descendants.
That last proverb really fits the example given to us by Ruth.
3. Ruth: Friendless (book of Ruth)
Through no fault of her own, Ruth found herself a stranger in a strange land. She was friendless.
The story of Ruth begins when a famine in Israel causes a Jewish man named Elimelech and his wife Naomi to take their two sons to the neighboring country of Moab. Unfortunately, shortly after arriving there Elimelech died, leaving Naomi a widow. Naomi’s boys each married Moabite women, but shortly after that both sons died.
When Naomi decided to go back to her home, she knew these Moabite girls would not be welcome in her hometown of Bethlehem. You see, there was a strong prejudice against people from Moab. That prejudice went all the way back to the days of Moses, when Jews were warned to steer clear of the Moabites.
One of Naomi’s daughter-in-laws decided to take Naomi’s advice and stay in Moab. Her name was Orpha. (Interestingly, that’s where Oprah Winfrey got her name … except it was misspelled on the Birth Certificate.)
Then Ruth surprised her mother-in law with the beautiful words that _________________ read in our TEXT this morning. Naomi could see that Ruth meant business, so off they went to Bethlehem --- where Ruth would live as a stranger among people who looked down on anyone from Moab.
I don’t know if you’ve ever had the experience of being the lone foreigner who just doesn’t fit in. That must be how Ruth felt. She had no friends and no real prospects for making any. For one thing, as a Moabite, she looked different. And every time she opened her mouth, people must have noticed her foreign accent. And if that wasn’t bad enough, she and Naomi were dirt poor.
But Ruth was not one to whine and feel sorry for herself. She followed the procedure used by other poor families who were desperate for food. She went out to pick up loose grain in the fields that the harvesters left behind.
Now, as it turned out, the owner of one of the fields --- a prosperous Jewish man named Boaz --- took notice of Ruth and spoke kindly to her. Ruth’s reaction tells us a lot about the kind of treatment she was used to getting.
At this, Ruth bowed down with her face to the ground. She exclaimed, "Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me-a foreigner?" Ruth 2:10 It sounds like Ruth was used to being ignored. To the prejudiced people around her, she was a nobody.
But it was worse than that. Naomi makes a statement later that shows Ruth was actually in physical danger. In Ruth 2:22, Naomi says, "It will be good for you, my daughter, to go to the field of Boaz, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed."
If you’ve ever been the victim of racism, or if you’ve seen the results of prejudice against someone else, you know how ugly it can get. But Ruth overcame that prejudice.
In fact, to make a long story short, Ruth impressed Boaz so much that, in the end, he married her. Listen to what Boaz had to say about Ruth: I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband --- how you left your father and mother and your homeland to come live with a people you did not know before. May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. Ruth 2:11-12
As it turned out, God did richly reward Ruth. After all, she ended up with an entire book of the Bible dedicated to her story. It’s a fascinating story, but we don’t have time to look at the details in this sermon. I hope you’ll read the book of Ruth this week and see how God worked in her life.
Before we leave Ruth, I want to take a minute to see how the leaders of the town reacted when Boaz announced his intention to marry this woman from Moab.
Then the elders and all those at the gate said, "We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. Through the offspring the LORD gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.” Ruth 4:11-12
Now, isn’t that interesting? When they saw that Boaz was going to marry Ruth … it reminded them of another foreigner named Tamar. If you were here last Sunday, you remember the story of Tamar. In spite of Tamar’s deceit and sin, it sounds like her son, Perez, turned out to be an honorable man, and the head of a respected family.
Ruth, the scorned Moabite, was about to marry into that respected Jewish family. Like Ruth, maybe you know how it feels to be looked-down-upon by people who feel superior to you. Look at how Ruth overcame prejudice and poverty.
Ruth was a young woman who
· worked hard
· was humble
· was not self-centered
· and had a servant’s heart.
And isn’t it interesting that those same qualities would one day shine from her great-great-great-etc. grandson --- a baby who would be born right there in Ruth’s adopted hometown of Bethlehem. You see, Ruth and Boaz had a son named Obed … who was the father of Jesse … who was the father of King David … who was the ancestor of Jesus, the Messiah.
God gave Ruth a place of honor in the family tree of Jesus. No one who starts out as a lonely stranger has to stay that way if they put their trust in God. Ruth shows us that God is a friend to the friendless. And the next woman in the Messiah’s family tree shows us that God can lift up even those who have fallen into sin.
4. Bathsheba: Fallen (II Samuel 11)
Unfortunately, most of us can relate to Bathsheba’s story because she was partly to blame for her own troubles. Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth had done nothing to bring bad times upon themselves, but Bathsheba willfully committed the sin of adultery. She was a co-conspirator with King David, who, according to the account in II Samuel chapter 11, was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong thing on his mind.
David was in Jerusalem in the palace while all his men waged war against the enemy. While hanging out at the Palace, he spotted the wife of one of his soldiers bathing on her rooftop.
There are several questions we could ask about this event:
· Did Bathsheba know she was being watched? Had she set the whole thing up to seduce the King?
· Or was Bathsheba a naïve young woman who had very little choice when the King called for her to come to his palace?
Those are the age-old questions that get asked anytime adultery is committed. In this case … as in most … we don’t know the answers. But it really doesn’t matter. Both David and Bathsheba were guilty, and both would pay the consequences of their sin.
If you are familiar with this account, you know that when Bathsheba told David she was pregnant, David thought he had an easy solution. He called Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, back from the battle to spend a little R&R with his wife. Problem solved. Except that Uriah was such a dedicated soldier that he slept in the barracks rather than go home to his wife.
So, in the end, David tried to cover one sin with an even greater sin. David sent his general instructions to place Uriah on the front lines and then to pull the army back from him. As expected, Bathsheba’s unsuspecting husband was killed by the enemy army. What a reward for a loyal soldier. And what an ugly sin for David and Bathsheba.
When word came back that Uriah had been killed, David took Bathsheba as his wife. Both David and Bathsheba may have thought they could put their sin behind them. After all, what’s done is done. And the good part was that no one need ever know. But God knew.
First, tragedy struck. Bathsheba’s child became sick shortly after birth and died. Scripture doesn’t tell us much about Bathsheba’s attitude, but we do know that God disciplined David through a prophet named Nathan. We know that David repented and admitted his fault. And we know that God blessed the second child born to David and Bathsheba. That child’s name was Solomon, who is known as the wisest of all wise Kings. It was through the line of Solomon that the Messiah would eventually be born.
If someone sins, can they ever be in the will of God again? The story of David and Bathsheba shouts the answer to that question. Our God is merciful to those who have fallen --- if they will only admit their sin and repent.
But notice that being forgiven does not mean we will escape the consequences of sin. The way of the sinner is hard Sin will always leave scars. But how reassuring to see that God is able to come up with a “Plan B” when everything falls apart with “Plan A.” In the end, Plan B for Bathsheba allowed her to become part of the family tree of the Savior --- the One who came to give hope to a fallen world.
Let’s take one more look at the women listed in Jesus’ family tree:
· We see Tamar – who was willing to prostitute herself to get what she wanted
· We see Rahab – who made her living as a Temple Prostitute in a pagan culture
· We see Ruth – who endured prejudice and poverty at the hands of people who despised her
· We see Bathsheba – who committed adultery which in turn led to the murder of her own husband
It should give us hope to see that the Savior of the world came from ancestors who were far from perfect. In fact, the family tree of Jesus includes people we might look down on or make fun of.
God has given us an object lesson through the family tree of Jesus so that we can know that with God all things are possible. Any and all of us can be included in God’s wonderful plans --- no matter how insecure we may feel --- no matter how we may fear our future or hate our circumstances, or regret our past.
Through God’s power, any life can be changed and have an eternal impact for good. --- all because a baby was born. What a strange way to save the world! And what a terrific Christmas surprise we find in the family tree of Jesus.
