The Scandalous Skeletons In Jesus' Genealogy - Ruth. Series

The Scandalous skeletons in Jesus' Genealogy - Ruth

Matt:1-17; Ruth 1-4

It’s easy to think of the Christmas story simply as Mary, Joseph, and Jesus nestled closely together in a crowded barn with shepherds gathering to worship the newly born King. And while this is a beautiful, and perhaps the most entertaining part of the story, it is not the complete story also it is far from the truth. Jesus was not born in a stable ( see my study -Jesus and the Shepherds) and there were no wise men to worship Him at the time of His birth. The Christmas story did not begin with the birth of Jesus the whole story of Christmas actually started long before Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem.

As we prepare for Christmas this year, look at the first chapter of Matthew which opens with a short genealogy of Christ. Take a moment and reflect on its historical and spiritual significance to the complete Christmas story . The genealogy in Matthew isn’t just a list, it’s a glimpse at the enormity of God’s salvation plan revealed through generations in the promise of Christ.

Many modern readers feel that the New Testament begins in the most boring way possible: a list of unusual and hard-to-pronounce names.

Matthew wanted to present evidence that Jesus is the Messiah. At that time everyone expected the Messiah to be descended from David, so Matthew began by showing that Jesus meets that requirement.

Biblical genealogies usually list only men. Matthew’s list is unusual because it includes five women.

Even more surprising, Matthew did not mention women who were highly esteemed—Sarah, Rebekah, and Leah. Instead, he mentioned women whose lives were somewhat embarrassing:

1) Tamar, who committed incest. Genesis 38 tells the seedy story. Judah and a Canaanite woman had three sons. The first one married Tamar, but he died before they had any children. Following ancient Middle Eastern custom, his brother was supposed to marry the widow and engender an heir for the dead brother. The second son did not want to do this, and he died. Time passed, and Tamar saw that Judah’s third son was not going to marry her, so she pretended to be a prostitute and had sex with Judah, her father-in-law. Her twin sons became the ancestors of most of the Jewish people.

2) Rehab the prostitute. When the Israeites were about to conquer the land of Canaan, they sent spies into Jericho, who stayed at “the house of a prostitute named Rehab” (Joshua 2:1). The king of Jericho wanted to kill the spies, but Rehab helped them escape. When Jericho was destroyed, Rehab and her family were spared (Joshua 6:25). Matthew tells us that she was an ancestor of King David.

3) Ruth the Moabitess. The biblical book of Ruth says that a Jewish family moved to Moab, and the sons married Moabite women. The men died, and two of the widows moved to Bethlehem. Following ancient custom, a relative was supposed to marry the young widow so the dead man would have an heir. So Boaz married Ruth.

Deuteronomy 23:3 says that Moabites could not “enter the assembly of the Lord, even down to the tenth generation.” Nevertheless, in fewer than 10 generations, God anointed one of those descendants as Israel’s king.

4) The wife of Uriah the Hittite. Curiously, Matthew does not mention her name. But his readers would know the story of Bathsheba from 2 Samuel 11. While Uriah was fighting battles for David, David was stealing his wife. Bathsheba became pregnant, and David arranged for Uriah’s death. The child died, but David’s second child with Bathsheba was Solomon, the next king.

We look into the life of Ruth in this study. We have looked into the lives of Tamar and Rehab in earlier studies. Ruth’s story begins in Bethlehem, in Judah, when a father and mother and their two sons strike out for greener pastures. Their homeland and people were suffering from a severe shortage of food and water.

This famine didn’t come upon the land just by chance. There were reasons for these dark days in Israel, then ruled by judges: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).

One Bible scholar describes this period: “The period of the judges was between the initial conquest of Palestine under Joshua and the establishment of the monarchy under Saul. It was a time of moral and political chaos in Israel with no strong central government or leader. The people repeatedly turned away from God and neighboring peoples constantly harassed and invaded the disorganized nation” (F.B. Huey, Jr., The Expositor’s Bible Dictionary , Vol. 3, p. 509).

God had warned that, if the Israelites forgot His covenant, He would allow persecution and starvation and other physical deprivations (See Deuteronomy 28).