This morning the Lord reminded me
of His genealogy in Matthew 1. As I paged towards it I noticed in
the genealogy of Jesus that five women were mentioned. Normally
they only name the men as the origin of the man determines the
tribe to who the Jew belongs to, but here in Matthew, five women
were also mentioned. This tells me that this must be significant,
so come let's take a quick look at these five interesting
women.
First of all Tamar is mentioned.
Now Tamar was the daughter in law of Judah. She was married to his
son Er, but when his son Er died, he gave her in marriage to his
second son Onan as was the custom of the day. But Onan also died
and Judah was supposed to give Tamar to his youngest son, Shelah,
but he was scared that Shelah would also die, so he told Tamar he
will let her know when Shelah was old enough to marry her, but he
never did. When Tamar realized that her father in law was not going
to honor the custom of the day, she dressed herself as a prostitute
and tricked Judah into sleeping with her, without him realizing who
she was. She became pregnant with two sons, one of which was Perez,
a predecessor of Jesus. She later revealed her identity to Judah
and he admitted that he was in the wrong by not allowing her to
have children by his son Shelah.
The second woman was Rahab. She was
a prostitute in Jericho and she helped the spies of Israel escape
when the leaders of Jericho came to kill them. She and her family
were the only ones who escaped the massacre of Jericho. She joined
the Israelites and she married Salmon, a descendant of Judah.
Next in line is Ruth. She was a
Moabite woman, who married an Israelite, but when he died she left
her own country and went to Israel, a foreign land to her, to care
after her mother in law. There the Lord blessed her due to her
faithfulness and gave her hand in marriage to Boaz, a rich
farmer.
Then we all know Bathsheba. She was
the one David committed adultery with. She became pregnant due to
their lustful act and in the process her husband were murdered and
her baby died. Later she became the mother of King Solomon, who is
one of the most famous amongst Jesus' ancestors.
Then we come to Mary, the mother of
Jesus. She was a lovely girl, a woman after God's heart, but she
wasn't one of the 'important' people in town, she wasn't royalty
and she wasn't the daughter of a high ranking Jewish official of
some sort. No, she even calls herself 'a lowly servant girl'.
So in summary, we have a trickster,
a prostitute, a foreigner, an adulterer and a servant girl as part
of Jesus lineage. Wow, if I were to decide my own ancestry I would
certainly have chosen more noble characters! But that is just the
point; God doesn't look at people the way we look at them. He looks
at the heart and He knows what we can become. All of these women
have one thing in common, despite their background; they stood up
and did the right thing when God led them to. They submitted
themselves to God's plan and formed part of the 'big picture' even
though some of them never knew they did.
God also has a role for us to play
in His bigger plan. He wants to use each and every one of us no
matter our background or seemingly weaknesses that we have. He
wants to channel our energies into the right direction and wants to
use the unique gifts He gave to each of us for His honor.
God uses ordinary people in
extraordinary ways. God has the ability to change us from the
inside out and to let His Spirit shine out for all to see. We
should just be willing vessels that He can use for His Glory. It is
an exciting journey and sometimes you won't even see the outcome
and effect your life had, but one day you will and God will praise
you for following Him and doing His Will. At the end of the day,
that is all that matters; a loving Father proud of His children and
what they have accomplished for Him.
Father, please help each and every
one of us to follow You with devoted hearts, hearts overflowing
with joy and love. Help us to reach out to those in need and to
follow You wherever You may lead us. In Jesus Name. Amen