Three Women In The Genealogy Of The Lord Jesus

Feature 3 –May 2016 – Grace & Truth Magazine

Three Of The WOMEN
In The Genealogy Of The Lord Jesus

Tamar
Tamar is the first woman named in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus and the first woman mentioned in the New Testament. Like her, we all have sinned. Because of this the Lord Jesus came into His own creation: “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15 NKJV ).

Tamar was the wife of Er, the oldest son of Judah from his Canaanite wife. Er was a wicked man, and God removed him from the earth. There are many wicked people in the world today. In fact, “the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1 Jn. 5:19). The Lord will deal with each wicked person in His time. “For behold the day cometh, burning as a furnace; and all the proud and all that work wickedness shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith Jehovah of hosts“ (Mal. 4:1 JND). “Behold, the day of the Lord comes ... He will destroy its sinners ... [He] will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity” (Isa. 13:9,11 NKJV).

After Er’s death, his brother married Tamar. He too was a wicked man and suffered the same fate as his older brother. Judah had a younger son, Shelah, and he promised Tamar to give him to her when he became of age, but he did not do it.

After the death of Judah’s wife, while on his way to shear his sheep, he saw a women disguised as a prostitute. He asked her to lie with him. They made a deal and the end result was that she became pregnant. Judah did not know that the woman was his daughter-in-law, Tamar.

Everything became known. When Judah heard that Tamar was pregnant he said, “‘Bring her out and let her be burned!’ ... She sent to her father-in-law, saying, ‘By the man to whom these belong, I am with child.’ And she said, ‘Please determine whose these are – the signet and cord and staff’” (Gen. 38:24-25). Judah acknowledged that they were from the deal he had made. He said, “She has been more righteous than I, because I did not give her to Shelah my son. And he never knew her again” (v.26). Through this sin Tamar had twin boys, Perez and Zerah (Mt. 1:3).

In this story, no one is excluded from gross failure. Only God in His great sovereignty could use so many broken pieces to secure the line through which the Lord Jesus, as man, would come. Tamar was a sinful woman; and it was for sinful people that the “sinless One,” the Lord Jesus, came. He said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Lk. 5:32).

Nothing of this woman or any other woman was or could be added to the Person of the Lord Jesus. Absolutely no trait of sin could ever be transferred to Him. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and He took the body which was prepared for Him in the womb of the virgin Mary: “A body You have prepared for Me” (Heb. 10:5).

Tamar’s life exemplifies the grace of God in lifting up and placing her in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Rahab
Rahab was a harlot. Though often called “Rahab the harlot” in Scripture, it is worthy to note that she is not called that in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus. The stigma is removed.

If we wrote our own genealogy and discovered a woman like Rahab in our line we would be inclined to pass over her. Not so with our God. No matter what our past has been the Lord Jesus is able to save and deliver us from that horrible life and the wrath to come.

Rahab, a Gentile, lived in Jericho, a city under the judgment of God. “Now, Joshua the son of Nun sent out two men from Acacia Grove to spy secretly, saying, ‘Go, view the land, especially Jericho.’ So they went and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab, and lodged there” (Josh. 2:1).

The LORD prepared Rahab’s heart to receive the men and He led them to the house of Rahab. We can count on our God to lead, guide and control us, though He often leads in ways we do not expect. But certainly, we can trust His guiding hand. These two men looking back on their lives after the victory over Jericho could say like Joseph, “God meant it for good” (Gen. 50:20). Rahab had lived in disobedience to God, but she became the object of God’s sovereign grace and mercy. She was willing to trust in the living God, saying, “the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath” (Josh. 2:11).

“By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace” (Heb. 11:31). She had faith to believe and as such did not perish. She said to the spies, “I know that the Lord has given you the land” (Josh. 2:9). Grace, mercy and faith were seen at work in her life, leading to salvation from death.

James tells us that “faith without works is dead” (Jas. 2:26). But, Rahab was justified by her works “when she received the messengers and sent them out another way” (v.25). And believing that her walled city would soon collapse and be destroyed, she said to the spies, “Spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death” (Josh. 2:13).

The only way for anyone to be delivered from death and not perish is to believe on the Lord Jesus. “Whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (Jn. 3:15-16). Rahab was told what to do; she did it and was saved. Are you prepared to do what God says you must do in order to be saved – to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?

As soon as the men departed, in belief “she bound the scarlet cord in the window” (Josh. 2:21). The scarlet cord is a picture of the blood of the Lamb of God, our Lord Jesus Christ.

The children of Israel were told to apply the blood of the Passover lamb on the lintel and on the two doorposts of their houses, “for the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, the LORD will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you” (Ex. 12:23). It was the blood that made them safe and the word of the Lord made them sure. Peter said, “Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold ... but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Pet. 1:18-19).

Rahab and all within her house were safe because the scarlet line was bound in the window. They could rest and be at peace. “On the lamb our souls are resting, what His love no tongue can say; all our sins, so great, so many in His blood are washed away.” 1

Ruth
After the death of her first husband, Ruth married Boaz, the son of Rahab: “Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse” (Mt. 1:5).

Like Rahab, her mother-in-law, she was a Gentile. Though a Moabitess, she is not called “Ruth the Moabitess” in the genealogy. Like Rahab, by the grace of God the stigma was removed. The LORD had declared, “An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the LORD; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the LORD forever” (Dt. 23:3). How then could Ruth be found in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus? It could only have been on the basis of the pure grace of God.

Her first husband died, but her second, Boaz, is a type of the Lord Jesus. It was Boaz who met all her needs. At one time she was sad and sorrowful. She wept; there was no rest. However, she found rest in the house of her husband Boaz. There she was satisfied – precisely what her name means.

Ruth was prepared to leave her god, people and country, for “she was determined to go” (Ruth 1:18). Like the Thessalonians, she “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Th. 1:9). And like Abraham, she was prepared to “get out of [her] country from [her] family and from [her] father’s house” (Gen. 12:1). She said to her mother-in-law, Naomi, “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). She came to trust “the LORD God of Israel” (2:12).

It was not by chance that she left Moab and accompanied her mother-in-law to Bethlehem – meaning, “house of bread.” Nor was it by chance that she entered the field of Boaz. The LORD was working behind the scenes leading and guiding her. “A man’s heart plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps” (Prov. 16:9). “I am the LORD, your God who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way you should go” (Isa. 48:17).

God in His sovereign grace would lead her to Boaz, who would redeem and change her life. He was “a man of great wealth” (Ruth 2:1). His name means “in Him is strength.” He knew of Ruth and said to her, “It has been fully reported to me, all that you have done” (v.11).

The Lord Jesus became a man in order to become our Redeemer. He alone can change lives and give hope outside of this world. “Hope of our hearts, O Lord appear, Thou glorious star of day shine forth and chase the dreary night with all our fears away.” 2

Concluding Thoughts
We have looked at three women who were very far from the true God. But, we saw how God worked His sovereign will in their lives for His glory and for their blessing, securing the line through which the Lord Jesus would come. We have seen their great need and the rich mercies of God. “Mercy is great in the greatness of the need.” 3 We have also seen the grace of God which gave them glory and great favor which they did not merit.

“I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand and I will do all My pleasure’” (Isa. 46:9-10). To Him be all the glory.

END NOTES
1. Julius Anton Eugen Wilhelm von Poseck, 1816-1896.
2. Sir Edward Denny, 1796-1889.
3. John Nelson Darby, “Letters of J.N.D.”

By Paul Palmer