Introduction
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2 Timothy
3:16 says, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is
true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we
are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.”
The first
passage is Matthew 1:1-16. Click here if you'd rather listen to a music video of the passage than read it.
Matthew 1:1-16
This is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of David and of Abraham[a]:
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac.
Isaac was the father of Jacob.
Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers.
3 Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah (whose mother was Tamar).
Perez was the father of Hezron.
Hezron was the father of Ram.[b]
4 Ram was the father of Amminadab.
Amminadab was the father of Nahshon.
Nahshon was the father of Salmon.
5 Salmon was the father of Boaz (whose mother was Rahab).
Boaz was the father of Obed (whose mother was Ruth).
Obed was the father of Jesse.
6 Jesse was the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon (whose mother was Bathsheba, the widow of Uriah).
7 Solomon was the father of Rehoboam.
Rehoboam was the father of Abijah.
Abijah was the father of Asa.[c]
8 Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat.
Jehoshaphat was the father of Jehoram.[d]
Jehoram was the father[e] of Uzziah.
9 Uzziah was the father of Jotham.
Jotham was the father of Ahaz.
Ahaz was the father of Hezekiah.
10 Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh.
Manasseh was the father of Amon.[f]
Amon was the father of Josiah.
11 Josiah was the father of Jehoiachin[g] and his brothers (born at the time of the exile to Babylon).
12 After the Babylonian exile:
Jehoiachin was the father of Shealtiel.
Shealtiel was the father of Zerubbabel.
13 Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud.
Abiud was the father of Eliakim.
Eliakim was the father of Azor.
14 Azor was the father of Zadok.
Zadok was the father of Akim.
Akim was the father of Eliud.
15 Eliud was the father of Eleazar.
Eleazar was the father of Matthan.
Matthan was the father of Jacob.
16 Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary.
Mary gave birth to Jesus, who is called the Messiah.
5 Christmas Maidens
Do you keep
up with your own genealogy? Some people
are fascinated by their own ancestry. There
are even shows on television now where experts trace the ancestry of famous
celebrities. We tend to skip over the genealogy
of Christ, though, the most famous person who ever lived. And if you skip over Christ’s inspired
genealogy, you will miss some important facts.
Like this: There are 40
men listed in Jesus genealogy, which makes sense because Jewish
genealogies from the first century listed lineage through the male ancestors. The people the Bible records were a mostly a
male dominated, patriarchal culture. You
don’t have to like it. God didn’t, but
it is the reality and you must understand the role of patriarchy in the
biblical text or you might miss some very important clues, like this: There are 40 men listed in Jesus’
genealogy and only 5 women.
But the fact
that there are 5 women listed in a genealogy written in a male dominated,
patriarchal society is huge! Why
did the men who kept track of all this stuff and write it down even care about these 5 women—the 5 Christmas maidens? You might think they are some pretty special women who really deserved the recognition. They are special, but maybe not in the way you think. Their stories may challenge your preconceived notions of holiness.
Apparently,
God inspired the writer of Matthew 1:1-16 to record the names of these 5 women,
without whom Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Lord and Savior of all would not
have been born into the world that first Christmas day. So, between now and Christmas, we are going
to hear the stories of each of these 5 Christmas maidens between now and Christmas.
Tamar
The first
Christmas maiden is Tamar and her tale comes from Genesis 38. Tamar was a Canaanite woman. The Canaanites—as a whole—were evil in God’s
site. They were evil because they had
twisted religion so much that it had nothing to do with the One True God who
made them anymore. Canaanite religion
was a way to make God into their own image through idolatry. They worshiped through sexual orgies in order
to arouse their gods so they would do favors for them. They even hired temple prostitutes to have
sex with the worshipers. (I’m not making
this stuff up. This was the Canaanite religion.) Furthermore, the Canaanites even sacrificed
their own children as part of their wicked religious ceremonies. God rejected the Canaanites’ wicked religion and
determined to drive them out of Canaan and give their land
to Abraham’s descendants. Tamar (the
great, great… grandmother of Jesus) was a despised Canaanite. (If you ever feel like there’s no hope for
you, remember Tamar.)
The name
Tamar means date palm. The date palm is
a tree in Israel that produces a most amazing fruit called a date that is
dried to make something like a raisin, but a raisin the size of your
thumb! You can buy dates at Kroger, but
they don’t even come close to the amazing Medjool dates you get in Israel,
their native land. I have been to Israel
and enjoyed the dates their near Jericho and they are to die for. Tamar means date. And apparently, Tamar was to die for
too. Her story is found in Genesis 38.
Genesis 38:6-10
6 In the
course of time, Judah arranged for his firstborn son, Er, to marry a young
woman named Tamar. 7 But Er was
a wicked man in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord took
his life. 8 Then Judah said to Er’s brother Onan, “Go and
marry Tamar, as our law requires of the brother of a man who has died. You must
produce an heir for your brother.”
9 But Onan
was not willing to have a child who would not be his own heir. So whenever he
had intercourse with his brother’s wife, he spilled the semen on the ground. This
prevented her from having a child who would belong to his brother. 10 But the Lord considered
it evil for Onan to deny a child to his dead brother. So the Lord took Onan’s life, too.
Levirate
Marriage and Wickedness
Now here’s a
weird passage (and a bit gross and explicit).
It’s no wonder you don’t hear this story that much in church. But, it is part of the God’s inspired story
of the redemption of all humanity so we’re not going to skip it today. What’s going on here?
The ancient Israelites
had a custom called Levirate marriage.
It seems strange to us, but it had an important purpose for them. The people of the Old Testament lived in a patriarchal society. Men dominated everything. Women had very little status and no way to provide for or protect themselves without the men in their lives. I don't think that's the way God intended life to be, but sin was part of the world and that's the way people lived. Thankfully, we have grown to a place in the 21st century in America, where women are finally getting the respect they are due because women are equal with men and should be treated fairly. But 4,000 years ago when Tamar lived in the middle east, women were not treated equally. When they were young, their father protected and cared for them. When they were married, their husband protected and cared for them. When they were old, their grown male children protected and cared for them. So it was devastating if a wife's husband died and she had no grown male children to care for her. Levirate marriage provided for widows. When Tamar's husband died, she became their dead brother's responsibility to protect and care for her.
Levirate marriage addressed another pressing problem for the Bible's patriarchal society. The greatest curse for ancient Israelites was for your family name to die out. Therefore, if a wife's husband died before he was able to produce a male child to carry on the family name, the dead husband's brother was obligated to produce a male child with his wife for him. I know that seems really weird to us today, but that was very important to the ancient Israelites like Judah's family. And it may not be as far fetched as you think. Today, if a husband and wife can't conceive a child, they might go to a fertility clinic and pursue artificial insemination. Levirate marriage was the way the ancients solved the problem long before fertility clinics were available.
So, levirate marriage kicks in. Er’s brother, Onan, is supposed to take Tamar as his own wife, protect her, care for her, and it was Onan's absolute obligation to make sure Tamar got pregnant and produced an heir to carry on his dead brother's name. Now Onan, being a man, was perfectly willng to enjoy “pleasure” with Tamar, but he refused to produce children. Sexual pleasure is great but children are a costly responsibility Onan didn't want, even though it was the law of his own people. Verse 10 says, “the Lord considered it evil for Onan to deny a child to his dead brother. So the Lord took Onan’s life, too.”
Genesis 38:11
11
Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, “Go back to your parents’ home
and remain a widow until my son Shelah is old enough to marry you.” (But Judah
didn’t really intend to do this because he was afraid Shelah would also die,
like his two brothers.) So Tamar went back to live in her father’s home.
Used, Abused, and Forgotten
Tamar has
now been used, abused, and forgotten.
Have you ever felt used, abused and forgotten?
Judah has a
responsibility. As the patriarch of the
family, it is his responsibility to take care of everyone in his
household; and this includes Tamar. If his third son is too young to marry, then it is Judah's duty to take care of his daughter-in-law himself or until his youngest son is grown enough to do it. Judah has no intention of doing the right thing. His first two sons died because they were both wicked, but all Judah can think is it was Tamar fault. Instead
of seeing his son’s wickedness, send Tamar away.
God holds
each of us accountable for our own sins.
It isn’t your lineage that makes you righteous or gains you favor in God’s
eyes. It is those who repent of
their sins and turn to God through Jesus Christ His Son who enjoy the Lord’s
favor. In Tamar's story, we see taht Tamar hasn’t done anything wrong even though she is a Canaanite. It is Judah and his sons--who are supposed to be God's chosen people--who are doing all the evil!
Genesis 38:12-19
12 Some years later Judah’s wife died. After the time of
mourning was over, Judah and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went up to Timnah
to supervise the shearing of his sheep. 13 Someone told Tamar, “Look, your father-in-law
is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.”
14 Tamar was aware that Shelah had grown up, but no
arrangements had been made for her to come and marry him. [Judah has no
intentions of doing the right thing for Tamar.]
So she changed out
of her widow’s clothing and covered herself with a veil to disguise herself.
Then she sat beside the road at the entrance to the village of Enaim, which is
on the road to Timnah. 15 Judah
noticed her and thought she was a prostitute, since she had covered her face.
[Now notice, it doesn’t say Tamar dressed up like a prostitute. It says Judah thought she was a prostitute. What does that tell you was on Judah's mind? It seems to me, Judah is not acting or thinking the way God wants His chosen people to act.]
16 So he stopped and propositioned her. “Let me have sex with
you,” he said, not realizing that she was his own daughter-in-law.
“How
much will you pay to have sex with me?” Tamar asked.
[Tamar is a
smart woman. She plays along to see where it might get her. Tamar recognizes God’s purposes in Judah’s family. Even though Judah’s family was not living the
way they should, they were still the family God chose for His great plan to save the world. Somehow, Tamar sensed
God’s hand at work in Judah’s people--despite their wickedness--and she was determined to be part of it. Are you determined to be part of God’s family
even if His children—the people you see in Church on Sunday—don’t always live
they way they should. Can you recognize
that God has a plan for everyone and that God is saving the whole world, even
through a broken church?]
17 “I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,” Judah promised.
“But
what will you give me to guarantee that you will send the goat?” she asked.
18 “What kind of guarantee do you want?” he replied.
She
answered, “Leave me your identification seal and its cord and the walking stick
you are carrying.” So Judah gave them to her. Then he had intercourse with her,
and she became pregnant. 19 Afterward
she went back home, took off her veil, and put on her widow’s clothing as usual.
Genesis
38:24-26
24 About three months later, Judah was told, “Tamar, your
daughter-in-law, has acted like a prostitute. And now, because of this, she’s
pregnant.”
“Bring
her out, and let her be burned!” Judah demanded.
[This was the typical
punishment. It's definitely a double standard. Men were obviously getting away with all kinds of sexual promiscuity and sleeping with prostitutes, but the women were being burned when they were unfaithful. I don't think God was happy about it, but that's the broken world Tamar and Judah lived in.]
25 But as they were taking her out to kill her, she sent this
message to her father-in-law: “The man who owns these things made me pregnant.
Look closely. Whose seal and cord and walking stick are these?” [Busted!]
26 Judah
recognized them immediately and said, “She is more righteous than I am, because
I didn’t arrange for her to marry my son Shelah.” And Judah never slept with
Tamar again.
Closing Points
Tamar's story (and others like it) are one of the major reasons I believe the Bible is the reliable account of God's salvation work throughout history. If I were going to make up a fictional story of God's people, I definitely would not include all this dirty laundry. Would you? The Bible doesn't try to sugar coat anything. The story of how God saved humanity includes a lot of ugly, embarrassing stuff. It's just to messy to be made up! Do you have any skeletons in your family closet? So does Jesus.
None of the people in Jesus family tree were
there because they deserved it. They were only there because of God's grace
and their faith to be a part of God's great plan—a plan that they didn’t even
fully understand. They just knew if it
was God’s plan, it must be worth more than any thing else in the whole world! God is looking for people like Tamar--people who have the faith to see that God is at work even when His people are not doing the right thing. People who are willing to give up everything to be part of God's great Kingdom plan. Are you willing to give up everything
to be part of God’s Kingdom? Do you have the faith to see it is worth it?
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