Matthew 1:1-6
“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nashon, and Nashon, the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah...”
+ Introduction: Four Women in Christ's Lineage
Our Advent meditations take us on a journey of faith through the stories of four women whose names we do not expect to find in the lineage of Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 1.
At Christmas we easily see the beauty and significance of Mary’s faith in her obedient submission to the announcement that she would bear the child who would take away the sins of the world. She too is named in Matthew, but contrary to the other women, Mary lived to see the results of her faith. She lived the pain of the crucifixion and the joy of the resurrection. Probably no woman has ever had such an eternal awareness of the meaning of her life.
Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and the wife of Uriah, could not be more distinct from Mary. While we cannot identify easily with Mary and the miracle that happened in her, we are not sure that we want to identify with the others. Two were prostitutes, one of whom seduced her father-in-law. All were Gentiles, one of whom came from a tribe despised by the Israelites. One was forced by the King of Israel, who then murdered her husband. Obviously their names are listed because they had birthed sons in the line of Judah, through whom Messiah was to come. But, since all sons in his lineage were born of women, why are only these four women named?
They are named because of their faith lived out, like ours, in the common circumstances of life. We learn through their stories how God’s sovereign hand was drawing them into a life of faith before they knew Him. We see how He redeemed, and used, even their less than honorable efforts, to do what was right. What they knew of the prophecies that a Messiah was to be born of the tribe of Judah, we have no indication. We can be sure that not one did what she did so that her name would be included in the genealogy of Jesus. Not one qualified by any human standard to play a significant role in God’s story – that is in History.
How then, are they women of faith? Faith cannot be measured by human standards. It is simply said of Rehab – the only one of the four whose name appears in Hebrews 11:31 – that she “did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.” That’s it? Nothing more? Yes, because that is what faith looks like. Faith in God is not a matter of great and grand works. It is welcoming the daily circumstances of our life and obeying what He tells us to do with them, just because He tells us. When we mess up, faith means believing that He will take our feeble steps, redeem them and turn them to His glory and our good. The dailiness of our faith pleases God. By faith we are assured that our names are also written in His-story, the end results yet to come.
Hebrews 11 says that faith is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” As was true then, so it is true now, that this kind of faith invites mocking and scorn. These women of the ancient world are here to remind us that a life of faith in God is a life lived with, yet unseen, eternal blessed consequences.
-Esther Powell
Escape from Rahab's House, as in Joshua 2, Woodcut for "Die Bibel in Bildern", Julius Schnorr von Karolsfeld, 1860. (Banner photo: The Battle of Jericho, 5th Century, Author: Unknown.)
WEEK TWO: RAHAB
by Esther Powell
Joshua 2 and Joshua 6
I can imagine Rahab running her business as an innkeeper who, like so many innkeepers throughout history, had a second business on the side. It is in her establishment that all the news of the day was heard and discussed. Rahab, being an astute observer of people and events, realized that what she was hearing involved more than the usual gossip and rumors of war. There was someone greater than usual at work, and she came to believe that the God who made the heavens and the earth must be the God who was giving victory to this desert tribe known as Israelites. She was being drawn to this powerful God.
When the two spies appeared at her door, her actions show that she had already decided where her faith lay. She welcomed the spies, misled the messenger from her king by saying the spies had already left, hid the spies for the night and then helped them escape. Her courage goes beyond fear of a powerful God, however. It seems that she felt that she could personally expect mercy from this God. So, she asked the spies to swear that they would spare her and her whole household when the city was attacked. They agreed, but warned her that her entire household must be in her house, or they could not guarantee their safety.
These same words were spoken some 40 years before, by Moses, to the Israelites on the night of the Passover in Egypt. In Exodus 12:22, Moses says, “Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.” The two spies gave her a “scarlet cord” to lower through her window. The room in which all were to take shelter, the scarlet cord, and the blood of the lamb on the lintel of the doors in Egypt, are prophetic symbols of the blood of Christ shed on the cross, and salvation for all who take refuge in Him.
There is more to Rahab’s story. Because she acted on her newfound faith in God, she not only escaped from her old life, she was also taken in to the purposes of God’s great redemptive plan. We read in Ruth 4:18-22 that this former prostitute, Rahab, married Salmon, six generations removed from Perez, and became the mother of Boaz, the husband of Ruth. Rahab, a young believer who acted on the faith that she had, served the purposes of a powerful and merciful God in whom she had come believe. Did she know all that would come of her courage? Did God give her some inkling of His great cosmic plan? Perhaps just a little. We don’t know, but we do know that her steps of faith in her time, in so far as she was able, meant that God remembered her and named her hundreds of years later in the genealogy of Jesus.
Rahab knew the story of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. Whether the scarlet cord had specific meaning to her, we are not told; nor whether the spies recounted their adventure in such a way that it served as a reminder of the blood on the lintel to this generation of Israelites, all of whom had been born since leaving Egypt. But, we know now that the scarlet cord, the blood on the lintel, the shelter, and protection of the room, were foreshadowing Christ, whose coming we remember every Advent. He is our scarlet cord, our shelter from condemnation and from the destruction. “…Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place—the Most High, who is my refuge, no evil shall be allowed to befall you…” Psalm 91.
Follow along in our series this Advent:
Dec. 13, Week 3: Ruth (The Book of Ruth)
Dec. 20, Week 4: The Wife of Uriah (II Samuel 11, 12; I Kings 1:1,11-38; I Chronicles 22:6-10)