A Study of the Women in the Genealogy of Jesus – Five Parts
Scripture: Matthew 1:1–17
Introduction
Many of us are obsessed with our family tree. We explore Ancestry.com and other websites to find out from where we came, often with surprising results. Maybe we are related to a celebrity or royalty! Maybe we come from an entirely different area of the world than we thought. We are caught up with putting our family genealogy together to see just “who we are.” It is timely that we should look at the genealogy of the Greatest One—Jesus. He had some “characters” in His family line, just as we often find in ours.
We will be looking at the five women listed in the genealogy of Jesus as told in Matthew. Some were “fallen women” in irregular relationships that left them unprotected by the Patriarchal system of their day. Most of them were Gentiles and during this time were not included as partakers of the Gospel message. They were various ages and came from diverse circumstances to become a part of the lineage of Jesus.
It is said that Matthew wanted to establish the royal line of the birth of Jesus as the Messiah for all people and started his genealogy of Joseph’s line with Abraham. Until this point in Matthew, genealogies in the Bible were completely male dominated. Matthew was a Jewish man but knew that God had a great heart for all people—women and Gentiles included. This is significant when you realize that Jewish men thanked God that they were not born women or Gentiles. His genealogy of Jesus Christ is not just a list of names, but is the gospel message of redemption, love and acceptance by God for all people throughout history. The book of Matthew is rich with intrigue and includes stories of fallen men and women.
Some of the principles we will see in this study of the women in the family line of Jesus are:
- There is hope and redemption for anyone through the power of Jesus.
- God wove a tapestry of love and acceptance through the life of Jesus.
- Five very diverse women in this family line show that the grace of God abounds.
- God honored these women by including them.
- Salvation is for everyone, man or woman, Gentile or Jew.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these remarkable women in the genealogy of Jesus:
- Tamar
- Rahab
- Ruth
- Bathsheba
- Mary
Who would have thought?
