There are times when we have an encounter with Scripture that is permanently connected to a time and place. Sometimes it is when the Holy Spirit grabs our attention as we read and sometimes it’s when we hear a comment or read a statement from someone else that brings a moment of clarity. That happened to me in a seminary class led by Dr. David Ewert, a brilliant professor. I walked into a class on the Gospels and he began with a statement I have never forgotten. He said, “There is grace on the first page of the New Testament.” My immediate thought was, “Matthew begins with a genealogy.” It does but in that genealogy Dr. Ewert introduced me to a picture of grace I had not seen.
He began to explain that the Gospels were going to be a collection of writings that would make clear, among many other things, the theme of grace. He focused on this passage: “Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David. David father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife” (Matthew 1:3-6).
Four women were named—a highly unusual practice that was a significant change from Old Testament genealogies. Then he noted that the women didn’t include the wives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. At that point, he shared their stories. I have to admit that his presentation took me by surprise. I grew up in church. My father had been a pastor. I was somewhat familiar with the stories but packaged together like this on the first page of the New Testament, they stunned me.
There is Tamar. Her story is told in Genesis 38. The bottom line is that she seduced her father-in-law, Judah, and gave birth to a son in the ancestry of Jesus. It was an immoral manipulation that she used to right what she felt was done to her, but there is no way to justify her action.Then there is Rahab, a citizen of Jericho. Her story is in Joshua 2. She was instrumental in Israel’s first victory after they crossed the Jordan River. She was a Canaanite prostitute.
Following that Ruth is mentioned. A remarkable woman whose story is told in the book by her name. She was a model of faith but she was also a Moabite. Years before her life God had condemned Moabites because they were instrumental in a crisis Israel experienced in the wilderness years. Deuteronomy 23:3 records, “No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, not even in the tenth generation.” Yet, here she is, listed as a mother in the lineage of Jesus.
Maybe the most notable woman is Bathsheba. Lest we miss the point, she is listed as the wife of Uriah. “David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife” (Matthew 1:6). King David committed adultery with her and then arranged the death of her husband, Uriah, to cover up the sin. “In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In it he wrote, ‘Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die’ ” (2 Samuel 11: 14-15).
The New Testament doesn’t begin with a story of cover-ups. It begins with grace. Grace that looks at us honestly and intervenes to save us. Two outcasts, one a prostitute, and adulteress and a woman who seduced her father-in-law. They’re not included because God wanted to say He approved of their behavior, but because He wanted us to know that this New Testament would be a book about grace. He can redeem the worst of us, change our lives to include us in His divine plan and all because of what Jesus was going to do on our behalf. Grace isn’t about good people who’ve impressed God by our good behavior; it’s about a God who loves us enough to send His Son, Jesus, to die in our place He will bring us home to His house from wherever we are and whatever we’ve done to live with Him forever if we only believe in Jesus.
Wally | GG Team
