The Grace of God seen in the Inclusion of Four Outcasts (Matthew 1:3-6)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/24/2019 8:42 PM

My Worship Time                  Focus:  The Grace of God seen in the Inclusion of Four Outcasts

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 1:3-6

            Message of the verses:  “3 and to Judah were born Perez and Zerah by Tamar; and to Perez was born Hezron; and to Hezron, Ram; 4 and to Ram was born Amminadab; and to Amminadab, Nahshon; and to Nahshon, Salmon; 5 and to Salmon was born Boaz by Rahab; and to Boaz was born Obed by Ruth; and to Obed, Jesse; 6 and to Jesse was born David the king. And to David was born Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah;”

            John MacArthur begins this section by writing “Matthew’s genealogy also shows us the work of God’s grace in His choosing four former outcasts, each of them women (the only women listed until the mention of Mary), through whom the Messiah and great King would descend.  These women are exceptional illustrations of God’s grace and are included for the reason in the genealogy that otherwise is all men.”

            We will briefly talk about these four women beginning with Tamar.  Tamar was a Canaanite women who was the wife of one of Judah’s sons, and Judah’s sons by his first wife died because the sinned greatly against the Lord.  Tamar was waiting for another of Judah’s sons to be born but Judah would not allow him to marry this woman.  She made herself up to be a prostitute and ended up having sexual relations with Judah, but he did not know it was her.  He had no money to pay her and so she kept a possession of Judah.  A little while latter it was reported that Judah’s daughter-in-law was with child and so he went to make sure she was put to death.  She told him that the person who owned these possessions was the father of the child.  Judah said she was more righteous than he was.  This is how Tamar is in the bloodline of our Lord Jesus Christ.

            Rahab is the next outcast and she truly was a prostitute who actually hid the spies of Judah and was saved from the destruction of Jericho when God destroyed that city when the children of Israel first came into the Promised Land.  MacArthur writes “God’s grace not only spared her life but brought he into the messianic line, as the wife of Salmon and the mother of the godly Boaz who was David’s great-grandmother.

            Ruth is the next woman and like the others is a Gentile.  The story of Ruth is found in the book of Ruth at the very end of the book of Judges.  It was said that this story took place during the time of the Judges of Israel.  Naomi and her husband and two sons left Israel and went to the pagan people of Moab where we find that her husband and two sons died.  One of her daughter-in-laws did not return to Israel with Naomi and Ruth was told to go back also, but Ruth, a very godly woman stayed with her mother-in-law and returned with her to Israel.  Ruth ended up marrying a man named Boaz and they had Obed who became the father of Jesse who was the father of David.

            The fourth outcast was Bathsheba and she is in the genealogy because of her adulteress relations with David. I put little blame on her and most on David, but none the less it happened.  This was one of the great sins of David and caused much pain and suffering in his life, but out of this great sin came Solomon who would follow David as the next King of Israel.  I have mentioned that in both of his great sins from David’s life that God brought about the construction of the first Jewish temple as David bought the property where the temple was to be brought at the end of the angel of the Lord killing 70,000 because of David’s sin in numbering the people.  It ended at the very place where Abraham was to offer Isaac as a burnt offering on Mt. Mariah which is where the temple was built.

            We conclude with the last paragraph from John MacArthur’s commentary on this section:

            “The genealogy of Jesus Christ is immeasurably more than a list of ancient names; it is even more than a list of Jesus’ human forebears.  It is a beautiful testimony of God’s grace and to the ministry of His Son, Jesus Christ, the friend of sinners, who ‘did not come to call the righteous, but sinners’ (Matt. 9:13).  If He has called sinners by grace to be His forefathers, should we be surprised when He calls them by grace to be His descendants?  The King presented here is truly the King of grace!

The quotation from “Love in Action” is from Genesis 2:24.

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother

and be joined to his wife, and they

shall become one flesh.

11/24/2019 9:14 PM