Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 1-4.

I had originally not intended to write anything about the genealogy of Jesus which Matthew gives here, but then I was thinking about the fact that Matthew mentions five women in Jesus’ ancestry: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary.  He lists all of them by name, except for Bathsheba.  Matthew tells us that Solomon’s mother had been Uriah’s wife.  In other words, he didn’t want us to miss the scandal around David and Bathsheba’s relationship.  In fact, there was a scandal associated with everyone of the women Matthew mentions here.  Tamar pretended to be a prostitute in order to become pregnant with a twins by her father-in-law.  Rahab was a prostitute.  Ruth was a Moabitess, about whom the Law of Moses said their descendants should not be eligible to enter the Tabernacle, or Temple, for ten generations.  Mary was unmarried when she became pregnant (even though this was a virgin birth, it was still a scandal).  Matthew’s audience would not miss the scandal concerning those four, but they might think about Bathsheba only from her role in King David naming Solomon as his heir.  Matthew made sure that we would not miss the scandal concerning Bathsheba.  He wanted to make sure that we realized that God can, and will, use those we consider improper.  If these women were acceptable ancestors for the Son of God, what makes you think God won’t use you for something wonderful?

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.