Those of us from a western culture somehow take all of our techniques and apply them when we come to a genealogy. If the Bible were all genealogies, we would read it in a week, not a year. We tend to think them rather unimportant. Who cares about the begats and the begottens?

Let me illustrate how important a genealogy is. Having moved around as a child and an adult, I found myself continually challenged that I'm always from the outside. When I was in Texas, they would tease me about being from the North. Friday night at the Homebuilders' party, Dave Amsler read the story Sounder and said, "You southerners would appreciate that." Where am I from? Where are my roots? What's my heritage?

Genealogies, like our explanations of our roots, give to us a point of connection in the Scriptures, a pedigree, a linkage to the past. For the Jew that linkage, that pedigree, is very important. Often that pedigree determined your military service, for military service was linked to family. Therefore the genealogy is important. Genealogy served as a further reference to connect you with the house of D connect you to the house of the priests, to connect you to religious duties or perhaps royal prerogatives. It was important to know your pedigree. If you were a Jew, genealogies were also important so that you could trace your ancestry back to Abraham.

The genealogy in Matthew, chapter 1, is a carefully constructed genealogy. In fact, the Spirit of God almost gives us the key to unlock it in verse 17. Matthew says, "Therefore all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the time of Christ, fourteen generations." This is a stylized, theological genealogy. Therefore, the inclusion and the exclusion of names is highly significant. We want to study it.

There are some noble people in that genealogy: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David, Solomon, Ruth. Ruth? Why is a woman in a Jewish genealogy? All of a sudden our interpretive ears and eyes are alert. In this stylized genealogy, three series of fourteen generations presenting to us the line of Jesus Christ, we have some very famous,

important of great notoriety. We also have some infamous Joram, Ahaz, A kings also in the line of the Messiah.

Matthew's genealogy includes five women, including four who seemed to be "mistakes."

But there's something that stands out to us even further: not only the inclusion of famous and infamous men but also the inclusion in this stylized genealogy of five women. In our western era after the advent of women's liberation, the inclusion of five women does not

surprise us. In fact, we would want to say, "Why aren't there more women?" But you must remember that this is a Jewish genealogy, and even if you're to go back to Israel today, you would not find the inclusion of women [in genealogies].

The first one is Tamar. That surprises us, this woman who disguised herself as a harlot. There's Rahab, who was a harlot, and Ruth, a Moabitess, someone outside of the nation of Israel. That's certainly surprising. "And to David was born Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah"Bathsheba. Even today as we think about Bathsheba, there remains a cloud over her character. Was she a willing participant? Or was she a victim? Then, lastly (and the Spirit of God is so precise) in verse 16, "and to Jacob was born Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom" plural but singular, relative feminine, by M"was born Jesus, who is called the Christ." Somehow in this genealogy, in these three sets of fourteen, the Spirit of God has purposely placed names of individuals that we'd rather forget.

I'm going to tell you something that happens here and probably all across this country at this season of the year. We're ready for the Christmas pageant with the children. Have you ever served on that committee? It's like an inoculation: You do it once, and you don't need to the rest of your life. They hundred kids, sheep, angels, Mary, J you want everything just right, because this is the pageant of our Lord. It's only once a year, so we don't want Mary to fall off the platform, and we don't want Joseph to forget

his lines, and we surely don't want the sheep coming in without the shepherds. We don't want anything to be a mistake.

Yet God, as he presents the pageantry of the birth of Jesus Christ, has given for us four names of women that certainly seem to be a mistake. Certainly they don't belong. Why were these people included? Who allowed them in this process? Brothers and sisters, I

tell you the Spirit of God put Tamar there; the Spirit of God allowed Rahab to be included; the Spirit of God said, "List Ruth, the Moabitess"; the Spirit of God said, "Put Bathsheba in there"; because they belong. They are participants. They have received God's grace.

And I'm thankful that when that genealogy has been written that includes the sons and daughters of Jesus, Dave Krentel was born again into the family of God. It's not that I earned it, not that I deserved it, not that I had some sort of religious pedigree that allowed me into the family of God, but that I'm a sinner saved by Judah, a Tamar, a Rahab. I have trusted Jesus Christ. I have been a recipient of God's grace.

In these sixteen verses and these names that have been given to us, we see a wideness in God's mercy, a depth in his grace. Yet so often in the church of Jesus Christ, we have seen the grace of God as some sort of nozzle on a hose that we would turn off . We would turn it off and deny the grace of God to that race. We would turn it off and deny the grace of God to that criminal. In these sixteen verses we learn there's a wideness in God's mercy, a depth, an amazement in his grace, as he freely bestows grace upon those who need it.

Jesus Christ amazed the Pharisees as he dwelled and talked and associated with publicans and sinners and harlots, and they came up to him and complained. He said, "Listen, those who are well don't need physicians. But the sick need the physician." We gather oftentimes as healthy people, desirous to keep a monopoly on all the medicines and all the penicillin so that we might maintain our health, failing to recognize that the penicillin of God's grace has been distributed to us not to keep for ourselves in a holy huddle but to distribute to those who need it.

Why did he include these four? To show that God's mercy is wide enough to cover the sins of the world. EGod with us. What kind of "us"? P us? Yes. P us? Yes. The kinds of us that are desperate? Yes, that's Tamar. The us who are harlots like Rahab? Yes. He's come to us.

Tamar's story shows God's graciousness to the desperate (Genesis 38:126).

I want to look at two of these names this morning. I'd like you to turn with me to Genesis 38, one of those sections in the Scriptures that you really wish weren't there. It's so complicated that you'd just like to pass over it. It's right in the middle of the narrative of Joseph, that stellar performer in the Old Testament, right after he's been sold into Egypt, betrayed by his brothers. Now, all of a sudden, he's the slave in Potiphar's household. The story line is going to follow Joseph all the way to the end of the Book of Genesis. But here the Spirit takes a searchlight and takes us to Judah. You say, "Oh, I know Judah! He's Joseph's older brother." That's right. "Oh, I know Judah. He's the one whose lion shall not depart from the tribe of Judah." Yeah, that's the fellow. "Oh, he's a good man. I know why he's listed. Because, when it came time to pledge that Benjamin would be safe, he pledged his own children and his own wife that Benjamin would be safe." Yeah. That's the one.

But the Spirit of God, when he lists Judah in the genealogy of the Lord, lists this incident found in Genesis 38, thinking it's important to include in the Christmas story. It's complicated and has a lot of questions. I would like to solve some of them for you this morning.

"It came about at that time " What time? After Joseph had been sold. "It came about at that time that Judah departed from his brothers," and he married the daughter of a certain Canaanite. This man's name was Shua, and he had three boys. The name of the first boy was Er. The name of the second boy is Onan, and the name of the third boy is Shelah.

You say, "What's so bad about this?" I think the key phrase is in verse 1: "It came about at that time, that Judah departed." He was part of the covenantal nation. He was part of that nation whose God was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He was part of that group that had come into the land to proclaim Yahweh to the Canaanites. So important was their testimony in front of the Canaanites, that one time Abram said, "We don't want to fight, because the Canaanite is in the land. We want to maintain harmony. You want to go this way? Then I'll go this other way. Let us live in harmony, because of the adversary, the enemy, the ungodly in our midst."

Verse 1 tells us that Judah left the godly heritage that was his and took a daughter of an unbeliever. Well, she had three boys. The first boy got married. Judah found a is happening according to culture her name was Tamar. But Er, Judah's firstborn, was evil in the sight of the Lord, and God killed him. Now, according to a custom called levirate marriage, it was Tamar's hope, it was Tamar's privilege, it was Tamar's legitimate desire, to expect that a child would come to her by her . It was Onan's responsibility to do that. Onan did evil in the sight of the Lord. God killed him. She's been married twice now. Both husbands have died.

Judah suddenly wakes up and says, "Good night! I had two sons married to this same girl, Tamar. I don't think she should get married anymore!" And he says to her, "You go back to your father's house and you stay there as a widow. When my third son is old enough, then we'll think about marriage." So she goes back and puts on the clothes of a widow.

Judah's wife dies, and Judah says that he's going to go to his sheep shearers at Timnah. All of a sudden it's told to Tamar: "Your 's coming. You haven't seen him. You've been robbed of the privilege of having a child to continue the family name. You've been abused." So Tamar does something that's hard for us to understand. She removes her widow's garment, covers herself with a veil, and sits in the gateway on the road to Timnah. (She sees the husband who was supposed to be hers. Shelah had grown up, and she had not been given to him as a wife.) When Judah looked at her, he thought she was a harlot. His wife had died, he was all alone, and he said, "I will have relations with her."

Here's a man, part of the covenant people, who has married outside of the covenant people. Here is a man who is supposed to be godly man, and all of a sudden he's consorting with a prostitute.

After the transaction, he promises to return, and she says, "Will you please leave some symbols of who you are?" Translated, he leaves her his keys, his credit card, and his driver's license and says, "I'll come back." He sends someone back to give her a goat, and she's not there. About three months later, Judah was informed, "Your Tamar has played the harlot. Behold she is with child by harlotry." Judah says, "Bring her out, and let's stone her."

Do you see the hardness of this man's heart? Do you see how he has shut off God's grace? Do you see how unlike our God he is, how unlike the gracious Lord Jesus? Do you see how narrow his grace is? His grace was good enough for him to marry outside the faith. His view of grace was good enough for him to go and commit harlotry. His kind of grace was good enough for him to go and keep Tamar from that which was rightfully hers. The kind of grace that he viewed was a grace that was good enough to frustrate this desperate woman. But when he heard that she was pregnant and played the role of a harlot, his grace, which was good enough for him in his sin, was strangled in its approach to her.

He said, "Stone her," and as they bring her forth to him, she said, "Let me tell you who's the father." She produces the driver's license, she produces the credit card, she produces "the signet ring, the cord, and the staff." And Judah says, "She is more righteous than I

in as much as I did not give her to my son." She has acted according to the cultural I think that's what he's saying.

Well, what's happened here? Here we have a man who's not lived up to the leadership role. He has abdicated, and his loss of leadership in that extended family has produced deception, deceit, and desperation. Tamar is the picture of a desperate woman, and in her desperation she turns to deceit to get that which is hers. Because of the lack of strong leadership, her frustration moves to desperation, and she thinks like so many of us think: "The end justifies the means. I'm supposed to have a child. I'm supposed to be given to this man as his wife. I'm supposed to continue the family name. I will get it my way." And those of us who have our hands on the nozzle of God's grace say, "Turn it off. Turn it off. This woman doesn't deserve it. She's not our kind. She's playing the harlot. She doesn't need the grace of God."

But God says to those of us who are desperate, to those of us who have been ripped off by the people of the covenant, to those of us who have been hurt, "I'll be gracious to Tamar." She had two children, and through Perez came Messiah. God said, "As we're writing the Scripture, I want you to remember Tamar. I want you to put her in my list. She's part of my background."

Rahab's story shows how God spares people from destruction (Joshua 2:121, 6:2225).

Quickly turn to Joshua 2. Here's another one. We almost don't like to mention these. We're so ashamed of some things that God is willing to use to display his grace. Whereas Tamar played the harlot, Rahab lived the life of a harlot. Tamar was desperate; Rahab had lived a life of quiet desperation.

Rahab lived in a city that was under God's judgment. Israel was coming into the Promised Land, and there, just a bit north of the Dead Sea, stood the walled city of Jericho, the key to the soft underbelly of the Promised Land. Israel would have to go around Jericho or constantly there'd be this threat of this armed, walled city. Living in the wall on the outside of the city is a prostitute named Rahab. She had lived a life of sensuous pleasure without joy.

But God's grace appeared to her. In verse 1: "Joshua the son on Nun sent two men as spies secretly from Shittim, saying, 'Go, view the land, especially Jericho.' So they went and came to the house of a harlot whose name was Rahab, and lodged there." Go check it out. What kind of people are these? Are they strong? Are they going to put up a fight? Tell us what's going to happen as we do battle with them.

In verse 10, they understand what's happening. Rahab says, "We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt. We heard what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond Jordan, to Sihon and Og,

whom you utterly destroyed. We heard it and we're anxious. Our hearts melted. No courage remained in any man any longer because of you; Yahweh your Elohim is the Elohim in heaven above and on earth beneath."

Brothers and sisters, down the highway of God's judgment, grace came to Rahab. The witness of God's judgment on Egypt, she saw the grace of deliverance of the Israelites. The witness of God's judgment to King Sihon and King Og and the Amorites, she saw a message of God's grace and deliverance to the Israelites and to her. To her.

She lived in a city destined for destruction. We live in a culture destined for destruction. We have two responses. We can see the destruction coming and turn to God. Or like the king of Jericho commanded the city, we can say, "Shut up the walls tightly. Don't let anybody in. Stop God."

It reminds me that in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount, there's an Arab mosque and the Dome of the Rock, beautiful structures that have been there for hundreds of years. The Muslims believe that Messiah will come through that Eastern Gate. It's blocked up now. They've put a cemetery in front of the gate, because no Orthodox Jew will walk where a cemetery is. But they also have a few guards there to keep Messiah out. If Messiah can be kept out by a few guards, he's not the Messiah of the Bible, is he?

If you could stop the power of God by closing up the walls of Jericho tightly, that's not a very powerful God. The judgment of God is coming to Jericho, and the judgment of God is coming to this culture. Someone said, "If God does not judge us, he would have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah."

But Rahab recognized the judgment of God, and in God's judgment she clung to the scarlet cord of God's grace. She says in verse 12, "Swear to me by the Lord, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you will deal kindly with my father's household. Give me a pledge of truth, and spare my father, my mother, my brothers and sisters. Deliver our lives from death, Joshua."

Did he do it? Look at verse 25 of chapter 6: "However, Rahab the harlot and her father's household and all she had, Joshua spared; and she has lived in the midst of Israel to this day, for she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho." She was a prostitute who turned out to be a princess. She married one of the princes of Israel. In Numbers 7 she is found not husbandless but a mother in the line of David. She's found in Matthew chapter 1 to be in the line of Jesus. She's a Hall of Famer. And in Hebrews chapter 11, when all the great people of faith are Abraham, Sarah, I's Rahab listed as a Hall of Famer.

And when James has to speak about a faith that works, he mentions Abraham; and, of course, we all say "Amen" to Abraham. "James, that's great. He's the terrific one. Isaac—he's terrific." But James, in the same paragraph, mentions Rahab, who had a faith that worked. The most touching thing about this is that Joshua spared her. Joshua is the Hebrew name for Jesus, and Jesus will spare us from destruction when we turn to him.

What is Christmas? Is it pageantries where everything works? Yes. But is it the pageant of Jesus Christ, where there are some characters that we'd rather not associate with? Yes. Why? There's a wideness in God's mercy to include desperate people, hurting people,

Tamar. There's a wideness in God's mercy that's amazing, to include a Rahab, an outsider, one who never knew the friendship of a husband. God had a place for her, and he has a place for me. And he has a place for you. The genealogy tells me that God's grace goes to failures. That's why I'm in it, because I'm a sinner.

I trust this Christmastime, if you've never trusted Jesus Christ, if you've never put your name in that genealogy, that you'd become a son, a daughter, of God. We say, "But, Pastor, I've got some stuff in my background that I don't think you'd want in this church." I would hope that we'd let Tamar, I would hope that we'd let Rahab, I would hope that we'd let Ruth, Bathsheba, sing in our choir and minister in our church. If they're good enough for heaven, they're good enough for earth. And if you're good enough for heaven, you're good enough for us.

(c) David Krentel

Preaching Today Tape #75

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