Matthew 1:1-3
1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram,
Christmas time, and maybe the first of the year, are about the only times we give much attention to the genealogy in Matthew. If you read it though, it’s a trip. From now till Christmas, we are going to look at people from this list and think about the absolute madness that they were Jesus’ family.
We’ll begin with Judah, the son of Israel who would be father of the royalty of Israel, and wasn’t a great father-in-law. The story highlighted in the genealogy by the mention of Tamar isn’t a nice one. Judah should have given his next son off to Tamar to raise up children as part of a tradition called levirate marriage. Instead, he planned to marry that next son off to someone else. Tamar tempted Judah by pretending to be a prostitute and became pregnant with the twins Perez and Zerah.
And that is who God chose to make Jesus’ ancestors. It would be outrageous if we weren’t sure that everyone else He could have picked would also never be worthy of the honor. Christmas reminds us of God’s goodness, not our own. He chose to give us this Son not because we deserve Him, but specifically because we don’t.
Prayer prompt: Lord, it is beyond merciful that You would be so near to sinners like us.
Daily Reading: 2 John (Click or tap the Verses to read them on your device)
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