Hope for the Nations
"For God so loved the world..." John 3:16 tells us. Matthew's genealogy of Jesus proves it! Just looking from Abraham to David, we're blown away by the mercy and grace of God for people who in no way deserve His kindness. We find ourselves in Jesus' family tree. Our hearts are also challenged by it. We have much work to do. From Matthew 1:1-6a.
Introduction
We’re circling back to Matthew for this Advent season. The Gospel of Matthew opens with the genealogy of Jesus. You’ll notice, as verse 17 says, that Matthew neatly packages this family line into three 14-generation sections: From Abraham to David, from David to the Exile and from the Exile to the Christ. We’ll visit each section as we progress through Advent.
Advent is the season of expectation and preparation, as we look forward to the arrival of the Messiah and celebrate His birth at Christmas. It’s in this light that I’d like to walk through this genealogy. What does each section tell us about the coming Christ? What does it tell us to anticipate? What does God desire to teach us through each promise?
In verse 1, we see that this genealogy tells us that Jesus is the Messiah, who is descended from David and from Abraham. If you know your Bible and Christian faith well, then you’ll know that these two men had significant promises given to them pertaining to the Messiah. To Abraham was promised a blessing which would be to all nations. What does that tell us about God? What does that tell us about His purpose for you and me? Let’s spend some time with Abraham and his first set of descendants to find out.
Abraham
Abraham was originally named Abram. God called him to leave his home and family and go to a land He would show him. With that call, God made this promise to him:
2 "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." (Genesis 12:2-3, NIV84)
There are actually six promises there.
- God would make Abram into a great nation
- God would bless him
- God would make his name great
- God would make Abram a blessing
- God would bless those who bless Abram and curse those who curse him
And finally, the promise we’ll focus on today:
- God will bless all nations through Abram
(A few verses later, God would also promise to give the land of Canaan to Abram’s descendants.)
The first three promises all point to God exalting Abram: God would multiply him into a great nation whose population would rival the stars or the sand of the seashore in number. God would multiply blessing to him, eventually making him exceedingly wealthy and would make him incredibly famous. Most of the world now knows who Abram is. All this is even more interesting when you consider that the name Abram is usually taken to mean, “exalted father.” God exalted him not just in his own day, but even more down through the ages!
The second three promises have to do with Abram himself being a blessing to others: God would make him a blessing; those who blessed him would be blessed (while those who cursed him would be cursed), and through Abram, all nations, all peoples would be blessed.
Abram would do good and bring good on the peoples around him, something that was fulfilled in his own day in several ways. God would protect Abram and provide for him, so that others would be encouraged to do good to him and for him, so that they too could enjoy God’s favor; or they would be warned that anyone who tried to harm Abram would themselves be harmed. That too was illustrated multiple times in Abram’s life, though Abram didn’t fully understand the significance himself.
These two promises find their fullest expression in the last promise: that all nations would be blessed through Abram. How could one man bring blessing to the whole world? Abram becomes a blessing to all nations by bringing into the world through his descendants the Messiah, who would make a way for all men to be forgiven and restored to a right relationship with God. Those who honor and bless the Messiah who comes from Abram’s family receive the greatest of blessings, eternity in the glorious presence of God.
Ah, but Abram has no children; Sarai his wife is barren.
You’ll notice who is missing from this genealogy: Ishmael. In Genesis 17, God appears to Abram and changes his name to Abraham, because God would make him not just the father of a great nation, but the father of many nations (Genesis 17:4-6). His wife Sarai would also receive a new name at that time: Sarah. She would bear a son and become the mother of nations; kings would come from her (Genesis 17:15-16). But 13 years earlier, Sarah had devised a plan to help God, since He hadn’t yet given them children. That plan resulted in Ishmael and not a little grief for Sarah, and eventually for Abraham. God graciously granted Abraham’s request to bless Ishmael also, so that he and the son of God’s promise would both become great nations. And there would be even more sons and nations coming from Abraham (Genesis 25:1-4)!
Isaac
The line to the Messiah flows not through the son of the slave women, Ishmael, but through the son of the free woman, Isaac, the child of the promise. Paul was inspired to teach us through Ishmael and Isaac that not all who are descended from Abraham are counted as his children (Romans 9:6-9).
Physical descent is no guarantee of God’s ultimate blessing of salvation. Growing up in a Christian family does not mean you are saved. Belonging to the right group is no guarantee of God’s ultimate blessing of salvation. Becoming a member of the right church does not mean you are saved. It is those who seek and find that which God promised that will enjoy the blessing of it.
Again, Paul uses Ishmael and Isaac to teach that it is not those who seek to establish their own righteousness by obedience to the Law who will be saved, but it is those who trust in the promise and provision of God (Galatians 4:21-31). It’s not those who “check boxes” who will be saved. There is no earning of this promise of salvation. Not by obedience to certain commands. Not by marks in our flesh. Not by saying the magic words of a prayer. Not by passing a test of catechism. Not by baptism or any other act can one be assured of salvation. It is by genuine, abiding, transforming faith in that which fulfilled God’s promise to Abraham, that which brings blessing to all nations.
It is by belief that Jesus truly is the descendant of Abraham and is also the Son of God, that He is the promised Messiah, the eternal king of Israel. It is by belief that He lived a perfect, sinless life, which He then offered up in death as the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and by His perfect righteousness had the authority and power to rise again from the dead. It is by faith in this Jesus as Savior that we are then forgiven and made new, into people who honor and obey this Great King of all nations.
Isaac is the son whom God called Abraham to sacrifice, to test and prove Abraham’s obedient, trusting faith. Isaac was ultimately spared, but he remains a picture of the cost to God to fulfill His promise to bless all nations: the life of His only Son, His beloved Son, whom He would in fact receive back from the dead.
Jacob
Isaac would go on to have two sons, twins. While the twins were still in the womb, before either could do anything right or wrong, God would declare His choice of the younger over the older as the inheritor of His promises to Abraham. In that He would illustrate His right to choose one person to be saved and another to be rejected, based on nothing they had done or failed to do (Romans 9:10-18).
Jacob was no angel. His name means “to follow” or “to supplant.” You might say he extorted his brother out of his birthright, but Esau surely could have found something to eat elsewhere in the family compound. And it was his mother’s plot for him to steal Esau’s blessing; Jacob was just a willing participant. Interestingly enough, Jacob got a taste of his own medicine when he went to live with his Uncle Laban!
God didn’t choose Jacob because Esau was rotten to the core and Jacob was the nicest guy in the world; both were sinners. Neither of them knew or cared about the ways of God. God chose Jacob, not because of any righteousness that dwelt in him, but because of God’s mercy and sovereign purposes.
Just as surely as no one today is chosen and saved by God because of their own righteousness, neither are they rejected by God because their sins are exceedingly wicked. We like to divide people into categories, to judge their eligibility to be saved, based on what we see and know of them. But we all alike are under condemnation by God for the sins we have committed. One sinner is not more or less likely to receive the mercy and grace of God on the basis of his greater or lesser badness. Jacob reminds us that if anyone is willing to accept and believe that Jesus is in fact the Son of God and the means and source of God’s promised blessing to all through Abraham, then they will be saved.
Neither is this reason to think you cannot be saved, because you cannot know if you’re chosen or not. You actually can know: By how you respond to the revelation of Jesus Christ and who He is. It is not how you lived before you heard of Jesus that reveals your eternal destination, but it is how you live after.
Do you continue to live by your own wisdom and ways after you hear the truth about Jesus? Then you are not at this point saved. There is still hope, however, as long as you live.
Or do you respond in submission and obedience to Jesus, now that you understand the price He paid to purchase your forgiveness, now that you know that He rose again to make you new, holy and righteous, someone who delights to know and do what God Himself does? You, then, should have great confidence that you are saved.
God’s mercy is extended to one wicked person just as surely as it is withheld from another wicked person, all according to His sovereign choice. No one chosen by God to believe in His Son has anything to boast about. But they have something to be eternally grateful for!
Judah & Tamar
Jacob ended up with 12 sons. Joseph was the best of the lot, as near as we can tell. He was the one most honored by God and most diligent to honor Him. And while he did receive a double-portion, an extra inheritance from his father, he was not chosen by God to be in the line of the Messiah.
That honor fell to Judah. In Jacob’s blessing to each of his sons at the end of his life, he foresaw that eventually there would be kings among his descendants, and the only king that mattered would come from Judah (Genesis 49:8-10). Yet Judah was no saint.
Matthew recounts that Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. This is the first mention of a woman in Matthew’s genealogy. And she is no insignificant woman. Neither is she a paragon of virtue.
Judah married a Canaanite woman, who bore him three sons: Er, Onan and Shelah. Perez and Zerah came after his wife had died. (Genesis 38:1-12)
Perhaps you remember that God had promised the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendants. And while Abraham, Isaac and now Jacob and his sons all lived in the land of Canaan, it had not yet been given to them. God had told Abraham why He was giving the land to his family: The Canaanites were exceedingly wicked people, but not to the point that God was ready to wipe them out. Abraham, Isaac and even Jacob had friendly relations with many Canaanites. But when Esau took two Canaanite wives, Isaac’s wife Rebekah said she hated living because of them. That was her excuse for sending Jacob off to her brother Laban to find a wife.
The Canaanites were apparently some of the worst people on earth, and were marked for complete destruction. But not yet.
Judah’s first wife was a Canaanite, as was Tamar. Judah had taken her to be his first son’s wife. But Er was sufficiently wicked in God’s eyes that He put him to death. According to custom, because Er died without leaving a son, Tamar was given to the next brother in line, but he too incited God to wrath and died. At that point, Judah feared he would lose his last son, Shelah, so he sent Tamar to her home under the pretense that Shelah was too young to take her as wife.
After the death of his wife, Judah and Shelah were passing near Tamar’s home. Tamar disguised herself and discovered that Shelah was old enough, but she hadn’t been given to him. Before anything could be done, Judah mistook her for a prostitute and she agreed to sleep with him. Wonderful people, yes?
That’s how Tamar and Judah became the parents of Perez and Zerah. Just the kind of story you’d love to recount around the Thanksgiving table!
Yet here she is, a Canaanite, member of a people who will soon be utterly rejected by God, in the line of Jesus, the Messiah, the blessing for all nations. A nation may be near to being rejected, but that doesn’t mean every individual in it has no hope. God’s blessing to all nations does not mean that all people of all nations will be blessed, but it does mean that individuals within even rejected nations would be saved.
We can jump through the next fairly quickly, for not much is recorded about them: Perez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon.
Salmon & Rahab
And that brings us to Salmon, and to Rahab, his wife.
Rahab is the same prostitute from Jericho who hid the Israelite spies and begged them to spare her family. All Jericho had heard what the Lord did to the Egyptians and the kings beyond the Jordan River. Everyone was terrified, but only Rahab had the sense to ask for mercy. Hebrews 11 lists her as an example of faith (Hebrews 11:31). James records that she was considered righteous by her deed (James 2:25).
Remember, Rahab is both a prostitute and a Canaanite. And she belongs to the Canaanite generation that is so bad now that God intends to destroy them all. None were to be spared.
But Rahab and her family. Because she feared the Lord, saw her chance to save herself and her family, and took it. The rest of Jericho prepared to fight the Israelites, hoping that their massive wall would protect them.
Though belonging to a people without hope, she and her family found mercy. She repented of her former way of life, and Salmon took her as his wife.
From her, we see no one is beyond God’s reach. If He decides to save someone, He will accept them. If He would accept someone from a people who are utterly hopeless, then there is no people group who are completely doomed. When the Scriptures say that there will be people from every tribe and language and people and nation in the Kingdom of God, the Lord means every tribe and language and people and nation (Revelation 5:9; 7:9-10). No people is beyond His reach and no people should be overlooked in preaching the Gospel.
Boaz & Ruth
Now look who their son is! Boaz, that gracious Bethlehemite who had mercy on the Moabite girl, Ruth, who left her family to care for an Israelite, Naomi.
I wonder how much his own family history played into his kindness toward Ruth. He himself was half-Israelite and half-Canaanite. Did that matter to his neighbors? Did he grow up being ridiculed by his peers? The Israelites didn’t seem to have a problem with embracing foreigners, even those they should have kept a distance from.
Did you know that the Lord expressly forbid the Israelites from welcoming Moabites into the assembly of Israel down to the tenth generation? Because the Moabites hired Balaam to curse Israel as they waited beside the Jordan for God to lead them into Canaan. It was Balaam who taught the Moabites to use their women to entice the Israelites to worship their gods and commit sexual immorality.
Ruth was a Moabitess. But Ruth was willing to abandon her gods and her people in order to follow Naomi back to her people and care for her. When Naomi encouraged her to return to her people, Ruth famously replied, “Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me” (Ruth 1:16-17, NIV84).
Not as bad as the Canaanites, but still cut off from the Lord as a people at least until the tenth generation. Yet Ruth was welcomed into Israel, found a home as Boaz’s wife, and gained a place in the line of Jesus.
Rahab and Ruth. If anyone—no matter how completely rejected—is willing to repent and embrace the Lord as God, God will accept them. Nothing can keep someone out of the Kingdom of God if they truly repent and believe. Even if God completely condemns a people, that does not mean He is unwilling to accept members of that people who repent and come to live under His rule. If members of these two peoples can be accepted by God, then anyone can.
When Boaz took Ruth as his wife, the elders of the city blessed him, saying, “May the LORD make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. Through the offspring the LORD gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah” (Ruth 4:11-12, NIV84). Did you catch that? Tamar. Held in honor as a mother of their people.
Obed
Ruth bore Boaz a son, Obed, of whom we know little, except that he then had a son, Jesse.
Jesse
In time, Jesse has seven sons and two daughters. The seventh son, the youngest son, becomes a mighty warrior in his youth. A man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). Eventually king. And so great a king that he becomes the standard by which all future kings will be measured.
David
The product of a gracious family, a blessed family, that accepted foreign women into their bloodline, women who forsook their own gods to live in submission to the One True God. How much of this family background built into him the love for God that would characterize him and win him the greatest blessing any father could hope for: Life eternal for his son. We’ll have to look more into David next week.
Conclusion
The more we understand the people in Jesus’ genealogy, the better we understand God’s heart for the world and His plan to redeem it. Jesus was sent into the world as the son of Abraham who fulfills God’s promise to Abraham: “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." (Genesis 12:3, NIV84)
You have Abraham’s own descendants, none of whom are worthy of salvation—by their own merits or righteousness. No one can earn salvation, and no one is guaranteed salvation by lineage. Neither is anyone rejected even when a whole people group may be rejected or restricted entry into God’s family. Just in the line from Abraham to David, on the way to Jesus, you have two women, Tamar and Rahab, from different generations of Canaanites, a people group that was on God’s chopping block. You have another woman, Ruth, from the people of Moab, who were not permitted into the assembly of Israel until the tenth generation.
God intends for all nations to hear of Him and He seeks believers from all people groups. Jesus Himself is the promise that brings blessing to all nations, to all who will receive Him. Jesus commanded His disciples, including you and me, to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19a, NIV84); to “go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” (Mark 16:15, NIV84); and to “be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8b, NIV84).
Jesus came to be the blessing for all nations, to grant them forgiveness and eternal life in His name. It falls to us to proclaim that Great News to all peoples. If we do not go ourselves, we must help those who are going.
And knowing full well that we have received His grace and mercy far apart from our own deeds—in spite of our evil deeds—we must not take it upon ourselves to determine who is worthy of hearing this news and who is not. “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8b, NIV84).
Who do you know who hasn’t heard of Jesus? If everyone around you knows, it’s time to meet some new people. We need to call everyone to repent and believe in Jesus. If you’d like help knowing how to explain the Gospel, talk to me afterward. I can teach you a technique or two.