SON OF ABRAHAM

Jesus was the “Son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1).

Matthew meticulously recorded Jesus’ lineage, from Abraham through David to Joseph and Mary.

Jesus’ earthly ancestry included some unlikely folks… like Tamar, a widow who seduced her father-in-law to conceive a child (Matthew 1:3; Genesis 38:1-30). And then there was the Canaanite, Rahab, the harlot of Jericho (Matthew 1:5; Joshua 2:1-24; Hebrews 11:31) and Ruth the Moabitess (Matthew 1:5; Ruth 1-4). Oh yes, there was also Bathsheba. She was David’s conquest, the wife of Uriah, murdered by the lustful king.

Also included in David’s family-line, Solomon (Matthew 1:6-7), the not-so-wise-guy who had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines (1 Kings 11:3), and his son Rehoboam (Matthew 1:7) who led the nation to do “what was evil in the Lord’s sight” (1 Kings 14:22). After him, his son, Abijam/Abijah (Matthew 1:7), “walked in all the sins his father before him had committed” (1 Kings 15:3). A couple of generations later, Jehoram/Joram (Matthew 1:8), Jesus’ great, great, great… grandfather, married evil Ahab and even-more-evil Jezebel’s daughter and “did what was evil in the Lord’s sight” (2 Kings 8:18).

I’m just getting warmed up… there are plenty of other examples of unlikely entries in Jesus’ genealogy. Jesus wasn’t born into a family of saints … much like most of us.

What does that teach us?

Grace. Those folks didn’t earn the right to be the grandparents of Jesus… they were chosen by grace!

“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).