WWUTT 1898 From Judah to David (Matthew 1:3-6)

There are some pretty dark spots in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, even though we're talking about the birth of the perfect man, the

Savior of all mankind, yet God used some evil to bring about this good when we understand the text.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We're in a study of the Gospel of Matthew, still in the genealogy in Chapter 1, and only made it as far as the patriarchs yesterday.

We'll see how far we can get today. So I'm going to begin reading in verse 1 and we'll go through the genealogy up to David.

Hear the word of the Lord. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron was the father of Ram, and Ram was the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab was the father of Nashon, and Nashon was the father of Salmon, and Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David the king, and David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah.

Some of the names that we have here we don't know much about, other than they are mentioned in the genealogy.

There are others whose stories are vast and quite dramatic, as a matter of fact,

Judah being one of those stories. So in verse 3, Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez was the father of Hezron.

Do you remember this story? It is not what we might call a children's story. I mentioned

Jacob's history a little bit yesterday, how he married two women, one named Leah whom he did not mean to marry, and the other was

Rachel, his favored wife. Leah was fruitful and bore him many sons, but Rachel bore him only two sons,

Joseph and Benjamin. When she bore Joseph to him, Joseph was his favorite son, and we're introduced to Joseph in Genesis chapter 37.

You have the story of Joseph's dreams. Jacob blessed Joseph by giving him what we call a coat of many colors.

It's more accurately translated an ornamented coat, and this made his brothers jealous.

The dreams, the favoritism that they had from their father Jacob. So they captured him and threw him in a well with the intention of killing him, but instead had sold him into slavery.

And then it's right after we read all of that in Genesis 37 that we have this excursus in chapter 38 where we read this drama involving

Judah and a prostitute named Tamar. Judah was not a very good man, and it's pretty interesting to consider that the

Jews are named after Judah. Jesus would be born in the line of Judah, even though Judah does not come across as a righteous individual.

So Genesis chapter 38, I'm going to begin reading in verse 1. Now it happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and turned aside to a certain

Adulamite whose name was Hira. And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain

Canaanite whose name was Shua, and he took her and went into her. So she conceived and bore a son, and he named him

Ur. Then she conceived again and bore a son, and she named him Onan. And she bore still another son, and she named him

Shelah. And it was at Kisev that she bore him. Then Judah took a wife for Ur his firstborn, and her name was

Tamar. But Ur, Judah's firstborn, was evil in the sight of Yahweh, so Yahweh put him to death.

Then Judah said to Onan, Go into your brother's wife, and perform your duty as a brother -in -law to her, and raise up a seed for your brother.

And Onan knew that the seed would not be his, and it happened that when he went into his brother's wife, he wasted it on the ground in order not to give seed to his brother.

But what he did was displeasing in the sight of Yahweh, so he put him to death also.

Then Judah said to his daughter -in -law Tamar, Live as a widow in your father's house until my son

Shelah grows up. For he thought, I am afraid lest he also die like his brothers. So Tamar went and lived in her father's house.

And after a considerable time, Sheuah's daughter, the wife of Judah, died. Then Judah was comforted, and he went up to his sheep -shearers at Timnah, he and his friend

Hira, the Adulamite. Then it was told to Tamar, Behold, your father -in -law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.

So she removed her widow's garments from herself, and covered herself with a veil, and wrapped herself. And she sat at the entrance of Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah.

For she saw that Shelah had grown up, and she had not been given to him as a wife. Now let me break from the action here to say that obviously this is covering a long period of time.

There's other things we're going to be reading about in Genesis, like Joseph in Potiphar's house, which is the very next chapter,

Genesis 39. Those things were probably going on at the same time as what we're reading here in Genesis 38.

So it's a break from the main story regarding Jacob and his sons and Joseph, but it's still very, very important, of course, because it's from the line of Judah that the

Savior is going to come. So it's important for us to know this genealogy, and how the

Lord used such evil circumstance to bring about an ultimate good.

There's a lot of that in Genesis, in fact, especially when you consider that when Joseph's brothers ask for his forgiveness in Genesis 50, 20, he says to them that you meant this for evil, but God meant it for good, that he would bring about the salvation of many people.

Now, that was with regards to Joseph being sent to Egypt to save them from the famine. But a lot of what mankind intends for evil,

God intends for good. Romans 8, verse 28, you know this verse, for God works all things together for good.

For those who love God and are called according to his purpose. And so we're seeing that happen here, even in this account in Genesis 38.

So let me pick up where I left off. This is beginning in verse 15. Then Judah saw her, and he thought she was a harlot, for she had covered her face.

So he turned aside to her by the road and said, Here now, let me come into you. For he did not know that she was his daughter -in -law.

And she said, What will you give me that you may come into me? He said, Therefore, I will send you a young goat from the flock.

She said, Moreover, will you give a pledge until you send it? Then he said,

What pledge shall I give you? And she said, Your signet and your cord and your staff that is in your hand.

So he gave them to her and went into her, and she conceived by him. Then she arose and went, and she removed her veil from herself and put on her widow's garments.

Then Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adulamite to take the pledge from the woman's hand, but he did not find her.

So he asked the men of her place, saying, Where is the cult prostitute who is by the road at an a .m.?

But they said, There has not been a cult prostitute here. So he returned to Judah and said,

I did not find her. And furthermore, the men of the place said, There has not been a cult prostitute here. Then Judah said,

Let her keep them, lest we become a laughingstock. Behold, I sent this young goat, but you did not find her.

Now it happened about three months later that it was told to Judah, saying, Your daughter -in -law

Tamar has played the harlot, and behold, she is also with child by harlotry.

Then Judah said, Bring her out and let her be burned. It was while she was being brought out that she sent to her father -in -law, saying,

I am with child by the man to whom these things belong. And she said,

Please recognize this and see whose signet ring and cords and staff these are.

And Judah recognized them and said, She is more righteous than I, and as much as I did not give her to my son

Shelah, and he did not know her again. Now it happened at the time she was giving birth that, behold, there were twins in her womb.

We've heard this before, right? Jacob and Esau were twins. So Tamar has twins.

And it happened while she was giving birth, one put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying,

This one came out first. And then it happened as he drew back his hand that, behold, his brother came out.

So she said, What a breach you have made for yourself. So he was named Perez.

Afterward, his brother came out who had the scarlet thread on his hand, and he was named

Zerah. So there is the unusual story of Judah and Tamar and how through this act of incest,

God would even bring about the salvation of mankind. Now that is not to excuse anybody's evil to say,

Well, see, it wasn't really that bad because look at what kind of good it resulted in. Every man is still going to have to give an account for what it is that he has done.

But though we might do evil, God still works all things together for good. And so though the worst evils may happen in your life, you must trust the

Lord that he is bringing about the salvation of those who trust in him of those who believe in Jesus.

And of course, what we're reading about here is where Jesus would come from this genealogical line that would lead to the savior of mankind.

And we have some tragic chapters in here, but nonetheless, God bringing about an ultimate good.

So that is the remainder, or I guess I have the rest of verse three to read here.

So Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron was the father of Ram.

And Ram was the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab was the father of Nashon, and Nashon was the father of Salmon.

Now, we don't have as many stories of all of these figures here in the genealogy as we might have detailed regarding Judah and Tamar, for example.

We also know that some of these names have been omitted. There are several generations that aren't there because Matthew is writing for a particular purpose and he's keeping this genealogy abbreviated.

If you'll remember when we got to the end of the genealogy, he says that the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations, from David to the deportation of Babylon, 14 generations, and then from the deportation of Babylon to the birth of Christ is 14 generations.

So Matthew is keeping a specific number at 14, 14, 14, and I'll explain that, why he picks that here in just a little bit.

It's not that there were exactly that many generations from Abraham to David, or from David to the deportation of Babylon, as if everything was working out so perfectly symmetrically in that way.

Matthew omits some generations, and you can see that here even in this genealogy that we have in verse 4.

So from Judah to the time of the Exodus was about 400 years, okay?

That was from the time that Joseph was second in command over Egypt to then the

Israelite population grows in Egypt and then God rescues his people out of Egypt. That was a period of about 400 years, not quite that long.

It was from Abraham to the Exodus that would have been 400 years. So from the time of Judah, at least about 300 years.

So we go through this list of names rather quickly, and where we get to Nashon, Nashon was the brother of Elishabah, who was the wife of Aaron, the brother of Moses.

So consider how few names we have in between there. You go from Judah to Perez and Zerah by Tamar, there's one generation, and then from Perez there's

Hezron, from Hezron, Ram, from Ram the father of Amminadab, and from Amminadab the father of Nashon.

That's just five generations there. So five generations over 300 years.

We're moving rather quickly through the story, but that's about the time period in which the

Exodus would have taken place, from Nashon and then him being the father of Salmon.

And then we read in verse 5 that Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab.

You remember the story of Rahab now, right? That would have been in the book of Joshua. This is when

Joshua sends out the spies into the land of Canaan, well, specifically into Jericho, to spy out the area of Jericho, because that's going to be the first city that they come upon as they are taking the land in obedience to the

Lord. And so while they're there at Jericho, they come to a prostitute's house whose name is

Rahab. She hides them on the roof of her house while the officials there at Jericho are searching for them.

And she diverts their attention away and says, hey, they've already run off. If you hurry now, you can catch them. And then she says to these men, we know about God.

We know about what Yahweh, your God, has done for you as you've come out of the land of Egypt and are coming now into taking this land.

And so she says, when you come against Jericho, I just ask that you spare me and you spare my family.

So they make the arrangement where she lowers a cord out of her window, and as long as that cord is there, as long as the family is there in her house, no harm will come upon them.

The rest of the city of Jericho was destroyed, but her family and her house were spared.

They were saved by the favor of God. So when Joseph and the armies surrounded

Jericho and marched around the city and then shouted and blew the trumpets and the walls came tumbling down, it was all of the walls that fell down, except for that tower, that one spot where Rahab had her home there in the wall of Jericho that was spared.

And archaeological evidence has even uncovered that the walls fell down in such an unusual way.

But there was one tower, I can't remember on what side of Jericho it was, I even read this recently, but yeah, it's not coming to mind anyway.

So there was one tower that was spared. That entire destruction was baffling to archaeologists, but it gave confirmation to the story as we read it in the book of Joshua.

And so this woman, though she was a foreigner, yet she marries into the line of Judah and gets married to Salmon and it's from them would come

Boaz, Boaz, who would be the kinsmen Redeemer in the book of Ruth, who would marry

Ruth, who herself was a Moabite woman. She was not of the line of Israel either.

And yet you see how from these two, from Rahab and from Ruth, God is bringing about that the savior would be born.

He even uses these foreign women. So you have people of ill repute in this genealogy and you even have those who are from nations that God told

Israel to have nothing to do with. They were not supposed to give any hospitality to the

Moabites. And yet the Lord still uses this to redeem not only his own people, but all of mankind through faith in the savior,

Jesus Christ. So Boaz is the father of Obed by Ruth and Obed was the father of Jesse.

And that portion there in Matthew 1 .5 is taken right out of the end of Ruth.

So you see that genealogy at the end of the book of Ruth. Now that's during a very dark period, because if you've read through the book of Judges, you'll see just how things get worse and worse for Israel.

You have the statement that's made a couple of times in Judges that they had no king and everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

So you just see things getting progressively worse. Judges is a very depressing book, doesn't really have a whole lot of high points.

And you get to the end of Judges with the people still in evil and still doing what is right in their own eyes.

That's the way that Judges concludes. But then right after Judges, you have Ruth. And it's kind of like a bright spot in the midst of all of this darkness.

It's another excursus, so to say. Now, I've used that term earlier. An excursus really is like a side story, doesn't necessarily have to do with the main action.

But an excursus oftentimes will be something a little bit more lighthearted, to kind of enliven the spirits of the reader, so not to get so depressed with all the negative action that's going on.

Now, Ruth does have to do with the main action, though. So it's not like it's just kind of something off to the side.

This is a very important chapter in the Old Testament. Four chapters is as long as Ruth is.

But as you're following the story that's happening in the Old Testament, we're still anticipating this coming king.

Ruth is very important to kind of guide us in that direction. But it becomes a bright spot in the story of Israel, especially with how dark everything was getting.

Judges is just supremely depressing. But then you get to this story in Ruth that's taking place at the time of the

Judges, in which Ruth comes from the land of Moab. Her husband dies.

She follows her mother -in -law, Naomi, back to the land of Bethlehem, which was where she was from.

So the very city of David. And she encounters this man named Boaz, who shows favor to her and redeems her and marries her.

And the two of them have a child together who would become Obed, the grandfather of David.

So again, in Matthew 1 .5, Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth.

And Obed was the father of Jesse. And Jesse was the father of David, the king. I kind of have to wonder if we just use our imagination here.

I wonder how much Boaz thought of this woman, Ruth, whom he would marry because he knew that his mother was a foreigner, that his father, a

Jew, had married. And so Boaz is thinking to himself, I'm going to help save this woman, this woman who was of a pagan land, who worshiped foreign gods, who would have come into destruction had she continued on that path.

And yet Boaz takes her to himself, redeems her really in more ways than one. He was her redeemer in the sense that in the laws of marriage, he was the one to take her as a wife, but was a redeemer in another way as well, that she would be saved from the paganism that she was raised in and even become part of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.

And they have this child named Obed who he has a child named Jesse, and Jesse becomes the father of David, the king.

And that's where we are there in verse six. So we're going to stop there. We'll pick up the genealogy more tomorrow, but still amazing to see how

God is working in the midst of all of this to bring about this beautiful story of redemption, the birth of his son,

Jesus Christ, who would save all who believe in him from their sins.

And we have everlasting life with God in Christ. Heavenly father, we thank you for what we've read here today.

And I pray that though we're going through a simple genealogy, it's something that is convicting to our hearts that we recognize despite all the evil that is happening in the world, you are working towards some great good.

And the only way that we can find any good in the midst of this evil is to believe in the gospel.

And no matter what's happening in the world, the gospel is still needed. People need to hear about Jesus Christ. He who died on the cross, rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of God, is coming back again to judge the living and the dead.

Whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. That is a message the whole world needs to hear.

We hear it even in the genealogy of Christ. May the world hear it clearly from the words that we share with them so that they may come to faith and be saved.

Thank you for your grace and your mercy to us. It's in Jesus name that we pray.

Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a

New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers.