What's in a Name?

This past Sunday in our church, I decided to read through some of the genealogy of Christ from Matthew's gospel. As a rule, genealogies (or lists of "begats" as we often quip) are not among my favorite devotional readings. We typically think of passages from Ephesians or Phillipians when we sit down to read something inspirational. Or maybe if we're feeling really adventurous, we might pick one of the characters from an Old Testament narrative and examine their walk with God (1st and 2nd Samuel seem to be among the favorites for most). Or you might even be one of those who thoroughly enjoy a good reading of Leviticus before work in the morning. But I'd be willing to bet that most of us conveniently skip over the genealogies of scripture (well maybe except for all of those faithfully praying the prayer of Jabez each day....sorry I couldn't resist).

But a careful examination of the names of scripture will often reveal some wonderful nuggets of theological truth. The Holy Spirit moved upon the men who wrote the pages of scripture. So that means that He superintended over even the name lists in the book. This alone is reason enough for us to have a reverence for the genealogies of scripture (despite my feeble attempts at humor earlier). I picked Matthew's gospel in particular because of 4 women that are mentioned early on in his "list." They are Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. I could spend lots of room here talking about the "generation" of Jesus Christ, or the fact that He is son of David, son of Abraham, etc. etc., but that's not my focus today. We could also talk about the reverse order of the genealogy- instead of working our way backward from Jesus, Matthew starts at the beginning, and shows the fact that these ancestors are dependant on Him who created all things and is the focal figure of human history. By Him were all things created and by Him all things consist (or hold together). One can quickly see the Sovereignty, or Providence, of God in the history of the Israeli nation and the lineage of the Messiah Jesus. Many genealogies of the day would include primarily male ancestors. The fact that Matthew (through the inspiration of the Spirit) includes these women is indeed a unique feature to the account.

Some commentators have noted that one would expect to see such female figures as Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, (the matriarchs of the nation) but instead we find these 4 women of Gentile descent. First we have Tamar, who is remembered as one who disguised herself as a prostitute and had relations with her father-in-law. I encourage you to read the account in Genesis 38 because there are some other notable characters in her story, but time and space will not allow me to discuss the whole scenario here. Then we have Rahab "the harlot" (as she is referred to in scripture) as a name in this account. She is famous (not only because of her vocation) because she hid the spies sent by Joshua (chapter 2). Because of her act of kindness (and as we will later see it was an act of faith) she was spared when the Israelites invaded Jericho. She went on to become the mother of Boaz. Rahab, gets wonderful mention in the New Testament as well. The book of Hebrews tell us that it was Rahab's faith (Heb 11:31) that enabled her to courageously welcome the spies from Joshua's army. The book of James also records Rahab as an example of one who had a living faith accompanied by works (2:25).

Next, we come to Ruth who came from the land of Moab. She is probably best remembered for her response to her mother-in-law Naomi "your people will be my people, and your God my God" (Ruth 1:16). She is a picture of uncommon faith and loyalty- willing to leave her own familiar land and people to embrace the God of Israel. She ended up marrying Boaz (through an act of Providence once again and it is indeed a beautiful story of love and faith) and was the great-grandmother of King David. Finally we come to Bathsheba. Her role in one of the great "scandals" of the Old Testament can never be forgotten. We are almost all familiar with David's act of infidelity- he sees Bathsheba bathing on the rooftop (at the time when kings should be in battle no less) and desires her for himself. Only one problem- she is married to another man...Uriah the Hittite-a faithful soldier in David's army. The man "after God's own heart"...in a moment of weakness- takes Bathsheba for himself and becomes an accessory to Uriah's murder in an attempt to cover his guilt. This act brought the Divine judgment of God upon the house of David, and the love-child of David and Bathsheba died because of their disobedience. Nevertheless, she (Bathsheba) went on to become the mother of King Solomon, the wisest king until the time Christ walked the earth.

What can we learn from all of this? Well, I'm sure you've probably come up with your own conclusions, but I'd like to share just a few. First we see that the Gentiles have always been on the mind of God. In Galatians we read that the "gospel was preached unto Abraham" (Gal 3:8). We also see the important role that women have always played in scripture and in history. Many are tempted to believe that women are inferior to men in every way, but the bible shows that God values women every bit as much as man. Finally (and again this is not an exhaustive exegesis of Matthew's genealogy by any means), we see that even those with checkered-pasts and questionable backgrounds can be greatly used for God's purposes. We all too often forget that before God found us, we were all "dead in trespasses in sins" and as Ezekiel records "polluted in our own blood" (quite a graphic picture from Ezek. 16:6 isn't it?).

It would be a mistake to look at all the past failures and sins of these individuals as being endorsed by the Almighty. God never condones sin, nor does He wink at it. We are warned in Galatians that God is not mocked "whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap." The point is not that God condoned all of their actions, but rather that He was able to take them, cleanse them from their iniquities, and give them a future- and a prominent role in the genealogy of the greatest figure in the history of mankind- Jesus Christ! Probably most of us struggle with some issue from our past. Perhaps it was a lifestyle of sin, maybe the way we were raised, the family that reared us, or some huge mistake that we have made due to error in judgment. We cannot do anything about the past- it is gone. What we can do is learn from our mistakes, ask God to cleanse us from the unrighteousness we have committed, and fully expect and trust that He will make something beautiful with the tapestry of our lives. God is all about redemption and reconciliation. Taking what seems to be a hopeless situation and making it beautiful. I suppose this is what Paul had in mind when he penned that famous line in Romans 8:28 " And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. "

I hope that you will be encouraged today as you realize that God has a plan for your life. Today can be a day of new beginning for you if you will only "make room" for Him during this holiday season.

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