Ever wonder about your family tree? What kind of people you had as ancestors? Did they make it to heaven? Are they in hell? And what kind of inherent qualities did they pass down to you? Well you can wonder - but don't worry about it. Take a look at some of Jesus' ancestors on His human side, and He turned out to be the greatest Person to ever walk the earth.
The following is taken from the book "Bible, Marvels, Oddities, and Shockers" by Paul Kent. There are some real characters like idol worshippers, murderers, and prostitutes, in Jesus' family line.
" Matthew's genealogy (of Jesus) mentions a Rahab in Jesus' line. She's identified as the mother of Boaz, who was the great-grandfather of King David. And it's very possible that she was the prostitute who protected Joshua's spies in the Promised Land. Like a Hollywood harlot with a heart of gold. Rahab seemed to atone for her vocation by that act of kindness to the Israelite soldiers - so much that she earned a spot in the Faith Hall of Fame in Hebrews 11.
It's the Hall of Shame for others in Jesus' family tree, though. Take for example, Judah, who mistook his own daughter-in-law for a prostitute. A son of Jacob, Judah headed up one of the twelve tribes of Israel. When it came time to find a wife for his oldest son, Er "What do I want to name' im? I dunno, Er..."), Judah found a gal named Tamar. But Er was such a rotten egg that God actually killed him. Son number two, Onan, was expected to fulfill his older brother's husbandly duties to Tamar, but he refused - and got the divine ax as well.
In baseball terms, it was two-up, two-down for Judah's boys - and dad was afraid his third son, Shelah, might make the third out to end the inning. Trouble was, Judah had already told Tamar to wait around until Shelah reached marrying age. When Shelah reached that age and Judah "forgot" to set up a wedding, Tamar took matters into her own hands, disguising herself as a prostitute on a road she knew Judah would travel.
The old man took the bait, asking the veiled Tamar to sleep with him in exchange for a young goat from his flock. As promise of payment, he gave the "prostitute" his staff and his seal, with a cord attached. But before Judah could deliver the goat, Tamar disappeared.
Later, when townspeople found that Tamar was pregnant, Judah indignantly denounced her, ordering that she be burned to death. At that point, Tamar calmly produced Judah's staff, seal, and cord, saying, "I am pregnant by the man who owns these." Rubbing it in a bit, she added, "See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are."
This man appears in the human family line of Jesus Christ?
Well what about David? Yes, King David - Israels greatest ruler, successful military commander, writer of beautiful Psalms, and "man after [God's] own heart." It's hard to ignore, however, his adultery with I-saw-her-taking-a-Bath-sheba, and the fact that he then plotted to have her husband, Uriah, killed on the battlefield.
But, wait - as the Ginsu knife commercials used to say - there's more!
Consider Manasseh. He was a king - but that's about the only good thing to say about him. Crowned at age twelve, Manasseh spent most of his next fifty-five years doing "evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites." Not only did Manasseh worship false gods himself, but he actually put an idol in the temple - God's temple - in Jerusalem. The occult was a favorite pastime of Manasseh, as he "practiced sorcery, divination and witchcraft, and consulted mediums and spiritists." And, most disgusting of all, this King of God's chosen people "sacrificed his sons in the fire." This man appears in Jesus' family tree?
In fact, he does. Just like the sincere but flawed David, just like the deceitful, immoral Judah, just like the prostitute Rahab. Just like the loyal and loving Ruth, who came from the idol-worshipping, child-sacrificing nation of Moab.
Jesus' human family tree is actually a picture of all people - with some seriously messed up dudes, some decent folks with baggage, and everything in between; and every last one of them incapable of pleasing a perfect God. But that's why Jesus came in the first place - to provide the way of salvation.
"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick," Jesus once said. He found plenty of sickos in His own human family line. He'll find them in ours, too. "
By George Konig
12/10/2006
www.georgekonig.org
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