LESSONS FROM JESUS GENEALOGY

LESSONS FROM JESUS GENEALOGY

Many are the times when people are being judgmental especially when it comes to one’s background and status in society.  However From some of the people I picked from Jesus genealogy it will be able to help us realize that you don’t have to be perfect in this world.

It doesn’t matter whether you come from incest, adultery, prostitution background to do Gods will. That’s why it’s important to take yourself as you are if you want to give your life to Christ.  Don’t wait to be perfect.  Below are perfect examples to elaborate of this issue.

RAHAB

According to the Book of Joshua, She was a woman who lived in Jericho in the Promised Land.  She assisted the Israelites in capturing the city by hiding two men who had been sent to reconnoiter the city prior to their attack.  In the New Testament, she is lauded both as an example of a saint who lived by faith and as someone "considered righteous" for her works.

Rahab's Profession

The Hebrew used to describe Rahab in Joshua 2:1, literally means "a prostitute woman".  In rabbinic texts, however, she is explained as being an "innkeeper," based on the Aramaic Targum.  Rahab's name is presumably the shortened form of a sentence name rāḥāb-N, "the god N has opened/widened (the womb?)". 

The Hebrew zōnâ may refer to secular or cultic prostitution, and the latter is widely believed to have been an invariable element of Canaanite religious practice, although recent scholarship has disputed this. However, there was a separate word, qědēšâ, that could be used to designate prostitutes of the cultic variety.

Josephus mentions that Rahab kept an inn but is silent as to whether merely renting out rooms was her only source of income.  It was not uncommon for both an inn and a brothel to operate within the same building; thus entering Rahab's quarters was not necessarily a deviation from Joshua's orders.

Indeed such an establishment might have represented an ideal location for spies to gather intelligence. A number of scholars have noted that the narrator in Joshua 2 may have intended to remind the readers of the "immemorial symbiosis between military service and bawdy house".

In the Christian New Testament, the Epistle of James and the Epistle to the Hebrews follow the tradition set by the translators of the Septuagint in using the Greek word "πόρνη" (pórnē, which is usually translated to English as "harlot" or "prostitute") to describe Rahab.

William L. Lyons observed that biblical interpreters have viewed Rahab as a model of hospitality, mercy, faith, patience, and repentance in her interaction with Joshua's spies. Thus the harlot of Jericho became a paragon of virtue.

LOT AND HIS DAUGHTERS INCEST

According to Genesis 19:30–38, the ancestor of the Moabites was Lot by incest with his eldest daughter. She and her sister, having lost their fiancés and their mother in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, decided to continue their father's line through intercourse with their father. The elder got him drunk to facilitate the deed and conceived Moab.

The younger daughter did the same and conceived a son named Ben-Ammi, who became ancestor to the Ammonites. According to the Book of Jasher (24,24), Moab had four sons—Ed, Mayon, Tarsus and Kanvil—and his wife, whose name is not given, is apparently from Canaan.

KING DAVID’S ADULTERY

Bathsheba is sometimes misrepresented as the woman who committed adultery with King David.  Although from the story in 2 Samuel 11-12 it appears that David either seduced her or even raped her. In the original Hebrew, the phrase in 2 Sam 11:4 makes clear that David was the active subject and Bathsheba was the object of his actions. He sent his messengers to bring Bathsheba to him and then “he went into her,” (the Hebrew euphemism for intercourse).

In the original text, there is absolutely no connotation of Bathsheba seducing the king. In those days, a woman who had very little social status and whose husband was an employee of the king could have done little to protest the desires of that all-powerful king, and would have had no recourse should he violate her.

After Bathsheba conceived, David plotted successfully to have her husband Uriah killed before Uriah found out about the pregnancy. The writer of 2 Samuel blamed the sin on David, not Bathsheba, and the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to call him to accountability. The famous Psalm 51, read during Lent, is a psalm of confession and repentance often associated with King David repenting for his sin against Bathsheba.

JACOB THE DECEIVER

While Jacob's acquisition of the birthright might have been strictly legal, his acquisition of his father's blessing is grossly deceptive and unrighteous on its very face.

Genesis 27:1-40 contains the fascinating but dark story of conspiracy and fraud. Pause now and read it from your Bible.

Isaac is now about 135 years old, bedridden and nearly blind. Tent walls are thin. Jacob's mother Rebekah overhears Isaac telling Esau to hunt some venison and cook it for him, and then receive the formal father-to-son blessing of the firstborn before Isaac dies.

Rebekah remembers, though Isaac doesn't seem to that this is all wrong. The Lord had told her "the older will serve the younger" (25:23).

Now Rebekah takes it upon herself to make the prophecy happen. She decides that Isaac must not bless Esau. You could argue that Rebekah is more spiritual than her husband Isaac, in that she remembers God's word and makes sure that nothing, not even righteousness and her husband's will can stand in the way of God's will for her favorite son, Jacob. Call it what you will, what she proposes is pure deceit.

Quickly, Rebekah calls her favorite son Jacob. Do what I say, she says. Trick your father into giving you his blessing rather than Esau. She comes up with a scheme to trick the old man:

Prepare a well-cooked meal of domestic livestock -- he'll never know it wasn't venison.

Wear Esau's gamy-smelling clothing to make blind Isaac think he is speaking to Esau. (Isaac has apparently lost his eyesight, but not his sense of smell.)

Put goatskin pieces on your arms and neck to simulate Esau's hairiness. (Can you really fool Isaac with fur? Or was Esau that hairy?)

Jacob is afraid that if his father discovers the ruse, he will curse him. "Let the curse fall on me," says his mother. "Just do what I say."

Jacob follows his mother's instructions and thus begins the deception. Isaac seems to suspect something and asks Jacob directly: "Are you really my son Esau?"

"I am," Jacob says without hesitation.

Later, when Isaac realizes what has happened, he calls this deceit.

CONCLUSION

There you have it folks, next time you think of being judgmental think of the above. Personally I think God is trying to tell us something through these people in Jesus Genealogy.  It doesn’t mean that you have to stop the pursuit of righteousness tho that has to continue.  Be sure to live your comments.