Title Women in the genealogy of Jesus!
Contents
Sunday day sermon
Text: Matthew 1:1-16
Title: Women in the genealogy of Jesus!
If you look at the process of Jesus' birth, you will find many strange things that humans living on this earth cannot understand. This is because the genealogy of Jesus, which started with Abraham, does not follow through lineage, but through faith. What is even more incomprehensible is that three women, Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth, who lived as Gentiles, are proudly listed in the genealogy of Jesus. And we are even more surprised by the fact that the lives of these women are not so clean as the Bible says.
According to what is recorded in Genesis 38, Judah had three sons named Er, Onan, and Shelah. But it is said that the LORD killed Er because he was evil in the sight of God. Judas orders his younger brother to take over his brother's place and marry his brother-in-law to receive the seed. However, Onan did not sleep with Tamar, his brother-in-law, because he was afraid that even if a child was born, he would eventually become his brother's child. This was also evil in the sight of the Lord, and God killed him as well.
For those of you who are new to this topic, let's briefly explain how to get married here! The marriage law means that if the eldest son is married, but the eldest son dies due to any unexpected circumstances, the second son will marry his brother-in-law and receive the seed in order to inherit the family. If even the second son dies, the third son must marry and receive the seed. At this time, if the second or third son marries his brother-in-law and has children, all of them will go up in the family register as the older brother's children. Judah's second son, Onan, did not like it, so he did not sleep with his brother-in-law. But contrary to our thoughts, God killed such Onan as evil.
Judas, the father-in-law, was in trouble. This is because even if the last remaining Selah is married to Tamar, there is no guarantee that he will also survive. Fortunately, Shelah was still young, so she didn't have to worry about marrying Tamar right away. Father-in-law Judas tells Tamar to go home and wait for Shelah to grow up. Tamar went to her father-in-law's house and waited for Shelah to grow up, but Judah did not send her third son. When Tamar heard that her father-in-law often came to the village near her home to eat sheep, she disguised herself as a prostitute and seduced her father-in-law, Judah, to sleep with her.
From a moral and ethical point of view today, this incident is truly horrific. Many people still do not understand why these women who did dirty and ugly things should be included in the holy and blameless genealogy of Jesus. However, it is absolutely impossible to understand such an event from a moral world standard.
Even in Korea, until just a few decades ago, there was a time when it was considered a shame for the family to have children. Therefore, women who could not have children suffered the humiliation of returning to their parents' homes because they were humble, and if their daughter-in-law could not have a son, they gave part of their property to receive the offspring, even in order to inherit the family. The struggle of human beings to inherit the lineage of the family was fierce.
If we look at the Tamar incident in this context, it will be easier to understand why God put Tamar in the genealogy of Jesus. However, those who think that if we omit this process and believe in Jesus unconditionally, we must be holy and lead an honest and clean life, they will try to dismiss Tamar as a prostitute or a promiscuous woman. She is a woman who has done her best.
At that time, if a widow slept with an unfaithful man and became pregnant, she would have to be stoned to death, or branded as an unclean woman in front of many people and burned to death. Nevertheless, Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute and seduced her father-in-law, slept with her, and gave birth to a child when Judah did not send her third son, even though he had grown up. God exalted Tamar's spirit and placed him in the genealogy of Jesus.
Almost everyone would have given up or sat down in front of such a terrible punishment. However, if a woman is married in order to inherit the family, it is the woman's responsibility to give birth to children by any means possible. The Lord is looking for people who can work with such responsibility today. Just as Tamar lay down her life like a stubble to pass on the next generation, those who want to gain the kingdom of heaven today must also give up everything they have and give up their lives in order to gain the kingdom of heaven. In that sense, Tamar makes us feel a lot today.
Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven belongs to the violent. What does this mean? It is said that when the owner of heaven does not come to this earth, we have no choice but to live under the law, but if the owner of heaven comes to this earth, it means that we should give up all our lives according to the law and come to the owner of heaven. According to the law, Jews who went to the temple in Jerusalem to offer sacrifices had to give up all their lives that had been offered as a model and come before the master of heaven. It is to throw away all the life you have lost and welcome the owner of heaven
If Tamar had not taken such a risk because she was afraid of the law and people at that time, Tamar would have remained a good daughter-in-law, but Judah would not have succeeded in succession and the line of faith would have been cut off. However, Tamar was able to break out of such a self-defense and come out, and even though it was not a normal relationship, she not only had children with her father-in-law, but was also able to continue the line of faith. God highly valued Tamar's spirit and placed her in the genealogy of faith.
Another foreign woman, Rahab, a prostitute, and Ruth, a Moabite woman, even though they were of low birth status, God placed them in the ranks of faith because of their unchanging hearts under any circumstances. Because of their unchanging heart, the genealogy of faith could continue, and in the end, Jesus was born through the body of the last Mary. The Gentile women appearing in Jesus' genealogy also foreshadow the process of the birth of the Son of God who will come before the Gentiles.
Although it is difficult for Christians today to understand these words, it is foreshadowed that the Sibb Church recorded in the Book of Revelation will eventually overcome the hardships like Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth, and through the faith of women with an unchanging heart, it will be born. there will be If Eve, who was given as a helper, sinned the first time and drove all humans into the valley of the shadow of death, the second man, Jesus, came as a lifesaver, but he was also born through a woman's body. So he came and freed the Jews who had been imprisoned under sin to eternal life.
Then, it is telling that the sons of God who come before Christians will eventually be born through women's faith. Who are those women? Just like Tamar, a woman with a heart that does not waste her life and does her best to pass on to the next generation, and a woman who kept her fidelity like Rahab, who even gave her life to spare the Israeli spies, even though she was a prostitute. Despite her husband's death, she gave up all of her life and said that she would live with her mother-in-law until the end. These are the people who will give birth to the Seven Churches today.
God is looking for upright women like this right now. Then, through them, He will conceive and bear His son, and then He will establish the Ibba Church. The seven churches will be the ark of salvation in the very last days. The churches that have been built up to now are all merely models, such as the Jerusalem Temple. Such churches produce only God's people from the earth, and they cannot enter eternal life through the lives of such people.
Today, in order to enter eternal life, only the church established by God through His Son can forgive human sins, so only through such churches can we enter into eternal life. Women who have kept the fidelity of faith! Through you the last seven churches will be born. -He who has ears, let him hear and understand!-