Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus climaxes at the final woman listed: Mary, the mother of Jesus. We have seen over the last four weeks how Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba all played vital roles in continuing the line of Abraham and David. We saw that each of these women, whether as a result of their birth or their actions, was deeply flawed. Yet…
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Bathsheba is the final woman in Matthew’s genealogy of Christ before Mary. Like Tamar, Rahab and Ruth, she is a surprising choice: Bathsheba’s fame comes from being one half of the world’s most famous extra-marital affair. The story, recorded in 2 Samuel 11, is a shameful one on many different levels. From the roof of his palace, David sees Bathsheba bathing and…
We’ve been working our way through the women the gospel writer Matthew includes in his genealogy of Jesus; so far we’ve considered Tamar and Rahab. Both of these women were immoral, using sex for their own gain (Tamar to shame Perez her father-in-law, and Rahab as a prostitute in Jericho). While it has been surprising to see such women included in the…
The second woman mentioned in Matthew’s genealogy of Christ is a prostitute named Rahab. Like Tamar from last week, Rahab was not an Israelite – she did not come from God’s chosen people. Rahab was a morally corrupt and ethically impure woman and yet she showed more faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob than the Israelites themselves. The story…
The first woman in Matthew’s genealogy of Christ is Tamar and her story, recorded in Genesis 38, is quite simply, shocking. Tamar is involved in deception, lying, cult prostitution and finally incest. It is one of those stories that leaves you wondering why on earth it was included in Scripture. The even more relevant question for us is why was Tamar included…
Today we begin a series on an interesting peculiarity in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus Christ: the inclusion of five women. Matthew’s genealogy is a theologically important family tree which establishes the line of Jesus directly from Abraham through David. The family tree demonstrates that Jesus really is the Messiah, the fulfilment of the promises God made to Abraham and to David. It…
Well this is the third part in a series that looks at how we should use our power in godly ways. We have so far briefly raised Godly ways to use our power in the church and in the family. Today we turn our attention to the workplace. Whilst it might not be like this where you work, the workplace is often…
This is the second part in a series on using our power in godly ways. Last week we focussed on the church and this week we focus briefly on the family. One of the most complicated places to use the power we have in godly ways is the family unit. It is where our most intimate relationships are, it is where we…
Over the coming few weeks our newsletter articles will be exploring different temptations we might face as followers of Jesus. For the next three weeks I thought we would begin by looking at the temptations positions of power present to us. It is not that having power is a bad thing in fact, at some level, all of us have power. Every…
Many of you will be familiar with the 1981 classic film ‘Chariots of Fire’ which tells the story of Eric Liddell a young Scottish runner, who famously refused to run in the Olympics on Sunday because it was ‘the Lord’s Day’. Eric sacrifices his glory in the 100m race although goes on to win the 400m in record time. It’s a winning…