Past Prepares
Scripture Reading: Matthew 1:1-17
The Genealogies are not most people’s favorite portions of the Bible. It is hard to read through a list of names and be inspired by them. They are there for good reasons though. This one connects Christ back to Abraham and also to David. The Messiah had to be of the lineage of David. Jesus met that qualification.
Matthew also makes sure we understand that Jesus isn’t just a Jewish Messiah. He came for all mankind, Jew and Gentile alike. So, he includes some of the shadier ancestors of Christ in his list. He also includes Boaz. Boaz, if his name doesn’t ring a bell with you, was the guy who redeemed Ruth, the daughter-in-law of Naomi. You can read about it in the book named after Ruth in the Old Testament. Boaz was a stand-up kind of guy. A decent man with character traits like honesty, compassion, courage, and faithfulness.
Do you know who his mother was? If you read the Scripture I linked you should. Or, maybe you already knew. If you don’t know, his mother was Rahab. Rahab, you might recall, was the prostitute who saved the two spies of Israel when they were inside the city of Jericho. She had faith. God spared her and her families’ lives and she became a part of the people of God when they came in and conquered the Promise Land.
We don’t know how it came about, but Rahab ended up marrying some guy named Salmon. They had a son who was, you guessed it, Boaz. So, Boaz’s mother was the woman who had been a prostitute, had faith, was saved both spiritually and physically, and her whole life changed.
What I find interesting is that Boaz ended up marrying another woman who came from outside Israel. Ruth was a Moabite. Moabites were typically the enemies of God’s people. Somehow Ruth married Naomi’s son – a Jewish boy – and became a believer in the God of Israel. She was widowed and then redeemed from her difficult state by Boaz who took her to be his wife.
What Boaz did was probably not the most socially acceptable thing to do. It was completely biblical. He wasn’t violating any commands of God by marrying Ruth. But it was most likely not something everyone in the community applauded. So, why did he do it?
Well, he didn’t do it thinking or knowing that a son from this marriage would be just a few genealogical steps away from David, the king of Israel. And we can be certain that he wasn’t thinking about this being one more step toward the eventual Great King and Messiah who was to come. He was thinking that this was the right and honorable thing to do. And even though she was a Moabite, he would do it because it was right and he would trust God to honor that.
Where did that kind of compassion for a Moabite come from? I suspect it came from having Rahab as his mother.
Our difficult pasts may be what God uses to sanctify us and prepare us for what he has for us in the future.
