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December 13

Wednesday, December 13th, 2023

The past two days of devotions here and here, I have written about 4 women who were in the lineage of Jesus.

  1. Tamar- a deceiver
  2. Rahab- a Gentile and a prostitute
  3. Ruth- a Gentile and a Moabitess
  4. Bathsheba- an adulteress

The conclusion has been that the lineage of Jesus has some sketchy people in it. The 5th woman mentioned is none of those. She is a Jew. A virgin. And one unlikely individual to be spotlighted. I call her an outlier because she is so different. You know her as…

Mary, the mother of Jesus.

We have to be careful with her. Some put too much emphasis on her and revere her. Some say we have to go through her to get to God. Others, perhaps as a knee-jerk reaction against both of those ideas, write her off as unimportant.

Mary is special because she realized the dream of every Jewish girl: to be the mother of the Messiah. To me, Mary stands out head and shoulders above the rest of the other mentioned. Besides the obvious moral and ethnic differences, when presented with the truth that she was pregnant (“How can this be since I am a virgin?”), and after receiving Gabriel’s explanation of the process, she didn’t ask for an instruction manual; she didn’t ask for his credentials; she didn’t ask for his driver’s license and Social Security number; she didn’t ask, “Are you absolutely, 100% sure?”; she didn’t ask for proof that he wasn’t joshing her. No…she said the “magic” word, the same “magic” word God wants to hear from each of us when called: “YES.” Her exact words were “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” (Luke 1:38)

God wants to hear those same words from us.  He heard them from Isaiah: “Here am I. Send me.” (Is. 6:8). He heard them from Samuel: “Speak, your servant is listening.” (I Sam. 3:10)

Will he hear them from me? From you?

{Note: All Scripture quotations from New Living Translation}

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I’d like to remind you to check out my review of Glynn Young’s 5 book series on the Dancing Priest on my other blog. You can find it here.

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December 12

Tuesday, December 12th, 2023

I’d like to remind you to check out my review of Glynn Young’s 5 series fiction books on Michael Kent-Hughes that begins with Dancing Priest and concludes with Dancing Prince. Along the way you will find a fantastic adventure unfold before you. You can see my review on my other site, Cycleguy’s Spin.

Now back to my regularly scheduled post: 🙂

My devotion yesterday touched on the lineage of Jesus, specifically through focusing on Tamar, the first woman mentioned in Matthew’s genealogy in chapter 1.  This devotion will touch on the next three women mentioned. The second woman mentioned is Rahab. Rahab was a prostitute living in the city of Jericho who hid the two spies from the authorities when they came looking for them. When they were able to leave, Rahab only asked for one thing: when the people of Israel came to destroy Jericho, spare her life and her family’s. They agreed to do so but only if the scarlet cord was hanging from the window when they came. You can read the full story in Joshua 2 and 6.

The third woman mentioned is Ruth. Her story is told in the book by that name. Ruth’s mother-in-law, Naomi, lost her husband and then both of her sons. Her sons were married to two Moabite women, Ruth and Orpah. In her grief, Naomi decided to go back home and gave Orpah and Ruth the option of staying there or going with her. Ruth chose to go. She met and eventually married Boaz. They became the great-grandparents to David (Boaz/Ruth -> Obed -> Jesse -> David). Ruth was a Gentile and a Moabitess (one of the most hated people groups as far as the people of Israel were concerned).

The fourth woman is “the wife of Uriah.” We know her as Bathsheba. An adulteress. Her “lover,” David, also became a murderer when he had Uriah killed. (The story of David and Bathsheba is well known).

To recap:

  • Tamar- a Gentile and a deceiver
  • Rahab- a Gentile and a harlot
  • Ruth- A Gentile and a Moabitess
  • Bathsheba- an adulteress

Great family tree! Today’s culture would say, “That dude doesn’t stand a chance. He is a product of his environment.” Except for one truth: the God-factor. Only God could take something so messy, so gnarly, and make something so beautiful like He did. His marvelous GRACE is on full display in the genealogy of His Son, Jesus.

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