Those are quite the ladies, aren’t they? What an incredible lineage.
On Sunday I was with a lot of my extended family at a Christmas gathering and I thought while I was there, "I wonder what Christmas parties were like for these girls?!"
Can you imagine!? I mean, of course they didn’t have Christmas because the CHRIST wasn’t born yet, but they had festivals! They had celebratory religious holidays! Imagine what it was like for them!
Did any of you notice in the genealogy (wait, did I have you read it?! Go to Matthew 1 and read it now if you haven’t already. Sorry about that!), that Rahab and Ruth were REALLY close together in the line? As in, RAHAB WAS RUTH’S NEW MOTHER-IN-LAW! Rahab birthed Boaz, Ruth’s redeemer. Seriously, what were Christmas get-togethers like for these chicks?! Could they look at each other and not burst into tears? Both of them knew in the depths of their being what it meant to be "Brought In," to be "Redeemed." They had both been women who were not, and now they were women who WERE. What a gift! Only God has the power to do that. You cannot will it upon yourself. You can only accept it when he offers it to you.
Jesus came to save you. These women are in Jesus’ lineage because all of these women were redeemed by that baby born in a barn. In Hebrews 11 it says that Moses did all of these things out of his regard for Jesus, the Christ who was yet to come. God the Father had told the Israeites that their Messiah was coming, and Moses believed in that Messiah. Every single one of these women believed in the promised Messiah, too. He was coming, and with his coming would come his redemption, the completion of their redemption.
I said it once before and I will say it again: Baby Jesus didn’t stay a baby. Baby Jesus was born to die for you. Do you remember those gifts the wise men brought to him? Do you know what myrrh was used for? Preserving dead bodies. Those wise men knew what he came to do, and you and I need to know it, too. Before Jesus came we were dead in our sins. BORN> DEAD>IN>OUR>SIN. Unable to please God, deserving of hell. Every single one of us. But God loved us so much that he became a man so that he could bear the punishment for our sins. If he wasn’t a loving and merciful God that wouldn’t make sense! Think about it: We sinned against God. God, the sinless, perfect, holy God came and bore the wrath of himself so that you and I wouldn’t have to! So that you and I wouldn’t have to be separated from God by our sin for all eternity. He came to reconcile us to himself. Romans 5:8 says "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Jesus died for his enemies. WE were his enemies. He died for US.
Please know that truth this Christmas season. Do not start another year without knowing Jesus as your personal Savior. He didn’t come for any other reason. He isn’t a "good idea." He wasn’t a "good guy." He wasn’t a philosopher. He wasn’t a prophet. He was God and he wants to be your Savior. Redeemer. Lord.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
This Christmas there is one gift that you need to receive. Receive the gift of the purpose that baby Jesus was born. Get grafted into that family tree we have talked about all week. Know what those women knew. Like Tamar, let your scarlet sins be washed white as snow. Like Rahab, open the door when he knocks. Like Ruth, live your everyday for the King. Like Bathsheba, welcome in the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and you who have walked in darkness see now the great Light. Mary let God change her life; let God change your life.
I don’t know about you, but I want to be counted among the great women of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Above all else I want to know my redemption and I want to live extreme for Jesus. Is there really any other way?
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