Jesus’ Ancestors

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Genesis 37:21-27     Joseph’s brothers wanted to be rid of him, they discussed killing him, but then it was decided to throw him into a pit, but he ended up being taken by the Midianites and sold in Egypt.  They kept him a coat their father had made for him, smeared it with blood.  V 26, So Judah said to his brothers, ‘what profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?  Come let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh. ‘

Genesis 38:11-30      (Judah proposed they sell Joseph  into slavery rather than killing him)

Joshua 2:2-7     Rahab was a Canaanite and Gentile, commonly thought to be a prostitute, who had heard of God’s power, and wanted to know more about Him.  She also knew that the Israelites were strong, because they were God’s chosen people.   Willingly, she helped the Israelite spies—hiding and protecting them, and then making an agreement with them for protection for herself and her family.   Rahab married Salmon, one of the spies from the tribe of Judah, and became the mother of Boaz, the great grandmother to King David.

Joshua 2:17- 21     After rescuing the Israeli spies she made a deal with them to hang a red cord out her window and to have her family in her home and stay there until the battle was ended, and all her family would then be saved.  Agreement met between both parties.

Ruth     A Moabite woman who had married an Israelite man.  Her husband died, and her mother-in-law was the only one left from that family, and when she decided to return to Jerusalem, Ruth decided to go with her, leaving her family, country, culture, and gods, and choosing to follow the Israelite God.  She spent her life helping her mother-in-law, and married Boaz, then became the grandmother of King David.

2 Samuel 11, 12     David spotted Bathsheba bathing on a roof, had her brought to the palace, slept with her, then when it was found she was pregnant, brought Uriah home from battle so he would sleep with his wife, and they could pretend the babe was theirs.  Uriah, felt it was not honorable to go home when his troops were still fighting.  David, then demanded that Uriah be put in the front lines to be killed, and he was.  Thus, David was able to take Bathsheba, Uriah’s widow, as another wife.

Matthew 1:11-17    v 5, Rahab is an ancestress of Jesus

 

There are many of Jesus’ fore-parents who were not always the most righteous of people.  One of Abraham’s grandsons was selfish enough to think his birthright was so unimportant compared to the immediacy of filling his stomach that he quickly gave it to his younger twin.  Jacob, however, was as scheming as his mother—and since he seemed closer to her than Isaac, I am sure he learned many things at her knee. 

After all, her family was not that upstanding.  They bartered, cheated, lied and were quite sneaky, and justified it all with their own selfishness.  Jacob had arrived at his mother’s childhood home per her instructions to escape his angry brother, Esau, over the entire birthright debacle. 

When he arrived, he met his cousin, Rachel, and fell in love with her—willing to work for his uncle for seven years to be granted permission to then wed her.  He completed his part of the bargain, making his uncle, Laban, a very wealthy man.  However, Laban snuck the elder sister, Leah, into the marriage bed, then demanded that Jacob work for him another seven years for Rachel, the woman he was supposed to have married. 

For several years there were underhanded dealings not only between Laban and Jacob, but between the sisters, jealousy over pregnancies, using their maids to become surrogate mothers, and finally, when the large family was finally escaping Laban’s property, Rachel decided to steal some of her father’s wealth and idols.  So again, we have theft, lying, coveting, jealousy, backstabbing, and so forth.   When Laban discovered them fleeing, he was angry and wanted to stop them—‘how dare they cheat him out of money and wealth?’

 When the family returned to the area Jacob and Esau were raised in, Rachel became pregnant with Joseph—and he became a favorite son of his father.  Later, Rachel became pregnant again with the last son, Benjamin.  But Joseph’s brothers were jealous of him; Joseph was bit of a braggart and boaster, and his brothers resented him.  But his brother Judah, a direct forefather of Jesus, was the one who had the idea to kill him, and then lie and say he was devoured by wild animals.

Years later, when the brothers and their father were all convinced Joseph had been killed, they found he was a leader in Egypt and was feeding many during a famine which God had warned him of, and he had then made plans to stock food for the years of the famine from the years of plenty.  He rescued his brothers and their families, but when their father died, they again became fearful and mistrustful—because of their guilt and fright of retribution.

Years later, when the Israelites were in the Wilderness, close to the Promised Land, Moses sent in two spies to assess the enemy.  Rahab, a woman who had been a prostitute (I believe, although not written in the scriptures, she was sold to pay her parents’ debts, and then had been set up as a mistress/prostitute) recognized and helped the spies.  She hid them, lied to protect them, and only asked that she and her family be spared when they invaded Jericho.  Without knowing God, she knew enough of God to want to know Him truly.  She had faith.

Naomi, her husband and two sons moved to Moab during another famine, several years after the Israelites were in the Promised Land.  After the sons married, Naomi’s husband died, then both sons passed away, leaving their wives and their mother without a man to care for their needs. 

Both daughter in laws initially agreed to follow Naomi back to Jerusalem, but one decided she did not want to face the unknown countryside, customs, and not knowing anyone, and she chose to return to her family.  Ruth insisted she would stay with Naomi, care for Naomi and they were family.  She flatly refused to return to her family.  We are not told if she had a reason to be thankful to be away from her family, if she feared them, if they had treated her poorly, or if she had been touched seeing the small Jewish family celebrate their various customs of Shabat, Passover, and the other festivals.  But something had her insisting she was leaving Moab and going to Jerusalem, with no income or any means of support either could see. 

She went into the fields to gather grains left in the harvesting—bits that fell to the ground.  When she told Naomi she was gathering from Boaz’s fields, Naomi encouraged her to pay attention to Boaz, as he was distant family and would protect her.  In the meantime, Boaz had told his foreman to make sure she was protected and allowed to pick extra.  Then he went about seeing who the closest relative might be, and if he would be responsible for the women. 

The closest relative refused, so it was Boaz and he then married Ruth, and they became the grandparents of King David.  King David ‘s family certainly had issues—one of his sons raping one of the daughters, sons disagreeing and trying to cheat one another out of the throne, and lying, deceiving, and sneaking and stealing the throne, and even committing murder.  Most of his household certainly did not seek God’s heart and thoughts like their father!

 The descendants eventually lost the royal seat becoming prisoners of Assyria and then the southern Judah was captured by the Babylonians.  There was no more family to rule the Israelites.   Many of the descendants were poor—shepherds, carpenters, and fisherman and many other working men. 

God had chosen Mary to be the virgin mother for His Son, and according to scripture, He had chosen her long before her birth, her engagement to Joseph.    When approached with this daunting statement from Angel Gabriel, that she would be the mother of the Messiah, she accepted, only asking how it could happen, since she had never been intimate with a man.   There was no doubt, there was no hesitation displayed, only her willingness and to know how this would occur. 

Maybe she was a little anxious, a little fearful (or more) and she needed an older woman she trusted and could share her thoughts and feelings with.  Was her mother still alive?  Was she an older sibling and her mother very busy with younger ones, so she felt she could not talk with her?  Had her mother died much younger and there was no one she felt comfortable confiding in?  Were there perhaps too many siblings, older and younger in the house so she did not feel comfortable confiding?  Who knows?  And maybe not important.  But Mary was comfortable going to an older cousin/aunt and knowing with all the anxiety within, that Elizabeth would understand and be empathetic.

So, we know of Judah, Rahab, Ruth, a Moabite woman—not Israeli, a descendant from Judah, and then King David, but there were many who were not as resolute as David about living according to David.  David loved God, sought God, and when he messed up and sinned, he confessed and sought forgiveness.   He wanted to live according to God, he chose to look for God and do his best to serve Him and live honorably most of the time.

Like all of us, there are some sinners and bad people in our histories—whether we have met them or not. 

I have looked into my ancestry; actually, have found out more, at least about more of my ancestors in the 1900’s from cousins and family members.  And they were not always honorable.  But, thankfully my Lord chose me and has guided me and ‘mybellaviews.’