Some of Jesus’ ancestors I admire

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For this writing, I am not going to quote the scriptural verses, only summarize as there are close to 2000 words as is. 

Genesis 50:19-20     But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God?  As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”   

Joshua 2:1-24     Two spies were sent by Joshua into the city of Jericho to gauge what the battle would entail.  But she willingly and eagerly helped these Israelites.  She hid them under flax on her roof, she lied, admitting she had seen the men, but they had left, knowing full well they were still on her roof.  (Francine Rivers wrote a great series of five books, The Lineage of Grace, and in the one about Rahab, she proposes that Rahab’s parents had to sell her to pay their taxes.  Once the king was finished with her, she was then set up as a prostitute but still was respected by many from the royal lineage.  I always preferred this supposition as to how Rahab ended up in her home, rather than believing this was a willing choice.)

Ruth 1-4     The book of Ruth is wonderful to me.  Love it.  I so admire the genuine feeling and devotion Ruth has to Naomi.  I believe she learned enough about God and His love during her time being married and living with the family before her father-in-law and the two sons died.  Her preference was NOT to return to her family, the Moabite ways, gods, and culture, but to continue with Naomi.  And she did, helping wherever and however she could.  Once they arrived in Jerusalem, she worked and supplied food and grain, and did all that Naomi told her, including going into Boaz sleeping area.  He, an honorable man, set about to ensure that Naomi was protected, and thus Ruth since she would have been the widow of one of the younger relatives.  And they became the grandparents to King David.

1 Samuel, 2 Samuel , 1 Kings 2 all tell of the goodness of King David as well as the sins.  King David knew God well and wanted to be led by Him and wanted to be pleasing to Him.  There were times he was not following or seeking God—King David lusted after a married woman, demanded she be brought to him, and she became pregnant.  Then, he compounded the sin when he brough his ‘friend and soldier’ home so he could spend a few nights with his wife and thus “cover or hide” David’s sin.  And when all his attempts to get Uriah to return to his wife failed, he then sent him back to war and gave Joab, his general, orders to put Uriah on the front lines and back off and leave him without support so he would be killed.

He was not a good parent—he did not lead and guide his family in the ways and commands to honor God.  He had multiple wives and seems he took no part in the jealousies between the wives as well as the resentments among the children.   And when his daughter is raped by her half-brother, Amnon, David took no action once he learned of the sin.

 

2 Kings 18:5-19, 2 Chronicles 32:25-26     Hezekiah was the only living son of King Ahaz, as he had his eldest thrust into a burning sacrifice to the god Molech.  A priest took over most of the raising of Hezekiah, teaching him God’s laws, commands, no idols and so forth.  He was arrogant but he wanted to live according to how he could please God.  And he had Isaiah as a nearby mentor who was willing to prophesize and try to keep Hezekiah on the straight and narrow.   He lived as a good and clever king, designing tunnels and hidden hide-aways for water so enemies could not poison the people.  But then he bragged and showed off all his gold treasures and religious objects.  This was very wrong in God’s sight and set Judah up for attack and the enemies had the knowledge of where all the treasures were stored.   But because of Hezekiah’s good heart, He did not punish Judah during Hezekiah’s reign.

 

Jesus’ ancestors continued to have some negative persons, flawed and downright sinful people in His direct human line.  Thank goodness, He had the direct line of God the Father!  His human ancestors are as flawed as we are, and although some I find downright admirable—Rahab, Ruth, David, Hezekiah and so forth, there are many who flaunted their selfish, self-centered, immediate gratification natures.   None were perfect, but definitely I have some I admire.

As good a king as Solomon hoped to be–being wise, and wanting only wisdom to govern God’s people, he certainly let his groin area run his decisions most of the time.  He even had the wisdom to recognize his foolishness, but still because of his decisions and behaviors, the temple he created and designed was ripped apart with no stone left standing in 70 AD. 

Let’s backtrack since we covered much of Jacob’s foolish mistakes as well as the family he married into.  He had certainly become adept at deception learning from his mother, yet somehow, his next to the youngest son developed honorable, hard-working, good managerial skills.  It seems Jacob’s first son by Rachel, was honorable, honest, with good dependable tendencies, catching the eye of those he served under.  Therefore, Joseph was elevated to jobs of responsibility.

His brothers had sold him to the Midianites out of jealousy, anger, and wanting a show of come-uppance.  He was then sold to the Egyptians and lived honorably, even when he was imprisoned for a “crime” he did not commit.  So, he was thrown into prison and faced difficulty and unfair treatment, but still he maintained the course it seems of honesty, hard work, no deception, no mistreatment of others, and no hard feelings toward his brothers.  There is no mention of him holding a grudge or wanting harm to his brothers.  And certainly, when he had the opportunity, he treated them very generously.

It seems before Joseph was very old, God already knew his heart and placed him in a situation where he could be a blessing and guide to others.  We do not get a lot of insight into the actual ancestry of Jesus until after Moses and Aaron led the Israelites out of the Wilderness.  Joseph was able to reassure his brothers, from his true heart, that he recognized they had devised their plans to hurt him, but God had allowed the plans to help many.

In multiple accounts of the genealogy of Jesus, it looks as though only 5 generations while the Hebrews were in Egypt as slaves.  For 400(+) years, that does not seem like many listed.  But to track from Judah’s son, Perez, to Nahshon, the father of Salmon, who was one of the spies sent to Jericho, met Rahab, a prostitute who had heard and believed in the God of the Israelites.  Once the Israelites could promise to protect her and her family, she would do whatever she could to help them.  When the air cleared, and Joshua came to know her heart and desire to know God, Salmon and Rahab married and had a son they named Boaz.  But the genealogy only shows about 5 generations while in Egypt. 

We already know that the Hebrews had been settled in Jerusalem and surrounding areas for several years.  Boaz was known to be a wealthy, comfortable landowner who had wheat and other fields and harvests.  

Ruth was hard-working and caring, and she decided she was willing to give up her home and go with Naomi to an unfamiliar land.  Again, God had chosen a Moabite woman to be one of Jesus’s ancestors—a good, caring, strong woman who acted on her convictions and beliefs.

And we all know he became the husband of Ruth who was a Moabite who had married a Hebrew young man who had died, and she decided to stay with her mother-in-law and went from Moab to Jerusalem when her mother-in-law, Naomi wanted to return. 

It was God’s will that Ruth come to work for Boaz and eventually marry and become a set of the ancestors of King David.  When she and Boaz married, they became the parents of Obed, and ultimately the great-grandparents of King David. 

David, even as a young shepherd tried to live an honorable, brave life protecting, guiding sheep, trying to obey God.  He was not perfect, but he did try to do right most of the time in the eyes of God.  David, desperately wanted to obey God, see Him face to face.  

However, he made some grievous sins—coveting and sleeping with another man’s life, then when finding out she was pregnant, he called back the husband, who was a frontline soldier in his army, and tried to encourage him to go home and sleep with his wife, enjoy her company.  But the man did not go home, feeling it was “cheating” his fellow soldiers so David felt compelled to order his demise in the cover of war, ensuring that her husband would die.   Once, David received the report of the man’s death, he brought the widow into the castle and married her.  This was definitely not following God’s will and commandments.

Later, when one of his sons raped one of his daughters, he seemed to ignore the incident, and not punishing his sinful son.    He was not a good parent, allowing many of his children and sons to continue to sin and live against the love and desire of their father obeying and seeking God.

Many of his descendants were faulty leaders, and many did not seek to follow God and His guidance.  His son, Solomon initially wanted to be a wise and good leader of the people, but he allowed himself to be led by numerous women, most of which were not Hebrew, and led him to follow their gods and idols.   That continued the royal family’s demise.

As the years passed, the Israelites were taken captive by the Assyrians, later by the Babylonians, and finally by the Romans.  The Israelites were mostly oppressed and taxed and feeling as though they were not really regarded as God’s special people.  They were oppressed and downtrodden. 

By the time Jesus was born, his parents, although had ancestors from the royal family, there were no funds, no benefits, they were poor.  Joseph was a carpenter and made his living making furniture for others.  But God knew the hearts of Joseph and Mary and He had already chosen them to be the mother and “father” for His Son. 

I am so glad that God chose those two as Jesus’ earthly parents.  They gave Him the guidance and teaching they were able to, and He was able to turn to His heavenly Father daily, and Mary and Joseph were devout Jews who followed all God’s commandments. 

How blessed are we to get to know Jesus while He had His ministry on earth.  We get to read His direct words and teachings and how He interacted with sinners, forgiving and guiding them back to His Father so they could “go and sin no more.”

His Words and those written before He was born are in the guidebook, instructional manual, and love letter to show us how to live our lives in a more pleasing way to God, to glorify Him with our lives, and thus showing others the joy of living knowing Him and following Him.  We all sin and are not perfect.  I love the fact that it is clear in the Bible that there are those who sinned but were found worthy to be part of the ancestry of our Lord.  Thank You, Lord, for saving me although I am a sinner, and for always loving me and ‘mybellaviews.’