the women

well, i have absolutely no subjects for a hilarious blog. so in the interim, you get to read a spiritual one.

i was reading matthew one last week as per my bible read-thru plan. as i was reading through the genealogy of Jesus, and i was really struck by the mention of women. i've often heard it mentioned as a curious thing as genealogies are always stated through the male line, and it's rare that women are mentioned at all. but this is not what struck me.

as my eyes scanned each woman's name, i thought of each of their stories. tamar, rahab, ruth, bathsheba, mary...each a totally different woman, with a totally different background. i was especially thoughtful of tamar, ruth and bathsheba.

tamar's story is, to be blunt, messed up. in short, she dresses as a prostitute so her father-in-law will impregnate her. but in more detail, her father-in-law [Judah, son of Jacob] had deprived her of really her only rights as a woman back then: to bear children. so what does she do to keep her rights as a woman? she tricks her father-in-law so that she may bear a child from his family. you can read the full story here.

this woman is in the line of jesus.

ruth's story is amazing, actually. it is very much the opposite of tamar. her husband dies, and she responds rightly in spite of her pain. she comforts her mother-in-law [who is a widower herself] by selflessly giving up her life and following naomi and the one true god. in the midst of this, god rewards her for her selflessness with a husband, boaz and also children by him.

this woman is in the line of jesus.

the story of bathsheba simply makes me furious. i get so mad at king david, a so-called "man of god." [not that he wasn't, but this story is not a good example of his godliness]. king david "takes" her, gets her pregnant, and kills her husband out of guilt. it's just infuriating to me. but god makes the most sinful and unfair things into purposeful ones and bathsheba gives birth to solomon.

this woman is in the line of jesus.

revisiting these three stories caused me to reflect on who our god is and what his character is like. he is perfect, he is just, he is merciful, and he is all-knowing. even when life seems completely unfair because your husbands are evil and you can't have children, or your husband dies and you choose to give up everything, or when a king kills your husband to have you, god has a purpose for your life. and the result of these women's suffering was that they were honored to be in the line of jesus, the savior of the world.

pretty amazing, right?