Foreign Moms
1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the king.
Matt 1:1-6, ESV
Foreign Moms
(Matt. 1:1-6)
Intro:
A. It’s Mother’s Day. Normally that means taking mom out to dinner so she doesn’t have to cook or clean up the dishes, but this year, that’s not happening for most moms. I am sure you are getting creative on what you can do for the woman who brought you into this world.
B. For those of you who are moms, I would like you to think about holding your baby that first time. We celebrate with Brianna and Alex at the birth of their baby, Sylvia Faye. Pictures can only help us see the joy this baby is bringing into their lives.
C Our daughter, Elizabeth, shared last week that she and A.J. are expecting a baby in November and she showed ultrasound pictures of the little child within her.
D. For others of you, tears are shed because you are unable to be a mother, or your mother has passed away. Deeper yet, are the moms who feel the loss because their child has passed away. Mother’s Day is filled with all types of emotions.
E. I want to take you to Mary, the mother of Jesus. I don’t know what was going on inside her when she held that little baby boy who was born in a manger so far from her home and parents. Yet there is something I do know. I know that for many Jews people in their past help define who they are in their present. To come from the line of David would have been a great source of pride, yet there are people in that past we don’t often think about when we look at the genealogy found in Matthew 1. Matt 1:1 says, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” The promise made to Abraham was that through his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Matthew draws the line from Abraham to King David, to Jesus the Christ. Its two people in that line that I want us to consider this Mother’s Day
I. Rahab, the Mom We Don’t Mention
A. Being of the linage of the great King David was impressive. The Messiah was to come from the tribe of Judah through the line of David. I doubt Mary was thinking too much about who was in the past as she held Jesus, but Matthew believes that past is important. He begins with a genealogy that is often skipped. I want to look at 2 names that come near the beginning of that list. (Matt. 1:2-6).
B. We’re not going to spend time on Tamar, but her story is far from perfect. The second name is one that many people are familiar with, Rahab. When I say Rahab, everyone who knows her immediately fills in the description that is often placed upon her in the Bible.
C. Some argue she was simply an innkeeper, but there is nothing about her description in the OT or NT that suggests innkeeper, it suggests that she was a prostitute. Now remember, there are plenty of women that Matthew could have recorded their name or description, he chose only four, so why Rahab. I would say she is a mom we don’t want to mention. Yet, she is one of the moms Mathew mentions.
D. Her story in Joshua 2 is one that speaks about who she was deep within, not what she was doing. When those 2 spies come into Jericho, they do what strangers often would do, they find a house of ill repute. I am not even suggesting they did something immoral in that house, but that they used the house as a cover for going in to spy out the town.
E. When the king of Jericho hears that men of Israel had come into his city and were at the house of Rahab, he demands that she bring them out. The Bible says, “But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them.” She then made up a story that they came and left before the gate was shut for the night. After the kings goes after the men on a false trail, Rahab goes up to where the men were hidden Rahab tells why she betrayed her king (Jos. 2:8-11). That was the first part, everyone was afraid. But she had a request (Jos. 2:12-13). The men agree to the save her and her family as long as she tells no one that they were spying out the city. My point is not so much to tell her story, but to tell her faith.
F. She had no religious reason to believe in the God of the Israelites. Yet, she had faith that their God was powerful and she asked that she be saved. When the Hebrew writer and James mention Rahab, it is not of any sinful life she had, but of the faith she had in a God whose laws and commands she did not know.
G. In Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus, Rahab is listed with a man named Salmon. It appears that not only did she saved those 2 Israelite men, she ended up marrying an Israelite. That being the case, she also gave up her old ways and took on the life taught by the Law of Moses.
H. Here’s my point. She is listed because she is a woman who had a private faith and a public past. Listen to me, there are no perfect moms. Every mom has done or said things they regret, but God looks at the heart and sees your faith, and because of faith, Rahab is listed in the genealogy of Jesus. Mom’s, don’t beat yourself up about your past, make your present and your future about Jesus and that is the greatest gift you can give your kids.
II. Ruth, the Mom Who Loved Mom
A. The third woman listed in the linage of Jesus is Ruth. Like Rahab, Ruth is not an Israelite. In fact, she is from the land of Moab. If you study the gods of the Moabites, you will find their worshippers practicing detestable things, like human sacrifices. Ruth was raised in that spiritual environment. Yet in the story that bears her name, she marries the son of an Israelite that leaves Bethlehem due to a famine and moves to her country. It appears that she chose to leave the gods of her country and begin to follow Jehovah when she married into this family. When tragedy struck the family and the father-in-law, her brother-in-law and her husband all died, the mother-in-law chose to go back home, bitter and angry with God. Yet when Ruth is told to go back to her people and her gods she replies (Ruth 1:16-17).
B. Why Matthew mentions her name we are not specifically told. But the character that we see in this young lady is trust.
C. She goes back to Bethlehem with Naomi, devoted to her mother-in-law with no knowledge of what that life will bring. We see this woman as a hard worker. She is willing to be listed among the poor who go into the fields to get the leftover grain after the harvest. She works because she wants to give and take care of Naomi. Her reputation is not that of some foreigner and outcast, but that of a hard-working, kind woman. She catches the eye of Boaz, the son of Rahab, a man whose mother was also a non-Jew, and Boaz becomes her kinsmen redeemer. He buys the property of Ruth’s father-in-law and takes Ruth to be his wife.
D. Boaz and Ruth have a son whose name is Obed. He has a son whose name is Jesse, and Jesse has a son whose name is David who becomes king of Israel and from whom will come Jesus, the lion of the tribe of Judah and the redeemer of all mankind.
Conclusion:
A. Today is Mother’s Day. We think about all the good stories about our mom, and we tell her how precious she is to us. But moms, I hope you find in these two stories the truth that no matter where you in life, there is a mom in the linage of Jesus who has gone through what you have gone through and come out mentioned by God.
B. Life as a mom is not easy. Every mother I personally know, tells me that the joy of being a mom far outweighs the trials and pain that come from being a mom.
C. Don’t look at yourself and say, “I wish I was as good of a mom as xxx.” There is no perfect mom. Rahab and Ruth were not perfect women, perfect wives or perfect moms, but they were women of faith. That is the greatest gift you can give your child, husband and this world. Be a woman who makes Jesus the Lord of her life.
Because of Jesus,
Jeffrey Dillinger, minister