A Lineage of Grace

Last year I began H.E.A.R. journaling through the Gospel of Matthew. (H.E.A.R. is a Bible study method developed by Dr. Robby Gallaty and stands for "Highlight, Explain, Apply, and Respond." You can learn more about it here [or HEAR, lol]). This has been good prep for preaching through Matthew this year.

The first 17 verses is the genealogy of Jesus through Joseph, the man God chose to raise His Son. There are  names of a lot of the great men of the Old Testament like Abraham and David, but I'm always struck by the fact that Matthew lists four women in the genealogy of the Lord. This is unusual because women are rarely listed in genealogies in the Scriptures, but what is even more remarkable is the women Matthew chose to include:

• Tamar, who deceived her father-in-law Judah into sleeping with her and bore him twins (Gen 38).
• Rahab the prostitute of Jericho who spared the Israelite spies (Joshua 2). Rahab eventually married an Israelite, Salmon and they had a son named Boaz, who would eventually marry...
• Ruth, a Moabite widow who followed her mother-in-law Naomi to Bethlehem where she met and married Boaz (Book of Ruth) They also had a grandson named Jesse who becomes the father of Israel's greatest king, David. And David will eventually meet ...
• Bathsheba, not mentioned by name in the genealogy but is the woman with whom David had and affair and then kills her husband Uriah (2 Samuel 11).

Matthew reveals some the “skeletons” in Jesus’ family closet.

As I was thinking through the application, I was reminded that God OFTEN uses the least likely candidates to accomplish His plans and purposes. The genealogy shows that God is not limited by human perspective and understanding; His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts higher than our thoughts. God often uses people we would write off as disqualified. But the truth is that no one is beyond the reach of God's grace, nor beyond His ability to be used for His glory.

The "R" in H.E.A.R. journaling stands for "Response" which means - what is my response to what I learned from studying the passage. My response to the genealogy of Jesus: Don’t write people off because of their past sins or current circumstances. Don’t attempt to limit God’s ability nor His plan. God can accomplish whatever pleases Him through whomever He pleases. Don’t miss His work or His blessing by judging others or writing them off. Join God in seeing all people as valuable, beautiful and useful to the Lord and His work. This is something I have known, because God should have written me off a long time ago, but He has faithfully pursued me and called me back to Himself and to His ministry. I'm thankful for His faithfulness even when I am not, and for the reminder of His faithfulness through the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew.