Trust in God's unmerited favour

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A Lesson from the Genealogy of Jesus
Matthew's account (Matthew 1:1-17) of the ancestry of Jesus shows that 5 women obtained notable mention. From the account, it is clear that of the 42 generations between Abraham and Jesus, 42 men/fathers were rightly named. However, only 5 women/mothers were found worthy of being named. Technically, only 4 were mentioned, while the last one was described as "her who had been the wife of Uriah" (and you could tell who she was).

It is interesting that these 5 women were not exactly the most awesome or perfect women in the Bible. In one way or the other, they had issues but it didn't stop them from being part of the ancestry of the Messiah nor being notably mentioned. The women were Tamar - Judah's daughter-in-law who played a prostitute so she could bear children through Judah; Rahab - the prostitute who hid the 2 Israelite spies sent to Jericho; Ruth the moabite; Bathsheba who committed adultery with King David; and Mary, the mother of Jesus who was from Nazareth (a place that was ridiculed and disregarded) in Galilee (a place of darkness).

We can see that these women had certain inadequacies or disqualifications. However, they were part of the bloodline of our Lord Jesus and received honorable mention in the account of His genealogy. The question is why? From scriptures, we see that when the angel appeared to Mary in Luke 1:28, he said “Rejoice, highly favored one...". This shows that it was God's high favour that qualified Mary to be the mother of Jesus, not necessarily her virginity. She probably wasn't the only virgin in Nazareth. Again she wasn't exactly royalty and 'worthy' of conceiving Jesus, a King, but by God's wondrous grace, she was chosen. The same is true for the other 4 women. If not, how else would someone like Tamar, Rahab and Bathsheba be involved in the bloodline of someone so pure as Jesus? Tamar deceived her father-in-law to sleep with her; Ruth came from the bloodline of incest; while Bathsheba was an adulteress. It was definitely by God's unmerited favour that these women were part of the ancestry of Jesus and why they received notable mention. It is clear to me that in the grand scheme of things, our weaknesses, inadequacies or disqualifications doesn't matter to God. They are insignificant before Him. We were saved by grace and He continues to do awesome things in, through and for us by grace. And the reason is so no man will take the glory (1 Cor 1:29). All through scriptures, there have been different accounts of God qualifying and doing great things with people who considered themselves unqualified or inadequate (Moses, Jeremiah, Gideon, etc.) and He is still doing same today. What He did with these people despite their limitations, He can and will do through us too! You may not be worthy, but Jesus is and you are in Him.

Yes, Rahab did something great by hiding the spies and saving them from death; Ruth left her home and people and clung to Naomi, and Mary kept herself pure; but these, certainly, may not have been enough to make them involved in the coming of our Lord nor for their names to be mentioned considering 37 other women weren't. 
So, it's more pertinent to focus on God's wondrous grace (unmerited favour) rather than our weaknesses, inadequacies or disqualifications. Moreover, His grace is made perfect in weakness. In addition, we shouldn't focus our strengths, abilities or qualifications either cause the arm of flesh shall fail. Focus and trust on God's grace, love, mercies to make headway in life and you will. Amen!

Prayer: May you enjoy God's high favour this season and always in Jesus' name, Amen!


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