The genealogy of Swine

If your family tree displayed a history of incest and whoredom, I’m guessing you wouldn’t be too pleased about it.

I sure know I wouldn’t. And if you knew about it, you would probably do everything in your power cover it up. I sure know I would. Therefore coming across the names of ‘Tamar the Incestuous’ and ‘Rahab the Harlot’ in the Messiah’s genealogy verges on the unthinkable.

If Matthew wanted to further the cause of Christ in the world, could somebody please tell me what was he thinking on the day when he mentioned those two problematic ladies in Jesus’ lineage (Matthew 1:1-17)? Did Bro Matt lose his marbles? Come on! If you were him, would you have recorded the details of Miss Tamar and Mrs. Rahab? I sure know I wouldn’t.

The first two women registered in Jesus’ genealogy are anything but your standard everyday galz. They certainly wouldn’t be on my list of ‘Top Ten Contenders’ to be included in Jesus’ family tree, yet- by the grace of God- there they are, warts and all. Maybe Tamar’s inclusion could be justified given that she was of Hebrew stock; but Rahab the Canaanitess had no such redeeming feature of which to boast.

Her nationality was foreign to that of God’s people. How could the Lord of Israel have shown mercy to a pathetic pagan prostitute like her? It just doesn’t seem to make any sense at all.

 It’s important to keep this theme of nationality in our minds if we are to be overcome by the shocking power involved in the mention of Jesus’ third great-great-great grandma. Why so? Well, if I tell you her name, maybe you’ll catch my drift.

Her name was Ruth.

Ruth, contrary to common opinion, was not a sweet little Jewess. She was from a hateful place called Moab that made Hebrews cringe with disgust. Not only were the Moabites a constant thorn in the side of the Israelis all throughout Old Testament history, but they were the fruit of yet another incestuous relationship following the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (this time between Lot and his eldest daughter).

Every single breathing Moabite reminded the Hebrews of the loathsome legacy of the Sodomites. Moab was an abominable seed and an accursed nation. In sum, the Moabites symbolized the veritable scum of the earth. What could possibly be worse than coming from Moab? It was better to be a prostituting and incestuous Jewess than to be a clean living Moabitess! Moabites weren't even worth spitting on.

Each mention of the word ‘Moab’ left a bitter taste in one’s mouth and a painful sting in one’s bowels. So when the book of Ruth opens by telling us that a certain man from Bethlehem went to live in the country of Moab, “He, and his wife, and his two sons” (Ruth 1:1), few pious folk would have kept reading onto the second verse. A Jew going to live in Moab? Preposterous! Scandalous! Ridiculous! Unforgiveable! I would as soon believe in Santa Claus, a square circle or the Da Vinci Code. But a Jew living in Moab? No chance!

As if a Jew going to live in Moab wasn’t bad enough (in contemporary terms, try to think of a Westerner going to chill out and grab a pizza with Saddam Hussein or inviting Osama bin Laden over for a coffee) the story gets even worse. The Jew’s two sons got married. And their two wives were... wait for it... Moabitesses!

Oh, dear. Oh, dear. Oh, dear.

Could you imagine what a family reunion would have looked like back in Bethlehem years later? “Hey, Uncle Barney, I want you meet my wife Ruth.” “Wow! So nice to meet you! I’m Uncle Barney. Where do you come from dear Ruth?” “Erm, I’m a Moabitess,” she replies.

And Old Barney just gawks at her with his eyes wide open as his jaw and glass of water simultaneously hit the floor, “Ah... Moab, eh? Well, must dash, I’ve got somewhere else to be right now.” Ruth’s ethnic background would have resembled a bomb going off back home.

The thought of incorporating piggish Moabite blood into the family must proved hideous. After all, who wants swine for kids?

The book of Ruth makes very easy reading. It’s a four-chapter long short story. But just in case you haven’t read it just yet, let me sum up in a few sentences. The aforementioned Jewish man (called Elimelech) dies along with his two sons (somewhat unfortunately named ‘Sickness’ and ‘Failure’ in Hebrew), which leaves us with an ageing widow and her two daughters-in-law.

One of the girls goes back home whereas Ruth decides to accompany Noemi on her return trip to Bethlehem. Upon arriving, the distraught couple had no source of income, so Ruth started gleaning barley to make ends meet. And it just so happens that the Moabitess ended up on the field of one of Israel’s most eligible Jewish bachelors, namely, Boaz.

Now I don’t want to spoil the fun for you, but to cut to the chase, the pair fall in love, get married, move into together and have a baby. Do you know what the little boy’s name was? Obed. And as the last verse in Ruth records, “Obed fathered Jess, and Jess fathered David” (Ruth 4:22).

This may come as a shock to you. But yes, it really means what you think it does: Israel’s chief King (David) had Moabite blood in his body. Unbelievable! And do you know what’s even more unbelievable? Israel’s Messiah (the Lord Jesus Christ) also had Moabite blood in His genealogy. Wow! Try explaining that to a die-hard Jew.

Matthew’s register of Ruth as a great-great-great grandma of Christ is by no means accidental. Rather than losing his marbles and discrediting Jesus, Brother Matthew was in fact proclaiming His Lord as the universal and cosmic Messiah.

Not only is He the Saviour of the Jews; but He is also the Saviour of the sodomite swine stemming from Moab as well as all other despised and outcast socio-biological groups. There is no nation beyond the saving grace of God, no, not even the North Koreans nor the Syrians nor any other racial or cultural group that you’ve been taught to despise by your upbringing.

God saves sodomite swine like them just as God saves sodomite swine like you and me. Under the cross, we are all one. Moabites included. Blessed be God!