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In the Beginning…
#11. Judah,
Another Bad Apple in Jesus’ Family Tree!
“The scepter will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until He comes to whom it belongs
and the obedience of the nations is His.”
Genesis 49:10
Jesus’ genealogy is a curious list of names, and not
just because we can’t pronounce them! When we examine the real lives of the real people included, we find that Jesus’ bloodline was not a pristine succession of one righteous man after another. Instead, it reads as
a Who’s Who of cheaters, liars, scoundrels and haters; you know- people like us! And yet, here they are, preserved for posterity for us to remember. What do we learn about them? More importantly, what do we learn
about the God who can use them, and us, to accomplish great things?
- The Promise given to Abraham.
“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you;
I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
Genesis 12:2, 3
As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai,
“I know what a beautiful woman you are.
When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’
Then they will kill me but will let you live.”
Genesis 12:11, 12
“Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake,
and my life will be spared because of you.”
Genesis 12:13
Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.
Genesis 15:6
- The Promise passes through Isaac.
Then God said,
“Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac.
I will establish My covenant with him
as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.”
Genesis 17:19
- Isaac could at times be _SLOW_
to catch on…
Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering
and placed it on his son Isaac,
and he himself carried the fire and the knife.
As the two of them went on together,
Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”
“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.
“The fire and the wood are here,” Isaac said,
“but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”
Genesis 22:6, 7
- … and played _FAVORITES_ with his children…
Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau,
but Rebekah loved Jacob.
Genesis 25:28
So all the wells that his father’s servants had dug
in the time of his father Abraham,
the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth…
So Isaac moved away from there
and encamped in the Valley of Gerar and settled there…
Isaac’s servants dug in the valley
and discovered a well of fresh water there.
But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s herdsmen and said,
“The water is ours!”
So he named the well Esak, because they disputed with them.
Then they dug another well, but they quarreled over that one also,
so he named it Sitnah.
He moved on from there and dug another well, and no one quarreled over it.
He named it Rehoboth, saying,
“Now the Lord has given us room and we will flourish in the land.”
From there he went up to Beersheba…
Isaac built an altar there and called on the name of the Lord.
There he pitched his tent, and there his servants dug a well.
Genesis 26:15, 17, 19-23, 25
- Jacob “steals” the Blessing.
The Lord said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger.”
Genesis 25:23
Esau said, “Isn’t he rightly named Jacob?
He has deceived me these two times:
He took my birthright, and now he’s taken my blessing!”
Genesis 27:36
Whenever the stronger females were in heat,
Jacob would place the branches in the troughs in front of the animals
so they would mate near the branches,
but if the animals were weak, he would not place them there.
So the weak animals went to Laban and the strong ones to Jacob.
In this way the man grew exceedingly prosperous…
Genesis 30:41-43
Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel,
because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”
Genesis 32:28
- The Promise is extended to Judah.
“The scepter will not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
- until He comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is His.”
Genesis 49:10
- Judah was _SELF_SERVING_…
Judah said to his brothers,
“What will we gain if we kill our brother (Joseph) and cover up his blood?
Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites…”
Genesis 37:26, 27
When Judah saw her (Tamar), he thought she was a prostitute,
for she had covered her face.
Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law,
he went over to her by the roadside and said,
“Come now, let me sleep with you.”
Genesis 38:15, 16
Then Judah went up to him (Joseph) and said,
“Please, my lord, let your servant speak a word to my lord…
So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father
and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy’s life,
sees that the boy isn’t there, he will die.
- Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow.
Your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father.
I said, ‘If I do not bring him back to you,
I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!’
Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave
in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers.”
Genesis 44:18, 30-33
- Eventually Jesus comes, and the Promise is Kept!
The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed.
The Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people,
but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ.
Galatians 3:16
Conclusion:
God used “imperfect” people to bring Jesus into the world. Jesus came into the world to save “imperfect” people. God is still using “imperfect” people to spread the Good News. Are you “imperfect?” Then there is hope for you, thanks to the amazing grace of God!
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