It's all about Jesus: A guide to Bible Study

Over the years I have often been asked by new or newly enlivened believers, not only how to study the Bible but where to begin.

Notice that I say ‘study’, because I would always advise anyone wishing to study the Holy Bible to read it first - or at least get acquainted with as much of it as you can. You can start anywhere you like, but a straight reading from Genesis to Revelation is good, even if that involves skimming over - or even skipping - a lot of stuff you find hard to understand. That way, when you come to study the Bible you’ll have at least some idea of where the respective Books are, even if not yet clear on how they hang together; and you should have some notion of the overall narrative.

A lot of error comes from people studying the Bible before they’ve read it, and then running with some idea or other that they thought they saw, by failing to see the bigger picture or wider context. But, in general, any text taken out of its context is a pretext.

But whether you are reading or studying the Bible, an invaluable tool is a sound concordance - like Strong’s or Young’s.

A concordance is a bit like a giant index and dictionary combined, listing every word in the Bible and all the scriptures that each word occurs in, along with a brief note on the original Greek or Hebrew used, from which that word has been translated.

 

Every year billions of Christians celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s a big festival in the Christian calendar that most call Easter - which, for historical reasons, has long departed from its Passover origins. But, whatever it’s theological pedigree, the big day is always a Sunday - Resurrection Sunday.

Most people remember the angels appearing, the stone being rolled away, the empty tomb, and Jesus’ appearance to his disciples in a locked room. But there is one other account of that day that is often overlooked or at least not linked, being taught separately while forgetting that it happened on the very same day.

We’ll turn there shortly, as well as to a number of other scriptures that I believe either do not get enough attention or are studied out of context.

Nowhere is this more true than of the genealogies. I have even heard preachers advise their flock to read through the whole Bible, but just skip the genealogies. As I've said already, that is sound enough advice for a complete novice, but not for the proper study of Scripture by a maturing disciple, because the genealogies occur in the same Bible that Paul called God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16) meaning that those allegedly boring lists of names were inspired by the same God who once warned his disciples in Matthew 12:36...

“But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.”

You may never have been taught this, but not only does that same God never bandy an idle word in Scripture; he also has an expectation that his children will feed on his Word and be knowledgeable in it.

That’s why I am going to start by taking you to Resurrection Sunday, to show what Jesus thought of Scripture and why mankind was even given God’s Word at all. Because the Word ofGod is very four-dimensional: It has depth; it has breadth; it has direction, and it has historical perspective. In other words, the Bible has a very definite focus and a purpose.

So, allow me to take you on a spiritual journey that has become less well trodden nowadays. And on the way we will learn a lot about God’s focus, God’s purpose, and God’s grace.

 

And the first of the sabbaths, while still very early, they came on the tomb, carrying spices which they prepared; and some were with them…

Don‘t be confused by the word sabbaths here. This is a literal translation of the actual Greek used, in which sabbaton can mean week. So the wide interpretation ‘first day of the week’ - which we call Sunday - is correct.

…And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which had happened.

A furlong is an eighth of a mile, so Emmaus was about 71/2 miles from Jerusalem.

And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were held that they should not know him. And he said unto them, “What manner of communications are these that you have one to another, as you walk and are sad?”

 

And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said to him, “Are you only a stranger in Jerusalem, and have not known the things which have come to pass there in these days?”

Cleopas here may or may not be the same person as the Clopas mentioned in John 19:25 (the jury is still out on that one). But if he was, not only would he be Jesus‘ uncle, but it would also explain why the other disciple is not named, if she was in fact his wife, Mary. Because the Bible regards a husband and wife as a unified entity (one flesh) - just as we refer to a couple - so, naming the husband often sufficed to identify both.

And he said to them, “What things?”

 

And they said to him, “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.

“But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.

“Yes, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not.”

Then he said to them, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?”

Jesus was never politically correct and, although lovingly gentle, he said it like it is, and in this instance did nothing to soften the blow. Or, as we say in Glasgow: He didn't miss them and hit the wall. But ‘fool' here is anoétos which basically means stupid, and is not one of the harsher words for fool that Jesus sometimes employed. And notice that he equates stupidity with slowness of heart, because the Hebrew concept of wisdom differs from the Greek paradigm, in that understanding resides in the heart, not in the head.

And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

 

And they drew near the village, where they went. And he made as though he would have gone further.

But they constrained him, saying, “Stay with us. For it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to stay with them.

Remember, these disciples knew Jesus only as a total stranger they had met on the road, but the Jewish imperative of hospitality to strangers, compounded by the fact that they were Jesus’ followers, and this strangers obvious attractiveness compelled them to look out for his welfare and invite him to stay.

And it happened, as he reclined with them, he took the bread, and blessed and broke, and handed to them.

This literal rendering ‘he took the bread, and blessed and broke..’ is more correct than the widely translated but erroneous version: ‘he took the bread, and blessed it, and broke…’ which was not the custom, and certainly not what Jesus would do.

The Hebrew blessing was always on the line of: ‘Blessed are you O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has given us bread for the earth’, which differs significantly from our so-called ‘Grace’ before meals, where Christians bless the food, whereas Jesus would bless his Father first, then thank him for the food.)

And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.

In 1 Corinthians 11:29, Paul talks of ‘discerning the Lord‘s body’ when we take Communion. How appropriate, therefore, that the disciples who had walked seven miles with Jesus and sat down at table with him, only then suddenly discerned who he was - at the breaking of bread.

And they said one to another, “Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?”

Indeed, so excited were they that they turned around and walked the seven mile journey back to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples of their encounter.

 

There are many tremendous truths in the foregoing passage, on which I would love to elaborate and explore in depth with you. But for the purpose of this essay, I just want to major on verses 27 and 32:

And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

 

And they said one to another, “Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?”

Whenever I hear Christians lauding their knowledge of the New Testament while boasting of how little they know of the Old Testament, I cringe. Because on that Resurrection Sunday there was no New Testament, nor would there be for at least the next 30 years. All they had was what we call the Old Testament, the Scriptures Jews call the Tanakh - an acronym of Torah-Navi’im-Ketuvim, literally - Instruction: Prophets: Writings.

But one pseudonym for Torah is ‘Moses’ - when it refers to the first five books of the Bible. And, in the Hebrew canon, ‘The Prophets’ include Joshua, Judges, I & II Samuel and I & II Kings. But Luke also tells us that Jesus taught from all the prophets, many of whom were categorised in ‘The Writings’, but since even King David was a prophet (Acts 2:30), that would include the Psalms. No wonder then, that Jesus basically said - ‘You can identify me in all of the scriptures’.

This is why I tell those who ask me to recommend a good starting place for Bible study, to begin with Jesus’ genealogy in Matthew’s Gospel - at least down to King David in verse 6 - because there are not only nuggets to found there, but this short section is like the hub of a wheel, whose spokes radiate throughout the Bible to tell us not only about Jesus’ ancestors, but a whole lot about the character and goodness and grace of God.

 

This is the list of ancestors of Jesus Christ, descendant of David and Abraham.

 

Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.

 

Judah and Tamar were the father and mother of Perez and Zerah. Perez was the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon.

 

Salmon and Rahab were the father and mother of Boaz. Boaz and Ruth were the father and mother of Obed. Obed was the father of Jesse, Jesse the father of King David. David and Uriah's wife Bathsheba were the father and mother of Solomon.

As I mention in my article, Abba Father: God’s heart for his children, Jesus’ genealogy in Mathew’s Gospel differs from that in Luke’s, and I explain what those differences mean, which are to do with Jesus‘ descent through Joseph‘s line and through Mary‘s. However, in this portion - from Abraham to David - both genealogies are congruent. And when we take a closer look at Matthew’s record of Jesus’ lineage, we discover some very interesting things.

This Patriarch of Patriarchs and Father of the Faithful, is one of the most famous men in all Scripture, with three great world religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam all claiming descent from his line.

This was a man whom God called, ‘My friend’. This was a man who left everything behind him in obedience to God who had told him to set out and seek a land that he would show him, and a man who believed God’s promise of a son, even when he was 75-years-old and his 65-year-old wife had been barren all throughout their marriage. And many years later, when that son was a young lad, he was even prepared to obey when God demanded that he sacrifice him on an altar.

If you or I were looking for an ancestor to boast about, I think Abraham would be a forebear we would namedrop readily.

Except perhaps, for the odd incident.

Did I fail to mention that he disobeyed God from the word go, or when at times he showed some startlingly poor attributes of character?

And Yahweh had said to Abram, “Go out from your land and from your kindred, and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great; and you will be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you, and curse the one despising you. And in you all families of the earth shall be blessed.”

And Abram went out, even as Yahweh had spoken to him. And Lot went with him. And Abram was a son of seventy five years when he went out from Haran.

Verse 4 is correct in that ‘Abram went out, even as Yahweh had spoken’, but we immediately see also, that he did not do leave in full obedience, because he took his nephew Lot along, when the Lord had instructed quite clearly to ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred, and from your father's house’.

It’s a small point, but as his nephew, Lot was Abram’s kin. (And if you’re not familiar with this story, it was not until some years later that Abram’s name was later changed to Abraham.)

Still, we can give Abram nine-out-of-ten for effort. He did a lot more than most folk would have done, in heading off into the unknown and leaving behind a city that archaeology has since discovered was the pinnacle of civilisation, with central heating and running water, three and half millennia ago.

And I’ll be coming back to Lot later on, but let's just look at some of the less appealing things that Abraham did.

Shortly after God had made his first mighty covenant with Abram in Genesis 12:1-3, he went to Egypt where there was food at a time of famine elsewhere. While there, however, his wife Sarai (later called Sarah), who was very beautiful, caught the eye of Pharaoh who took her into his household - and let’s just say he wasn’t looking for a cleaner.

Pharaoh did this because Abram feared for his safety and had persuaded Sarai to say she was Abram’s sister rather than his wife. Indeed, she was his half-sister, so the lie was more one of omission. But God was not best pleased.

And Yahweh touched Pharaoh and his house with great plagues on the word of Sarai, Abram's wife. And Pharaoh called for Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me she is your wife? Why did you say, She is my sister? And so I took her for my wife. Now, then, see your wife. Take her and go.”

 

And as Pharaoh commanded his men as to him, even they sent away him and his wife and all that he had.

Nice one, Abraham.

Then there was the small matter of God’s promise of a son. That was made when Abram was 75, but when, by the age of 86, Sarai wasn’t looking any more pregnant, the couple figured (as you do) that God needed a bit of a hand. So, Abraham was somewhat willing to co-operate with Sarai’s cunning plan - which was to have sex with her young maid and adopt the resulting offspring.

Great idea! - Except that it led to a terrible strife and unending heartache in the family that haunts the Jewish race to this day. So much so, that 'an Ishamael' is a byword in our language to describe the unintended consequences that ensue whenever we substitute our own effort and reasoning for God's promise.

Ah well. The road to hell, as they say, is paved with good intentions.

Still, we all make mistakes, and the great thing about a man of Abraham’s obvious wisdom and moral stature was how he learned valuable lessons and so managed to avoid making the same mistake again…

Erm! Well there was just that time when Abraham (as he was known by now) and his household ended up in Gerar, where he re-enacted the same scenario with King Abimelech as he had years earlier with Pharaoh, pretending his wife was his sister.

But once again, God would have none of it:

But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are about to die because of the woman you have taken, she being married to a husband.”

 

And Abimelech had not come near her. And he said, “O Lord, will you slay even a righteous nation? And did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she, even she herself said, ‘He is my brother’. In the honour of my heart and the purity of my hands I have done this.”

And God said to him in a dream, “Yes, I know that you did this in the honour of your heart, and I also withheld you from sinning against me. On account of this I did not allow you to touch her. And now return the wife of the man, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you shall live. And if you do not return her, know that dying you shall die, you and all that are yours.”

 

And Abimelech started up early in the morning and called for all his servants. And he spoke all these words in their ears. And the men were greatly afraid.

 

And Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? And in what have I offended you that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? You have done things to me that ought not to be done.”

Ouch!

So, let me just run all that by you again:

Abraham was a coward, an adulterer, and a serial liar. Any contradiction of that is futile as the facts speak for themselves, because the Bible is not a propaganda exercise, nor a collection of Abraham’s fan mail. The people and events recorded in it were very real, and the accounts we read about them are true - warts and all.

Abraham is indeed known as the Father of the faithful and God’s friend, and for very good reason. But Genesis is no whitewash.

Once Abraham and Sarah knuckled down to it, and actually believed God enough to stop trying to give him a helping hand, they eventually did have a son called Issac, whose name in Hebrew (Yitschaq) means He Laughs - in memory of Sarah’s reaction to God’s prediction.

And he said, “Returning I will return to you at the time of life; and, Behold! A son shall be to your wife Sarah.” And Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, and it was behind him.

 

And Abraham and Sarah were aged, going on in days. The custom as to women had ceased to be to Sarah. And Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After my being old, shall there be pleasure to me; my lord also being old?

And Yahweh said to Abraham, “Why has Sarah laughed at this, saying, Indeed, truly shall I bear, even I who am old? Is anything too difficult for Yahweh? At the appointed time I will return to you, at the time of life, and there will be a son to Sarah.”

 

And Sarah denied, saying, I did not laugh; for she was afraid. And he said, “No, but you did laugh.”

And before we get all snooty and pooh-pooh Sarah, maybe we should be honest enough to ask if we’ve ever lied to God and thought he hadn’t noticed.

So, Isaac was born when Abraham was 100, and Sarah was 90. And unlike his father Abraham Isaac seems to have led a relatively blameless life. Married and faithful to one wife, father to two fine sons, and obedient to God in many respects.

Oh, yeah! - apart from that time he lied about his wife Rebekah whom he told the Philistines was his sister.

And Isaac lived in Gerar. And the men of the place asked about his wife. And he said, “She is my sister”, for he was afraid to say, “My wife”, lest the men of the place kill me on account of Rebekah, for she was beautiful of form.

 

And it happened when his days were many to him there, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked through the window and saw; and, behold, Isaac was sporting with his wife Rebekah. And Abimelech called Isaac and said, “See, surely she is your wife, and how have you said, ‘She is my sister’?”

And Isaac said to him, “Because I said, lest I die on account of her.”

 

And Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people had in a little lain with your wife, and you would have brought on us guilt.”

 

And Abimelech commanded all the people, saying, “Anyone touching this man and his wife dying shall die.”

Hmmm, ‘sporting’. Well that’s a new name for it.

But what was it with this family? - Did they keep a list of convenient lies in a book?

Nevertheless, apart from that indiscretion, Genesis mentions no other major stain on Isaac’s character, unless you consider heinous what appears to have been a bone of contention between him and his wife, who favoured Jacob while Isaac favoured Esau.

Jacob, of course was the snake in the grass who famously cheated his brother out of his birthright and deceived his father into giving him Esau’s blessing. But then, he was off to a good start when his parents called him Yaakov, which means Supplanter.

All in all, Jacob lived up to his name, yet God still stayed faithful to his Covenant Promise to Abraham, and Jacob prospered and eventually had two wives, two concubines, twelve sons and a daughter.

Oh, yeah…And God changed his name to Israel (Genesis 32:28).

Apart from an only daughter, Dinah, Jacob had twelve boys by four different women, listed here in Genesis 35:22b-26:

Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:

 

The sons of Leah; Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun:

 

The sons of Rachel; Joseph, and Benjamin:

And the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid; Dan, and Naphtali:

 

And the sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid; Gad, and Asher: these are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Padanaram.

Each of these sons became a patriarch of Israel in his own right, starting with the eldest son Reuben.

Unfortunately, there was some friction between them, owing to the fact that Jacob’s favourite wife was Rachel, whereas his most fruitful wife was Rachel’s sister Leah. This resulted in Jacob’s first son, Joseph, being his pet and highly favoured over his older brothers. But even Joseph should not have inherited the birthright of the Firstborn. That honour belonged to Reuben…and would probably have remained his had he not sinned by sleeping with his father’s concubine - Aunty Bilhah.

Among the other sons of Leah were Simeon, a hot-blood, whose idea, we read in Genesis 37:21, was to kill their younger half-brother Joseph. Then there was Levi, who was an upright sort of fellow although he could also be volatile - and from whose family Miriam, Aaron and Moses descended, and ultimately the whole Levitical priesthood.

But then there was Judah whose Hebrew name (Yehudah) literally means Praised. And, after Jacob, it is his name that is found next in Jesus’ genealogy.

Judah was at least kinder than his brother Simeon, but no more moral than Reuben. It was his idea to sell Joseph rather than murder him, as his more impulsive brother had suggested. It may be possible that when tempers had cooled, that he even persuaded the others to free him. But what actually happened is that when Reuben returned to the pit where they had all left Joseph, he had already been stolen by the Midianites and sold on to the Ishmaelites who were headed for Egypt.

This is often missed by those who read the tampered translation based on the misinterpretation that the brothers actually carried out their earlier intention.

And Judah said to his brothers, What gain is it that we kill our brother and conceal his blood?

 

Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and do not let our hand be on him. For he is our brother, our flesh. And his brothers listened.

 

And men, Midianites, traders, passed. And they drew up and took Joseph out of the pit, and they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they brought Joseph into Egypt.

And Reuben came back to the pit. And, behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he tore his clothes.

 

And he returned to his brothers and said, The child, he is not. And I, where shall I go?

The tampered version inserts ‘the brothers’ into verse 28, where the actual Hebrew text only specifies ‘they’, whom a straightforward reading of the context clearly indicates were the Midianite traders. You only have to look at Reuben’s horror, and the other brothers’ panicked reaction at his discovery, to realise that.

Instead, the unwarranted alteration in most English Bibles has given rise to centuries of misunderstanding.

Of Jacob’s twelve sons it is Judah who has given his name to his descendants, the Yehudim - or the Jews. So, there you go - Moses wasn’t even Jewish! In fact, not only Aaron but every High Priest of Israel was a purebred Levite. Only many years later did the term Jew evolve to embrace much of Levi and the lesser tribe of Benjamin. Because, while all Jews were Isaraelites, not all Israelites were Jews.

But it was not through Moses or Aaron, or any of the holy folk who were part of priestly line that Jesus was descended. His ancestor was Judah. And Judah was a case; which brings me to Tamar. Remember, she was mentioned in Matthew 1:3...

And Judah fathered Pharez and Zarah out of Tamar, and Pharez fathered Hezron, and Hezron fathered Aram...

As I mentioned earlier, when a husband and wife were mentioned together in the Bible they were generally seen as a couple, so it was common to just name the husband. But not here. How so?

Because Tamar was not Judah’s wife. In fact, she was his daughter-in-law; married to Judah‘s eldest son Er (Genesis 38:6).

Aaaah! - So, Judah committed incest with his son’s wife!

‘Fraid so. But don’t worry; it was all right, because she had disguised herself as a common prostitute whom Judah had stopped by for a roadside quickie…

...So that’s ok, then.

By now you might be asking, not so much whether there might have been any black sheep in Jesus’ family line, but whether there were any decent folks at all?

Now, by the time Jacob died, the whole family had moved and ensconced themselves in Egypt, thanks to young Joseph who had become the country's Prime Minister.

And we know from the rest of Scripture that Pharaoh granted them the fertile region of Goshen, where they stayed in relative peace for the better part of the next 400 years. Until that is, for what happened next…

And a new king arose over Egypt, who had not known Joseph.

And he said to his people, Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are many and stronger than we…”

This is the era in which the following ancestors of Jesus lived, whom you may remember from Matthew 1:3-4,

And Judah fathered Pharez and Zarah out of Tamar, and Pharez fathered Hezron, and Hezron fathered Aram, and Aram fathered Amminadab, and Amminadab fathered Nahshon, and Nahshon fathered Salmon…

 

Pharez, Hezron, Aram, Amminadab, Nahshon, and even Salmon may be a bit more obscure than the others we have considered so far, but there they are in Scripture - Jesus‘ earthly forebears.

And there is even an ancient (albeit extra-Biblical) Hebrew tradition among the scribes and sages, that Nahshon was the first Israelite to step into the Red Sea, and waded into it up to his waste before God parted the waters.

I can’t confirm that because it’s not in the Bible, but oral tradition was often very reliable and it is interesting that he should come under the spotlight, in view of the part he plays in the Davidic line of the Messiah.

Because Nahshon was the father of Salmon, and Salmon married a Canaanite bride from the city of Jericho.

Remember Matthew 1:5? -

…and Salmon fathered Boaz out of Rahab, and Boaz fathered Obed out of Ruth, and Obed fathered Jesse,

Salmon married Rahab, whom many might remember was the prostitute who hid Joshua’s spies sent into Jericho. She did this by lying to the king and betraying her own people. But there she is, slap bang in Jesus Christ’s genealogy.

Now, Salmon and Rahab had a son called Boaz, whose half-cast origins may explain his lack of aversion to marrying out - as marrying a Gentile is often known.

And how do we know he married out? - Because he married a girl called Ruth, after whom a whole book of the Bible is named - and widely believed to be the work of the Prophet Samuel.

Like Rahab, Ruth wasn’t a Jew. But even worse than that, she was a Moabitess.

As a matter of fact, Moab was quite near to Jericho, but the point about the Moabites was that they had harried and harrassed Israel for many years, and were even specified as especially contemptible in the Law.

He being wounded, crushed, or cut in his male member shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh. An illegitimate child shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh, even to the tenth generation none of his shall enter into the assembly of Yahweh.

An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh; even to the tenth generation shall none of them enter into the assembly of Yahweh, perpetually; because they did not meet you with bread and with water in the way when you came out of Egypt; and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor, from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.

 

But Yahweh your God would not listen to Balaam, and Yahweh your God turned the curse into a blessing to you, because Yahweh your God loved you. You shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days, perpetually.

I wouldn’t call that a particularly good press.

But what was all that stuff about Balaam?

A lot of people have heard of Balaam’s ass, and how it spoke to him, but never get past the laughter stage to consider its context.

Balaam was true prophet of God who had been seduced by King Balak to prophesy falsely and curse Israel. You can check it yourself in Numbers 22, which is where Balaam’s ass stops in its tracks on their journey and refuses to proceed further. Balaam reacts angrily and beats the hapless animal until the Angel of Yahweh appears to him and reveals that the ass has saved his master’s life because the Angel was standing in the way with his sword drawn to kill Balaam.

What makes this passage relevant right here is that Balaam was on his way to take up King Balak’s offer of riches to curse Israel…and Balak was the king of Moab.

And, in case you’d thought I had forgotten my earlier promise to return to Abraham’s nephew Lot, let’s go now and see what he had to do with the Moabites.

And Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the mount. And his two daughters were with him. For he feared to live in Zoar. And he lived in a cave, he and his two daughters.

 

And the first-born said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to come in to us as is the way of all the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and let us lie with him, that we may keep alive seed of our father." And they caused their father to drink wine that night. And the first-born went in and lay with her father. And he did not know when she lay down nor when she rose up.

 

And on the next day it happened, the first-born said to the younger, "Behold, I lay with my father last night. Let us cause him to drink wine tonight also. And you go in and lie with him, so that we may keep alive seed of our father." And they caused their father to drink wine that night also. And the younger rose up and lay with him. And he did not know when she lay down, nor when she rose up.

 

And both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. And the first-born bore a son and called his name Moab; he is the father of Moab to this day. And the younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites to this day.

 

Great. Lot’s daughters get their father drunk, then sleep with him and get pregnant. Result? - the Moabites and the Ammonites.

So, even Lot was actually a forebear of Jesus Christ, but not in a manner anyone in the family would have cared to boast about.

Of all the ladies in the Bible, apart Jesus’ mother Mary, I suspect the most noble might have been Ruth. Loyal, humble, faithful and trustworthy, she had not been a prostitute and had no blemish against her past character - except that she was a Moabitess. But what did that matter? - a great deal, if you remember the provision of the law…

…An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh; even to the tenth generation.

A bit of a problem for someone destined to be the great-grandmother of King David of Israel.

To understand how God resolved this problem we have to look in the Book of Ruth.

First of all there was one of the finest and most beautiful confessions in the Bible, revealing Ruth as a woman of character, when her mother-in-law Naomi released Ruth to return home to her people:

 

And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has turned back to her people, and to her gods. You turn back after your sister-in-law.”

 

And Ruth said, “Do not entreat me to leave you, to turn back from following you. For where you go, I will go. And where you stay, I will stay. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May Yahweh do to me, and more so, if anything but death part you and me.”

But there was also something else that happened:

 

And all the people who were in the gate and the elders, said, “We are witnesses. May Yahweh make the woman who is coming into your house to be as Rachel and as Leah, both of whom built the house of Israel. And may you do worthily in Ephratah, and proclaim the Name in Bethlehem. And let your house be as the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, of the Seed which Yahweh shall give to you of this young woman.”

 

And Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And he went in to her, and Jehovah gave her conception, and she bore a son.

And the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be Yahweh, who has not left you this day without a redeemer; and may his name be called in Israel. And may he be to you a restorer of life, and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter-in-law who loves you has borne him, who is better to you than seven sons.

 

And Naomi took the child, and laid him in her bosom, and became nurse to him. And the neighbouring women gave him a name, saying, “This is a son born to Naomi”; and they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.”

 

And these are the generations of Pharez: Pharez fathered Hezron; and Hezron fathered Ram; and Ram fathered Amminadab; and Amminadab fathered Nahshon; and Nahshon fathered Salmon; and Salmon fathered Boaz; and Boaz fathered Obed; and Obed fathered Jesse; and Jesse fathered David.

Notice two things that happened here:

The people of Bethlehem spoke two blessings over Ruth and Boaz that, in addition to Ruth’s own confession, carried enormous weigh with God:

“And let your house be as the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, of the Seed which Yahweh shall give to you of this young woman.”

And,

“This is a son born to Naomi”.

Ruth had really bonded to Naomi and declared that she saw herself as part of Israel, so much so that little Obed was effectively recognised as Naomi’s legitimate offspring.

But also notice the reference to Pharez; which link the writer of the Book of Ruth recognised, because from Pharez to David would be ten generations.

By grace, God recognised Ruth’s love for her adopted people and disregarded the curse of Deuteronomy, that barred Moabites from the Assembly of Israel for ten generations. By grace, the people of God recognised Ruth and Obed as one of their own. But by the time David was born, even the requirements of law had been spent.

As surely as James 2:13b tells us that...

‘…. mercy rejoices over judgment’.

The God of the Old Testament is no different from the God of the New, and will always grasp whatever opportunity is offered to him to overturn any judgement or curse that he can transform into a blessing.

 

As said at the outset, those first six verses of Matthew are like the hub of a wheel whose spokes radiate throughout the Bible to tell us not only about Jesus’ ancestors, but an awful lot about God's character and goodness and grace.

I hope you can see now that genealogies are not there to bore us, but to draw us deeper; to explore further. Because the Bible is not merely a book of moral principles or some antique collection of disjointed stories. It is the biography of Jesus Christ, the Belovèd and only Begotten Son of God the Father.

It is also a painfully yet reassuringly honest account of very real people who made mistakes that would make many of today’s celebrities blush. Like King David himself, who connived to procure the death of Uriah the Hittite in order to obtain his wife, Bathsheba, as well as conceal that her pregnancy was a result of their adultery.

But the Bible was by the written by the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit - the Spirit of Truth - and the Spirit of Truth cannot witness to a lie. So, there they all are, Jesus’ lineage; their lives arrayed for our perusal in all their splendour and with their every flaw and iniquity exposed in all their ugliness; not because God wants to humiliate anyone, but because he desires to encourage every generation that, by his grace and the finished work of our Redeemer, our past need not determine our future. Our iniquities need not steer our destiny.

And, above everything else, that points us directly to Jesus.