Today is International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate the contribution women have made to our lives and to society. I could write a list a mile long of the women who have inspired and contributed to my life and it still not be comprehensive. I could limit myself to just the people I’ve met personally and still not have a comprehensive list shorter than Les Miserábles… Unabridged. As a woman, it’s been important to have other women pour into me and to show me how to be an example not only to my daughter but to other women, too.
But today, I just want to talk about a few particular women… The women in Jesus’ genealogy.
These women are not perfect and have a cloud of shame over their heads because of how their society viewed them, and yet, each of them contributed to the story of salvation for all mankind. Each of them, even in their broken state, found redemption, like we, women filled with shame and guilt, are redeemed through His ultimate sacrifice.
If you want to jump in with a little Bible reading, this particular genealogy is in Matthew 1. And if you’re new to the Bible, it was written in a time of a very patriarchal society. I know there are issues with our society now, but in this particular era of history, it was much worse.
Back to the genealogy. There are five women listed here. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, “Uzziah’s wife” (which we can safely assume is Bathsheba), and Mary. Each of them has their own story. Each of them has their own “cloud of shame.” Each of them is important.
We’ll start with Tamar (her story is in Genesis 38). She’d been widowed. Twice. By the sons Judah (the person) because they, her husbands, did evil in the sight of the Lord. Long story short (it is pretty intense, and most definitely not PG), she produces an heir by seducing her father-in-law Judah. Where’s the shame? Well, for starters, she posed as a prostitute, although she did this primarily because Judah broke a promise and, well, that’s a big deal in their society. She teaches the value of keeping promises and holding others accountable.
Next up, Rahab, a Gentile prostitute in the city of Jericho, is another great story found in the book of Joshua (chapters 2 & 6). She hid Israel’s spies from men who would kill them and in return when Jericho was destroyed, she and her family were saved. (Random info time: The Hebrew language used to exist with no vowels. With this in mind, the words for “prostitute” and “innkeeper/landlady” have the exact same consonants; therefore, it may be that she wasn’t necessarily a prostitute, but an innkeeper. Food to think about, though most definitely still unknown.) She teaches how to be kind, even if work is a little “outside the box” in society.
My favorite story of the women in Jesus’ bloodline is the story of Rahab’s daughter-in-law, Ruth, found in the book of… Ruth. She was a young, childless, Moabitess widow who loved her mother-in-law Naomi as though she were family. (Honesty time: I pray that my son marries one like Ruth, in that she becomes totally grafted into our family.) When Naomi tells her to go back to her people, she famously says, “your people are my people, and your God is my God.” Ugh. the feels! I love the story of Ruth and each time I dig into it, I get new meanings. But here’s what’s great about it. She’s essentially grafted into the story because she refuses to leave her widowed mother-in-law in her grief. She knows the bitterness Naomi is experiencing and she chooses to join her on the journey back to her people. And then Boaz. Oh, Boaz! He sees this Moabitess in his fields, picking grain from the corners of the fields and on the ground and he provides more for her by telling his workers to leave more in the corners and to drop more on the ground. I think a part of me pictures this as a movie where it’s love at first sight. He wants to help her as much as he can, and I can just imagine that when she approaches him to be her kinsman redeemer he’s bummed that he’s not the “closest” relative. But, man, he is. And this story is so beautiful. Probably one of my favorites as I get older. And she teaches the value fo framily.
Next in the lineup, Bathsheba. Ok…. technically it’s “Uriah’s wife” but judging from the context clues, we can assume that it’s Bathsheba. King David, God love him, decided he HAD to have Bathsheba. He tried his hardest to have Uriah sent to battle to be killed so he could be “guilt free” but it’s complicated and Uriah loves his wife and… well go look it up yourself. Bathsheba and David do have a child, but as punishment for their sins, that child dies. Eventually, they have more children and one of their sons becomes an ancestor of Christ. She teaches the value of obedience, even when it hurts.
Last, but not least, Mary, mother of Christ. She was, according to scripture, “blameless” and chosen to bear the Messiah, but she wasn’t wed when she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit. There was a lot of drama and a big fiasco I’m sure, but she bore THE Messiah! She continued to stand her ground with her faith and she was rewarded for it, and her husband Joseph, after a bit of celestial persuasion, also stood by her. She wasn’t shamed forever, and she bore the King of Kings. I can’t even begin to fathom the kind of strength it took for her to do this with such grace. She teaches the value of faith, even when you can’t see through the shame.
It’s easy to push aside women in the bible and to label it as “misogynistic” and “archaic.” Some of those labels, admittedly, are a bit justified. I mean, languages evolve. No one really speaks that dialect of Greek or the dialects of Hebrew found throughout the Bible, but one thing becomes abundantly clear the more I read it. Women do have a place in kingdom work. Women do have value to God. Women are important in my faith history. I challenge you, whether your reading Judges or Paul’s writings, to find the women in the narrative and find what their part of the story it.
You, dear reader, do have a story, and your story matters.
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