Category: Faith

Rahab is the second woman listed in the genealogy of the lineage of Jesus in Matthew. It is no insignificant thing that Matthew lists five women in the patriarchal lineage of Jesus. There must be a point to it, as patriarchal lineages did not include women, especially in the First Century.

Tamar, the first woman in the list, has a seemingly odd story. She emerges from accusations of prostitution amidst the faithlessness of Judah and wickedness of Judah’s oldest sons to bear the child who would lead to David and ultimately to Jesus. Her creative, if not dutiful, commitment to the custom of bearing a child in honor of her deceased husband redeemed Judah as the bearer of the seed that would lead to the Messiah, in spite of Judah himself.

The Messiah, of course, was promised to come through the line of Judah and later the line of David to be the Savior of the world. This was an extension of the promise to Abraham that his seed would bless all nations. Like Tamar, Rahab is similarly not the picture of one we might assume to be of a messianic lineage.

Rahab wasn’t even of the lineage of Abraham. Her name suggests Egyptian origin, and she was an Amorite, considered an idolatrous, wicked people. If Tamar was only thought to be a prostitute, Rahab was a prostitute.

Continue reading “Christmas Thoughts: Rahab, a Foreign Prostitute & God’s Redemptive Plan” →

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We might be tempted to gloss over the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1[A]. We may feel obligated to acknowledge it during Christmastime because it’s part of the story of the birth of Jesus. The genealogy, though, doesn’t hold our attention like the plight of Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus in a manger.

The overarching significance of the genealogy is stated in the text. The lineage of Jesus can be traced back fourteen generations to the Babylonian exile, fourteen more generations back to King David and fourteen additional generations back to Abraham, the father of faith. This is no insignificant thing, but it may not capture our attention as, perhaps, it should.

Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise God made to Abraham to bless all the nations of the earth through his seed. The prophets foretold more specifically that the promise was to be fulfilled through the line of David.

Forty two generations passed from the original promise to Jesus. Twenty eight generations passed from the line of David. Fourteen generations passed from the Babylonian exile to Jesus, and the Babylonian exile is approximately the time period of those prophecies.

That genealogy, further, represents the history of God’s interaction with man. Most of the Old Testament fits between the beginning and the end of that genealogy! Continue reading “Christmas Thoughts: God’s Redemptive Actions Through Women of the Old Testament” →

Tonight I read I WAS AN ATHEIST UNTIL I READ “THE LORD OF THE RINGS” by Fredric Heidemann published at the Word on Fire blog (December 16, 2016). The catalyst for his journey from atheism to theism was the Lord of the Rings books by JRR Tolkien, one of my lifelong favorite literary works. I read them as a very young teenager, and they captivated my imagination much like they did Heidemann.

He captures the essence of the Lord of the Rings this way:

The fantasy world of Middle-Earth oozes life and profundity. The cultures of the various peoples are organic, rooted in tradition while maintaining a fresh, living energy. Mountains and forests have personalities, and the relationship between people and earth is marked by stewardship and intimacy. Creation knowing creation. Tolkien describes these things with beautiful prose that reads like its half poetry and half medieval history. Everything seems “deep” in The Lord of the Rings. The combination of character archetypes and assertive “lifeness” in the novel touches on an element of fundamental humanity. Every Lord of the Rings fan knows exactly what I’m talking about.

In some ways, the struggle might be philosophically cast as meaning against meaninglessness, purpose and love against reductionism and the insatiable, burning destructive force of evil. But I digress.

Heidemann echoes the autobiographical work of C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy, in the way he perceived Tolkien’s great adventure. Lewis found a reality in the great works of fiction that resonated with his own experiences of “joy” found in quiet, solitary walks and other transcendent moments that he chased much of his young adult life for the “life” he found in them.

Continue reading “More of a Believer than You Think?” →