Hall of Shame

We all know about the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11. It is a spiritual Hall of Fame that challenges and inspires us. But there is also a hall of shame in the Scripture. This will also challenge and inspire us. Let’s read it. Before we go on, this was inspired by Pastor Nick.

Matthew 1:1-16
The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham:

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. 3 Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram. 4 Ram was the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon. 5 Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse. 6 Jesse was the father of David the king.

David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba who had been the wife of Uriah. 7 Solomon was the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asa. 8 Asa was the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah. 9 Uzziah was the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah. 10 Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, and Amon the father of Josiah. 11 Josiah became the father of Jeconiah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

12 After the deportation to Babylon: Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel. 13 Zerubbabel was the father of Abihud, Abihud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor. 14 Azor was the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud. 15 Eliud was the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob. 16 Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.

What are you saying? How is that a Hall of Shame? (HoS) Are you saying that Jesus came from a shameful bunch? That is the fact. And, hang on here, it will be a source of comfort and elation for us. And, to continue our fascination with genealogies, let’s follow this one.

Begin with Abraham. Oh, yes, he was the man of faith. (Genesis 15:6) He will be a blessing to all of the earth. Genesis 12:3
And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who [c]curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

What a great guy to have in the line of the Messiah, right? Recall that he “stumbled.” First, we can note his trip to Egypt to escape the famine in Genesis 12. Right after the promise of blessing earlier. But his claim to a place in the HoS (Hall of Shame) is found later in chapter 12. To make a long and terrible story short, Abram claimed that his wife was his sister and Pharaoh intended to marry her. God intervened and thwarted any contamination to the godly line. And, we can conclude that Abram learned his lesson, right? Wrong! In chapter 20 he repeated the same mistake with Abimelech, the king of Gerar. Again, God had to “bail him out” to prevent interference in the godly line.

Yet, this guy was the designated carrier of the “seed” from Genesis 3:15. Well, we got through the first link in the chain. It has to get better after that, right? “Abraham was the father of Isaac....” Now turn to Genesis 26. Again, a famine had sent him south, out of the land God had promised to Abraham, and...you guessed it. The king again was enamored with Isaac’s wife whom he had introduced as his sister. This time God’s intervention was less direct. No vision or plague, but He led the king to “happen to catch” Isaac “sporting” (KJV) with Rachel and knew in a flash that they were married. (Remember the article on Sovereignty. God was at work even in the window out of which the king glanced.) But I digress.

Number two has shown his unworthiness of being in the line of the Messiah. How about number three? ... Isaac the father of Jacob. Don’t get me started. He tricked his brother Esau out of his birthright (Genesis 25), and later conspired with his mother to claim the blessing. (Genesis 27) In fact as we follow his adventures in Haran in search of a wife and interactions with his father-in-law we are convinced that he was indeed living up to his name of “tripper up by the heel.” (Rough translation. Genesis 25) Yep, he made it. (Hebrews 11:9, 27)

So after three clunkers, the line cleaned up, right? Next is... "Jacob the father of Judah." What about Judah? We won’t go through his life with a fine toothed comb, except to note that he married a daughter of a Canaanite. (Genesis 38) Read the next phrase, in our line of descent (no pun intended): “Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar.” Tamar, you recall was the wife of Judah’s first two sons. We will not trot out their tragic story, except to note that they sinned so grievously that God disciplined them by death.

Instead of giving the widow his third son, Judah broke with the tradition of Leverite marriage (Deuteronomy 25:5-10) and left the widow husbandless. (Just made that up, according to spell checker.) So she disguised herself as a prostitute and lured Judah into a liaison that resulted in the birth of twins, Perez and Zerah. We will leave them there, except to note that the godly line was put on hold for ten generations. (Ruth 4:19-22)

Surely now, the godly line will clean up its act. Right? “... Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab....” Was this the Rahab, the harlot that we met in Joshua 2? Either the gentlemen listed between Perez and Boaz were very old when they fathered children, or Matthew and the other writers omitted a few guys. (This is called a “telescoped genealogy.”) We will not pursue that here, but it would seem to be reasonable to believe that this is indeed, THE Rahab of Joshua. Why else would that detail be included it it were merely another woman coincidentally named Rahab?

And for the purposes of our thoughts, Rahab was a prostitute, making her and her offspring eligible for our HoS. Good news is coming, hold on. Oh wait, Ruth, the grandmother of our next actor was a Moabitess. Yes the ones prohibited from entering the Sanctuary. (Deuteronomy 23:3) We will not explore that except to note that she abandoned and forsook her old nationality and religion and became a Jew. (Ruth 2:16) “Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.”

However you interpret the details, we get to David. No more problems, right? You already know where I am going. “David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba who had been the wife of Uriah. We do not need to say anything else. And Solomon failed for a while, but seems to have regained his faith footing in the end.

I am almost afraid to go farther. “Solomon was the father of Rehoboam.” Yes, that is the Rehoboam who split the kingdom and precipitated the years’ long war between the tribes of Judah and Israel. There were some “good guys” in the line that follows, but there were some really bad guys too. The list is extensive and depressing. (Kings and Chronicles) One notable one is Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, a really good king. (2 Chronicles 32:33) This is not the Manasseh, son of Joseph, but merely named for his “uncle.”

Manasseh led the people of Judah into such debauched idol worship that God eventually had them deported from the land of Israel to Babylon. Jeremiah 15:4 “I will make them an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.”

After that, the list continues, but mercifully leaves out any “incriminating” details. It finally culminates with Joseph, the son of Matthan. Joseph “s introduced as "the husband of Mary." Jesus is described, “as was supposed, the son of Joseph." (Luke 3:23) Another study is required to explore that particular designation, but suffice it to say, Joseph “adopted” Jesus by naming Him. Recall Zechariah was asked what the name of his son would be in Luke 1:63. When it says he “took Mary as his wife, 25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus,”  Joseph essentially claimed or adopted Jesus by naming Him. (Matthew 1:25)

But, as promised, this is good news. If Jesus came from such a “line of losers,” that means that there is hope for me–and for you. Not that our lineage is flawed, but that we are a part of that lineage that came from Jesus. His “precursors” were not perfect people, far from it, in fact. But God redeemed and used them. And He will do the same for us, the flawed “descendants” who make up the Church.

He has chosen us to be part of His bride, the church and is purifying us to present to Himself. Revelation 19:7, 8 “His bride has made herself ready.” 8 It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”

Just as the line leading to Jesus was not perfect, but was perfected in Him, so the line leading from Him has not been perfect. But we are being prepared for that day. And we get to participate. We work on producing “righteous acts,” to present to Him as our adornment. And we will be perfected by Him.

The lineage from Christ is no better, nor worse than the one that led to Him. But the culmination will be wonderful. That comfort and excitement both challenges and inspires us. We are not too far gone that God cannot recover and redeem us. And we are not disqualified from being a tool He can use. Keep reading the “old stories” and use that guide to writing “new stories,”  our new stories.

Have a Merry and Blessed Christmas. He came, He is coming again.