I am currently in a BSF study in the book of Matthew. It is a real good study, though I seem to be missing more times than I had planned.

An interesting thing was right at the beginning. We took time to go through the lineage that is at the beginning of Matthew, and there were a couple of interesting points:

1) There are some key women in Jesus’ lineage that are actually pointed out (whereas they typically aren’t, due to Jewish tradition of heritage through male). Rahab the harlot who helped Joshua at Jericho was Ruth’s Mother in Law. Ruth, of course, was David’s Great Grandmother.

2) We always refer to Jesus as the Son of David, and refer to his lineage to David and other great men like Jacob, Isaac and Abraham…but have you ever noticed that some of his ancestors were Terrible men? (note the capital T) Rehoboam, and Abijah, his son, did all types of bad things as king (see 1 Kings 14-15), Jehoram, Uzziah (2 Kings 8)…etc.

take away what you would from this, but I liked the fact that God’s Word places significance on great men and women alike, even though in those days, women were not placed in such high honor as men. It shows me a God who stands by his Word which teaches that “we” are His children, and he loves us all.

Also, even though you may come from some terrible ancestry, or have had a bad past, etc. God still has a plan for you, can use you and loves you!

Its a pretty good lesson, from what seems (at first glance) a pretty mundane piece of scripture!