Tell City Nazarene Church's Biblical Journey
With Pastor Charles Areson
Today's reading is Matthew 1-4
We move now into the New Testament and the first chapter is a genealogy, which for most is not very exciting. However, in this list of names, there are some interesting names. The most interesting is that women are named, which is interesting considering that women at this time were not respected.
Looking at the women in this genealogy, they aren’t the ones people think of as saints, but then neither were the men in the list. Looking at these women, we have Tamar, a woman who dressed up as a prostitute; Rahab, a prostitute; Ruth, a foreigner; Bathsheba, an adulteress. Yet despite their history, these women are recognized later as being righteous. Their stories could have been forgotten but their actions later could not be ignored even in a culture that tended to diminish the role of women. It also says that God and the early Christian writers did not diminish the importance of women in the coming of the Messiah.
When the chapter ends it ends with another woman vital to the coming of the Messiah, Mary. Mary the mother of Jesus, whom Joseph by the record was not the father. A woman who could have been punished by an unbelieving society, but who trusted God and for whom God sent an angel to Joseph to tell him the Spirit of God was the one responsible for this child.
What faith? Despite their past and the opinion of society, these women found a place in the coming of the Messiah. What are you doing to bring the Messiah, Jesus, to the world around you?
A side note the scripture said that after Jesus was born then Joseph consummated their relationship. Though this contradicts the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, scripture uses the same terms as when other people have sex. This means that though Mary was a virgin when Jesus was conceived she did not remain a perpetual virgin.
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| God saw them as vital. |
We move now into the New Testament and the first chapter is a genealogy, which for most is not very exciting. However, in this list of names, there are some interesting names. The most interesting is that women are named, which is interesting considering that women at this time were not respected.
Looking at the women in this genealogy, they aren’t the ones people think of as saints, but then neither were the men in the list. Looking at these women, we have Tamar, a woman who dressed up as a prostitute; Rahab, a prostitute; Ruth, a foreigner; Bathsheba, an adulteress. Yet despite their history, these women are recognized later as being righteous. Their stories could have been forgotten but their actions later could not be ignored even in a culture that tended to diminish the role of women. It also says that God and the early Christian writers did not diminish the importance of women in the coming of the Messiah.
When the chapter ends it ends with another woman vital to the coming of the Messiah, Mary. Mary the mother of Jesus, whom Joseph by the record was not the father. A woman who could have been punished by an unbelieving society, but who trusted God and for whom God sent an angel to Joseph to tell him the Spirit of God was the one responsible for this child.
What faith? Despite their past and the opinion of society, these women found a place in the coming of the Messiah. What are you doing to bring the Messiah, Jesus, to the world around you?
A side note the scripture said that after Jesus was born then Joseph consummated their relationship. Though this contradicts the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, scripture uses the same terms as when other people have sex. This means that though Mary was a virgin when Jesus was conceived she did not remain a perpetual virgin.
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