Who's Yo Daddy?

Good morning!

I've had some hardware problems this morning, but now think I've been able to get things on track.

In Matthew 1 and Luke 3, we find the genealogy of Joseph, who was the husband of Mary, Jesus's biological mother.  There appears to be no explicit genealogy given for Mary, although some scholars claim that the one in Luke is Mary's genealogy.  The text does not read that way; so, I'm a little perplexed about why they claim that.  I need to do more study on the matter.
If there is no genealogy given for Mary explicitly this is probably just the way God wanted things.  As obsessed as some churchy folk have gotten over Mary herself (Marian worship in the Catholic Church, for example), can you imagine how obsessed they would have gotten with her genealogy?  This person and that person would be claiming, "Well, I'm descended from the same lineage as Mary (hence Jesus Christ)!"  It would not be pretty.

But, for the moment, we are going to look at Matthew 1, Joseph's genealogy.  Now, why do you suppose Joseph's genealogy is given, when he was not Jesus' biological father?  The reason is because he was Jesus' legal father.  Over and over in the Old Testament, it was claimed that Messiah would come from the line of Abraham and King David, the Davidic Line, as it is called.  Joseph's lineage is provided to illustrate that legally that promise of God's was fulfilled.  The Jews are very big into legal descent, through the father's ancestral line.

The interesting thing in this passage is that there are some real characters in Joseph's line.  Let's look at a few of them this morning.  The passage in Matthew differs a bit from the one in Luke.  Luke's list only deals with the daddies, but Matthew's mentions some of the moms.

Matthew begins with Abraham, the patriarch of all Jews (via Isaac) and Arabs (via Ishmael) and goes on from there.  One of the names for Jesus is 'the Lion of the Tribe of Judah".  Notice in verse 2 that Judah (Judas in the King James Version), one of Jacob's 12 sons, is in the line-up.

In verse 3 we see that the line proceeds through Judah's son, who was born to Tamar.  Interesting that God would choose this path for the legal birthright of his Son!  Judah slept with Tamar, when he thought she was a prostitute, actually, and the firstborn of their twin sons, was a legal ancestor of Jesus Christ.  The story is recorded in Genesis 38.  It is a strange tale.  One thing you need to remember in reading it is this:  the Jews had a custom that, if a man died before siring children, his father would appoint the dead man's brother to sire children with the dead brother's wife, so as to continue the dead man's family name.  This is a key element of this story, and a key to why Tamar acted as she did.  She was one smart cookie.

In verse 5, we see that Boaz is in the family tree.  Remember him?  The biblical book of Ruth is the love story of Ruth and Boaz.  The dead man's wife paradigm is present here as well, actually.  Oh, there is so much to explore here!  But, I'll save that for another day and another blogpost.  Note for the moment, that Ruth was from the country of Moab, a pagan country.  Yet, she is in Jesus' family tree. The theme of the book of Ruth is redemption.

Let's touch on one more this morning.  In verse 6 we see that the son of David who carried on the messianic line was not born to the godly Abigail, nor to David's first wife, Michal.  No, the son who carried on the messianic line was born to Bathsheba, the former wife of Uriah - - - the woman whom David stole, whose first husband David had (in essence) murdered.  That sordid tale is recorded in 2 Samuel 11.

Why do I bring this up?  Not everybody had a godly mother or a godly daddy.  If you were blessed to have had one or both, I hope you are thanking God every day for the incredible privilege!  My parents aren't/weren't perfect, but they worship(ped) Jesus Christ as Savior and tried to follow Him as best they could.  This has been a source of tremendous blessing to me.

Many people cannot say that.  They may have had a daddy who was a drunk or a mother who was an abuser.  They may have come to know Jesus in spite of their parentage.  When we look at the legal genealogy of Jesus we find that God redeemed situations, in spite of their initial awfulness.  And, He still has the power to do that today.

Many people, especially women, hate the image of GOD as their loving, heavenly Father, because their earthly father was so evil that they have no frame of reference for what a loving Father is!  But, God can teach us about Himself, if we are only willing to learn.  He is able to redeem that situation and, yes, even the most terrible, ghastly circumstances of our past.

So, who's yo (earthly, biological) daddy?  The answer to that question is not nearly as important as "Who is your Heavenly Father?"  Who is the Lover of your Soul?  That is the question that needs answering today.  I hope you can answer that your Heavenly Father is the Lord God Jehovah, who gave His only Son so that you can have a righteous relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  If you have made that decision and settled that in your heart, then you can be a resplendent daughter (or son), knowing that God has loved you completely, from the very beginnings of time (by which He is not bound).

Dear Father, Loving Daddy, I thank you that you are my Heavenly Father, and that my ancestry.com is not nearly as important as my spiritual family tree.  Jesus said in John 15 that He is the Vine and we who name Him as Savior are the branches.  I thank you that I can be your resplendent daughter because I am a branch of the one true Vine, and that this, THIS is my true family tree.  Help me to be a branch that brings forth delicious, healthy spiritual fruit for You today!  In Jesus' name, amen.