Mothers

In youth I’m wrapping up a series called “Mothers” which is about 4 unlikely mothers in the line of Christ.

I opened with Tamar, who wasn’t a Jew, who lost 2 husbands and lost hope in the promised marriage. She took matters into her own hands and posed as a prostitute to get what was owed to her. We learned that sometimes people in teh church will give us lip service, claiming that we belong, but treating us like we don’t. We also learned that God never gives us lip service, and will bring us honor even if everyone else puts us into a place of dishonor.

The following week we learned there are a lot of prostitutes in the Christ family tree (ok, maybe not a lot but the first one pretend to be one and the second one was one, so it sure seems like a lot). Rahab probably didn’t grow up with great plans on how she was going to sell her body, but for what ever reason that is the path she ended up walking down. Then one day she got some customers that didn’t fit the mold. She was certainly full of fear, but she also had hope, probably for the first time in years. Over the course of several days she probably had some seriously mixed emotions. She betrayed her people in the hope that the spies would keep their word. Would they save her? Would she go from bad to worse or would things get better? She was an outsider, not part of the invading army she was trusting. Would they leave her and her family to starve? In the end she marries a war hero and lives happily ever after. God saw her in her brokenness and shame and saw fit to lift her up.

Last week we talked about Ruth, who’s life took a terrible turn through no fault of her own. Her sister in law went back to her old life and her mother in law found nothing but misery in the pain of her loss, going to far as to name herself “bitter.” God redeemed Ruth for her faithfulness in tending to her mother-in-law.

This week we will talk about Bathsheba. She also experienced loss, and more likely than not a good deal of shame and judgement. Even now she is judged. Was she trying to show off her body for the king and trap him with her womanly ways or was she forced into a no win situation by the most powerful man in the land, one clearly favored by God? How often do bad things happen because good people over step their bounds and how often do the victims get painted in the light of accusation? Fortunately we have a God who sees all and desires grace for the victims.

What a wild and crazy family tree, but we know that Christ didn’t come for the perfect, he came for the broken.