Brokenness to Beauty

When reading the Bible many of us reach the various genealogies and decide to skip over them.  After all we cannot pronounce most of the names (talk about embarrassment when you have to read aloud in a group!) and we really don't have a clue who these various folks are.  Yet when we study the genealogies there is much to learn.  God is intentional about every word that is in the Word, so surely He has something for us in that long list.  Recently I was reading Matthew and as most of you know, it begins with the genealogy of Jesus our Savior.  What little nuggets does God have for us in this line?  Actually, there are multiple nuggets, but today I want to focus on only one aspect.  How God used broken people, especially women, to advance His plan and His purpose.  

I will save you reading through the text here, but if you want a refresher, click on this link Matthew 1.   In the fourth generation from Abraham, we have our first departure from the ordinary.  This is Tamar.  If you are unfamiliar with Tamar's story it can be found in Genesis 38.  Tamar was Judah's daughter-in-law and had been deceived by Judah, when following Levitical law, she should have been given in marriage to Judah's third son upon the death of her first husband, his eldest son and then her second husband, Judah's middle son, but she was not.  Understanding the importance of her role in advancing the line of Judah, she ended up presenting herself to Judah as a prostitute.  She conceived and then when facts came to light, Judah himself proclaimed that Tamar  "is more righteous than I, since I wouldn't give her to my son Shelah." And he did not sleep with her again.  Verse 26.

Tamar was rejected by her second husband who spilled his seed on the ground preventing her from becoming pregnant.  She was rejected by her father-in-law and his third son when a marriage was not arranged according to law.  As a widow she was rejected by society in general, a characteristic of society at that time.   She had been sent back to live with her family in disgrace.  But God.....  God knew the plans and purpose He had for Tamar and that she was a critical link in the chain that would lead to Jesus' birth.  She may not have felt significant at that moment in time when she gave birth to the twins Perez and Zerah.  There is another story there with Perez pushing ahead of his twin, but that is for another time.  We continue the genealogy through Perez the fifth generation.

With the tenth generation we come upon Salmon, son of Nashon, who was both a prince and captain of the tribe.  Salmon married Rahab, the prostitute turned proselyte who aided Joshua by hiding his spies from the king's men.  As a reward, Rahab and her family were given protection as well as a secured future within the nation of Israel.  The Lord once again used the brokenness of a women's life to insure the future line of the Messiah.  When Rahab turned to the Lord and offered protection to His men, the Lord honored her by promoting her to a position of acceptability with a future.  Rahab gave birth to Boaz, a name with which most of us are very familiar.

Imagine the upbringing of Boaz.  We know from our study of Ruth that Boaz was a tremendously respected man of honor in Bethlehem.   Just imagine the passion with which his mother shared with him the magnificent majesty of Jehovah the Lord who had delivered her from bondage.   It is no surprise that Boaz would through his own life respect and honor the passion for the Lord of Ruth, another proselyte.

Ruth, another very broken individual, was from Moab.  Disgraced in the eyes of society because she was not only a widow but a childless one as well.  She was not an Israelite.  Her deceased husband had married outside of the tribes of Israel.  She abandoned her own culture and family to follow Naomi and care for her, loving her as her own mother.  She arrived in Bethlehem as a true outsider, yet God rescued her and once again used a broken vessel to continue to the line of the Messiah.

Speaking of brokenness ponder the case of Bathsheba.  Essentially King David kidnapped her and raped her.  When the king's men come to your home and command you to appear before the king and he then has intimate relations with you, I believe it is fair to say you would not be a willing partner.  How do you say no to a king?  Then you find yourself pregnant and you have not been with your husband.  To top it all off, the king has your husband killed so that you can be his and he won't have to deal with a righteous husband (which clearly Uriah was).  Broken life?  Most definitely.  Yet in spite of David's sin, and the subsequent death of that child, Solomon was born who had the ultimate opportunity to project the epitome of God's extravagance.  The line to the Messiah continues.

The generations continue until we reach Joseph, fiance of Mary.  Once gain, God used a situation that society rejected completely as unacceptable.  Mary (who was also from the line of King David through his son Nathan) was chosen by the Lord to conceive through Holy Spirit.  However from the perspective of those living in the villages surrounding Mary's and Joseph's, she was a harlot who had been unfaithful to Joseph her contractual fiance.  Have you ever wondered why God did not wait until they were married or almost about to consummate the marriage?  Mary could have still been a technical virgin and society would have been none the wiser.  Jesus could have grown up without the stigma that He did.  Yet that was not the path that God chose.  Consider Philippians 2:6-8 Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal's death on a cross.  Is there anything more humbling than being born an illegitimate child?    Consider at the same time Mary's emotional and social status.  Wouldn't you have felt broken in spite of knowing what had been revealed to you about the child in your womb?  Agony and ecstasy perhaps?

So often when we encounter the difficult times of our lives, when we come face to face with our brokenness, we feel dejected and depressed and question how can God possibly use someone as messed up and broken as me.  The answer lies in part in the stories of these wonderful women who in spite of how society looked at them and how they felt inside, submitted themselves in trust to the Lord.  We must with trusting eyes gaze upon our loving Lord and say, "Use me, Lord, however You can and however You desire that I may advance Your kingdom.  Use me, Lord, just as I am."