Genealogy of Grace

Most of the time I simply glaze over genealogy readings in the Bible.  For one thing, I can’t even pretend to pronounce their names.  For another thing, I am not concerned about who your daddy is.  But that is just me.  I remembered this week one reason why genealogies are in the Bible.  They tell a story.    

I read the narratives about Jesus’ birth during Christmas week.  It seems like a logical thing to do.  The opening lines of the New Testament where we read of Jesus’ birth are a genealogy.  42 generations are listed.  Apparently Matthew felt impressed to show Jesus’ earthly ancestry all the way back to Abraham through David (which is critical in the Jewish mind).    

The one portion that caught my attention was this statement:

                David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife.
The story of Uriah’s wife is found in the Old Testament (2 Samuel 11-12).  Her name was Bathsheba.  One evening King David saw her bathing on her patio from his castle.  I guess her beauty was captivating so he called for her and slept with her.  She ended up pregnant.  Where was her husband?  He was fighting in a war . . . David’s war.  Yep, while Uriah was being a faithful servant, his king was stealing his wife.  It was a treacherous act.  So what did the godly king do?  He attempted to cover it up by calling Uriah home from the front lines, but Uriah refused to sleep with his wife while there.  David’s plan failed.  In order to cover his treachery, he was forced to have Uriah killed in the fighting so he sent the soldier back.  Uriah’s body came home a few weeks later.  His wife was taken in by the good king.  Nine months later she gave birth to a son.  Unfortunately that son died due to this sordid affair.  What a disaster!  (Solomon was born later.) 

The only thing GOD can do at this point is to find someone else, right?  Who wants an adulterer, thief, and murderer to be in the ancestry of the Messiah?  And yet, according to Matthew, GOD not only intentionally included David and Uriah’s wife, but He included others like them.  People like Rahab, a prostitute.  People like Rehoboam whose mother was not even Jewish.  People like Manasseh who is described as doing “evil in the eyes of the Lord.”  On and on the list includes individuals who do not measure up to our standards of righteousness (Or GOD’S standards either). 

As I thought about this whole scenario, I found myself thankful for the grace of GOD that can take someone like David, Bathsheba and someone like me, with a multitude of flaws and failures and include them in His story – an epic story of grace where redemption, forgiveness and restoration run wild and out of control.

And I remembered to loosen my own halo.  Sometimes I wear it too tightly and expect others to be more than what they are.  I get judgmental and become sarcastic or self-righteous.  So I have to loosen my halo occasionally.  A tight halo can give a man a headache especially when his head swells.