May 12, 2002

Service Theme – "Our God is Love"

Matthew 1:1-6

Mother’s Day

Don’t Ask Me About My Past!

1. Introduction

1. Illustration – From Homiletics Online: From the experience of being a son, a father and a minister, Robert Fulghum talks about Mother's Day in his recent book It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It (New York: Villard Books, 1989): "For twenty-five years of my life, the second Sunday in May was trouble. Being the minister of a church, I was obliged in some way to address the subject of Mother's Day. It could not be avoided. I tried that. Mind you, the congregation was quite open-minded, actually, and gave me free rein in the pulpit. But when it came to the second Sunday in May, the expectations were summarized in these words of one of the more out spoken women in the church: 'I'm bringing my MOTHER to church on MOTHER'S DAY, Reverend, and you can talk about anything you want. But it had better include MOTHER, and it had better be GOOD!' She was joking - teasing me. She also meant it" (100). That being said, here is my attempt at being "good."
2. From Homiletics Online: The National and International Religion Report, pg. 4 (12 March 1990), one of the most extensive studies of faith development ever conducted on the American people, found that the "who" or "what" that had the most positive influence on religious faith, regardless of age group, sex or denomination, was "my mother."
3. Context – Motherhood is truly a noble calling. All women are in some sense mothers, because even if they don’t have earthly children, they are all spiritual mothers to those around them. Let’s spend some time looking at Matthew 1:1-6 and some other passages so we can try to learn what being a mother is all about.

1. Scripture Passage

1. Scripture Reference – Matthew 1:1-6 - A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham: ² Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, ³ Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, ⁴ Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, ⁵ Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, ⁶ and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife.
2. This is probably one of the most unusual texts for a Mother’s Day message you will ever find, but I want to point out four women in this passage that can help us learn a little bit about motherhood.

1. Four Mothers

1. There is something we need to understand as we get started. In Jewish culture, ancestry was traced through the male. The Jews were very big into genealogies, and most could tell you exactly who they were descended from. Their genealogies always included men, and often only the significant men in their families, but they did not include women. So Matthew is making a big statement by including four women in his genealogy of Jesus, and if he’s doing that, there’s a lesson to be learned. That being said, let’s take a look at these four women – two adulteresses, a prostitute, and a foreign pagan.
2. The first woman mentioned is Tamar. Tamar was Judah’s daughter-in-law. She first married Judah’s son Er, but Genesis 38:7 tells us Er was so wicked that the Lord put him to death. According to ancient custom, it was the duty of the husband’s brother to marry the widow in the event of the death of the husband so that his part of the family line would continue. So Er’s brother Onan married Tamar, but tried to prevent her from becoming pregnant. So the Lord put Onan to death for his evil. Next comes brother number three, Shelah, who was too young to marry. Judah lied to Tamar and said she could marry Shelah when he was old enough. Guess what? Shelah grows up, but no marriage, so Tamar takes matters into her own hands. She dresses as a shrine prostitute and gets a very dense Judah to sleep with her to carry on her husband’s name and to care for her when she grew old. When the whole scheme comes out, Judah, a very unrighteous man, said this about Tamar in Genesis 38:26 - "She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah." And he did not sleep with her again. Tamar’s oldest son Perez became the head of the leading clan of Judah and the ancestor of King David and ultimately of Jesus. Tamar wasn’t the most righteous girl on the block, but God made good out of a bad choice. That doesn’t justify her sin, but God used her for His ultimate glory.
3. Let’s jump to the next mother in the list, Rahab. Rahab was a prostitute. The Israelites were about to cross the Jordan River to invade Canaan. Joshua sent two spies into Jericho, the nearest and most heavily fortified city. They rented a room from Rahab and stayed there. The king of Jericho sent men to hunt them down. Rahab hid the spies and sent the king’s men in the wrong direction. Why would a prostitute do that? Joshua 2:8-13 - Before the spies lay down for the night, she went up on the roof ⁹ and said to them, "I know that the LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you. ¹⁰ We have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you completely destroyed. ¹¹ When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below. ¹² Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you. Give me a sure sign ¹³ that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and that you will save us from death." Rahab, a pagan prostitute, knew that God was going to give her city over to the Israelite army! He had been whispering to her heart, and she listened. As a result, the spies got to encourage the whole Israelite army with the news of the fear of the Lord over Jericho, and Rahab and her family were saved. Rahab married Salmon, and their son became another of the ancestors of Jesus. God used a prostitute for His glory!
4. Okay, so we’ve covered one of the adulteresses and the prostitute. Who’s next? Ruth, the pagan foreigner. During the time the book of Judges covers, there was a famine in Israel. Elimelech and Naomi moved with their two sons over to Moab, one of the pagan countries to the east of Israel. Not a good idea considering the spiritual climate there because the Moabites offered their firstborn children in the fire as sacrifices to their god, but Elimelech and Naomi moved there anyway. The two sons, Mahlon and Kilion married Orpah and Ruth. After a while, the dad and the two boys all die, and Naomi heard the famine in Israel was over, so she decided to move back. She told her daughters-in-law to move back in with their families. Orpah went home, but Ruth stayed. Naomi tried to ditch her again. The book of Ruth, chapter one, verses sixteen to eighteen - But Ruth replied, "Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. ¹⁷ Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." ¹⁸ When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her. The two travel back to Bethlehem, Ruth picks up leftovers after the harvest in a field belonging to one of Elimelech’s relatives, Boaz redeems her as his wife, and a son is born. Naomi’s bitterness goes out the window, and another ancestor of Jesus is on the scene. A pagan woman is used by God for His glory.
5. And last, but certainly not least, we have the other adulteress, Bathsheba. David the king sends his army out to war, but for some unknown reason he stays in Jerusalem. Kings back then were supposed to go to war with their armies – otherwise, they didn’t stay kings very long. One evening he’s bored and looking out from his rooftop and he sees a beautiful woman bathing on the roof next door. He asks about her. It’s Bathsheba, and she’s married to one of your right-hand men. Tell her to come on over. So the servants get her, and she and David spend a night of passion together. Never mind the fact that she is married and that David already has wives (plural). Bad news – Bathsheba is pregnant. David tries to trick hubby and eventually has him killed, then marries Bathsheba. Nathan the prophet tells David God’s not happy, David repents, and the baby dies. Should have said "no," David! Should have said "no," Bathsheba! But 2 Samuel 12:24-25 says, Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and lay with her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The LORD loved him; ²⁵ and because the LORD loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah. Jedidiah means "loved by the Lord." When David and Bathsheba repented, God was able to use them for His glory. Solomon was another ancestor of Jesus Christ the Messiah.
6. So we have two adulteresses, a pagan foreigner, and a prostitute, all ancestors of Jesus Christ. What does that tell us? Does that mean that we can go out and do whatever we want and God will use us anyway? Not at all! Tamar spent the rest of her life as a single woman and focused herself on raising those twin boys. Rahab stopped being a prostitute and became a respectable married woman. Ruth devoted herself faithfully to her husband and to God for the rest of her life. David almost had his kingdom ripped away by another son as a consequence of his adultery, while Bathsheba devoted herself to her husband and her family. So what’s the point? The point is this: it doesn’t matter how you start out. What matters is how you finish. If you’ve had problems with sin like the mothers we’ve looked at today, you can leave those sins behind and God will be with you and use you for His glory regardless of your past. What if you haven’t been the greatest mother in the world? There’s no such thing as a perfect mother, so you’d better drop that idealistic picture of what you’re supposed to be like from your head. If you haven’t been a good mother, you can change. You can repent of your sins and begin to teach your children how to follow and serve the living God. The greatest legacy we can leave behind when we go is godly children – children who love and follow and serve God through Jesus Christ wholeheartedly.
7. God isn’t hung up on our past – it took me years to learn that lesson and begin to leave the past in the past. It took me years to learn to forgive myself for the sins I’ve done and to forgive others for sinning against me and hurting me so badly. But I’ve learned that God doesn’t dwell on the past – His hope for us is in the present and the future. What He cares about are the choices we make today and tomorrow. Don’t let something you or someone else did keep you from moving on into what God has for you. Maybe you can identify with Tamar. Maybe it’s Rahab. Or Ruth. Or Bathsheba. Maybe your past has been just as bad, just different. Maybe it’s been worse. That doesn’t matter to God what you’ve done. What matters is who you are in Him. What matters is how willing you are to forgive yourself and others and move on and follow and serve Him. This isn’t just for moms, either. It applies to all of us. We all have a choice.
8. God is looking for mothers for His flock. God is looking for fathers for His flock. Men and women, boys and girls, who will commit wholeheartedly to loving, personal relationship with Him and allowing Him to transform their lives. We have a choice. We can be Tamar the adulteress or Tamar the one who raised up a strong leader for Judah when one was needed. We can either be Rahab the prostitute or Rahab the wife and mother whose ancestor is the Savior of the world. We can be either Ruth the pagan foreigner or Ruth the devoted wife and mother who brought healing to her mother-in-law. We can be either Bathsheba the adulteress or Bathsheba the nurturer of the wisest man who ever lived. Ladies, you are either mothers with earthly children, or mothers with spiritual children, because someone little is always watching you. You can allow God to use your influence to bring the next generation of Christian leaders to maturity, or you can wallow in your past. Gentlemen, the same holds true for us as either earthly or spiritual fathers. We all have a choice.
9. Illustration – From Homiletics Online: Moments before the bell to begin his New York City Golden Gloves match, boxer Daniel Caruso readied himself in the manner of Marvelous Marvin Hagler: by jabbing himself in the face. Caruso broke his own nose, and the ringside doctor called off the fight. God chooses even those who shoot themselves in the foot, who hit themselves in the face. Even if we’ve shot ourselves in the foot over and over again, God can still use us for His glory if we choose to allow Him to.

1. Conclusion

1. Please bow your heads and close your eyes. What has that quiet, gentle whisper in your heart been saying this morning? What is God trying to get across to you? We all have times when we forget to leave our pasts in our past and to forgive and allow God to use us no matter how poorly we’ve started. Let’s spend some time listening to hear what we need to do to respond to what God has been communicating to us this morning.
2. If you’d like to pray where you are, that’s fine. If you’d like to come up from and kneel at the altars and pray, that’s fine, too. Let’s all just make sure that we are listening to that still, small voice of God speaking to our hearts. And then act on what He is telling us.