Would You Like To Hear About My Best Friend Jesus?

When you give your life to Jesus, HE should become everything to you. Your strength, your joy, your comfort, and the insatiable desire of your heart. Everything we learn about our Savior offers us more satisfaction, more faith, more rest. Jesus is a never ending, never exhausted banquet of Mana that will fill our souls. HE is the water of life that will quench our thirst forever. Nothing tastes better to our hearts than him, and because of the Gospel we can keep eating of HIS goodness for all of eternity.

The Women Of Jesus' Genealogy

Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba

Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram. Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon. Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David the king. David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah.
Matthew 1:3-6
It is without a doubt that Matthew's desire was to present Jesus to a Jewish Christian audience as a Jewish royal figure. Not just the Son of Abraham, but rather the Son of David as mentioned in the very first verse. Thus the legal heir of King David's throne. This is why he had to incorporate the genealogy that traced his lineage back to David. However, something that has intrigued theologians since the early years of Matthew's Gospel, is his inclusion of four gentile women. Women who, with the exception of Ruth, possessed no exemplary character. To modern readers this might not seem so out of place, but for a first century Jewish scribe to include women in a record of ancestry was unheard of. The World of the first century was based upon Patriarchal systems where women had no rights to speak of. They were but possessions of the men who controlled the World.

A Type Of The Law

Boaz discussing Ruth and her future with nearest unnamed kin

by Chuck Ness

As I peruse through my notes in my preperation to make outlines for the Book of Ruth, I was struck by a thought that makes me again put forth an idea. We are told that the fear of God is the beginning of all wisdom and knowledge, and in James 3:1 we are told that those who teach will be held to a higher standard. Well, I always fear being wrong lest I condemn myself by misleading others.

So, my theory would be that the unnamed Kinsman could also be a symbol of the Law of Moses. Allow me to elaborate.

Just as God handed down the Law to Moses, who in turn gave it to the people. It was actually given so that they could see what sin was. Paul tells us in Romans 3:20 “Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” So the Law came first to show us what sin is, and thus we realize we are sinners, as Paul wrote in Romans 7:7 “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "YOU SHALL NOT COVET."