Lives and Legacies: The Women in Jesus's Line

By Cheryl Rhodes

The Women in Jesus’s Line



Three of the five women in Jesus’s line were not born among the Chosen.  This is a clear indication that The LORD God chooses without prejudice relative to family origin.



Tamar was of use to her father only for his own security and well-being. She suffered abuse at the hands of three of the Chosen, but The Almighty saw in her the tenacity to be numbered among His own. God granted her two sons and entrance into the line of The Messiah.



Rahab had a cursed origin and lifestyle. Never-the-less, her courage in giving the Hebrew spies refuge worked to save herself and her family when Israel took Jericho.  People still refer to her as a harlot, though she was one of King David’s grandmothers.



Ruth was grateful that her husband’s family went to Moab to escape a famine in Israel. Left a widow, Ruth chose to accompany her mother-in-law home. Yahweh blessed her decisions with a new life, a loving, godly husband, a son, and adoption into the line of The King of Kings.



Bathsheba was taken from her husband, a loyal convert to Judaism, by the chosen Israelite king who was neglectful of his commitment to The LORD God. But she submitted to The Almighty and bore David four sons, including King Solomon. When Solomon took the throne, he honored his mother.



Though Mary was young and knew the consequences of being with child outside of marriage, she accepted Gabriel’s message with courage. She didn’t understand the messages she received, but she kept them in her heart.  She saw her son resurrected from the dead, in power and great glory.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fulton Books, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 19, 2020
• ISBN: 9781646544219

Book preview

cover.jpg

Lives and Legacies

The Women in Jesus’s Line

Cheryl Rhodes

Copyright © 2020 Cheryl Rhodes

All rights reserved

First Edition

Fulton Books, Inc.

Meadville, PA

Published by Fulton Books 2020

ISBN 978-1-64654-420-2 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64654-421-9 (digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Tenacious Tamar

Your Journey

Risky Rahab

Your Journey

Ruth the Redeemed

Your Journey

Bathsheba the Wise

Bathsheba’s Lineage

David’s Sons / Claimants for the Throne

Your Journey

Meditative Mary

Mary’s Story Continued

Your Journey

Tenacious Tamar

Canaanite (Gen. 38)

wife, widow of Er, Judah’s oldest son (Gen. 38:6–7)

wife, widow of Onan, Judah’s second son

(Gen. 38:8, 38:10)

mother of Judah’s two sons, Perez and Zerah

(Gen. 38:29–30)

My name is Tamar. You’ve probably heard of me being referred to as Judah’s daughter-in-law who bore him two sons. I’ll not deny that. I am Judah’s daughter-in-law. That wasn’t my idea, you understand? Nor do I deny that I bore him two sons. That wasn’t his idea (Gen 38:6; Ruth 4:12).

Given my druthers, I would choose to be known as Tamar the Tenacious. Stubborn, some would say. Such remarks reflect upon the character of the speaker, don’t you think? After you hear my story, you’ll be in a better position to decide for yourself if tenacious is an apt descriptor for me.

In order for you to understand my story, you must know about my people, our country, our customs and culture, and my place in that society. Then I must tell you about my father-in-law, Judah.

My people, the Canaanites, descended from Ham’s fourth son (Gen. 9:22). You may remember that after The Flood, Noah got drunk. Ham found his father Noah naked and sleeping it off in his tent.

Instead of covering his father’s nakedness and keeping his mouth shut, he chose to share the joke of his father’s situation with his two brothers. Shem and Japheth put a garment on their shoulders, and backing into their father’s tent, covered Noah (Gen. 9:20–23).

But when Noah woke, he knew what Ham had done and cursed Ham (Gen. 9:24–25). Ever wonder that Noah was not censored for his drunkenness and Ham was cursed for his disrespect to his father? One thought¹ has it that the waters above the earth were a canopy of ice connected to the earth at the poles (Gen. 1:6; 7:11–12). The Flood was, in part, a melting of that ice canopy.

Following the dissolving of this protection, the rays of the sun had direct access to the earth’s surface. Only after that would fermentation have been possible, and the aging of all things on the face of the earth would have been accelerated. Interesting, don’t you think? So perhaps Noah’s drunken state was unintentional. Ham’s disrespect, however, was deliberate.

I did not have a good beginning—born among the cursed. But you’ll find, as you hear my story, that God is able, willing, and waiting to deliver the cursed. It’s God action toward me that makes my story worth the telling. And God’s intended actions toward you that makes my story worth hearing.

My homeland,² the land of Canaan, stretched from the Jordan River valley (east) to the Mediterranean Sea (west) and from the Sinai Peninsula (south) to Phoenicia (north). Some of the territory is dry, mountainous, and rocky, unfit for cultivation. Other places provided some good pasture for flocks and herds. Our sheep and cattle were fat and productive. Still other areas were fertile farmlands, particularly the river valleys and the coastal plains. Our harvests were so bountiful we had enough, beyond our needs, to export.

We were ideally situated with the trade routes that stretched from Egypt (south) to Syria (north), either by the Way of the Sea or by the Ridge Road.³ An east–west route to the ancient Babylonian Empire crossed from Joppa (west) through Jericho (east). Our location was strategic.

For some time, the name Canaan was synonymous with merchant, for merchants we were. Many fine wares from other countries found their way into our homes and marketplaces in exchange for our produce and products.

We were a talented people and developed in the arts and sciences early. Ceramic arts, music, musical instruments, and architecture were areas in which we excelled. Remnants of our art treasures in silver, gold, ivory, and alabaster demonstrate our refinement and sophistication, as do elegant furnishings, distinguished wearing apparel, and personal ornaments. Archeologists have documented this all for you.

Long before the age of Abraham, we were using the seal-cylinder form of writing.

Our stout walled cities have been excavated; their construction was much superior to that of later Hebrew construction. We were a settled, organized, prosperous, comfortable society when the Hebrews were no more than a clan.

Doesn’t sound cursed, does it? Oh, but I’ve not told you about our religion. We were an extremely religious society. Not all religions lead to justice and mercy, you know. Our gods, or rather our superstitions about these imagined deities, resulted in the vilest of actions and activities.

Thousands of clay tablets described our pantheon, or temple of the gods, where we worshiped Baal and goddesses of sex and war, death and pestilence, health, arts, and crafts. Our temple prostitutes were varied and plentiful. After all, what man would not give one of his daughters, or a son, to appease the wrath of the gods or secure for himself the blessings of the gods?

Our sanctuary foundation was laid upon the bodies of our sacrificed children, as were our homes. Human sacrifice, more especially the sacrifice of the firstborn son, was practiced with undiminished frequency until the Israelites conquered our land. Yes, we were cursed. Make no mistake about it.

Now I must introduce you to my father-in-law, who, as it turned out, was one of the most important humans in my life. He was born of the Chosen, those in the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Judah was Jacob’s fourth son; his mother was Leah, the less loved wife (Gen. 29:35). Judah spent a large portion of his early life in rebellion against his father, Jacob, showing little regard for the God of his father.

In short, Judah determined to do, and he did, his own thing. Know anyone like that? They’re ubiquitous. Why, you might ask. In Judah’s case, I think he was rebelling (1) against his father’s favoritism of his younger half brother Joseph (Gen. 37:3), (2) against his mother’s less loved state (Gen. 29:30), and (3) against any and all restrictions on his free will. Worship of self-will is so often damnation. It was for Judah’s sons.

You may remember Joseph’s dreams and the story of his being sold into slavery (Gen. 37). That was Judah’s idea, to sell his brother Joseph into slavery (Gen. 37:26–27). The ten half brothers were all jealous of Joseph because he was the eldest son of the loved wife, Rachel, and the favorite of their father, Jacob.

The older boys had gone seeking better pasture for the flocks. Jacob got to wondering how they were doing and sent Joseph to find out (Gen. 37:13). Joseph was willingly obedient to his father. Although he had reported his brothers’ misbehavior to their father (Gen. 37:2), he had no animosity toward them. So he expected none from them.

After some searching, Joseph caught up to his brothers, but not before they saw him coming. The original plot was to kill him and see what would happen to those dreams of his (Gen. 37:19–20). But Ruben, the firstborn son, talked them into throwing Joseph into a pit (Gen. 37: 21–22). Ruben’s intention was to rescue Joseph.

Apparently Ruben was gone from camp when a caravan of Ishmaelite traders came past. (You remember Ishmael? Abraham’s son by the Egyptian woman, Hagar? Gen. 37:15) Judah decided, and convinced the other brothers, that there would be no gain in killing Joseph and having his blood on their hands; they should sell him (Gen. 37:27). A few coins never came amiss. And so, sell him they did.

Judah seemed to think slavery was better than murder. Hard to imagine one of the Chosen considering either option against one of their own brothers, right? Not all the Chosen live in submission to their calling, you understand? You’ve no doubt witnessed that as well. Not all who call themselves Christian live as Christians.

The brothers killed a goat and bloodied Joseph’s torn coat so their father would believe Joseph had been killed by a wild beast (Gen. 37:31). This act of cruelty sent Judah’s aging father into inconsolable grief (Gen. 37:34–35), which Judah apparently chose not to witness.

Judah decided to get away (1) from the grief he and his brothers had caused their father, (2) from any suggestion the other nine might have of his responsibility for the situation, and (3) from any and all restraints of his father’s God. He went down to stay with a friend of Adullam named Hirah (Gen. 38:1). There he married a Canaanite woman (Gen. 38:2).

You may remember that Abraham (Gen. 20:12), Isaac (Gen. 24:4), and Jacob (Gen. 28:5, 29:13, 29:16) had each taken wives from their own family. Abraham married his half sister. In Isaac’s case, a servant was sent back to Paddan-Aram to find him a wife from his parents’ family. Jacob went himself to find a wife from his maternal uncle.

Not Judah though; he was doing his own thing. Canaanite was good enough for him. Never mind his forefather’s practice or any direction from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The Canaanite woman bore him three sons and evidently raised them with little input from Judah’s family or The God of the Hebrews (Gen. 38:3–5). Apparently, she exercised minimal restraint and provided little guidance, for they were hellions. You may be sure their reputations were known.

I have no doubt my father, Shaul,⁴ knew about the character of these young men. But my father’s concern was not about the character of a possible son-in-law, nor was he concerned for me, as a wife to one of them. His concern was for himself. Children were for the benefit of their fathers and used for their fathers’ protection, security, or advancement; frequently without any thought of the consequences to the child. It’s part of the curse I’ve been telling you about.

You see, my father, Shaul, was afraid of Jacob’s sons,⁵ with good cause. A few years previously, Jacob’s daughter, Dinah, had gone into a nearby Hivite town to visit the women. Dinah was the only daughter in a household of four wives: the two maids and two sisters (Rachel and Leah). The sisters struggled against each other for position and children until Rachel’s death (Gen. 30:4, 30:9).

Ten of Dinah’s twelve brothers were vying for their father’s affection and against the two brothers of the loved wife, Joseph and Benjamin. I certainly could understand her desire to get away. I would have gone to town too, wouldn’t you?

It appears Jacob had made no plans for Dinah’s future marriage, although it was, after all, the father’s responsibility to see to his children’s future by arranging suitable matches. Jacob had eight cousins through his great Uncle Nahor II, who no doubt had sons of marriageable age (Gen. 22:20). Jacob’s mother had been sought from his uncle Bethuel’s household (Gen. 22:23), and Jacob had taken wives from the house of his uncle Laban (Gen 28:5).

Do you wonder how Dinah must have felt about not being provided for in this way? I’d not have felt cherished, that’s for sure. I think it made her vulnerable.

While in town visiting the women, she became too well acquainted with Shechem, the chief’s son. The Book says he took her, but Dinah’s feelings about all this are not documented (Gen. 34:2). What we know is that Shechem loved Dinah, despite his apparent forwardness, and persuaded his father to seek her hand in marriage for him. He promised to pay any bride price Jacob asked (Gen. 34:11).

If it had been me, I’d have jumped at the chance to be the only wife of a man who valued me so. Dinah had seen (1) her mother’s grief in her marriage, (2) the strife between her mother and her aunt Rachel, and (3) the grief of her brothers—never able to have the place in their father’s heart that her aunt Rachel’s sons had.

Jacob heard the tale about Dinah and Shechem without comment, as was not uncommon for Jacob. He was less than forthright with Hamor, Shechem’s father.

He waited until all his sons were in from the field and conferred with them. They—Jacob and his sons—were incensed at this union that Shechem had initiated, never mind that Shechem sought to legitimize the pairing.

Think on that. Here is a four-wife household, with no end to skeletons in their proverbial closets, and incensed at this young man’s intention toward Dinah. Never mind Dinah’s wishes in the matter. With no thought of giving Dinah to her lover, they told Shechem’s father that they could not enter into marriages with an uncircumcised people; it was a reproach to them.

Before there could be any wedding between anyone in Hamor’s town and the clan of Israel, the men of their city would all need to be circumcised first. That’s like telling a pagan to just get baptized, and we’ll be one happy family.

With no commitment to life lived in submission to The

Lord

God Almighty, the water is immaterial! The circumcision meant nothing. But the people of Shechem’s town didn’t know that circumcision was part of an ongoing covenant relationship with The

Lord

God.

Can you imagine, the chief and his son, Shechem, persuaded all the men of the town to be circumcised? That gives you an idea of the esteem with which Shechem was held by his fellow countrymen. He must have been considered an honorable man (Gen. 34:19), one worthy of their devotion.

Three days