A 'whosoever will' line

It’s extremely unusual in Scripture to find a woman in a genealogy. Jordan says, “You read down Matthew 1 and all of a sudden there are four women in the first six verses. When a Jew would read that he would go, ‘Whoa! Wait a minute! What’s going on here?!’ You just don’t expect it to show up that way in the genealogy of the Messiah and so the question comes up, ‘Why in the world?!’ and notice who they are.

“Of all the women in Israel’s history—great women—Sarah, Rachel or Deborah could have been chosen to be put here, but these women . . . Just the mention of the name Tamar brings a horrendous memory of wickedness.

“When you read her story in Genesis 38 you won’t want to say she’s a lady. Over and over in Scripture Rahab is called ‘Rahab the harlot.’ Then you see Ruth. Now, she’s a sterling picture of virtue but there’s a problem with Ruth—she was a Moabitess. You know what the law said about Moabites? They couldn’t enter into the land ‘til the tenth generation.’

“Ruth is a Gentile. Rahab is a Gentile. Tamar is a fallen Israeli and they don’t even put down Bathsheba’s name; they just remind you of who she was: the wife of Uriah. She was someone with whom King David had gone out and fallen into gross immorality and sin.

“And you say, ‘Wow! There’s none of these women here that are really the sterling examples of what you and I would put in the genealogy.’ So the question is why are they there? Why would they be put there so early and startling in their appearance at the beginning of the genealogy? How is it these women, two of them Gentiles, demonstrate Jesus Christ is the son of David, the son of Abraham?

“Tamar is probably not somebody you heard too much about in Sunday school. She’s not an example of who we try to tell the children about. I was reading an article the other day from Germany about a court case recently where they were trying to ban the Bible from public places because it’s full of pornography, violence, illicit sex, stuff like that.

“Well, the Bible’s a record of human activities and there are some real crude things like that that show up in the Bible, demonstrating that the Bible records the truth about even its heroes. And in Genesis 38 there’s an account like that with this lady Tamar.

“Your remember Hebrews 7 says that ‘our Lord sprang out of Judah.’ Here’s the tribe Christ is born from. He’s the lion of the tribe of Judah.

“Now Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord. and Onan gets messed up and God kills him and so Judah takes this woman and says, ‘Now, when my youngest boy gets big enough, I’ll let you marry him.’

“I don’t know how you are but you got to think about this. If you went and found a wife for your son and when they got married, God killed him, so you took her and married her to your next son and then God killed him, how quick are you gonna be to marry her to the last one?! It’s sort of guilt-by-association but you get the idea that maybe I shouldn’t marry the next boy off to her. 'He’s the last one I got!'

“So it finally dawned on her that the youngest is grown now, and verse 13 and 14 she realized she was never going to get this last boy to be her husband. In verse 15, when Judah saw her, what happens is Tamar, realizing that, goes out and sees Judah come and she literally plays the part of harlot and seduces her father-in-law by making out like she’s the town harlot. She seduces Judah into sin with her and then goes home.

“It’s one of these commercial endeavors. She says, ‘How much you going to pay me?’ and he says, ‘Are you a cop?’ and she says, ‘No, I just work for a living.’ And he says, ‘Well, I’ll give you one of my best vehicles,’ and she says, ‘Where’s it at?’ and he says, ‘I don’t have it here but I’ll give you my signet ring as a down payment.’

“So she takes the ring, makes the deal, he goes home, sends the payment back and they can’t find her. A few months later he finds that his daughter-in-law . . . he didn’t recognize her, by the way. She had painted herself all up and changed her appearance.

“A few months later he finds out she’s pregnant. ‘What’s going on now? Where’ve you been? Here’s my sweet little daughter-in-law and she’s been steppin’ out!’

“You know, it’s always that way. Those guys took that woman in John 8 in the very act of adultery and bring her to Christ. You notice they didn’t bring the man? How would you go find somebody committing adultery in the very act? You’d at least have to know where they were.

“Now, if you’re a righteous Pharisee how come you even know where they are? There was stuff going on there that wasn’t exactly kosher (on the level). And they’re condemning something . . . it’s that old thing, ‘Thou protesteth too much.’ You know too much about this.

“And Judah gets all indignant about his daughter-in-law’s sin and says, ‘You just tell me who it is and I’ll wipe him out. I’ll smush him like a bug.’ And she takes Judah’s signet ring and says, ‘The man that belongs to these. They’re his.’ And he says to her, ‘You’re more righteous than I,’ and she was.

“The baby that Tamar had (actually it was twins) as a result of an adulterous affair with her father-in-law; that’s the rest of the story. That’s who Tamar is. And that shameful history of her sin, full of evil deeds of the flesh, that’s why she’s in the genealogy in Matthew 1.

“Had she not committed adultery with her father-in-law she’d have never been the mother of Pharez and Zara (which means ‘dawn’) and it was being the mother of Zara, there’s the lineage that goes to the Messiah.

“It reminds you she’s there because of her willful, chosen sin and that without her sin, she would have never been able to get into the lineage of the Messiah. Now Israel needed to learn that. Jesus told Israel, ‘I am not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.' " When the leaders of Israel saw the Lord Jesus Christ over here with the Publicans and sinners they get His disciples to the side and they say, ‘What’s the matter with your master? Doesn’t he know those are sinners?!’

“Luke 15 says they tried to smear Him by saying He’s the friend of sinners. They thought that was a bad thing because they thought they were righteous and He wasn’t and they needed to be reminded that their Messiah came to be a friend of sinners. He wasn’t coming to call the righteous to repentance.

“Genesis 38:28. Notice she tied the scarlet thread on the second one to be born. You read about that scarlet thread through the Bible. You know what it represents in history and the line of the Redeemer and the place of redemption? Not that which is born first but that which is born second. The first is of the earth earthy; the second is of the Lord from heaven.

"Matthew 1:5. Rahab is in Joshua 2 and the question about her is over and over she’s called ‘Rahab the harlot.’ She’s a Canaanite. They were dismissed from the presence of God’s people. In fact, Israel was told to exterminate them. They were unclean. They were outcasts. Here Rahab is known over and over as a woman of ill-repute; a woman who had the stain of a wicked career tattooed on her reputation.

“I mean, if Tamar got in because of her sin, why would Rahab be in the genealogy? The answer’s in Hebrews 11:31. By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believe not when she had received the spies with peace.

“I don’t believe Rahab is called the harlot as an accusation. It’s there as a reminder of who she was and where she came from. Go with me to Joshua 2 and I think I can show you that Rahab, when the spies came there, was already a woman of faith. In fact, she had become what Proverbs 31 calls a virtuous woman but she carries that harlot tag as a reminder of why she’s there.

“It’s in James 2 that her faith is set in contrast with the faith of Abraham the friend of God. And then there’s Rahab the harlot. Both justified in James 2 and used as illustrations of Israel’s justification program before God. And she’s called the harlot, not as an accusation, because her life had been completely transformed and changed.

“In Joshua 2 Rahab represents Gentiles who hear God’s word and believe God’s word and who help and assist Israel. And because of their faith in the God of Israel, and their assistance to the nation Israel and participation in God’s program with Israel, they are brought into the blessings that God has promised through Israel.

“Rahab enters into what we would call civil disobedience. The authorities say turn him over and she says, ‘That’s an unjust law. That goes against the laws of God. I’m not going to do it.’ She disobeys the authorities because it’s more important to obey God than man. Verse 9.

“That’s a reference to a business proposition. She was a lady with a home business. I guess we could call her the first home-based entrepreneur. She had her Herbalife business—her flax business. She’s got the product drying on the roof. If she was still making her living as a harlot she wouldn’t be on the roof doing that!

“Something changed in Rahab’s life. She said, ‘Forty years ago we heard what you did when you came out of Egypt!’ Exodus 15. The Song of Moses.

“Joshua 2:11. This wasn’t something the spies were telling her about. They heard this 40 years before and she believed it! Oh, man! That’s better faith than you’re going to find in Israel!

“You remember the Lord would look at His disciples and say, ‘Oh ye of little faith.’ He would look at a woman and say, ‘I’ve not found such faith; no not in Israel.’ And Rahab is an example of a Gentile that just understood the God of Israel was God! She understood the Abrahamic covenant. She said, ‘He’s God! Your God is the God of gods in heaven above and the earth beneath! I got it! You’re His people! I’m going to bless you because I believe in your God.’ She’s not just concerned about herself but she’s concerned about others.

“I love verse 19. ‘Whosoever’ is the special word of Paul’s revelation. Rahab had entered into an understanding where God’s heart was in all of this. She wasn’t like Israel in Christ’s day, or our day, where it was an exclusive thing where you had to perform. She understood that God’s heart was to provide ransom for all.

“It’s fascinating the token they give her. Verse 17: ‘Whoever’s in the house where the scarlet cord is. You take it, you bind it in the window and you let it down outside.’ Again, let me say to you, the scarlet thread didn’t lie on the floor in Rahab’s house; it hung out the window for people outside of her house to see.

“Just like the blood was on the door post outside so when the death angel came by the blood was outside for him to see and people in the house were saved because the blood was on the door post. People in Rahab’s house were saved because the scarlet cord was on the window.

“My friend, your assurance is not an experience you’re having inside your living room; it’s the blood on the door post. It’s the cord hanging out the window. The issue isn’t . . . My assurance is not in what I’m doing; it’s in the objective standard of what He’s done.

“You notice where Rahab’s heart is in verse 13? She says, ‘I want you to save the lives of my father and mother and my brethren and my sisters and all they have and deliver our lives from death.’

“ When you get over to chapter 6, the sisters aren’t there and that tells you it was a ‘whosoever will.’ Just because you were part of Rahab’s family didn’t mean you were going to get delivered; you had to go down there and get in the house. You had to make the choice to be there.

“Salvation isn’t yours because you were born in a family. When you’re raised in a Christian home you don’t sometimes even remember when you made the choice to trust Christ initially. You just know that you do. What a wonderful joy that is. But she had to make the choice or it would never be hers.

“You understand? You can pass on hymn books, pass on tapes, pass on conversation and ideas but nobody can make the heartfelt choice that you have to make in your heart: ‘With the heart man believes unto righteousness.’ "