What do three of the four women in the Genealogy of Matthew have in common?

In the genealogy of Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter one there are four women included. And three of the four were not what you would call virtuous women. 

The first woman mentioned is Thamar (Mat 1:3);

Thamar was married to one of Judah’s sons, but he died, and his brother (another son of Judah) was obligated to take Thamar as his wife, and in time he also died. 

Judah was not willing to allow his younger son to marry Thamar, so Thamar wanting a child dressed up as a prostitute, unrecognizable to Judah and seduced him. 

The second woman is Rahab. Israel sent spies to the city of Jericho and Rahab a prostitute hid them from the people of Jericho. So, in turn when Israel attacked Jericho Rahab and her family were spared from what would have been certain death. 

Rahab then married Salmon, and they were the parents of Boaz who married Ruth the Moabitess. Moab was under a curse from God, yet by God’s grace Ruth became the wife of Boaz. Boaz was the Great Grandfather of King David. 

The last of the four women is the wife of Uriah (Mat 1:6). This would be Bathsheba who had an affair with King David. King David had Bathsheba’s husband Uriah murdered after Bathsheba became pregnant. 

Three of these women were not virtuous women and one was from the land of Moab whom God had cursed. Yet, they were in the genealogy of Jesus. 

So, another question is how does this relate to you and me? 

Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel has the answer for us:

“So, the Lord has put into the genealogy of the line of Joseph these four women, in order to display the grace of God, in order that any of us, through our failures, can still identify with God’s plan of grace and love for men. None of us are excluded. God has already included in His program people who had made a mess out of their lives, people who had had great personal failures in their lives, people who had immoral stains in their lives and still God used them in His total plan. And thus, it encourages us who also have stains, who also have failures, that God can still use us in His plan.” And so to me it’s exciting to see the inclusion that God makes in this line coming to Christ.”

Greg