CLOSET SKELETONS
Most people probably know that if they dig deep enough into their family tree, some unknown or unexpected skeletons could come falling from the branches. And if you look into the ancestors of Christ, some unexpected developments also occur.
In the Bible, there are warnings against interfaith marriages and in some cases they were essentially forbidden. In Deuteronomy, seven nations were considered completely off limits to the Hebrew people. “Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son” (Deuteronomy 7:3). The reason for this? “For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly” (Deuteronomy 7:4).
In spite of this, intermarriage did occur and this, in part, formed some of Christ’s own lineage.
In the story of Ruth, it is told that Ruth, a Moabite woman (perhaps even a Moabite princess) was taken in marriage by Boaz, a relative of Naomi. That relationship resulted in a son called Obed, who was the grandfather of David the King and the earthly ancestor of Christ.
Likewise, in the book of Genesis, in the middle of the story about Joseph, it starts to talk about Judah and his marriage to the daughter of a Canaanite woman Shua. This happened even though God had warned about marriage between Hebrews and people from other nations. Judah and his wife had three sons: Er, Onan, and Shelah. Er married a woman named Tamar, but because he was wicked in God’s sight, the Lord killed him. In accordance with the custom of the time, Onan was to marry Tamar but he refused to consummate the marriage and so he died also. So Tamar, now a widow, turned to Judah. His wife had also died, and as Shelah was still too young to marry, Tamar prostituted herself, deceived Judah, and conceived by him. Not a nice situation to have children to your own father-in-law under such circumstances but this is what happened and from that relationship came two sons: Perez and Zerah.
If you look at the first chapter of Matthew, it relates there how Perez was in the lineage of David and thus also of Christ. These skeletons in the genealogy of Christ illustrate the imperfections in His earthly family tree.
Are people sometimes concerned that since Christ was sinless, that no matter what, they will never be able to live up to what is supposedly expected of them? That they may have been too bad to ever be able to enter heaven? We all have done things that we wish we hadn’t and have family history that we might wish to have undone. In other words, we all have, somewhere in our past, closet skeletons that we wish were not there. Isn’t it comforting to know that even a man without sin himself can have a family tree that is less than perfect?
It’s enough to make you pause and think.
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