“Mothers from the Nations”
We’re continuing our series on the “Mothers of Jesus” which began last week with the “Mothers of Promise”, Eve and Sarah, who shared a common thread. They both received promises about their offspring and looked to God in faith for fulfillment. Through these women, God would move forward his plan of salvation,that would culminate with the birth of his own son in Bethlehem.
Today we are focusing on two other mothers from Jesus’ family tree, Rahab and Ruth. Let’s call them, “Mothers from the nations”, since both of these women had their origins outside of 12 tribes of Israel. Rahab was a Canaanite, a resident of Jericho. And Ruth was from Moab, one of the neighboring nations.
We know the central place the Israelites, and especially the tribe of Judah had in salvation history. We know who they grew from a large family to small nation during their time of bondage in Egypt. We see God bring them through the 40 years of wilderness sojourn, miracles along the way. And finally they come to the River Jordan and the promised land, the land sworn to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The land flowing with milk and honey.
It was here, Canaan, that God would plant them. It was here, through them and their descendants, that God would raise up the long-promised Messiah, the savior of the nations. At a certain time and place, through a certain people of a certain nation and tribe and even descended from a certain king, David.
You can see why the Jews were tempted to think they were something special. Well, they were! They were the chosen people, chosen by God, chosen for a great purpose. But sometimes this caused sinful pride rather than grateful humility. Sometimes “salvation is from the Jews” became a way to look down on others, aliens, outsiders. The great unwashed masses. The gentiles.
We, today, are not immune to such temptation. Insider/outsider, us and them scenarios, divisions and distinctions among men that lead us to treat our fellow man as somehow less, and us, my group, me, as somehow something more. Maybe we consider ourselves smarter, more loving, more politically astute, or more theologically pure. It’s part of our sinful, fallen, human nature to adhere to a party spirit. Something about it makes us feel good, right, and even justified. Better than that group, or that guy over there. And not so concerned or worried about my own faults, failings, and sin.
But justification comes from God alone. To the extent that we are good, or have anything good, it is a gift from God alone. So boasting is excluded, says Paul. Boast, rather, in the Lord!
“But, but…we are children of Abraham”, some might have said. Well isn’t that fancy? God can raise up children of Abraham from the stones, says John the Baptist.
Take Jonah, who was sent to preach to Nineveh, but ran the other way, not in fear, but in hatred. For he did not want to see THOSE people given the gospel, given second chance, or to receive God’s mercy. And when God forgave them, Jonah was mad!
So take Rahab and Ruth – two women from the outside. Pagans, raised worshipping other gods, false gods. And yet God chooses them, blesses them, includes them not only in his kingdom, but in the very line of blood that would bear the Messiah.
Rahab: Joshua 2:1-22
Rahab came first, chronologically. She lived in Jericho, the first city the Israelites would conquer in their campaign to take possession of the land. But Jericho was not just some small hamlet, it had mighty walls. And as it happened, Rahab and her family lived in one of these walls. The Scripture casually mentions that she is a prostitute. And so this adds to the reasons a good and pious Hebrew would want to avoid someone like her.
But for whatever reason, she shows hospitality to these two Hebrew spies. She takes them into her home, at risk to herself. She even draws attention from the King of Jericho, who knows they are spies! But she hides them and lies to the king and saves them. And then she who showed them mercy asks for mercy.
She says to the spies, “I know that the Lord has given you this land…” Rahab confesses her faith in Yahweh. This pagan prostitute, by some means, somehow, has heard the word of God and believed. And it creates in her, however small it may be, a faith that can move mountains. Or in this case, at least has a part in bringing down a city wall. She let the spies down through the window by means of a scarlet cord, and that same cord was to serve as a sign – when the Israelites did come to conquer, they would pass by her house and not destroy her and her family.
The sign of red – it has to remind you of the Passover, when the blood of the lamb on the Israelite doors marked them safe from the destroyer. And that blood of the Lamb itself was a sign also pointing to a greater blood and a mightier salvation – the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. In Jesus, God passes over our sins, and does not destroy us.
Rahab is remembered in the New Testament, in Hebrews as an example of faith, and in James as an example of good works. She is part of the genealogy of Jesus. She is an example of God working his salvation even for the outsider, the castaway, the most unlikely people. And of using those redeemed sinners for the benefit of others in his kingdom, and to further his plan.
1500 years later, a great-grandson of Rahab’s named Jesus would be criticized for associating with prostitutes and other sinners. But the same God who had mercy on Rahab had mercy on them, and has mercy big enough for you, whatever your sins and whoever you are.
Ruth: Ruth 1:1-18
Then let’s consider Ruth. Ruth was a Moabite, a foreigner with foreign, false gods. But when a Jewish family came to Moab to live because of a famine, Ruth married one of the young men. Later the father and the two sons died, and Mother in Law Naomi decided it was time to go back home to Bethlehem. The poignant moment comes when the other widowed daughter-in-law returns home to Moab, but Ruth pledges her loyalty and remains with Naomi. She leaves behind her land and people, and notably also her foreign Gods. Ruth, you see, has also come to faith in the true God.
Here it’s perhaps a bit easier to see how it happened. Certainly she heard the word of God through her family. How many of us, also, have been brought to faith by the word we received through our family? Either being raised in the church and hearing and learning from our parents, who also brought us to God’s house. Or by meeting and marrying a faithful spouse who brought us along- or how many other examples of God working through the family to bring people to encounter the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then come to faith in him.
Ruth’s story would continue in Bethlehem, where she eventually marries Boaz and becomes the great-grandmother of King David. Which also makes her an ancestor of the Son of David, our Lord Jesus Christ.
That God would again use a foreigner, a woman, as part of the lineage of his Son, we can see by now is not really so out of character. For Jesus called disciples who were fishermen and zealots, tax collectors and nobodies. Our God is not a respecter of persons, in that he treats all the same – offering grace and mercy to all through Christ, making disciples, even today, of all nations.
That means there is also always a place for you. No matter how checkered your past, no matter your lack of credentials. Whatever your family of origin, God has called you into his family, the church. Jesus says, “who are my mother and my brothers? Those who do the will of God”. And what is the will of God but that sinners repent and believe in Christ. The blood of the crucified Christ covers all.
Thanks be to God for Rahab and Ruth. Mothers of Christ from the nations, who show us God’s mercy and plan of salvation working in various ways. Let us learn from their examples of faith and works, as we continue to prepare for Christmas by repentance and faith.
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