Through The Bible in a Year - May 29, 2026

"Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar... Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah...and Jacob [was] the father of Joseph who was the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born." -Matthew 1:3, 5-6, 16

In ancient genealogies, women were rarely mentioned. But Matthew's genealogy of Jesus includes five women—and every single one has a story marked by scandal, pain, abuse, or shame:

Tamar: Married to Judah's son who died. Neglected by Judah, she became desperate and disguised herself as a prostitute. Judah slept with her, not knowing she was his daughter-in-law. When her pregnancy was discovered, he ordered her burned—until she proved he was the father.

Rahab: A prostitute in Jericho who hid the Israelite spies. The original "lady in red" who hung a scarlet cord from her window. Someone in Israel married her and brought her into the line of Christ.

Ruth: A refugee from Moab, one of Israel's most hated enemy nations. She was destitute, widowed, gleaning from fields already harvested to survive, when Boaz, an Israelite, married her against cultural norms.

Bathsheba: So shamed she's not even named—just "the wife of Uriah." We don’t need her name to know that King David murdered her husband, bringing her into disrepute and shame for the rest of her life.

Mary: A teenager in a village of less than 100 people where everybody knew everybody else’s business. Pregnant before marriage. A scandal that would follow her the rest of her life.

God didn't have to include these women. He could have written a "men only" genealogy like most ancient cultures did. But He didn't.

Why? Because God was scanning history to show that his rescue from pain, shame, isolation, loneliness, hurt, and sin knows no favorites and ignores no person for any reason.

From this line of women whose lives were characterized such ugly circumstance, God brought the Savior of the world to bestow the beauty of his grace.

Respond: Are you a woman who's been abused, neglected, shamed, or sidelined? Consider why God featured women like you in the lineage of His Son.

Are you a woman who's made terrible choices? God has a message for you, too. He didn't hide his grace from Rahab or Tamar or Bathsheba. He included them in his redemption plan.

Are you a woman who feels like your past disqualifies you from being used by God? Look at this genealogy. Not one of the women included had a perfect past. Yet, God used every single one to bring about the blessings of our Savior.

The message should be clear: your mess doesn’t have to be the end of your story but is the means by which God can display his grace to people like you – and to you.

Prayer: Father, thank You for including these women in Jesus' genealogy—women with difficult stories like mine. Thank You that You don't hide from such pain or pretend it didn't happen. You see it. You acknowledge it. And then You use it. Please take my story—even the parts I'm most ashamed of, the parts I wish I could erase—and use them for Your glory. Show me that my mess is not my identity—Your grace is. Then let me show it to someone else that needs your grace, too. In Jesus' name, Amen.