Scandal in the Lineage: Why God Chooses the Broken

Think your past disqualifies you from God’s service? Think again. The family tree of Jesus Christ contains a message every struggling Christian needs to hear.

Be careful, Christian! God’s purpose is greater than our purpose—and it is infinitely greater than our sin. When we look at how God is building His kingdom, we quickly discover a radical truth: God only uses people who have failed.

The Four Unlikely Women of Matthew 1

When the Gospel of Matthew opens, it kicks off with a genealogy. In ancient Jewish culture, genealogies strictly listed men. Yet, the Holy Spirit intentionally inserts four specific women into the lineage of Jesus Christ.

When you look at their stories, they aren’t a list of pristine, flawless saints. They are a gallery of brokenness, scandal, and unlikely grace:

• Tamar: Trapped in a desperate situation, she resorted to feigned prostitution and what appeared to be an incestuous encounter to secure her lineage. She was a Gentile.

• Rahab: A Canaanite woman living in the doomed city of Jericho, known explicitly by her profession—a harlot who used lying and deception to protect the Israelite spies.

• Ruth: A woman from Moab—a pagan nation that literally originated from an incestuous union between Lot and his oldest daughter.

• Bathsheba: (Listed in Matthew as “her that had been the wife of Urias”), a woman caught in the destructive wake of David’s infamous adultery.

Look at the math of grace here. Out of these four women: three are Gentiles (outsiders to the covenant), three were involved in some form of sexual immorality, two were involved in prostitution, and one is tied to a devastating act of adultery.

Yet, all four are woven directly into the biological line that leads to the Savior of the world.

Why Would God Setup His Lineage This Way?

Why include people like that? If you were inventing a Messiah, you would manufacture a perfect, spotless family tree to prove his royalty. But God doesn’t hide our mess; He exposes it to showcase His mercy.

And it isn’t just the women. Think about the patriarchs listed right alongside them:

• Abraham: Lied and claimed his wife was his sister out of fear. (actually his half-sister)

• Isaac: Repeated the exact same lie as his father.

• Jacob: A deceiver and a supplanter who tricked his own family.

• David: A murderer and an adulterer.

Every single one of them was a sinner. God chose them not because they were perfect, but because His grace is bigger than their failures. If God only used people who never stumbled, His ministry on earth would be completely empty.

Galatians 3:28 (KJV)

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Study to Shew Thyself Approved

As believers, we cannot afford to have a surface-level understanding of Scripture. We have to dig into these messy, complicated narratives to truly understand the depth of God’s grace.

2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV)

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

When you rightly divide the word of truth, you see that the genealogy of Jesus isn’t a hall of fame for perfect people. It is a rescue mission for the broken. Your past, your failures, and your sins cannot stop a sovereign God from fulfilling His purpose through you if you turn to Him.