Reward of Faith
Now I believe I have heard of Movember which encourages men 🚹 to let their moustaches grow to look like Mr Pringles 🥠 and Manuary was setup in the same way but including all facial hair. Set up by boys in a Boarding School 🏫 in Canada 🇨🇦 because they couldn't take part in Movember because it was against their dress code 😅 but I am not going to write 📝 about beards and the right for our emoticons to include moustaches and beards too (because I've checked and see none 😅😂). Instead today I address the complete opposite and address the ladies 🚺 😱 Scandalous I know! I've let the side down xD
In all seriousness though, 3rd January is celebrated as 'Women Rock Day' 👩🎤 in an ode to female artists in the music 🎶 industry, stemming from Aretha Franklin BUT I am to go further today to celebrate Women who do 'Rock' 👩🎤 by their Faith 🙏🏻 and Courage 💪 that they displayed and were rewarded for it 🏆 by being -in- Christ Jesus ✝️ and I will explain what I mean.....
Now I don't know how many people are familiar with series like 'Who do you think you are' that looks into the Family History 🌳 of Celebrities, but I personally find it interesting 🤔 because putting myself in their shoes, they are able to discover their roots 🌱 and that is important as I said yesterday. It enables us to find out 🔎 where we come from, but watching Celebs provides an additional level of interest....which is how they respond to their ancestors, do they agree with their ancestors ☑️ or come to see their ancestors as a byword 😒 and practically disown/cancel them ❎
However, the fact remains that if not for your ancestor being where they were, being with who they were with and going through what they went through, where would we be? 🤷♂️ Even just thinking about parents, how we wouldn't exist if your father went off with another woman....and there's nothing we ourselves can do about it. We can't control what our ancestors do and that makes logical sense ⚙️ because we can't logically know 🧠 about our ancestors before they are our ancestors, as the past 🏛️ informs the present 🏟️ on the future 🚀 and not the other way round. With me so far?
This is NOT ❌ the case with our Eternal God, whose omniscience 🧠 knows the end from the beginning (Isa 46:10) and who -is- the end and beginning (Rev 22:13). The second part may be deep for some 😵 and we could dig 🕳️ even more to explore DNA 🧬 and how we ALL descend from Adam who, as the Bible 📜 says 'was the son of God' (Lk 3:38) BUT the importance of this message is that when we view the geneology of Christ in the Bible, God knew 🧠 each individual before they born. Which means by extension 🔌 with Jesus being God, Jesus knew of His ancestors before His Christmas Birth 🌟 and that's 😱 HUGE!
So! Let's look at the genealogy in Matt 1:1-16 and celebrate these women 🚺 (and ofc women in general because every 'begat, begat, begat' we read was a woman in labour 🤰because I am sure it wasn't Abraham who begat Isaac 😅 but of course what is being traced in the chapter is the male 🚹 line. I just don't want to forget the female involvement 👌
1.First key woman in Christ's Ancestry is Tamar (vs 3) whose story can be found in Gen 38 where the custom was for a widow to marry 💍 her brother-in-law and while her father-in-law did this once, he rejected her after and in those days, widowhood meant no security 🔐 because women couldn't own anything. This led to her to confront her father-in-law in disguise, who mistook her as a harlot, slept with her and unknown to him, became pregnant 🤰 by him and this spared her life when the Truth was found out. Not to say two wrongs ❎❎ make a right ☑️ but God certainly did not reject her while her father-in-law did
2.The second isn't as clear without knowing the History, but we hear of Booz/Boaz (vs 5) who we learn was descended from Rahab. Her story can be found in Joshua 2 when Israel sent spies to scout out Jericho 🏰 and it was Rahab the harlots who took them in, gave them a place to stay while the King of Jericho hunted them down. She was practically committing treason to hide 'enemies of the state' but she helped them escape and asked nothing but that she and her family would be safe because she knew what their God did in Egypt with Pharaoh and knew that Jericho would fall too - such faith 🙏🏻 and to imagine it would be her descendent Boaz who would marry Lady Number 3 👇 and give birth to King David 👑 and the Davidic line/dynasty of Kings that ruled Israel. Her past did not matter to God 😇
3.This Lady Number 3 is the Moabitess Ruth (vs 5) who has her own book in the Bible all by herself. Being wed 💍 to an Israelite, becomes widowed and when given the chance to go back home to Moab, she famously and faithfully remained with her mother in law Naomi who had nothing, giving up her past, giving up Moab and the gods of Moab (whose common practice was to sacrifice 🔪 children 👀) to pursue Naomi and Israel's God and seeing Israel as her people. Having nothing, she worked the fields 🌾 for her mother in law and her virtue was greatly admired by Boaz ☝️ who took Ruth as his wife 💍 and by the custom, restored the House of Naomi's late husband - becoming the later irony when Jesus came at Christmas 🌟 who also is in the restoration business 💕
4.Next is 'the wife of Urias'/Uriah whose name is Bathsheba (vs 6) and straight away, considering the verse speaks of David's child with her, she was a married woman 👰 and together, she and King David 👑 had an affair BUT that isn't the only eye-opener 👀 especially since David's love for her had him arrange to have her husband Uriah killed in battle 💀 This, coming from 'a man after [God's] heart' (1 Sam 13:14) was a big blow + after confronted with this sin, David was torn 💔 for what he had done YET as the story is recorded (2 Sam 11-12), God forgives David and Solomon becomes His chosen vessel to succeed David above his other sons despite the sin 🙌🏻
5.Finally we come to Mary (vs 16) who we know in the Christmas story 🌟 as Joseph's fiancée when she was chosen as virgin out of all virgins to bring Christ ✝️ into the world (Lk 1:26-33). The scriptures say 📜 'she found favour with God' in the very same way it says 'Noah found grace in the eyes of [God]` (Gen 6:8) BUT unlike Noah, there's no indicator that she was 'just' or 'perfect' or if she 'walked with God' as Noah did (Gen 6:8) BUT it did not matter 🤷♂️ as she still was chosen to give birth to the vessel ⛵ by which man can be saved 🙌🏻 YET it did not make sense at first and who could blame her? surely it was impossible without going through the Reproductive process 😅 that we are all acquainted with BUT God pointed at her cousin's barren birth in her old age as proof & reminisced how NOTHING ❌ was impossible for God (Lk 1:34-38) who said 'Let there be' from the very beginning, for He did the same with Sarah for Abraham (Gen 21:1-7) who too was barren, the father of this Promise that was being fulfilled before her very eyes 🤩 so how could she not rejoice for being chosen 🙌🏻 (Lk 1:46-55)
Her cause for celebration 🎉 is the same cause of celebration at Christmas 🌟 because like these women, you are not defined by your past 🏛️ but how you respond to God. For those even in Christ's lineage were flawed and yet God looked beyond that 😍 regarding the lowly (Lk 1:48) as He does today, having regard for those who the world would not regard, lifting up those the world would pull down & making those who the world see as 'nothing' and making them 'something' (1 Cor 1:27-28)
The Birth may be celebrated at Christmas 🌟 but like any child, He grew up and in his Ministry, he defended 🛡️ the poor and defended 🛡️ the harlots who the self righteous would stone (Jhn 8) for the story at Christmas does NOT end ❌ and just like any mother, Mary didn't know all that He would accomplish at His Birth, but to know what happens beyond Chapter 1 of His life, I share this video: https://youtu.be/-Uki0dkthzI
#JesustheReason4theSeason