Matthew's Geneology and Politics - Tamar and Ruth (pt 1)

MATTHEW 1

The first chapter of Matthew records the genealogy of Jesus beginning with Abraham and ending with Jesus. In this genealogy four women are mentioned, all of which were tied one way or another with a sexual scandal and all of them broke the laws or customs of their people. They are Tamar, Ruth, Rahab and Bathsheba.

TAMAR

There were no written laws for Abraham's family that we know of during the time of Tamar, neither was there much of a system of government established. In a way, “everybody did what seemed right in their own eyes.” This comment about "doing whatever was right in their own eyes" was made 2 times in the book of Judges reflecting on the situation during the time when there was no king to establish the Law. If everybody did their own thing when there was already a law set up, but no king to help enforce it, then how much more when there was no law yet set up?

Even though the Law was not yet given, in many ways the early Fathers of Israel followed what seemed right and what would become Law in due time. According to the custom that would later become written law, a widow should marry her dead husband’s nearest kin (brother if there was one).

The purpose of this custom was more for the dead husband than for the woman and her social and economic needs. The need for the husband’s name to continue in Israel even after his death was of primary importance. I have always believed that having a son insured the economic and social well being of a widow. We see this in Paul’s letter to Timothy (1 Timothy 5:16) when he tells the church to have family members take care of widows so that the church is not encumbered with too many widows. But in the Law the needs of the widows don’t seem to carry the weight given to the needs of the dead husband passing on his name to future generations.

As is mentioned, passing on the name of a dead husband was very important. In fact, it was so important that it superseded most if not all other moral boundaries. So we find Tamar posing as a prostitute in order to sleep with her father-in-law and we find Ruth slipping away at night to the bed of Boaz uncovering his feet (a term possibly used to say she was uncovering his private areas - see Dt 28:57 & Ezek 16:25).

Both were highly commended for following duty over personal passion. Even though both of these ladies did what would be unacceptable in our day as well as their own, their devotion was to unwritten custom (Tamar) and written law (Ruth) in their own day. Their devotion shows us that there was a hierarchy of ethics / morality, that is, some morals were more important than others. In fact, some morals could be sacrificed to serve other more important moral duties.

Tamar pretended to be a prostitute in order to get pregnant by her father-in-law - an act that almost caused her the death penalty. Ruth went to Boaz by night which almost caused them both scandalous reputations. But in the end both were commended for their devotion to duty.