and Juda begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom, and Esrom begat Aram,
A family record usually lists respectable fathers. Here the Spirit of God names a woman, Tamar, whose story is one of the darkest in the Old Testament. He also names both her twin sons, though only one carries the line on. Why would God place a record like this at the head of His Son's story?
One writer treats these names as proof of who really wrote this book.
Judah is the royal line. "Our Lord was descended from Judah." This shows, in a truly marvellous way, how the grace of God rises in majesty above human sin, and wins a glorious victory over circumstances that show up man's utter weakness. "Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar!" Who but the Holy Spirit could have written these words? How clearly they declare that God's thoughts are not our thoughts! What human hand would have put Tamar into the family line of our adored Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? Not one. Matthew 1:3 bears the clear mark of God, as does every clause of Scripture from beginning to end.
A family record exists to prove descent. Not one of these names was needed for that.
No true student of Scripture could doubt that there was a special purpose in it. These are exactly the kind of names that a record-keeper working by human wisdom — and above all a Jew, however right thinking — would have kept out of sight, all the more so since there was no clear need to bring them forward. They were not needed at all to establish our Lord's link with David or with Abraham.
One writer looks for something to soften Tamar's story and finds nothing.
With the other names that stand beside hers in this genealogy, I may perhaps find in each case something that breaks the darkness a little. I find nothing like that about Tamar. She comes before me here as a sinner and nothing else. But the wonder above all this is that this very sin is what brings her name into the Lord's genealogy — for this sin made her the mother of Perez, one of the direct line in Christ's ancestry.
This is not only history. It settles what gives anyone a claim on the work of Christ.
Tamar's sin was the very thing that brought her into the Lord's genealogy. And it is simply as sinners that we have a right to rejoice in a work done for sinners. Judah will find, in a day that is near, his title — not in legal righteousness, nor in mere descent from Abraham, but in the truth that God has stressed for us here.
Tamar is the first of only four women named in this chapter, and their order matters.
The first, Tamar, brings out the sin of man. The second, Rahab, brings out the faith that lays hold of the grace of God. The third, Ruth, shows that grace setting aside the claims of the law. The fourth, the wife of Uriah (Bathsheba), shows the grace which, through discipline, can even bring blessing out of failure in God's people.
Taken in order, the four spell out one message: "salvation for sinners, through faith, apart from law, and eternal — this is what the simple placing of these names declares" (Frederick W. Grant).
Zerah adds nothing to the line from Judah to David. Scripture names him anyway.
Zerah's twin birth with Perez is mentioned, though he himself is not in the line of the genealogy. It is as if to recall the circumstances of that sin which brought the two of them into being.
The names of the twins carry meaning. Together they turn the darkest chapter into the start of the line that reaches David.
The colour "scarlet" stands for the rights of the Lord. It is both striking and instructive to see how the thought of Christ's supremacy runs through Scripture like a "thread of scarlet." This beautiful thought appears in what may be one of the darkest chapters in the Old Testament, Genesis 38. In those dark, sordid circumstances something shows itself that has power to "break through" and "rise up" — as the names of the twins suggest — and it comes to a head in the generation from which David springs.
The line then runs on through Hezron to Ram. The descendants of Perez did not stay obscure: "The family of Perez held highest rank in the tribe of Judah in David's reign" (William J. Hocking).
- Sin — Tamar has no redeeming feature in her record; the one thing that brings her into Christ's ancestry is her sin.
- Sinners — What was true of her is true of us: as sinners, and on no other ground, we have title to a work done for sinners.
- Spirit — No human writer would have chosen her name. That is the mark that God wrote this book.
- Sequence — She is first of four women. In order they spell out sin, faith, grace beyond law, and grace over a believer's failure.
- Sovereignty — Out of Genesis 38 comes Perez, the one who "breaks through," and through him the line that reaches David and, at last, Christ.
and Aram begat Aminadab, and Aminadab begat Naasson, and Naasson begat Salmon,
Four names pass by in a single line — Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon — and not one of them gets a story attached. Yet these generations carried the promised line through Egypt, through the wilderness, and into the land. Matthew records them with the same care he gives to Abraham and David.
One writer divides this ten-name list by the seasons of the nation's life. The break falls inside our verse — Nahshon closes one era, Salmon opens the next.
The list contains ten generations, and these may be divided into two groups of five. The first five names — Pherez to Nahshon — belong mainly to Israel's time in Egypt and in the wilderness. The second five — Salmon to David — belong to Israel in the land, up to the time when the monarchy began under God's chosen king. God had decreed that the line of descent from Pherez would end with the Messiah, so He watched over it without a break.
The names look bare, but each man appears elsewhere in Scripture, sometimes with a different spelling. Their family ties reach to Aaron and to Rahab.
Ram is sometimes called Aram. Amminadab was the father of Elisheba. She became the wife of Aaron, the brother of Moses and the first of Israel's high priests, a position passed down from father to son. Nahshon was brother-in-law of Aaron, and prince or head of the tribe of Judah. Salmon, son of Nahshon, married Rahab and was the father of Boaz. Salmon was probably one of the two men Joshua sent in secret to Jericho and the area around it. They stayed in Rahab's house.
Of the four, Nahshon is the one Scripture puts in the spotlight. One writer notices how the wording singles him out.
All twelve are called princes, except Nahshon of Judah. He, as the leader, the representative of Judah, must be the picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is more than a prince.
Matthew breaks the whole line into three parts. Our verse sits in the first, and each part has its own mood.
The genealogy falls into three parts, and each part has a character of its own. From Abraham to David, promise is the leading thought. From David, through Solomon, to the captivity, the record is one of decline. From the captivity to the birth of our Lord is a time of darkness — a darkness that ends like a resurrection in the birth of our Lord.
Names like these are the paperwork of the kingdom.
The Messiah was of the tribe of Judah, and of the royal family of that tribe. His claim to royalty could not be questioned, for the simple reason that the records proved the fact. His title to the throne came down to Him by direct descent; and although so lowly — gentle and lowly in heart — He was indeed the King.
One writer refuses to skim a verse like this, though he admits he cannot mine it all himself.
The genealogy of Jesus Christ therefore tells us much about Him. It is more than possible that every name in this list would prove itself significant, if we only had eyes to see it. Each would have its own story to tell about Him. But it is not for me to try this. Yet these generations are numbered so carefully that I cannot believe there is a single one unworthy of that care. If we had worked at this in faith, how the work would have repaid us!
- Link one — kept. The line from Perez to Nahshon runs through Egypt and the wilderness. God watched over it the whole way, because it would end in the Messiah.
- Link two — known. These are real, traceable men. Ram also appears as Aram, Amminadab's daughter married Aaron, and Salmon married Rahab.
- Link three — leading. Nahshon led the tribe of Judah, and in that place he pictures Christ, who is more than a prince.
- Link four — promise. This verse falls in the first of Matthew's three sections. Promise is its note; decline and darkness come later.
- Link five — proof. The records made the King's title to the throne impossible to dispute, and not one name in the chain is beneath our attention.