Faith, Doubt and God's Mysterious TimingParaugs

God is in the Details

Like the rest of the genealogy, Matthew 1:5 gives an unembellished statement of information that we might overlook in the boredom of reading genealogies. But we see an example of God’s orchestration in the story behind the details if we stop and look deeper into the relationships included in this verse, Noticing these details can strengthen our faith.

Rahab is mentioned in the Bible several times, and usually with the label of her former life, “Rahab the prostitute." Matthew 1:5 is the only place in Scripture that doesn’t have Rahab listed as a former prostitute, but part of the line of Jesus because she is Salmon’s wife. V.5 also reveals that Rahab had a son named Boaz, and if you’ve read the book of Ruth, that name might be familiar to you. Boaz is the wealthy landowner who provides grain for Ruth and Naomi, and eventually marries Ruth. So, this verse in Matthew 1 not only shows how God blessed Rahab’s life by bringing her a husband and a son, it infers that Ruth and Rahab are brought together as family. Though Scripture is silent about this storyline except in this verse, when Ruth marries Boaz, Rahab becomes the mother-in-law of Ruth.

Ruth was a Moabite who became part of the Jewish community because she made a commitment to stay with her first mother-in-law, Naomi, after they experienced a tragedy. Naomi ended up bringing Ruth into Jewish faith and culture, and changed Ruth’s life. What only God saw at this crossroads of the story was how Ruth and Rahab would ultimately be connected. Through Ruth’s commitment to helping her first mother-in-law, she ended up marrying Boaz and acquiring a second mother-in-law, and both are included in Jesus’ line.

There are so many backstories packed into Jesus’ genealogy, and it gives us a picture of the canvas on which God is working. We may not be able to see all that is happening in the relationships and connections around us, but when we notice the way things evolve over time, we have a more complete picture of the way God works. Things that feel jumbled and disjointed right now may have more meaning through connections we see when we take the time to look back.

Many of the details God is weaving together go unnoticed because we don’t take the time to recognize or acknowledge them. We may overlook them as coincidences, but this keeps us from noticing the fingerprints of God. The evidence of God’s touch whispers rather than shouts, leaving us to tune in to see it. But when we do see it, it strengthens our resolve to trust God and wait things out.

Takeaway: Spend some time thinking about some of the details that reveal God’s handiwork in your life. Are there any relationships or circumstances you’ve been in that have led to a bigger story? What connections in the details of your past have brought you to where you are now?