Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death.
Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.” But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from providing offspring for his brother. What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death also.
- Genesis 38:6-10
When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.”
“And what will you give me to sleep with you?” she asked.
- Genesis 38:15-16
The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land.” So the king of Jericho sent this message to Rahab: “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, because they have come to spy out the whole land.”
But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they had come from. At dusk, when it was time to close the city gate, they left. I don’t know which way they went. Go after them quickly. You may catch up with them.” (But she had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.) So the men set out in pursuit of the spies on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers had gone out, the gate was shut.
- Joshua 2:2-7
The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the Lord. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent.
- Joshua 6:17
But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.
- Ruth 1:16
So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son.
- Ruth 4:13
One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”
- 2 Samuel 11:2-3
So Bathsheba went to see the aged king in his room, where Abishag the Shunammite was attending him. Bathsheba bowed down, prostrating herself before the king.
“What is it you want?” the king asked.
She said to him, “My lord, you yourself swore to me your servant by the Lord your God: ‘Solomon your son shall be king after me, and he will sit on my throne.’ But now Adonijah has become king, and you, my lord the king, do not know about it.
- 1 Kings 1:15-18
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
- Luke 1:29-38
I picked up a book by Francine Rivers at a Hobby Lobby in Collierville, TN. It was an impulse buy, and I really looked no further than the author. Mrs. Rivers writes a combination of biblical historical fiction and other Christian fiction. What I had bought was a Lineage of Grace. This is an omnibus of five books: Unveiled, the story of Tamar; Unashamed, the story of Rahab; Unshaken, the story of Ruth; Unspoken, the story of Bathsheba; and Unafraid, the story of Mary.
But as a collection of women of faith, these five ladies all were mentioned in Matthew 1, in the genealogy of Jesus. The one not mentioned by name was Bathsheba, instead saying Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife.
Sometimes, you wonder if an impulse buy was a good thing or a purchase that should have been accompanied by some conscious thought. But this purchase was something God wanted me to do.
Above, there are two Scriptures (only one for Mary) that illustrate, in part, the obstacles that each of the first four women faced, but then, we see their character coming through. Tamar tricked Judah into giving her what she should have by right, the ability to carry on Judah’s family line. Rahab risked everything to hide the two spies that Joshua had sent. Ruth left everything behind and swore to follow Naomi wherever that led, and it led to the son of Rahab, and to marrying Boaz. Bathsheba is often discussed in whispered tones since King David showed weakness, having adultery with her, but as David aged, it was Bathsheba who stood before David to ensure that David’s wish of Solomon becoming king would come true.
And Mary? Maybe the book title is a little off, Unafraid. But Mary submitted to God’s choice of her being the mother of the Messiah.
The one thread that is obvious is that all five women are a part of the genealogy of Jesus. But they are the only women in that genealogy that are mentioned by Matthew. From Abraham to Joseph, whose wife was Mary, the mother of Jesus. And only five women mentioned. Being part of the genealogy must not be the end of the story.
They were also women of faith whose actions directly affected that lineage from Abraham to Joseph. Their faith overcame their fears. They passed through the obstacles. They submitted to their spouse, but they also submitted to God. They were honorable in their actions.
And, were they even Hebrews? Not all were Hebrew. Judah had married a local woman, and he found a wife for his eldest, probably a Canaanite woman, Tamar. Rahab was a prostitute, probably a shrine prostitute, in Jericho, the first city destroyed as the Israelites began to take the land God had promised. Ruth is clearly identified as a Moabitess, a descendant of Abraham’s nephew Lot. But then Bathsheba was the granddaughter of an advisor to the king. She married Uriah, the Hittite, and the Hittites were among the Canaanite tribes. And Mary was in the bloodline of King David, through Nathan, Solomon’s brother.
These stories are a combination of tales about strong women, but with a focus on faith and grace. We can learn a lot from these five women.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley 
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