TREASURY OF SERMONS
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To Err is Human, to Forgive Divine
By Rev (Dr) Timothy Tow
(Preached at Life BPC, 10.30 am service, 5 Mar 2000 )
Text: Matthew 1:1-17
As I begin this new series of sermons from the Gospel of Matthew, I am repeating what I did eighteen years ago. I am following the example of Zwingli, the Swiss Reformer. By not preaching according to the set readings of the Church but from a Book of the Bible, paragraph by paragraph, Zwingli hoped to bring his hearers to a more comprehensive grasp of the Word. And I am trying to do the same.
There are four writers of the Gospel and each is presenting Christ to the readers from his own angle. Matthew wanted to show the Jews particularly, that Jesus is their King. Hence the genealogy of Christ begins with King David, traced back to Abraham, progenitor of the Hebrew race. In three times 14 generations Jesus is linked to David who is His forerunner. Jesus is the Greater David, even the King of kings, Lord of lords.
What interest us going through the genealogy are four female ancestors, viz., Tamar who bore twins for Judas (Judah), her father-in-law; Rahab the harlot who married Salmon; Ruth who married Booz (Boaz) and Bathsheba who was wife of Urias (Uriah), whom David took over and she gave birth to Solomon.
Now, when a man is involved with a woman, the world would pick up her ears to hear more of it. Let us first examine the two foreign women, one Ruth and the other Rahab. The story of Ruth and Boaz is a case of love at first sight, and the lightning events that led to their whirlwind marriage so grips the reader that he will not put down the book until he has read to the very end.
Rahab is the famous harlot who believed in the Living and True God of Israel so that when the two Israelite spies sought shelter in her house on the city wall, she hid them from the Jericho police who came to search. Bravely she misled the police on a wild goose chase and saved the lives of the two spies. Was Salmon one of the two spies? I almost want to believe it, but the Scripture is silent, and so we must remain silent.
The just shall live by faith. Both Ruth and Rahab, though foreigners, had come to believe in the God of Israel with all their heart. They are no different from any believing Israelite. They deserve our admiration. Yet there are critics. Some would disparage Rahab for her undignified background. Others would discount Ruth for her Moabite status. For Deut 23:3 says that a Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord, even to the tenth generation, because they refused the Israelites bread and water when they came forth from Egypt .
But the two black marks on Christ's other female ancestors fall on Tamar. She bore Judah her father-in-law twins, Phares and Zara. Judah was the greater culprit in the liaison. The foulest crime, however, is committed by King David himself. He sent Uriah the husband of Bathsheba to the frontline of battle to be killed, murder by proxy. Then he took Bathsheba over to be his wife. The baby born in their first contact died under God's judgment. And yet when the second, Solomon, was born he became the chosen heir to David's throne.
This involves the mystery of predestination, but it puzzles us humans who will never forgive David for his dastardly crime. But we will excuse ourselves if we are involved!
To understand the depth of God's grace we must come with the woman taken in adultery to our Saviour's feet. The Law of Moses says she must be stoned. But Grace, not gracious to the wicked legalists who tried to trap our Lord, spared her life. "Go, and sin no more!" What magnanimous magnanimity! God has forgiven all the misdeeds of Christ's ancestors. How sweet for us to obtain mercy from our Saviour too!
Leaders of the American nation err and I know you know what I am referring to: e.g. Clinton and Lewinsky. Years of legal attrition made the nation weary. Clinton remained in office not so much by his cunning but rather by the grace of God. And has not God spared John Kennedy whose liaison with Marilyn Monroe has come to light? Even President Eisenhower in his affair with a woman driver during WWII when he was C-in-C of the Allies. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed.
The lesson for the Church to learn is especially for her leaders. O the toll of many mighty and powerful fallen to the dust! There was Jimmy Swaggart who had a mighty following in the eighties until he was found out with a prostitute. Where is he today? God be merciful to us all that Thy Name be not blasphemed.
To err is human, to forgive divine.
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