Session 8 – Lesser-Known Women of the Bible; Shiphrah and Puah: Mark Lanier, 12/01/24

Women lesson 8
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[00:00:00] I wanna introduce you to a friend of mine, and we're gonna get to know her. I'm trying to work on getting, uh, my computer, uh, to register up here. I hope we can, 'cause we've got some

interesting slides, good slides. But her name is Dr. Nancy Dawson. Would you welcome her this morning? Thank you. All right, Dr. Nancy Dawson, welcome. Thanks for being here. Thank you. I appreciate it. Now, you've written a terrific book we'll be talking about. It's called All the Genealogies of the Bible. All right, how many genealogies are there?

280. 280 genealogies. And are those long genealogies or short genealogies? Most of them [00:01:00] are long, uh, definitely more than three generations, but of course tribe of Judah goes into 20 generations long and very extensive, so... And then of course Jesus' genealogy in the Gospels is extremely lengthy. And, and important, right?

And important. Uh, there's one in Matthew, which w- one we're gonna be talking about today, and then the w- there's one in Luke as well. Correct. So, uh, and we're gonna say more about genealogies. Now, this is a 20-year project You started working on this twenty-plus years ago, and there's more... There's probably more to do.

There's almost always more to do, right? All right. So how did... You aren't originally a biblical scholar. Right. So what are you sort of originally? I grew up in Oklahoma, Southeast Oklahoma, McAlester, um- Oklahoma. Oklahoma. Anybody? And went to a Baptist church, the First Baptist Church there. Baptist. I gave my life to Christ- Baptist

at nine years old and, um, very involved in [00:02:00] the youth group. We had a recruiter from Oklahoma Baptist University that came to our church, and, um, I ended up going there s- uh, studying biology. Met my husband, David Dawson, um, there in college and, um, through a series of events, um, went on to- And Da- and David, I should say, is sitting right down here- Yep

as well. David, if you would wave, everybody. And, and who is the young lady- He's my perennial supporter ... sitting next- And my daughter, Doc, um, Megan Doc- McKelvey, who's a lawyer down in Houston. You had to check the name there just to make sure. Yeah, just... That happens when you're in front of a group of people.

I wanted to say Megan Dawson. So Megan, we welcome you and David as well. McKelvey. All right. So you married David in Ok- in, in Oklahoma. Yes. Okay, and, uh, you went to H- uh, Oklahoma Baptist- Baptist ... University, and then what did you major in there? I, I studied biology. Okay. And that was always a passion of mine.

I went on to do a [00:03:00] master's in botany and then a PhD in cell biology at University of Tennessee in Knoxville. And, um, then after that, through a couple of moves, I was on faculty at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green and- And what did you teach there? I taught biology, botany, cell biology. Uh, I ran the electron microscope facility and, um- Those are so cool

just lots of- Yeah ... interaction with teaching students. And, um, then, uh, we moved back to Texas, and I started a job up at Texas A&M. I worked there- Texas A&M. Anybody here? Yeah. Whoo. A great place. All right, we got a few. And I was there and ran, um, the imaging facility for the Department of Medical Physiology over on the medical school side.

And, um, then we made another move to North Carolina, and, uh, it was there that I had the [00:04:00] chance to always follow a passion of mine, which was what I call the study of the queen of the sciences, which is theology. So I went to Duke Divinity School and, um, just thoroughly enjoyed my classwork there and, um, began looking for a book about genealogies that would help me with my coursework.

And could, could find articles, but not a full treatise on them. So, um, I was sure that God was calling me to write that book. And so I left, um, seminary after two years and started just reading through the Bible front to back and documenting and, um, systematizing all of the, the genealogies, much like you would do taxonomy in plant or animal studies.

So, um, that is [00:05:00] the culmination of that process. God is so faithful to us to, to call us to do a thing and then sustain us in that process. So- Very good. Yeah. So what... Did you grow up in a Christian family then- I did- ... did you say? But, um, it was really through my association at the church that my parents got very involved.

And so I would say, you know, sometimes it's a child or a teenager that can influence parents or even grandparents. Hmm. And so my parents got much more involved after I was heavily involved in the church. Isaiah 11, "A little child shall lead them." There you go. Right? And how... You were about eight or nine, did you say?

I was nine when- Nine ... I gave my life to Christ. And, uh, there's a Hebrew, Hebrew word called han- haneah, and it means, "Here I am, Lord." So you have to... You're not [00:06:00] sure what that path leads to, but you have to be open to that call, and I, and I see where God was faithful in that whole process. Very cool. Very cool.

Well, I'm hoping our screen gets up here, but if not, we are just gonna still have a good conversation. And I think we will be instructed today and we'll be helped, and there'll be a number of things that we can talk about. Let's, let's begin. Let's see. Sorry. We'll, we'll-

There we go. Let's try that again. All right, we're gonna go... All right, we're gonna-- we're calling this today Holding the Lion Lion. Sorry, not lion. You don't wanna hold a lion. It's a bad idea. They're big. Plus your pants are- They're strong. So Holding the Line of the Messiah. Three ancestresses of, in Ma- in Matthew's gospel, and these are [00:07:00] ancestresses of Jesus there in the genealogy of Matthew.

All right, now one of those, and we're gonna just mention their names now, and we're gonna come back and give some details. One of them is named Tamar. She's a lesser-known woman of the Bible. Not many people know much about Tamar. Um, there's another one whose name is Rachav or also known as Rahab. We've probably heard Rahab.

But the right way to say it, if you said Rahab, she wouldn't notice. But if you said Rachav, she would say, "Oh, that must be me. They're calling me." And then the, the last one is, is named In the genealogy, the wife of Uriah, her name is not even given. Right. David fathered Solomon through the wife of Uriah. Now, here is confession time.

All [00:08:00] right? Confession time. How many of you have started a read through the Bible program at some time in your life? How many of you? I'm gonna read through the Bible this year. Okay. All right, very good. How many of you, when you've gotten to Matthew chapter 1, Abraham begat Isaac, Isaac begat Jacob, how many of you skipped over that?

Raise your hand. All right, raise your hand. All right, lots of you did. Some of you have persevered, and you will be saved. If you persevere, persevere till the end, you're gonna be saved. All right, so, so we read all those names. How many names do we find in Matthew's genealogy of Jesus? Right. There's 40 ancestors.

And, uh, genealogies are presented in scripture in patrilineal fashion, so that means that they're usually always tracing the line of the father, not through the mother like today with the t- with Jew- the Jews. It traces it through the father, and so I'm sorry, ladies. Um, [00:09:00] but Matthew's gospel is very unusual.

S- here, he lists five women, and I would say they are found in, in Old Testament genealogies, but it's not that common. And so, uh, you have these five women, which the beginning one is Tamar, Rahab, then Ruth, the Moabite, which we're not going to discuss today, wife of Uriah, and then Mary. And so Matthew makes a specific, um, uh, effort to highlight these women, and the question is why?

Why these particular women? Why not Sarah, for example? Right. Sarah's very, very well known. But he, he actually chose a lesser-known woman of the Bible a- and Tamar, and not so much Rahab. You've probably heard of Rahab or Rahab, um, and you may have heard the story of David and Bathsheba, [00:10:00] right? Bat-Sheva is, is really her name, which means daughter of the what?

Oath. Daughter- The daughter of the oath ... of the oath or daughter of the vow, right. And so, uh, there are these three women who are mentioned. Why do you think out of all the genealogies that you've looked at that are patrilineal, descending through the father, not the mother, why did Matthew include five women, you think?

Ladies, there's hope for us. They are the women that what w- we're titling this talk Holding the Line. So you have all these men, but there becomes-- there comes a time, like at the time of the patriarchs, this is towards the end of the patriarchal era, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then Judah. Hmm. And the promise was that the line would go through the tribe of Judah, the Lion of Judah is the, the, [00:11:00] the other messianic title of Jesus.

That's where we got lion, lion. Yeah, the lion. The lion. The lion. That's where we got the lion. And so here you have this patriarchal era, and there's a big obstacle. This is a place where the continuance of the genealogical line could have ceased. It was in great jeopardy. Then we pass on to the story of Rahab.

This is a time when the Israelites are coming into the promised land. This was the Abrahamic covenant, a fulfillment of that, that the Israelites would inherit the land of the Canaanites. Why? Deuteronomy says it was not because of their righteousness, but because of the wickedness of those nations. But you find this story of Rahab, the harlot of Jericho, who believes God and believes in the God of the Israelites.

And so [00:12:00] this is another place where they could not have gained entrance into the promised land, because Jericho was that primary center where you had to get through there in order to have the southern campaign, the northern campaign, and basically conquer the promised land. Hmm. And then you have another major impediment at the t-time of the Davidic dynasty.

So David is late in years. He has not even declared his successor Delay, delay. And Adonijah thinks, this is the, his eldest son, he thinks he is going to be the, the successor of King David. But Bathsheba comes in, and we'll get into her history. Hmm. But she comes [00:13:00] in, and her name means daughter of the oath.

He had promised Bathsheba that her son would be the one to be his successor and take the throne, and we know that Solomon comes to the throne, and he is the wisest man on earth. Hmm. There are-- So there's all these places where things could have gone wildly different, derailed, very vulnerable, a jeopardized lineage to the Messiah, and these three women hold the line.

Hmm. All right, let's go back. Let me, let me read to you. I can't do it on the board, but let me read to you the text, uh, and this is from Matthew chapter 1, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ. This is the, by the way, the King James Version, the authorized version. Anybody for King James? Got a few people probably.

All right, it's a good [00:14:00] one. It's a good translation. Now, this is the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren. Why Judas there? Judas instead of Judah? Yeah. And, and the reason is, is because it's following the- Okay

letters of the Greek. Okay. Judas, which is where we get the word Jew today, by the way. So he is the father of Judas. Now, not Judas like an Iscariot or Judas the, uh, there are other Judas, like the, the, the brother of Jesus is named Judas as well. And his brethren, Judas or Judah begat Phares and Zerah of Tamar, and Phares begat Esrom, and Esrom begat Aram.

So it keeps going, keeps going. But that, that little phrase that Judah [00:15:00] begat Phares and Zerah of Tamar. So for those of us who don't know the story, we got some guides here that are gonna help us. For those of us who don't know the story, tell us about Tamar. Okay. Um, she is a Gentile, not a Jew. It does, the s- the Biblical text does not tell you what her ethnicity is.

She could have been a Canaanite. She could have been just a proselyte. But she's not a, um, from the tribe of Judah herself. Mm-hmm. Um, she has been given, um, to be the wife of the eldest son of Judah. His name was Er. And, um, if you all have read into Genesis that, that far in your Bible reading program, you know Er was a very wicked man, and it was [00:16:00] God who killed him.

Mm-hmm. So now there were provisional laws called levirate laws that are described in Deuteronomy. And so if a man died without an heir, then his brother married the widow and raised up a child for him. And so the next eldest son was Onan, and so he is given by Judah to the widow, Tamar. And once again, a very wicked man And God kills him.

You see the jeopardy that there is? Now, there's a third son named Sheila, but he's young. Maybe he's, you know, elementary age school [00:17:00] child, you know, less than 10. So they didn't marry until they're maybe 20. So Judah tells Tamar, "I will pledge to you to give this third son, Sheila, to you when he grows up.

But you go back as a widow and live in your father's house." So he's not going to protect her. He says, "You go back to your father's house." That's what she does, and time goes on. So there is a wait, a wait, a wait. Nothing has happened. And Judah, she realizes J- that Sheila has come of age, and Judah is not going to give her, give her to Sheila, the third son.

I mean, Judah thinks, "Oh, this is a, like a bad penny." You know, something will happen. So he doesn't blame [00:18:00] his wicked sons. He blames this innocent woman for these, the deaths of the sons. And so in the ancient Near East, this refers to the area around Israel, it was provisional that if there was no, um, brother that was available, that a father could step in as the one who's called the lever in the levirate marriage.

He is going to, to be the one to take the widow and bear children and carry on the name of the deceased. So- Tamar dresses up as a prostitute, a secular prostitute, and it's sheep-shearing [00:19:00] time. Um, Judah has big flocks and, um, she goes to a place called Timnah, where she knows he will be coming. At this point, he has lost his wife, who is called the daughter of Shua.

So you've got Judah, he's, he's a widower. She's twice widowed, and she dresses up a prostitute, and he wants to take her, sleep with her, and, um, she says, "Okay, I'll do it conditionally. You have to give me your, your..." It's, it's called, uh, it was like a, a seal, a seal impression. It's like a piece of clay on a cord, and your staff.

This is like somebody asking you for your driver's license and your Social Security card. It's-- There is no way that, you know, it's [00:20:00] not him. Hmm. So, and he, he, uh, she s- she sleeps with him, a-and he's going to give her a kid goat. Well, the deed is done, and time goes by, and he does go, but he sends a friend to her and says, uh, he can't find her.

And so the friend goes back to Judah, and, um, he says, "Oh, well, just let her keep the things. We're, we're gonna be the laughing stock of this, you know, tribe- Hmm ...for, for this deed." And so time goes by and of course, um, she becomes pregnant. She's pregnant with twins, just like, um, Rebecca was pregnant with tw-twins.

Uh, um, yeah, that's right, with, um, Jacob and Esau. And the child, um, [00:21:00] sh-- So Jacob, uh, I'm sorry. Judah says You have disgraced our family by prostituting yourself. And she-- so she sends a message to him and says, "Whoever has this, this staff and this cord with my seal on it, that's, that's the man who is the father of these sons to be born, and there's no denying it."

So here you have a very illicit encounter between a father-in-law and a daughter-in-law. And, you know, does the Bible talk about these? You know. It's not really- Yeah ... PG. Yes, this is definitely- Or G. Yeah. Yes. It's PG-thirteen or- But scripture does not [00:22:00] condemn her, and in fact, Judah ends up saying, "You have been more righteous than I because I denied Sheila, the third son, to you."

So he's saying, "You are innocent. I'm the guilty one." And then he, he does not sleep with her again. So this isn't like a marriage ensues between the two of them. She has two children, Perez and Zerah, and Per-- they were breech children, and this has significance because that breech is like there's this obstacle to the continuance of the Messianic line.

And she is the one, through her actions of disgracing herself as a prostitute, at great risk, Judah is ready to [00:23:00] burn her

And she breaks through. That's the breach, and it allows for the continuance of the line. It's so-- such an endearing, unusual story. Mm-hmm. It i- it is an unusual story that is, some would say sordid, some would say scandalous, and yet at the very end, notice the language here. I can't get the full screen, but it says, "Judah identified the items that she brought forth after their encounter," and he says, "She is more righteous than I am because I kept Shelah from marrying her- Yeah

at that time and continuing the line properly that as, as the laws of that time were written, as, as, as the laws of scripture later dictate," 'cause this is not really written down in scripture yet. Right. [00:24:00] But it's the customs of the time, and it's the customs that become the laws- Right ... a little bit like, like you would see in Leviticus, Deuteronomy, other places like that.

So, so, so through the line, uh, and through this act of, of sin, in a sense, and through this act of deception as he was trying to deceive everyone about who he was and his identity in this, through that, God still worked Does that tell you anything? God is faithful. If he, he goes before us, he goes behind us, and he dwells with us.

And it was her faith-filled hope that she would have offspring. She saves this entire tribe from, [00:25:00] from not having the scepter will not depart from, from this tribe- Mm-hmm ... from your feet until the Messiah comes. She's the one that through these strange events carries on the line of the Messiah, and she works providentially with God.

Now, does she know this? Does she know this long-term plan? No. She acts in the moment. Mm-hmm. And that's what we have to do with faith-filled hope in what God says and what he promised. And that's the lesson. You know, one of the lessons that I draw from this is that one of the earliest charges leveled against Jesus was that he was a friend of sinners, right?

He was a friend of sinners. And, and so we see in the family line of Jesus not just those who were righteous all the time, and good all the time, [00:26:00] and faithful all the time, but some who fell into grave, mortal, some would say, sin, and yet God redeemed that action and redeemed their lives through it, and God was able to work.

Now let's talk about Rahab. Rahab is the next one. Couple of my, couple of... One Rembrandt on one side, and I don't know where the... You got the other, didn't you? Was that your, your image of her with the threads- Oh ... the scarlet threads? I don't know. No, that was, that was another one. Sorry. Anyway, two cool images I love of, of Rahab here, one Rembrandt on, on the, on the left.

Um, Rahab, what do we know about her? What's her story? Well, she's about six generations, uh, removed from our story of Tamar and Judah, who, um- Yeah, pull it on up a little bit. I need to come on

[00:27:00] Um, we're six generations down the line, and now we have the Israelites coming into the promised land. This is like 1406 BC. We were at about 1850 BC, so you can see some time has passed. The Israelites are coming through and entering Canaan through this key fortified city called Jericho. It had two major walls with casement walls in between those two walls, and she was a harlot.

That's what the text calls her. She's a secular harlot, and so she's running this business, and she has a side business of, um, um Um, growing and curing flax, and I'll get into that detail. But anyway, the Israelites are coming up through Moab and through the east side of the Jordan River and [00:28:00] coming that direction into Canaan.

And where would you want to be anonymous but to go to this house of ill repute? No, and- Mm. But this is where all the scuttlebutt's going on, so you can find out a lot of information. So Joshua sends these two spies there. They stay at Rahab's, um, inn, and she, um, she realizes that the God of Israel, the Israelites are coming, that they are going to gain entrance into the Promised Land.

And in this great act of faith, she pledges herself not to the pagan gods of the Canaanites that God declared wicked, but she [00:29:00] affiliates with the God of Israel, who is the God of heaven above and earth beneath. And she hides these two spies on her roof under drying flax. Flax was a plant that was, uh, grown to make linen fibers.

And when I was a kid or in high school, I had a, I had a pair of linen flax. Ooh, and I thought it was, like, uptown. They-- But they were so itchy. They were, they were a really poor quality of linen, and so I could barely stand to wear them. But the long, supple fibers of the linen were used to make the garments for priests, altar cloth, curtains in the tabernacle.

And so, um, it was always, you know, there was a lot of [00:30:00] steps in this process. So she hides the spies under the linen flax. And the messengers from the king there in Jericho hears that she has done this, and so he s- he sends them, and she lies. It's a, it's not a, a little, you know, like, little white lie. It's an all-out lie.

She said it was getting dark and they've left and, um, in actuality, you know, she's hidden them, and she's protected their lives. This is the distinction And so the messengers go to look for them. Sh- she sends them through a scarlet rope. These are those fine flax fibers that have made into a rope that's been dyed red, scarlet.[00:31:00]

And she lowers them down through this outer wall, sends them into the mountains for three days, and then they escape. And, and as you know the story, the Israelites go around the city for six days, and on the seventh day- Mm-hmm ... the walls come a-tumbling down. Yeah. And the deal-- She wrote a book, by the way, called The Art of the Deal, which is bestseller in those day...

No, I'm just kidding She actually cut a deal with these folks- Yes ... and said, "Would you protect me and my family?" Yes. And they agreed. Correct. And they would continue to identify the place where they were let down as her house by, how did they identify it during the battle? Um, h- they tell her, the two spies tell her, "You must stay in your house, in the protection of your house.

[00:32:00] We will know which, which house that is by the scarlet, um, rope that's dangling from the window. We will protect you." And so they have, again, an oath that they share. Mm. And so of course there is the conflagration of Jericho. It's razed. Everyone is killed except Rahab and her family. So she saves not only herself, her father, her mother, her brothers, her sisters, her family, and they are all then...

She ends up marrying, maybe not the spy, but she marries an Israelite named Salmon. This is what Matthew says his name is. And Rahab and Salmon are the parents of Boaz. Mm. And [00:33:00] Boaz will be the kinsman redeemer for Ruth. But anyway, that family c- moves from Jericho and goes and, and settles in Bethlehem.

This is going to be the hometown of Jesse and of David and, and, um, and- Mm ... Jesus' home. Mm. Um, it's a- And that's where Rachel is buried, too. I, I, I didn't know that till the other day. Take a look at what she said to the spies. "For we have heard how the Lord Yahweh dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt."

So this is after the Exodus. Stories had been circulating about this group of people who had come up s- out of the slavery in miraculous ways and, and they were trying to manage it. The, it had been 40 years since this happened. Been a long time. [00:34:00] "In what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan," so they had been victorious in battle, "to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction."

In other words, they pretty much razed their cities. "And as soon as we heard it, that you were on the other side of the Jordan, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you." In other words, fear was gripping her. Now notice what her confession is. She does confess Yahweh as the true God.

For the Lor- Yo- the Lord your God, Yahweh your God, He is God of the heavens above and of the earth beneath. She comes to a place, having been raised a pagan, having heard these stories, maybe from secondary hands, who knows, that Yahweh was with these people in a unique way, and that God was [00:35:00] Jes- uh, well, Jesus.

Uh, Yahweh himself was the God who she should devote herself to, and she does. I love what, uh, what other things are said. Here's, here's another one. The writer of He- Well, let's go back, one, one other one. Later on, look on, on the, the yellow side. Rahab, the prostitute in her father's household and all who belong to her, Joshua saved alive because she, uh, she has lived in Israel to this day.

So the people of Rahab continued alongside. They became full converts to the faith of Israel because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy on Jericho. And even in the New Testament, Rahab is celebrated. Notice what the writer of Hebrews says. He, he named her among the heroes of the faith. You remember that chapter 11 of this wonderful pass-- By faith, Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient [00:36:00] because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

It's interesting that every time that her name is mentioned, so was also mentioned that she was a prostitute whom God had saved, whom God had forgiven, whom God had rescued. Now because of her faith, she was fully invested as a part of the family line of Jesus of Nazareth. One other person- This is a great message.

Yeah. This is a great message because that is repentance. Your life in the past was this, and you thought it defined you, and all of us have things in the past that we're ashamed of, that, that we're guilty of sin. But once she makes that declaration of faith in God, the whole trajectory of her life changes.

There is redemption, there is [00:37:00] grace, and there is hope for a different future. And it's wonderfully inspiring to have-- to know that God has that wideness in His mercy. That's what her name means, broad. She was standing on those walls of Jericho going, "This is what is going to take place," that there is a wideness in God's mercy.

There's a song about that. Mm-hmm. Like the wideness of the sea. And so we have to trust in that merciful, saving God that can change our life. All right. There's one other woman that I wanna talk about. Her name is... Well, well, she's referred to, not even given a name in Matthew, that David fathered Solomon through the wife of Uriah Boy.

And we know her name [00:38:00] otherwise from 2 Samuel as Bathsheba. Bat-sheva, which means daughter of the oath or daughter of the promise, daughter of the vow. Yes. All right. Interesting story. Okay. Maybe it's not what we think. Maybe there's some things there we- Yep ... don't have right about it. Okay, tell us about this.

So we've had two Gentile women. Now we have a woman that is a, um, a Jewish woman. She's married to Uriah the Hittite. The Hittites were a group that were kind of remnants of the sons of Heth, who were sons of Canaan, who were sons of Ham. And you remember in, with, in Noah's offspring, it was Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

And so the Hittites were this group that were basically indigenous people. They were Canaanites. But, um, Abraham bought the cave of [00:39:00] Machpelah for a burial place for his wife- Mm-hmm ... from a person named Ephron the Hittite. So here's Bathsheba. She's a soldier's wife. She's married, um, to Uriah, who is-- to Uriah.

Her hus- her, uh, excuse me, her father's name is Emmuel, and both he and Uriah are two of the mighty soldiers in David's army. They're called The Thirty, although there weren't just 30 of them. Mm-hmm. But they are these prestigious soldiers. And so, um, the topography, if you will, of Jerusalem was eventually there's going to be on the mount, that's where the, the, um, Solomon's Temple will be built.

Then just below that is David's palace, and it's already there during this time in history. [00:40:00] And then below that are, like, the, the soldiers' quarters. And so, um, David s- has not gone out into battle. This is, like, 20 years into his- Mm ... 40-year reign. So we're out at about, um, nine- nine ninety, something like this.

Mm-hmm. So we're further down the line, um, chronologically. And h- his soldiers, including Uriah, have gone into battle with the Ammonites He chooses to stay home. He's walking on the ramparts, on the roof, looking out over his wide domain, and he sees a woman bathing. Now, the question is, is this wife of Uriah just out in public naked or something?

No. The, the, the text does not say this. [00:41:00] Nobody is bathing in a bathtub in the city of David in ancient Israel. There only is one spring for the whole city, and that's the Gihon Spring. So everything had to be brought as jugs of water. So if you've ever been camping, you know what a spit's bath is like.

This is what she's taking. She's, she's doing it in the privacy of her own courtyard. But David, from this upper advantage, this powerful advantage, sees her, lust after her, and the text says he sees her, he sends for her, he inquires about her, he sends for her, he takes her. Code word, takes her in sexual, um, um- Intercourse.

And then [00:42:00] she goes and she becomes, she becomes pregnant. And when she does so, um, she holds David accountable for the pregnancy because remember, she was washing in the privacy of her home, and it's his voyeur-like view of her that is invading that privacy. And out of a p- sort of a power, I'm not sure it's called rape, and I would not call it adultery because in our Western minds, we think of adultery, uh, well, these are two- It's consensual in adultery.

Consensual Yeah, yeah. She might have gone thinking that David had news about Uriah on the battlefield, you know? And so did she have a choice? Scholars today, the exegetes that look at these texts carefully say this is more [00:43:00] like obvious, a power and a unequal power dynamic. Could she say no? He's the king, she's the soldier's wife.

She's a subject-- she's a soldier's wife. Right. And, um- That's a lot of differentiate- Yeah ...differential there. So there's a lot of discussion about consanguinity. Anyway, she becomes pregnant. She tells David and, um Eventually, Nathan the prophet confronts David and says, um, "This child that is a result of this union is going to die."

And so, um, you know also that David had Uriah murdered, and then he marries her-- marries Bathsheba, and she has a second son named Solomon, but she also has a son named [00:44:00] Nathan and two others, Shobab and Shubi-el. Hmm. And it's so remarkable that in God's grace that through her, there is a double line of the Messiah that goes through David and Bathsheba's children.

She overcomes many very hurtful, shameful hardships in her life. She loses a child. Her husband was killed. Her grandfather, Ahithophel, was the-- King David's court counselor. He ended up committing suicide. And then she is brought into the court, and somehow she [00:45:00] becomes this wise-like counselor to David, and her son, Solomon, becomes the wisest man on earth.

And you see later in her life, when she's much older and David has died, that Solomon brings her in to the throne room, and he brings up a, a chair for her to sit next to him as a co-heir, as a-- E- she foreshadows that we are inheritors of God's promises, and we will sit with Him and reign with Him in the end times, in the eschaton.

We are going to be, you know, co-heirs with Christ. She, she's, [00:46:00] so she's, um, a wife, a mother, a queen mother, and just I have so much admiration for her. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Any one of those things could have defined her life, but she chose for them not to define her. Mm. And so there's hope for us. We have to make- So the, so the death, the death of her child did not define her.

Yes. The death of her husband did not define her. The- The death of her grand- The death of- ... her grandfather- ... grandfather ... the court counselor did not, the suicide of her grandfather. So how, how, um, how important in your thinking, having studied all this very closely, do you think that suffering that she did Brought her to that point of wisdom.

Yep. Brought that, brought her to that point of elegant wisdom where she was the queen mother. [00:47:00] Yeah. Um, New Testament talks about if we will suffer with Christ, we can't expect just all the good things. We participate in suffering, in lament. That was one, one of the lectures at the Lanier Library was about.

There are hardships in our life. We saw with Tamar and with Rah- Rahab and here with Bathsheba, there is this element of waiting, suffering, waiting on God for bringing things to, into alignment, but our faith can work in a providential way with what God intends for His covenant people. And so I find it revelatory-

that these women hold the line of the Messiah. They make a [00:48:00] way and, um, they, we must meet with their strength, with their perseverance- Mm ... and their resolve. One of the images, come up, if you don't mind, come up to the screen. Uh, one of the images you sent me is an image, I think, of, of your home. Was this your house?

Yeah. Is this your house? It is. Okay. David, is this your house? Yes. Okay. He's-- All right, we've had a double witness here. T- uh, by the, by two witnesses, everything is confirmed. Okay, so what am I looking at here? Okay. About three or four years ago, we had planted a jasmine vine. This is our carport, and our house is kind of over that way.

There's a lake back here, but there's, this is a pillar that holds up the carport, and we had planted this jasmine vine. It was trailing everywhere. I was embarrassed. As a botanist, you're like, "Oh, my gosh, I need, you know, [00:49:00] I need professional landscape, professional landscaper." So I called my husband and I said-

"We need to stake up this vine or it's going to sprawl everywhere and not be useful." So he put in about six long eye bolts And, um, I started like tethering them all up along, um, a coated wire, and that vine is now growing up upward. It's continuing. This is like that Messianic line. Those eye bolts are the places where, you know, things could have just...

Without them, you don't have order, and God is a God of order. And this is, is now getting up there towards the top of the carport, so. Very cool. So you, you-- the analogy you used was that these women who are holding the line are like these [00:50:00] eye bolts- Yes ... moving things along at key moments- Yeah ... um, to, to the order of bringing- Yeah

Jesus the Messiah in our world. They overcome the obstacles that were in place in the patriarchal era when the nation is entering, um, the land, the promised land, and in the continuation of the Davidic dynasty. And so they are these stronghold places that ensure continuation of the Messianic line, and, um- We don't, we don't have much more time.

But let- Okay ... just talk really quickly about this- Okay ... this image. Is this something we'd find in your book? Would you find it in- You can't find this. Um- Okay. This was so interesting to me that, um, uh- We have David and Bathsheba. Now, this is the- This is the lineage according to Matthew ... Matthew's. There's two genealogies.

Lineage according to Luke. And the lineage according to Luke. So Luke says, gives these names, David, Solomon, [00:51:00] all the kings of Judah. These are... In Luke, he gives all these other names, and it's like, okay, we're all confused with genealogies. Let's just you know, skip to the next chapter. Mm-hmm. But here, this is Nathan, the son of David and Bathsheba.

And so we're not familiar with any of these people. But it goes down to the time of the exile, five eighty-six. And so you see that the kingly line ends. The non-kingly line, um, sort of ends. Everybody goes into exile. But there's a coming together, and men are also important. There was two-- There's a chiastic structure, an X structure.

And so there's a double line of the Messiah. So Matthew and Luke have four names in common: David, um- Um, Shealtiel, [00:52:00] Zerubbabel, and Joseph, and then of course, from Joseph's, Joseph being the earthly father of Jesus. And so these are the two lines. One is a legal line, and one is a biological line, and they crisscross.

That's c- a chiasm that takes place. It's explained much better in the book and- So we have to have your book- Yeah ... basically, which you can find at the Lanier Theological Library if you, if you so desire. All right, let's, let's come down to, uh, just some kind of final thoughts, uh, on this. Uh, we'll, we'll, we'll skip through that screen there and points for home.

Uh, Dale, uh, uh, Dale Hearn over there always loves us to have points for home. Okay. So what are the things we should take away from this study of Tamar, Rahab, and Bathsheba? Okay. Those are three women. There's many men. There's Gentiles and Jews, and [00:53:00] I don't know if you learned a little song as a child, but, uh, I did in First Baptist Church of McAlester, Oklahoma.

Here's the church. Here's the steeple. Open the doors and see all the people. Those are us. It's a living, dynamic, growing entity. It's not just a physical tabernacle or a physical Solomon's Temple or a, Ezekiel's Temple or, um, Herod's Temple. We become this living, growing place where God wants to dwell amongst us.

And so we are the privileged people that if we will put our faith in God, He can transform our lives, and He can use us in our homes, in our [00:54:00] families, in the entire kingdom. That's different for everyone. So it's important every day to hear the Word, see the Word, listen to the Word, see what the Holy Spirit is teaching you, and we too can be like these incredible faith-filled women.

God can do something with us, a bad past but a bright future, and we need to embrace everyone with that kind of faith and result. Mm-hmm. Excellent. Would you give Nancy Dawson, Dr. Nancy Dawson- A hand. Thank you for being with us today to talk about these three women. It's an incredible book. It really is.

All the Genealogies of the Bible by Nancy Dawson. Um, and you're working on another one now. Right. What, what are you working on now? Um, I- Another 20 years? Is it gonna take 20 years? Let's hope not. Hope not? Hopefully I've [00:55:00] learned something. Okay. I love biblical research. I'm just a researcher, an analytical person by, by nature.

I'm working on a book on all the women in the Bible for Broadman & Holman, um, a contracted book that I hope to have done in, like, two or three more years, so. All right. Very good. Well, we look forward to that, and thank you so much. Let me, let me, uh, offer a prayer. Would you stand please, ladies and men, ladies and gentlemen.

Uh, I've loved this steer- series, so grateful. S- a lot of things I've learned. You know, you think you know it all, right? No, I don't. Uh, we think we know more than we do, and then we encounter somebody like you who has delved in so deeply and so importantly for us to help us understand the 200-plus genealogies of the Bible, and especially the genealogies of Jesus in Matthew and also in Luke.

Let me pray. Father, thank you. [00:56:00] Would you bless these folks? Would you bless these women who are here, women who have a past, women who don't, but women who do have a bright future because of how you can redeem anyone. You can redeem any sin. You can redeem any hurt. You can redeem any darkness and grief that we experience.

Bring us to that new place to be women who hold the line today in America, 2025, and men who support them, and men who hold the line as well, in faith, in hope, but also in love. We pray through Jesus our Lord. Amen.