The season of Advent is my favorite time of year. I love everything about it. The anticipation for Christ, Advent Calendars, Christmas Decorations, Advent Studies, and where my devotional heart goes this time of year. This season I am teaching a Bible Study on the book of Matthew, and doing an Advent Study using some of the women from the Bible. Week 1 is the story of Tamar. Never would I have chosen her to start a study that leads to Christ, and yet for that reason, she is the perfect place to start.
Tamar has a very broken story in the Bible. She is married to one of Judah's sons. He is not a good man and doesn't treat her well, God takes care of him. Then in Jewish tradition, she is married to his brother, and the story is much the same. He refuses to give her children because he doesn't want his brother to get credit for any sons. So God takes care of him too. Leaving her a widow x2. Judah sends her home to live a widow's life until the third son is old enough to marry her. Time passes and he never fulfills his promise. She takes matters into her own hands and tricks Judah into sleeping with her. She gets pregnant and with this child enters the lineage of Jesus Christ.
In Youth Group we talked about the different characters in the Christmas Story. The figurines we set on our mantle this time of year in our Nativities.
- Shepherds: This wasn't a job that essential people held. It was a job for the least of these, they lived with the sheep and would have been dirty and smelly.
- Magi: These guys weren't even Jewish. They didn't believe in God or follow any belief system that looks like Jesus. They likely believed in magic and astrology, they were tracking stars. Definitely outsiders.
- Joseph: a carpenter, nothing too special. Just a man willing to live by his convictions over the law.
- Mary: a young, virgin, betrothed, yet pregnant.
