One might presume that the women in Jesus the Messiah's genealogy, would include only the finest Jewish women, but they weren't. Instead the five women were mostly poor, mostly misfits, widows, unimportant, unknown, sinful women by society's standards. Most weren't even Jewish at all. With the exception of Ruth and Mary, they had tarnished sexual histories although to some even their background would have been called into question. They were everyday women, living ordinary lives who were tarnished by sin--just like us! But to God they were beautiful because God created them. They were precious to God and because of their inclusion in God's Family Tree, God extends to us hope. Jesus came from a long line of broken people who foreshadow the kind of people he came to save.
