There is probably nothing that will bog down your Bible reading down like the begets!
Though an important part of the genealogical record of Jesus Christ, it does make for some slow reading.
The begets can be found in Matt 1:2-16
Now this ancestral record would not be included in God’s word if it wasn’t important.
Included in it are the names of 5 women.
There is purpose in the mentioning of each.
Each woman was given a promise that was fulfilled in the Savior.
The first is Tamar.
Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Matt 1:3
Her story is found in Gen 38.
Er, Judah’s son, married Tamar but he was a wicked man and God killed him.
According to tradition (and eventually Torah) Er’s brother, Onan, was to marry Tamar and give her children for his deceased brother.
Though Onan married her and had relations with her, he would not allow himself to get her pregnant.
As a result God killed him too.
Judah then told Tamar to remain a widow until his son Shelah was old enough to marry her.
But over time Judah forgot his promise.
Someone told Tamar that her father-in-law had left for the sheep-shearing at Timnah. Tamar was aware that Shelah had grown up, but they had not called her to come and marry him. So she changed out of her widow’s clothing and covered herself with a veil to disguise herself. Then she sat beside the road at the entrance to the village of Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah. Judah noticed her as he went by and thought she was a prostitute, since her face was veiled. 16 So he stopped and propositioned her to sleep with him, not realizing that she was his own daughter-in-law.
“How much will you pay me?” Tamar asked.
“I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,” Judah promised.
“What pledge will you give me so I can be sure you will send it?” she asked.
“Well, what do you want?” he inquired.
She replied, “I want your identification seal, your cord, and the walking stick you are carrying.” So Judah gave these items to her. She then let him sleep with her, and she became pregnant. Afterward she went home, took off her veil, and put on her widow’s clothing as usual.
Judah asked his friend Hirah the Adullamite to take the young goat back to her and to pick up the pledges he had given her, but Hirah couldn’t find her. So he asked the men who lived there, “Where can I find the prostitute who was sitting beside the road at the entrance to the village?”
“We’ve never had a prostitute here,” they replied. So Hirah returned to Judah and told him that he couldn’t find her anywhere and that the men of the village had claimed they didn’t have a prostitute there.
“Then let her keep the pledges!” Judah exclaimed. “We tried our best to send her the goat. We’d be the laughingstock of the village if we went back again.”
About three months later, word reached Judah that Tamar, his daughter-in-law, was pregnant as a result of prostitution. “Bring her out and burn her!” Judah shouted.
But as they were taking her out to kill her, she sent this message to her father-in-law: “The man who owns this identification seal and walking stick is the father of my child. Do you recognize them?”
Judah admitted that they were his and said, “She is more in the right than I am, because I didn’t keep my promise to let her marry my son Shelah.” But Judah never slept with Tamar again. Gen 38:13-26 NLT
Tamar reminds us of the Promise of a Child!
God promises us the same with this; for unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end, Isa 9:6-7
Unlike Judah’s promise for Tamar; God did not forget His promise to us!