In the Bible many men and a number of women were shown to be key to God’s Plan of Creation. Why do I say the “plan of creation” as opposed to the history of the Jews or the lineage of Jesus? Because it is
all a part of God’s Plan of Creation. Through my years on the Creation Illustrated project, I have learned that you
have to include Genesis, Revelation and much of what is in between to gain a
view of God’s overall Plan. The birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the central-most point of
His Plan. And with the materials I have assembled from the Bible and the resulting,
composite artwork, it proves that Jesus is not the “son” of God as we might have a son –
it proves that Jesus is LORD, God become flesh, and, as Jesus said “He who has seen Me has seen the Father”, John 14:9.
Many people emphasize the men in the Bible stories, but the women also are of
critical importance if we are to understand from start to finish “the seed” of Eve (Genesis 3:15) as prophecy about the line to Christ. Luke 3:23-28 shows us how Jesus is the culmination of a line that appears to
begin with Eve and proceeds through a number of precarious points: Noah and Shem (the flood), Abraham (Sarah past the age), Isaac (Abraham’s “son, [his] only son” (Genesis 22:12), Jacob later named Israel (son of Rebekah and Isaac and father
of the Tribes), Judah (God’s appointment of Tamar to give birth to Perez by Judah), David father of Solomon
and Nathan and on to Mary (a virgin).
It could only have been by the hand of God that the seed of Eve which was to “crush” the serpent (Satan) on the head (Genesis 3:15) would eventually result in the
birth of Jesus. Many events were turned to favor Christ’s coming.
The most obvious woman God called is Mary, wife of Joseph and mother to Jesus by
Immaculate Conception. We can see with scripture’s two genealogies of Jesus, that He is twice identified as the “son of David”. Jesus’ royal lineage is through David’s son, Solomon, to Joseph (Matthew 1:1-17).
His legal claim to the throne is through David’s son Nathan to Mary, Luke 3:23-28, (illustrated above). The lineage of Jesus in Luke 3 is largely used to defend His right to the throne
of David. But there is considerably more of importance in His genealogy than that. It also establishes that Jesus Christ is the key to the whole of Creation.
Of all the women called to fulfill the line of Christ, Tamar is to me the most
interesting. Tamar was given as wife to Er, the son of Judah and the daughter of Shua a
Canaanite. Knowing the importance of the line of Christ, God killed two of Judah’s sons rather than have that line broken. In the meantime Tamar must surely have known her role in God’s plan because she risked death by burning when she became pregnant by Judah while pretending to be a harlot. Tamar’s twin sons by Judah were named Perez and Zerah. Zerah had put out his hand in childbirth and the midwife tied a scarlet thread
around it, announcing that he was firstborn. But Zereh withdrew his hand and
Perez came first. He was named Perez because it means “breach”.
This is most interesting because in the Generations from Adam to the Land of
Promise, God provided for us precise years to count forward through Jacob’s son Joseph (brother to Judah) the move into Egypt, enslavement at Joseph’s death and finally the Exodus from Egypt with Moses. From there the Bible directs us to the laws, kings, prophets, captivity in
Babylon and an eventual return of the captives to the land of Judea. However, with Tamar’s giving birth to Perez by Judah, she not only corrected the “number” of generations (77) to Christ from God, but she also prevented a “break” in the line to Christ. Judah was to be in the line but so was Tamar, not with Judah’s son by a Canaanite wife, but by Judah himself.
The third way in which Perez represents a breach is that God’s Creation Plan is now being illuminated in the line of Christ and not just in
the Old Testament history of the Jews. That history follows Jacob’s line through Joseph, while the line of Christ follows Jacob’s line through Judah to David’s son Nathan. The Jews leaned towards the kings (David, Solomon) and prophets
while God’s line to Christ followed Nathan to Mary.
As a personal aside, I see the line to Christ beginning with the first Word of
Creation, not just with Eve. In a way you could say God’s gestation period as the “Word became flesh” (John1:14) would be in the 14 - 18 billion year range (if scientists are
counting correctly).
The graphics to the right show Luke’s Gospel recounting every generation from God to Mary. The circled numbers were used to show the generational counts for every
individual recorded. The numbers of Enoch, for example, are 1, 2, 4, 8. Noah is 1, 11. Abraham is 1, 2, 11, 22. And Jesus is 1, 7, 11, 77.
The pattern made by this diagram sits squarely on top of, and matches, the
primary diagram of God’s Creation Plan and, as such, establishes that Christ’s coming is central to the whole of Creation, not something like a later move by
God to bring the Jews in line once again.
