Jesus, God’s perfect son, came from some very imperfect men as grandfathers. Judah, David, and Solomon are just three of the dozens of imperfect ancestors that Jesus had.
Judah
He was not his father’s oldest son. Jacob gave his fourth son the blessing of the firstborn because his first three sons had acted dishonorably and their father knew about it. Judah made mistakes too, but they weren’t aimed at his father so Jacob probably didn’t know about them.
Some bad decisions that Judah made are discussed in the Bible, but they were part of God’s plan, unlike the greedy actions of his older brothers. Genesis 37:26 shows that it was Judah who decided to sell Joseph as a slave instead of killing him. God used that decision to put Joseph in the position of saving his brothers from famine and isolating the family in Egypt. Slavery in Egypt actually formed the Israelites into a nation. According to my study Bible, Jacob’s sons were often interacting with the Canaanites. If they had remained a blessed family of nomads moving between cities, the family would probably have intermarried and lost their faith to the local religions. By going to Egypt, they built their own culture in isolation of the Egyptians simply by being considered foreigners, until they became persecuted as slaves.
Perez’s mother is another indication of Judah’s bad decisions. Genesis 38 shows how Judah disrespected Tamar, disobeying the cultural norms in order to save his last son. Tamar wound up tricking him into obeying his promise and their firstborn became the ancestor of the royal line of Judah, David’s ancestor and therefore the ancestor of the Christ child.
David
King David is one of Jesus’ most famous ancestors. Jesus is often referred to as David’s son, yet David was far from perfect. Both genealogies of Jesus in the New Testament say that He came from David’s sons, Solomon in Matthew 1 and Nathan in Luke 3. Interesting, to me at least, is that both sons were by Bathsheba whom David is said to have committed his worst sin for in 2 Samuel 11. God rebuked him and punished David for how he got Bathsheba as his wife, but it is through her that David is the father of the only sinless man. David’s various disobediences meant that King David wasn’t allowed to build God’s temple, but God still used him to create the perfect man to take away all the sins of humankind.
Solomon
David’s son is considered one of the greatest kings to ever live. His wisdom is one of the most fun stories of the Bible, but 1 Kings 11 shows that Solomon married seven hundred wives “of royal birth” and also had three hundred concubines. That means he had marriage treaties with seven hundred different city-states of that time. It’s a huge accomplishment for a small country. However, Solomon loved his lovers so much that he created places in Israel for his wives and their servants to worship their deities, not the God Solomon worshiped. It’s not surprising that Solomon started worshiping the other gods as well, earning God’s wrath.
As a result of encouraging the worship of other religions in Israel, God split the nation into two kingdoms. The smaller kingdom went to Solomon’s son and through him the savior would be born, but the larger kingdom was lost to Solomon’s servant.
From Solomon To Us
Most of the kings listed in the genealogy described in the first chapter of Matthew (considered Joseph’s line) were not very good at following God’s orders. God demands perfection as the way we thank Him for His many gifts to us, but none of us can achieve it. We all fall short, but even sinful men like those mentioned above were useful in God’s plan to save all sinful men and women. Jesus lived the perfect life to become the perfect sacrifice for all imperfect men and women who ever lived or will live. Can you imagine that level of perfection? I know that I can’t.
