The Bible says: when you were born, you were born in Adam - for Adam is the firstborn. In Adam you get justice, because you're born in Adam, and Adam is the firstborn.
But the Bible says in the Book of Colossians: when you get saved - you get moved from ‘in Adam’ to ‘in Christ’ - for Christ is the second Adam.
In the first Adam you get justice, but in the second Adam you get mercy - that's what it means to be ‘born-again’, or ‘born of God’.
I have been moved from a position of Justice, to a position of Mercy - that you now have a firstborn who's responsible for your sin.
In Matthew 1, it's the genealogy of Christ. All of them are second-borns, like Isaac, Jacob, David was a seventh born; so the ‘great second-born’ came from a long line of second-borns.
There were five women mentioned in Jesus' genealogy. In Hebrew culture, if they mention a woman in a genealogy, they're trying to tell you something - because they weren't allowed to do that. There are five women mentioned in Jesus' genealogy; one was Mary obviously, but the other four you have Rahab the... [Whore.]
Whore? Ease up! I heard: prostitute, harlot, WHORE! There's some raving mad Pentecostal over here - Rahab the WHORE! She was a whore!
So you have: Rahab the whore; and you've got Bathsheba - there's a woman of virtue! You have Ruth the Moabitis - who laid naked at Boaz's feet to get his attention (a woman of virtue).
Towards the beginning there it says: “and Judah begat Perez through Tamar”. Has anybody ever read this story? Has anybody besides me ever thought: I come from a dysfunctional family? Jesus' family was the most dysfunctional of all time I think!
This guy named Judah - Jesus said: “I am the Lion of the Tribe of... this guy”. Judah has three sons, and he goes and finds Tamar as the wife for his first son. Through a series of unfortunate events - his first son dies. Now the second born has to become the firstborn - he has to be the Kinsman Redeemer and marry her.
So he marries her and through a series of unfortunate events he dies; so Judah understandably goes: woman, what is the matter with you? Every son I give you dies. I'm not going to give you my third son. You're going to have to live like a widow - which was against the law, but that's the way he set it up. So she's living like a widow.
Fast forward some time; Judah is walking up the road to shear sheep. Now everything I'm fixing to tell you is a direct quote from the Bible, it's just the Bible sometimes is R-rated okay? So he's walking up the road to shear sheep, and he's with his servant - and Tamar is sitting on the side of the road, dressed up like a prostitute. And it says: he did not know it was Tamar, he simply thought it was a prostitute.
Now my guess is: this is not Judah's first go at prostitution okay. So he's got his man-servant with him. He sees the prostitute on the side of the road, and he walks over to her and he says: hey, can I come into you? That pick-up line does not work anymore.
She says: of course - if you pay me. He says: I don't have any money. She says: what do you have? He says: I have a goat. She says: I'll take a goat. Women's standards have changed! Now they want things like ‘commitment’, and ‘diamonds’ and stuff.
So he says: I don't have a goat with me - it's up the road, but let's do what we're going to do; and then I'll go up and get the goat, and bring it back to you - I promise. She says: do I look stupid to you?
She said: you have a ring, you have a staff and you have a cord - which is a whole other message. She said: give me your ring, your staff and your cord - and that'll be collateral. We'll ‘do what we're going to do’ - and I'll trust you to bring the goat back.