{"id":94391,"date":"2026-03-06T21:15:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T03:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=94391"},"modified":"2026-03-06T21:15:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T03:15:28","slug":"the-story-of-redemption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-story-of-redemption\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story of Redemption"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p>by Jeff Grisham<\/p>\n<p>There are some narratives in Scripture that are not exactly what we would call &#8220;family-friendly.&#8221; In other words, if some of the biblical narratives were televised, we would probably not let our children watch them. Let&#8217;s look at a couple of examples.<\/p>\n<p>The first is found in Genesis 19 at the end of the account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot and his two daughters end up living in a cave outside of Zoar. Since the daughters have lost their marriage prospects, they decide to get their father drunk and engage in sexual relations with him in hopes that they will have sons. They execute their plan, and each of them has a son. The older of the two gives birth to Moab; the younger gives birth to Ben-ammi. These sons become the fathers of the Moabites and Ammonites, who will become thorns in the sides of God&#8217;s people in the future.<\/p>\n<p>The second example comes from Genesis 38 in the narrative of Judah&#8217;s family. Judah marries a Canaanite woman and fathers three sons. The first one, Er, marries a woman named Tamar. Er is so wicked that God kills him (Genesis 38:7). In keeping with the custom of levirate marriage, Judah&#8217;s next son, Onan, marries Tamar, but refuses to raise children for his deceased brother, and God put him to death also. Judah promises Tamar that she will be given to his youngest son when he is of age, but she must return to live with her father. Tired of waiting on a promise that did not seem to be any closer to being fulfilled, Tamar dresses as a prostitute, and Judah acquires her services, and she becomes pregnant and eventually gives birth to twins.<\/p>\n<p>The Bible tells one overall narrative of God who created and loves his creation. Despite humanity&#8217;s rebellion against God, he has continued to demonstrate his love by working throughout human affairs to bring about the reconciliation of the relationship with fallen humanity. While the Bible tells this overarching narrative, we find many other smaller narratives that may make us wonder how they fit into the overall picture. The two listed above are prime examples of this. However, as we continue to read and study Scripture, we find God working things to his purpose. In fact, we find these two unsettling narratives redeemed by God in the book of Ruth. Ruth is from Moab, a nation born out of an incestuous relationship between Lot and his oldest daughter. Ruth is redeemed by a man named Boaz, who is the great, great, great, great grandson of Perez, the son of Tamar by Judah (Matthew 1:3-5). From the marriage of Ruth and Boaz would eventually come David, the king.<\/p>\n<p>There are many lessons that can be learned here.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The first is that when we take matters into our own hands instead of relying on God to lead, things get ugly.<\/li>\n<li>The second is that God can redeem the ugliness of our pasts if we will submit to his leadership and trust in him.<\/li>\n<li>Finally, this should lead us to thank God that he loves us enough to work through the brokenness of humanity to bring our Savior into the world so that we could be redeemed and forgiven.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Jeff Grisham There are some narratives in Scripture that are not exactly what we would call &#8220;family-friendly.&#8221; In other words, if some of the biblical narratives were televised, we would probably not let our children watch them. Let&#8217;s look at a couple of examples. The first is found in Genesis 19 at the end&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[832,47],"class_list":["post-94391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-redemption","tag-salvation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":92413,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-are-the-sons-of-god-who-married-the-daughters-of-men\/","url_meta":{"origin":94391,"position":0},"title":"Who Are the \u201cSons of God\u201d Who Married the Daughters of Men?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Mike Johnson via Seeking Things Above Genesis 6:1-4 says: \"Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God\u00a0saw the\u00a0daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50579,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-the-redemption-laws-only-apply-to-firstborn-sons\/","url_meta":{"origin":94391,"position":1},"title":"Do the redemption laws only apply to firstborn sons?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In your article on\u00a0Jephthah's vow, you used the verses Exodus 13:2, 12-15 that all firstborn children belong to God, and as such Jephthah couldn't redeem her. But I've heard commentaries saying that these verses only talked about males. Is there something I'm missing in this? Thanks in advance and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8574,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-were-the-sons-of-god-in-genesis-64\/","url_meta":{"origin":94391,"position":2},"title":"Who were the sons of God in Genesis 6:4?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Please explain Genesis 6:1-8. Who were the sons of God? Answer: \"There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31950,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-woman-in-the-bible-had-the-most-children-and-how-many-did-she-have\/","url_meta":{"origin":94391,"position":3},"title":"What woman in the Bible had the most children and how many did she have?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What woman in the Bible had the most children and how many did she have? Answer: I can find no mention of any particular woman having specific amounts of children in the earliest parts of the Bible.\u00a0It often\u00a0tells the firstborn's name and then goes on to say that they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19379,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/your-argument-that-the-nephilim-came-first-is-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":94391,"position":4},"title":"Your argument that the Nephilim came first is wrong","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 8, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Your argument\u00a0that the Nephilim came first after the sons of God had children is wrong. It is one sentence. The Nephilim were in the earth in those days when the sons of God came and had children with the daughters of men. If it was two sentences then you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":64646,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/luke-and-the-birth-of-jesus\/","url_meta":{"origin":94391,"position":5},"title":"Luke and the Birth of Jesus","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 15, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Luke's intent to \"compile an account of the things accomplished among us\" as handed down by eyewitnesses begins with the birth of John the Immerser. John's role would be to \"turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God\" by going \"as a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94391\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}