Whenever I think about some of the people of the OT, especially some of the women that we talked about in the message, I am often surprised that some of the “less then stellar” episodes of the Bible where not edited out.  Especially of the great heroes.  The two books of Chronicles sometimes do this, skipping over some of the faults of the kings of Judah, but the OT if filled with sinful behavior from many considered to be the “greats”.  And Matthew’s intentional placement of many of these sins is just as shocking.  Yet, the Bible is honest about the failures of their characters.  No one is without some failure or moral lapses.  And this should encourage us.  Because we all have some failures and moral lapses in our history.  We all have sinned and fallen well short of God’s glory.  Yet, God still loves us even to the point of sending his Son Jesus.  This is the whole reason why we celebrate Christmas.  Jesus was born in this imperfect world to save us from these sins.  And for that we truly can celebrate.