Read: Genesis 38
This chapter
is shocking to say the least. In the
middle of the account of Joseph we find a sexually graphic story about Judah
and his sons which include spilled semen and prostitution. Yet this story fulfills an important role in
the book of Genesis as it focuses on the continuation of the line of Judah
showing the importance of this line.
Later in Scripture kingship will be associated with the line of Judah as
biblical history shows David comes from this line. Although this chapter shows the worst of
Judah, it also shows how he was transformed.
Later in Genesis we will see how he was redeemed.
The chapter
begins with the birth of three sons to Judah by an unnamed Canaanite
woman. The sons names were Er, Onan and
Shelah (v. 3-5). Judah chose Tamar to be
the wife of his eldest son Er but Er was wicked so the Lord put him to death
(v. 7) leaving Tamar a childless widow.
This meant that Judah’s second son Onan needed to perform his duty and
raise up offspring for his brother (v. 8).
This custom is commonly known as “levirate marriage” which required the
brother to marry the widow and give her children if she was childless (see
Deut. 25:5-10). Judah was eager that
Tamar should have a son to continue the firstborn line of Er. Onan knew that the child would be seen as
Er’s child and not his own so he spilled his semen on the ground to keep her
from getting pregnant (v. 9). God saw
this as wicked and put Onan to death (v. 10) once again leaving Tamar
childless. Judah then promised to give
Tamar Shelah, the youngest son, when he was full grown. But Judah feared that Shelah would also die,
so he was merely buying time and trying to get rid of Tamar (v. 11). But Tamar waited patiently for her promised
child.
Next we find
that Judah’s wife, the mother of these three boys, died (v. 12) and Judah went
to Timnath to shear sheep. Tamar learned
of this and decided to do something about her childlessness. By this time she had realized that Judah had
no intentions of giving Shelah to her as a husband (v. 14) so she was using her
own resourcefulness to solve the problem of her childlessness. She removed her widow’s clothes, covered
herself with a veil and sat at the entrance to Enaim which was on the road to
Timnath (v. 14). When Judah saw her he
thought she was a prostitute and they began to negotiate the terms for her hire
not knowing that she was actually Tamar.
Judah agreed to pay her a goat for her services but Tamar demanded the
pledge of his seal, cord and staff, and he agreed (v. 18). Tamar knew that this man couldn’t be
trusted! So that was how Tamar became
pregnant with Judah’s baby (v. 18). She
then returned to her widowhood (v. 19).
Judah desired
to make good on his payment of the goat to the prostitute so he sent his friend
who could not find her (20). After
asking the men of the area they replied that no prostitute had been there (v.
21). Judah’s friend returned to him and
they decided to leave things be so they wouldn’t be laughed at (v. 23). Judah didn’t want people to know that he had
been tricked out of his seal, cord and staff by a prostitute – how embarrassing!
About three
months later, Judah heard that Tamar, his daughter-in-law, was pregnant (v.
24). Judah had ordered Tamar to live as a widow until Shelah was marrying age,
showing that he considered her betrothed to Shelah; therefore Tamar’s pregnancy
would have been seen as adultery in those days.
As the head of the family Judah could act in a judicial way, so he
demanded that she be put to death for her crime (v. 24). Sounds like the pot is calling the kettle
black! Tamar then sent the seal, cord
and staff to Judah with the message that the owner of the items was the father
of her baby (v. 25). Judah then
identified the items and acknowledged that he had wronged Tamar by not giving
Shelah to her (v. 26). This marks a
clear turning point for Judah. Scripture
is clear that they never “knew” each other again (v. 26).
Tamar gave
birth to twin boys, Perez and Zerah. The
birth was interesting in that one baby put out his hand and the midwife tied a
scarlet thread on his hand (Zerah) but the other brother (Perez) actually was
born first (v. 28-29). This leads us to
believe that something significant will happen in the line of Perez. We know from the rest of Scripture that
Christ came from the line of Perez (Matt. 1:3).
It is
probable that Tamar’s only motive in seducing Judah was her desire to have a
child who might have been an heir in the promise made to Abraham. Judah did not keep his promise to give her
Shelah, which was an injustice done to Tamar.
It is hard to believe that Judah and Tamar were ancestors of the
Messiah, but since they were, the birth of Perez and Zerah was recorded in
Scripture.
Prayer and Journaling
1. Judah
said that Tamar was more righteous then he (v. 26) but that does not mean that
her acts were moral, only better than his.
We must acknowledge that the sin of sexual immorality was committed here
by both parties. This sin brought forth
a child who would be in the line of the Messiah but it was not God’s will for
them to sin. They had a choice and they
chose wrong. This shows us that God
redeems and restores the repentant. Yet
we must not remain or continue in our sin.
Thank the Lord for forgiving you!
Thank Him for His mercy, compassion and love! Thank Him for empowering us to live
righteously and for strengthening us so that we can turn from our sin and live
holy lives through Jesus Christ!
2. Impurity
is rampant in our society, especially sexual impurity. Yet sex and sexuality were created by God and
are lovely and good in the context of marriage, a lifelong union between one
man and one woman. Common forms of
sexual impurity: TV, movies, coarse joking, pornography, same sex
relationships, sexy novels, immodest dressing, adultery, fornication,
voyeurism, lustful thoughts, masturbation, bestiality, mooning and many more
sexual impurities. God calls us to guard
our hearts against sexual impurity. We
cannot allow even the smallest sinful thing into our minds and into our
homes.
a. Ask the Lord to show you any areas where you
have sexual impurity in your life even if it is in the smallest form. Don’t make excuses; just write it down in
your journal.
b. Pray
a prayer of confession, confessing your sin and admitting that this is sin.
c. Thank the Lord for His forgiveness.
d. Ask
the Lord to show you what you can do today in order to flee from sexual impurity. For example, what TV shows do you need to
stop watching? What about movies? Or
environments? Etc.
3. The purposes of God
were to be realized in the families of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Yet it was the breakdown of the family which
seriously threatened (from a human vantage point) the purposes of God. Today
the same challenge faces the Christian family. Marriage and family is under
attack. We live in a society that
celebrates, flaunts and even promotes sexual sin. Today our families and our children are
facing incredible pressure to conform to the world around us in this area. We must stand for purity and
righteousness! Pray that the church
would stand for God’s standard of purity and righteousness. Pray that Christian marriages would be
strengthened and healed in order to shine as lights to the world about the
goodness of God and His ways. Pray for
your marriage – listen in prayer and ask the Lord to show you one area where
you can work on being a better spouse.
Pray about what He shows you and commit to following through on it.
