Today’s message is from Genesis 38:1-30, the entire chapter. I’ll read it in sections as I go along instead of reading the entire passage before I talk about it. It’s all the word of God. Of all the history of the world and of the universe, God chose to record what’s in the Bible and what’s in Genesis chapter 38 so that we would be able to read it.
Also, as always, I encourage you to read your Bibles every day—and not just to read, but to consider what God wants you to learn through what he has recorded for you.
The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 talks about the various sins the Israelites committed—idolatry, sexual immorality, complaining and so forth—while God was leading them from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the promised land. Paul talks about the judgments, the punishments, that God brought against his people as a result of their sins and tells us that these things happened (and were recorded) to serve as examples and as a warning for us on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. The events recorded in Genesis are also recorded for us (on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come) so that we may learn from them. So study your Bible.
Last week I talked about how Joseph’s 10 older brothers had hated him because Jacob favored him over the others. Jacob had given Joseph a very special ‘robe of many colors’ which would normally have been an honor reserved for the firstborn son. To make matters worse, Joseph innocently told his brothers about two prophetic dreams that he had had indicating that he would rule over all of them. They sold him into slavery in order to get rid of him.
Two other people played prominent roles in the story of Joseph’s brothers selling him into slavery. One was Reuben. Reuben had intended to rescue Joseph and return him to Jacob when the brothers were planning on killing him. He told the brothers to put him into a cistern (presumably to let him starve to death, rather than killing him outright). He was planning to rescue Joseph later and return him to his father.
You remember that Reuben was the one who had sinned against his father Jacob by sleeping with Jacob’s concubine, Bilhah, and that last week I speculated about the possibility that his guilt and remorse over that sin had led him to repentance and had softened his heart. Jacob knew about what Reuben had done and I suspect that he didn’t want Jacob to be hurt any further.
But there was something else that I saw in one of the commentaries that I failed to point out last week. Reuben was Jacob’s firstborn. He would have had all the more reason to be angry and hate Joseph because he would normally have inherited the leadership of the family on Jacob’s death and a double portion of his material possessions. He would have received the ‘robe of many colors’. Yet, he was the one who tried to save Joseph from the rest of the brothers.
The other person that’s mentioned by name in the account of Joseph’s being sold into slavery is Judah. It was Judah who proposed to lessen the brothers’ guilt by selling Joseph as a slave to some Midianites who happened to be passing by in a caravan carrying goods for sale in Egypt instead of killing him. That’s what they did. When Reuben found out about it, he was very distressed. He tore his clothes. He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone. What am I going to do?” That’s when the rest of the brothers would have seen Reuben’s distress and realized that Reuben had intended to rescue Joseph and return him to his father. I wonder what they thought—especially Judah. It was Judah who had the great idea of selling Joseph to the Midianites rather than just killing him. But Reuben, who had every reason to despise Joseph more than the rest, was concerned about Jacob and about Joseph rather than being concerned about how he could get rid of Joseph with minimum guilt. (That’s minimum guilt in men’s way of thinking, by the way, not minimum guilt in God’s way of thinking. God looks at the heart! Chapter 38, today’s message is all about Judah.
Let’s read the first five verses of chapter 38. Follow along as I read them:
1At that time Judah left his brothers and settled near an Adullamite named Hirah. 2There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite named Shua; he took her as a wife and slept with her. 3She conceived and gave birth to a son, and he named him Er. 4She conceived again, gave birth to a son, and named him Onan. 5She gave birth to another son and named him Shelah. It was at Chezib that she gave birth to him. (Genesis 38:1-5)
Before I go on, I want to say one other thing. The rest of Genesis from chapter 37, last week’s chapter, to the end, chapter 50, appears to be mostly about Joseph. You might wonder (and I did wonder the first time I read Genesis) what this chapter about Judah is doing in the middle of the account of Joseph’s life. But, of course, this is the word of God, so this chapter about Judah’s life is not where it is by any accident (and not by God’s whim, either). There are reasons for its being where it is.
One thing we know and I’ve pointed out before is that our Lord and Savior Jesus is descended, according to human descent, from Judah, rather than any of the other brothers—or, to use the New Testament terminology, through any of the other patriarchs. These guys—theses brothers—really turned out to have special status. They are the 12 patriarchs of the nation of Israel. (And I’m going to quote just one verse that the apostle Paul wrote. This is from Romans 9:5. Paul is speaking about the nation of Israel: “Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.” (Rom. 9:5 – NIV) The patriarch through whom Jesus traced his human ancestry is Judah.)
But there is something else that I mentioned last week. God was working on these guys to refine them and purify them—to make them suitable for the position in history that he chose for them. (He’s refining us, too, and all those who have put their faith in Jesus, to make us suitable for his kingdom!)
But there’s something else I mentioned last week. too. It’s that God is going to do something really spectacular in Judah’s heart. We’ll see what happens later, as we go on in Genesis.
Chapter 37, last week’s chapter, told us a little bit about Judah’s life—about his personality. Namely, that he was, sad to say, a normal typical human being. He looked for ways to justify sin and kidded himself that they could make their sin less sinful—or maybe not sinful at all. Chapter 38 tells us more about Judah’s life and personality. He had, also, sad to say, a very typical life. But, I think there is also evidence of God’s working on him near the end of the chapter.
Now look back at the first five verses—the ones I just read. Verse 1 says that Judah left his brothers—his family—and settled near an Adullamite named Hirah. Hirah was a Canaanite. Why would Judah chose to leave his family and live near a Canaanite? It doesn’t say, but maybe you have to read between the lines. I think maybe he didn’t want to be near his father or his brothers after what happened with Joseph. (It says that he left “at that time”. That time would be the time immediately following the incident with Joseph.)
Nevertheless, living among the Canaanites was not a good thing. Judah married a Canaanite woman. (Do you remember what great lengths Abraham went to to make sure Isaac didn’t marry a Canaanite woman. Abraham was the man of faith.) Judah married a Canaanite woman and had three children. Judah must have been away from his family for a number of years, since the children grew up during the time period covered in chapter 38
Now let’s look at verses 6 through 11. I’ll read them:
6Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7Now Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in the Lord’s sight, and the Lord put him to death. 8Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife. Perform your duty as her brother-in-law and produce offspring for your brother.” 9But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he released his semen on the ground so that he would not produce offspring for his brother. 10What he did was evil in the Lord’s sight, so He put him to death also. 11Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Remain a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He might die too, like his brother.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s house. (Genesis 38:6-11)
Judah got a wife for his firstborn, Er. Her name was Tamar. She was also a Canaanite. This chapter is also about Tamar. The HCSB translators gave it the title Judah and Tamar. And you remember that Tamar was one of the five women ancestors of Jesus listed in Matthew’s genealogy. Tamar is also an important person.
It says that Judah’s firstborn son, Er, was evil in the Lord’s view. (And I guess I should point out that the Lord’s view may be different from out view—and it’s certainly different from the world’s view. What the world calls good is frequently what the Lord calls evil, and what the world calls evil is frequently what the Lord calls good. Our standards should agree with the Lord’s standards, not with the world’s. In fact, they must agree!) Judah’s firstborn was evil in the Lord’s view, so the Lord put him to death.
Now, the custom was (and later, God’s law was) that, if a man died childless, his brother would be required to marry his widow in order that she might have a son to carry on the man’s family line. The brother’s firstborn son with the man’s widow would be considered as his (the dead man’s). Well, Judah told his second son Onan to sleep with Tamar to perform his duty as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for his brother Er. Well Onan didn’t want to produce any children that wouldn’t be counted as his, so he practiced a method of birth control. And that was evil in the Lord’s sight, so he also put Onan to death.
Well, Judah knew that his third son, Shelah, should marry Tamar after Onan’s death, although he may have been a little too young at the time. He told Tamar to go live as a widow in her father’s house until Shelah grew up. But the reality was that he was afraid that if Shelah married Tamar, he might die, too. Do you think that’s superstition? I don’t know how Judah was thinking about it, but God is the one who chooses whether we live or die and there’s no superstition with God!
Now let’s look at verses 12 through 19. Follow along as I read them.
12After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had finished mourning, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went up to Timnah to the sheepshearers. 13Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.” 14So she took off her widow’s clothes, veiled her face, covered herself, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had grown up, she had not been given to him as a wife. 15When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.
16He went over to her and said, “Come, let me sleep with you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law.
She said, “What will you give me for sleeping with me?”
17 “I will send you a young goat from my flock,” he replied.
But she said, “Only if you leave something with me until you send it.”
18 “What should I give you?” he asked.
She answered, “Your signet ring, your cord, and the staff in your hand.” So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she got pregnant by him. 19She got up and left, then removed her veil and put her widow’s clothes back on. (Genesis 38:12-19)
Verse 12 says that Judah’s wife died after a long time. Tamar had waited a long time for Shelah to supposedly grow up, and was still childless and without a husband. She realized what was going on—that Judah didn’t intend to give her to Shelah at all—and made a plan. When she heard that Judah was going up to Timnah, she took off her widow’s clothes and dressed as a prostitute and sat at the entrance to Enaim along the way to Timnah. She disguised herself so that Judah would not recognize her and waited for him to come along. Judah, assuming she was a prostitute, made a deal with her for one young goat from his flock and slept with her, but not before she had obtained some of his personal belongings as security, his staff and his signet ring and cord. (She would use these later.) She became pregnant. She took off her disguise, put on her widow’s clothes again and went back to live with her father.
Why do you think Tamar did what she did? Well, for one thing, she would have wanted children. These days, many women don’t seem to want children, but then it would have been a disgrace not to have children. And I think it was right for her to want children. The Lord told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Also, it’s clear that it’s a great blessing to have lot’s of descendents—even descendents that you won’t know during this present life—maybe, especially descendents that you won’t know during this present life. One of the most important features of the Lord’s promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was that they would have descendents as numerous as the sand on the seashore and the stars in the sky. (And we know that there are a lot more stars in the sky than what they could be seen with the naked eye in those days.)
But, regardless of the blessing Tamar would have herself in having children, I believe that she would have gone through with her plan anyway because she thought it was her duty to have children for her first husband according to the custom of the time (and, really, according to God’s will, which he expressed later in the Law of Moses). In some way, I think she was a woman of faith. She wanted to do what was right, even though the way she went about it was very questionable. She is listed among the women of faith in Jesus’s genealogy.
Now, what about Judah? Well, I don’t think he had any qualms about sexual immorality. And his wife was dead, so he wouldn’t be committing adultery. Remember, as we read and study this passage, we are learning about the people through whom the Lord chose to bring salvation to us. They don’t look so good in many cases, but then neither do we. Praise the Lord that he can both save us from our sin and use us to show his glory anyway! He makes Jesus look good through us!
Now let’s look at verses 20 through 23. You can follow along as I read them.
20When Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get back the items he had left with the woman, he could not find her. 21He asked the men of the place, “Where is the cult prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?”
“There has been no cult prostitute here,” they answered.
22So the Adullamite returned to Judah, saying, “I couldn’t find her, and furthermore, the men of the place said, ‘There has been no cult prostitute here.’”
23Judah replied, “Let her keep the items for herself; otherwise we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send this young goat, but you couldn’t find her.” (Genesis 38:20-23)
Well, Judah tried to pay up according to the agreement he had made with Tamar. Apparently he didn’t try to cover up his sin with the “prostitute”. (I don’t think he would have thought it was a sin.) But he figured people would laugh at him if he made too much of an effort to be sure she was paid.
Now let’s look at verses 24, 25 and 26. I’ll read them.
24About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law has been acting like a prostitute, and now she is pregnant.”
“Bring her out!” Judah said. “Let her be burned to death!”
25As she was being brought out, she sent her father-in-law this message: “I am pregnant by the man to whom these items belong.” And she added, “Examine them. Whose signet ring, cord, and staff are these?”
26Judah recognized them and said, “She is more in the right than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not know her intimately again. (Genesis 38:24-26)
Well look at self-righteous Judah. And talk about a double standard! But, actually, Tamar was engaged to Judah’s third son, Shelah. I suspect that that would be considered as good as being married. That’s the way it was later in the Jewish culture, anyway. I think Judah really thought Tamar had committed adultery.
But when Judah found out he was the father, he declared that Tamar was more right than he was, since he hadn’t given her to his son Shelah . (Most of the other translations say righteous rather than right: “She is more righteous than I am.”) I suspect he also realized that he had committed adultery, although unknowingly. (Have you ever “innocently” taken some action that turned out to be seriously wrong and caused harm and then realized that your motives had not really been innocent in the first place and that the evil result would not have happened if your heart had been pure?) It says that Judah was not intimate with Tamar again.
Now, you see, the Lord was working on Judah. He was convicted of sin: “She is more righteous than I am.” The Lord was working through people and through circumstances to make Judah into a new person. He does that with us, too. And we’ll see the results in Judah later.
Now let’s look at the last four verses. I’ll read them:
27When the time came for her to give birth, there were twins in her womb. 28As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand, and the midwife took it and tied a scarlet thread around it, announcing, “This one came out first.” 29But then he pulled his hand back, and his brother came out. Then she said, “You have broken out first!” So he was named Perez. 30Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread tied to his hand, came out, and was named Zerah. (Genesis 38:27-30)
Tamar gave birth to twins, Perez and Zerah. Perez was (is) the ancestor of Jesus. God brings about good and salvation through all kinds of questionable things that men do. He is able to and does bring about good through what men intend as evil. Joseph, we will see, explained that to his brother at the end of Genesis. What they had intended for evil, God used for good and for the salvation of many.
And God brought about good through the death of Jesus. He brought about the salvation of many through what men intended as evil. The apostle Peter preached, “You put him to death with the help of wicked men.” Our sins put Jesus to death. But his death brought us eternal life.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel,” the apostle Paul wrote, “because it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. For in it God’s righteousness is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.”
[Prayer]