A quick look at the book of Genesis 38 may somewhat look like a detour from the main characters in the previous chapters. And perhaps you may skip the chapter or like me wonder and ponder the true significance of the story and chapter in the bible. Over the last couple of years, I am learning that every single God-breathed word on the pages of scripture is so significant and they point us to a sovereign God whose ways are way higher than ours and whose love for us never ends. We may not be able to unfold these mysteries in one day but we can trust the Holy Spirit to help us see these mysteries and realities as we delve and feast on God’s word.
So I am sharing this blog post with you today because I recently just got some insight into the story of Judah and Tamar and Lord was I excited about God’s sovereignty through it all. Of course, this post is inexhaustive of all the lessons God wants us to see or know but I’d the go-ahead to share some of them here.
Genesis 38 opens up by telling us about Judah’s migration to another town or city. He was one of Joseph’s brothers who connived to sell him into slavery, he actually was the one who suggested that they sold Joseph instead of killing Him – Genesis 37:26-27. So in this new town where Mr. Judah settled away from his brothers, he got married and had three sons. Unfortunately for Judah, his first son grew up to be a wicked man and God took his breath away from Er – Genesis 38:7.
At the time of Er’s death, he had a wife but had no heir to his inheritance. Therefore, according to the culture at the time, the surviving brother of the deceased would marry the widow with the intent to make and have an heir for the deceased. What this means in layman’s terms is that the son from the union of the widow and the deceased would be the heir of the deceased. Onan, who was Er’s younger brother seemed to agree with the plan to marry Tamar in order to preserve Er’s lineage. But unknown to Tamar and Judah, Onan had his own plans. Instead of allowing his seeds to fertilize Tamar’s egg(s), he spilled his semen on the ground- Genesis 38:9. This of course was sheer wickedness, he was ok with having sex with Tamar but unready to have a child with her. Because of his wickedness which was only evident to the Lord, God killed him as well.- Genesis 38:10
Now, two deaths in the family of Judah; and these deaths seemingly happened after the two sons of Judah married Tamar. Humanly analyzing the situation, one could think that Tamar had some bad luck over her head. I sense that Judah thought this way because he did not give his third son to Tamar in marriage as their culture expected back in the day. Instead, he asked her to go back to her father’s house. He told her that he would call for her once his third son attained the marriageable age. But he never went back for Tamar. This brings me to our first lesson:
Our self-diagnosis of situations may just be wrong; allow the Lord to make the diagnosis.
Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s household until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, just like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s household.
Genesis 38:11
The above verse points us to Judah’s mindset towards Tamar and his fear of losing his third son. Only if he had perhaps asked the Lord for the reason(s) for his sons deaths, he wouldn’t have haboured such fears while blaming poor Tamar. Now, note that Judah, his wife, and people around did not know the reasons for their son’s death, we have the privilege to know the reasons because we are reading the story now.
With that said, let us not be too quick to give our reasons or cause for situations or predicaments, let us examine things to the lens of the Lord.Let us ask him questions and seek answers from Him while leaning not on our own understanding.
So full of fear, Judah sent Tamar away to her father’s house while the poor woman mourned the deaths of her husbands and hopeful she would be able to have a own child and hier to Er. Unknown to Judah, God was going to hold him accountable to his words way more than he expected. On one of his travels, he met a “harlot” on the road and had sex with her. Unknown to him, the supposed harlot was Tamar. You should read Genesis 38 to see how he was decieved.
And fortunately for Tamar, she became pregnant with twins they were called Perez and Zerah. This brings me to the most exciting lesson for me from this chapter
As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are God’s ways higher than our ways and His thoughts than our thoughts.
Turn your bibles with me to Matthew 1:1-3, this chapter highlights the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah and verse three shows us that Judah and his sons with Tamar were in the lineage of Jesus. Not the untainted Joseph and his sons or grandsons but Judah and his sons that he had outside wedlock. This is an absolute pointer to God’s soverignty and unending mercy. I read a commentary about this chapter and it also highlighted the promise of God in Eden; God promised that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. The spirit controlling the serpent which was the devil probably understood what that meant. It meant that a child that the woman would birth would come to destroy the works of the devil.
And ever since God made that promise, the devil of course was on the look out to see who that child would be. He was not just looking, he was also scheming to ensure that that child was not born or the child was killed before his manifestation. If we look through scripture closely, we would see how hard the devil kept at it. Even when Jesus was born and he perharps percieved that Jesus was that child, he rolled out a decree through king Herod for all male babies born in that time period be killed. Taking it back to Jacob and his family; it was evident that the lineage of Jesus would continue through Jacob but the question was -which of the sons?
With the look of things and how much of God’s favor was upon Joseph, one would think that perhaps Jesus’ lineage would come from that line. But the Lord’s ways are way above ours, waaaaaay above ours! He confused the enemy and blessed the world with a saviour through Judah’s bloodline.
More than often when God speaks a word or gives us His promise(s), we are more than often usually consumed with making calculations about how exactly He would do what He said He would do. I’d like to remind us of one thing for sure, My God can be so trusted, there is absolutley no shadow of turning from what He has promised – James 1:17. Unlike men and women, He can be held accountable to His word(s) and all we have to do is express our faith in Him.
You can watch and listen to the abridged version of this post here:
Thank you for this perspective. I read this passage this morning and wanted to read others thought on it.