Today in God’s Word

November 24, Genesis 38

“She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not know her again. - Genesis 38:26

Joseph is the main character in Genesis 37-50. So why is this chapter about Judah and Tamar here? Remember, the section division phrase in Genesis is “the generations of.” Chapter 37:2 marks the tenth and last time the phrase occurs in the book. "These are the generations of Jacob." Joseph’s story begins in the next line. God worked through him to save Jacob and his family from the famine and bring them to Egypt. But Jacob is still the covenant patriarch and will be until almost the end of Genesis.

Chapter 38 is about a crisis point in the development of the family and the bloodline that will lead to the promised Seed or Descendant coming into the world. Judah, fourth son of Jacob and Leah, made the same foolish error his uncle Esau made years before when he married some Canaanite women. Judah may have only married one, but it was still outside God's will for Abraham's family. Judah had three sons with Shua. When it was time, Judah chose Tamar to be his firstborn Er’s wife. But Er and Tamar had no child before the Lord put him to death for his wickedness. Judah told his second son Onan to have a child with Tamar that would count as his dead brother’s baby. But Onan was unwilling to do that. He deceived Tamar about it, and the Lord put him to death also. Judah would not lose another son by letting the third son marry and die. So he sent Tamar back to her father.

After Shua died, Judah went on a trip with his friend Hirah. Tamar heard her father-in-law was in town. She dressed as a prostitute and sat out in public where Judah would see her. He offered a young goat as her payment, but needed credit because he didn't have the goat with him. Tamar collected Judah's personal belongings as a pledge. Afterward, when Judah sent the goat payment with his friend to get his stuff back, the woman was nowhere to be found. Judah didn't pursue the matter to spare himself further ridicule. Tamar's disguise reminds us of Jacob's deception of Isaac, or Leah disguised as Rachel on Jacob's wedding night. Tamar's intentions were more honorable than deceitful. She devised a drastic plan to achieve her goal when Judah refused to give Tamar his remaining son.

When Tamar's pregnancy came to light, she was sentenced to death for committing immorality. When Judah heard about his daughter-in-law’s pregnancy, he called for he to be not only stoned, but burned. Tamar then produced Judah's personal belongings to identify the father. Caught and ashamed, Judah admitted that he was a greater sinner than Tamar, and she was allowed to live. Judah's hypocrisy in calling for Tamar's death reminded me of how David convicted himself in 2 Samuel 12 when he reacted to Nathan’s story about the lamb. It also reminds me of Jesus in John 8 dealing gently with the woman caught in adultery. Where was her partner in the immorality? The Jews were eager to stone her, but Jesus convicted them and forgave the woman.

Judah was driven by lustful desire, but Tamar wanted justice and the child her father-in-law and husbands had denied her. The incident exposed a sickening double standard about consequences for women compared to men who engaged in immorality. That double standard still exists today, and is still just as shameful.

Tamar had twins, and Perez was the firstborn of the two. And that is how the daughter-in-law of Judah became a mother in the genealogical record of Jesus Christ.

This episode helps us understand why Israel needed to get out of Canaan and go to Egypt. Canaanites were a threat to the Israelites in two main ways — intermarriage and influence. The licentious rituals of the pagan fertility cults were appealing to the Israelites, the nation's gateway drug to wholesale idolatry. God knew they needed to move to Egypt where foreigners were segregated so they could grow into a nation with purer bloodlines to protect his purpose. It also illustrates why God would order the Israelites to ruthlessly eliminate the Canaanites when he gave the land to Israel on their return. The Canaanites were wicked and their destruction was God's judgment against them. But they were a toxic influence on Israel and had to be eliminated as a threat.

Judah is a strange combination of weakness and strength, of shame and honor in this story. Before we judge him too harshly, let’s examine ourselves. We want to honor God by our lives. But we, too, have done some shameful things. Judah is the ancestral head of the tribe through which Jesus would be born. But he, like his ancestors before him and his descendants after him, needed a Savior. So do we.

This story once again reminds us of God's ability to work through sinful messes humans make of their lives to accomplish his purpose. His purpose was to show us mercy and forgive us. All the stories of how he worked through such flawed people give us hope for our forgiveness and salvation.

Copyright © 2021 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.