Moreover, The story of Judah and Tamar is certainly not the most pleasant story in the Bible. Why did the Holy Spirit choose to include this sordid story of Judah’s adultery and Tamar’s “prostitution” as part of the inspired text?
There is this story of a couple: The wife knew how upset it made her husband to be interrupted in the middle of him doing his work. Consequently, she walked up to him and stood quietly as he worked happily on a project in the garage. In due time he finished what he was doing and looked up, signaling his wife that it was now permissible to engage him in conversation. Her words took him totally by surprise. Calmly she reported, “The house is on fire.” And it really was! Sometimes, interruptions can be really significant, and here the story of Genesis 38 looks like an interruptions to the story of Joseph, but a very significant one. It must be put there for a reason, and it is important.
Judah was the fourth of Jacob’s twelve sons. Here In Genesis 38, we see series of his brokenness. First, we see Judah basically leaving the fractured family and going out on his own, marrying a Canaanite woman and engaging in all the sins of the Canaanites. This is the low point in the lives of the Patriarchs as the obedient son is a slave in Egypt, yet presumed dead by his father, and the leading son has forsaken the faith of his fathers and become thoroughly corrupted by the Canaanites. Judah had 3 sons: Er, Onan, and Shelah. Judah took Tamar, a Canaanites as a wife for his eldest son, Er. But Er was so wicked, so that God put him to death.
It was a custom law back then (it was called “levirate marriage”) that when a man died before providing sons to his wife, it was the duty of his brothers to marry her and to give her sons. The child was considered the son of the brother who died. This was done so the dead brother’s name would be carried on. But also it was so the widow would have children to support her. And so, Tamar was given to Onan. Onan refused to take the responsibility to father descendants for his dead brother seriously. He was more than happy to use Tamar for his sexual gratification, but he did not want to give Tamar a son he had to support but would be considered to be the son of Er. This displeased God, so God put him to death also.
Upon seeing two sons dead, Judah told Tamar to wait until Shelah, the third son, was old enough and then he would be married to Tamar, but Judah did not follow through with his promise. He never intended to give Shelah anyway in the first place, and so he made such reason. One day, Judah’s wife died, and after she died, one day Judah went to Timnah to shear his sheep. Upon knowing this, Tamar took of her widow’s garment and covered herself with a veil and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. Tamar did this because she saw Shelah has grown up, yet Judah didn’t give her as his wife. Judah saw her and thought that she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. Cut the story short, Judah went into her and as the price she asked a young goat, and before he could send the goat to her, she asked that he gave his signet, cord and staff as a pledge. But Tamar, never intended to get the young goat - what she needs is his signet, cord, and staff, as what we see from the stories later on. She never show up anymore as a prostitute, and then 3 months later the story told us that people started to realise that Tamar was pregnant, and the news was heard by Judah.
Upon hearing the news that Tamar was pregnant by immorality, Judah responded to get her out and burned her. Oh such a response by a father in law! Judah didn’t realise at this point that he was the one causing this.
Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. (Matthew 7:3-5 ESV)
Let’s have a bit of a pause here, and reflect those words with our life. Do we easily judge others and at the same time did not check on ourselves? The Bible says that we are hypocrite if we did not check on our condition and harshly attacking on others fault. We see here Tamar then told them that she was pregnant by the owner of the signet, cord, and staff she shown to them. At that time, then Judah started to realise how he was at fault too.. in fact his condition was worse than her. The fact that Tamar sat on that road, and take herself as a prostitute told us that she knew his father in law habit. Judah was an adulterer - there was a good indication that he used to go to prostitute. Judah also realised that he broke his promise to Tamar which force her to do this thing - he was a promise breaker. Judah also was a man who betrays his family by selling his brother Joseph and telling lies to his father, Isaac. He also most probably has been corrupted with the Canaanites culture by worshipping their idols in one way or another by engaging into marriage with her Canaanites wife. Can we see his brokenness? Do we see our brokenness? What fault or sin have we done? We are no better than Judah. If we can see this sordid story, that something is wrong here.. and we did not realise our own sin.. that verse applies to us.. that we are hypocrite. So let’s take time to ask for forgiveness.
The story then concluded with Tamar having 2 sons from her labor. This is crucial, as it tells us that even though there is this broken story happening in Judah’s life, God was still at work (and he is still now). God had his plan, and his plan never fails, even we disobey him. Tamar had 2 sons: the first was Perez and the second was Zerah. Through Perez then we see from Matthew 1, that Jesus Christ was born. God chose Judah as the line where Jesus will be born. God is sovereign and his plan never fails (again even when human disobey Him).
This story also taught us about mercy. Somehow, in His wisdom which I couldn’t understand, He chose this unfaithful Judah and not Joseph to be the line where Jesus will be born. Judah was blessed to be the kingly tribe later on Genesis 49. Even though Judah has done so many sins, look at the blessings he received on Genesis 49 :
“Judah, your brothers shall praise you;
your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
your father's sons shall bow down before you.
Judah is a lion's cub;
from the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He stooped down; he crouched as a lion
and as a lioness; who dares rouse him?
The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,
until tribute comes to him;
and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
Binding his foal to the vine
and his donkey's colt to the choice vine,
he has washed his garments in wine
and his vesture in the blood of grapes.
His eyes are darker than wine,
and his teeth whiter than milk.
(Genesis 49:8-12 ESV)
Oh how underserved Judah was.. but mercy and grace have found him. Oh what a blessings!
Look and realise how broken we are.. how underserved we are.. but Christ stand there on the cross for us! Grace and Mercy was offered to us! A lamb was slain because of our sin.
Don’t lose hope, if we had done so many sin as it is written:
... where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:20-21 ESV)
What can we say? But offer our very own heart to Him (Jesus), who become our Savior and Lord. Let us be thankful to God for giving us His grace. It is truly and abounding grace!
Praise God.
~ Paul Hartono
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