Living in a Deceptive World

I don’t know about you, but I have grown tired of false information. Many of us spend more time on the internet than we should, and so much of what I see I now have to question if it is even real. This was a problem before AI slop. I’m just tired of being lied to. Aren’t you? I’m tired of politicians lying to me. I’m tired of internet ads lying to me, I’m tired of being deceived and manipulated. I am tired of the fake world we seem to be creating.

Don’t you hate being lied to? A study was published a couple of years ago assessing the frequency of lying. It found that the average person lies about two times per day. In the research conducted, it found that 60% of adults 18 years old or older are incapable of having a conversation without lying once every ten minutes. On average, adults lie about three times every ten minutes. We do it for various reasons. A study found that 21% lied to avoid others, 20% for a joke or a prank, 14% to protect one’s self, 13% to impress or appear more favorable, 11% to protect another person, and 9% for personal benefit or gain.

When we detect we are being lied to, trust erodes between us and the other person. This sometimes leads to an “I’m going to look out for me” attitude. We live in a deceptive world. If you assume everyone is going to tell you the truth, you leave yourself open to be taken advantage of. If you assume everyone lies, you will develop major trust issues. Neither option is good for healthy relationships.

As we return to the book of Genesis, there is a sort of interruption in the narrative of Joseph’s story. It’s like watching a movie or reading a book where the writer shifts the reader’s attention to a scene taking place in another place, but at the same time as the main narrative. Judah, one of Joseph’s brothers, starts a family. He has three sons named Er, Onan, and Shelah. Er gets married to a woman named Tamar. He passes away before they have a child together, so Judah asks Onan to take his brother’s place and provide children for Tamar on behalf of his brother. To put it mildly, Onan goes to Tamar, gets all of the pleasure, but none of the responsibility. He does not get her pregnant. This is also seen as evil, and God puts him to death. Judah’s last son is pretty young, so Judah tells Tamar to go home to her father’s house, and when Shelah is old enough, he will give him to her as a husband.

What is being practiced here is later formalized in Deuteronomy as levirate marriage. A man producing a male heir to carry on his name was extremely important in this time period and remained that way only until recent history. The world revolved around this concept to a degree. So in order to give honor to the deceased brother, another brother would act as a stand-in to produce children for him. That’s what is taking place here.

So Tamar goes home and waits...

Some time passes, Shelah grows older, and Judah’s wife dies. Judah goes back to work. We are going to pick up reading in verse 12.

Genesis 38:12–26 NASB95

Now after a considerable time Shua’s daughter, the wife of Judah, died; and when the time of mourning was ended, Judah went up to his sheepshearers at Timnah, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite. It was told to Tamar, “Behold, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.” So she removed her widow’s garments and covered herself with a veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in the gateway of Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah had grown up, and she had not been given to him as a wife. When Judah saw her, he thought she was a harlot, for she had covered her face. So he turned aside to her by the road, and said, “Here now, let me come in to you”; for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. And she said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?” He said, therefore, “I will send you a young goat from the flock.” She said, moreover, “Will you give a pledge until you send it?” He said, “What pledge shall I give you?” And she said, “Your seal and your cord, and your staff that is in your hand.” So he gave them to her and went in to her, and she conceived by him. Then she arose and departed, and removed her veil and put on her widow’s garments. When Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite, to receive the pledge from the woman’s hand, he did not find her. He asked the men of her place, saying, “Where is the temple prostitute who was by the road at Enaim?” But they said, “There has been no temple prostitute here.” So he returned to Judah, and said, “I did not find her; and furthermore, the men of the place said, ‘There has been no temple prostitute here.’ ” Then Judah said, “Let her keep them, otherwise we will become a laughingstock. After all, I sent this young goat, but you did not find her.” Now it was about three months later that Judah was informed, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has played the harlot, and behold, she is also with child by harlotry.” Then Judah said, “Bring her out and let her be burned!” It was while she was being brought out that she sent to her father-in-law, saying, “I am with child by the man to whom these things belong.” And she said, “Please examine and see, whose signet ring and cords and staff are these?” Judah recognized them, and said, “She is more righteous than I, inasmuch as I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not have relations with her again.

What a story. In a nutshell, Tamar deceives Judah by being something she is not, and Judah failed to deliver on the promise he made years ago. Because Judah failed to deliver on his promise, Tamar took matters into her own hands. We need to see here that neither of these actions are moral and God-honoring. Judah might be right to fear losing his last son, but it is still wrong to make promises you can’t keep. Tamar is right to be upset with Judah for not fulfilling his promise, but dressing as a prostitute to get Judah to sleep with her is also immoral.

Tamar traps Judah because she has in her possession evidence proving that Judah engaged in an immoral act. So she can’t be called out for her deception without Judah simultaneously being called out for his and so much more. This is a hot mess! She got what she wanted. She got pregnant with twin boys who would carry on the family name, but this was a horrible way to go about it.

When you read a story like this, do you ever ask yourself why you needed to? God put it in the Bible, so it must be important, but sometimes we sit back, scratch our heads, and ask why. Why does God think it is so important to interrupt the story of Joseph to give us a story about lies, deception, and sexual sin? The answer lies not in the chapter itself, but by seeing this chapter in light of the surrounding text.

Judah is not the example to follow, but one to avoid. In narrative literature, the author of the story sets a character up as the foil. A foil is one who acts as the opposite of another. In the preceding chapter, we are introduced to Joseph, the young dreamer who is sold into slavery by his brothers to prevent a dream from coming true where he would rule over them. In this chapter, one of his brothers is pictured as the total opposite in character. Judah had no integrity.

We watch the world seemingly favor the corrupt. Those who succeed on a high level must be corrupt, from politicians, CEOs, the world’s first trillionaire, virtually anybody with power and influence. The world seems to reward people who abuse the power and influence they have. The church is not immune. Regardless of denomination, there are those in leadership of the church who have harmed the church. There are charlatan preachers, sexual predators, abusers, reputation protectors, and a cover up culture that will protect bad apples because of how much influence they have acquired. If we are not careful, we either withdraw or think the only way to really “get ahead” is we have to be willing to sacrifice integrity as well.

But do you?

Christians can live with integrity in a deceptive world because God rewards the faithful.

A Christian is not called to trust in Jesus solely for salvation and eternal life. Those are great things. God invites us into a relationship with him where he begins transforming us from the inside out so that we look more and more like Jesus. Jesus is the epitome of integrity. If integrity is the difference between what you say and what you do, then a perfect integrity score would be exactly zero, meaning there is no difference between our words and actions. They are always consistent. You and I don’t have a perfect score. But if we could accurately grade ourselves from one year to the next, and plot that data on a graph, we should see an overall decrease in that score as we seek to apply the principles we find in scripture.

Judah is the opposite of Joseph. Joseph will maintain his integrity, while his brother doesn’t. What makes this very interesting is that through this story, an interesting thing happens. Tamar is pregnant with twins and it’s time to give birth.

Check this out:

Genesis 38:27–30 NASB95

It came about at the time she was giving birth, that behold, there were twins in her womb. Moreover, it took place while she was giving birth, one put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.” But it came about as he drew back his hand, that behold, his brother came out. Then she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” So he was named Perez. Afterward his brother came out who had the scarlet thread on his hand; and he was named Zerah.

What a bizarre birth story. In the case of twins, the custom was that the first one out would be the firstborn son and the inheritor of all of his father’s estate. The younger twin would work for the older. But in this case, Zerah, the one who would be first, became the second, and Perez, the one who would be second, became first. And it is through Perez, a man born through a lack of integrity, would be the one who would carry on the Messianic line. Perez is Jesus’ great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather. Jesus is born into a deceptive world to redeem the world from deception, restoring it to integrity.

How is your integrity? How comfortable are you with not telling the truth? If God sat you down at a table and evaluated your integrity, how low or high do you think that score would be? It’s tempting to watch the world around you succeed by engaging in deceptive practices. It is discouraging to think you can’t succeed without compromising your integrity, but I want to remind you that success for the Christian doesn’t look like the rest of the world’s definition for success.

We are playing for something different. We are not playing for worldly success, but for the world that is to come when Christ establishes his kingdom on the earth. We will have to give an account of our actions before the almighty God one day who is going to give you an assignment in his kingdom based on performance here and now. The faithfulness lived out here determines the reward later on.

Success for us doesn’t come from wealth, power, fame, or anything else. It comes from being the person you say you are. If you are a Christian, you are a child of God. A Christian loves Christ by obeying his commandments. I’m not asking you to assess whether you need improvement. We all do. I am asking you to think through how you are going to live out greater faithfulness to Christ’s commands. Every Christian has a responsibility to seek out those who are far from God, build relationships, share the gospel, and train them to follow Jesus in every facet of their lives. What facet of your life are you keeping from Jesus?

What area are you lacking in integrity? Where are you tempted to be less truthful? Where do you cut corners or tell little lies to protect yourself or supposedly protect others? The most loving thing you can do for yourself and for the people in your life is tell them the truth. Integrity always costs less than deception. The truth can sting sometimes, but the sting of deception and betrayal is way worse. Where do you need to come clean in your life? Lay it all down before the God who already knows.