Genesis 38

Intro

We are continuing on in Genesis this evening

If you recall we left off in chapter 37 commencing the story of Joseph, how he was the favorite child of Jacob, and how he had dreams of being elevated up above his brothers and even his father,

Which caused his brothers to hate him and to ultimately plot to murder him in cold blood, until Reuben talked them into throwing him into a pit, and Judah came up with the idea to sell him into slavery.

Chapter 37 ends with the sons taking the robe of many colors that Joseph wore, dipping it in goats blood, and presenting that to Jacob deceiving him into believing that Joseph is dead, when in reality, Joseph has been sold into the house of Potiphar all the way in Egypt.

And so we are ready to read more about the story of Joseph! We’re excited to see his faithfulness and steadfastness in his trails, how he eventually becomes second only to Pharaoh in all of Egypt.

So we turn to chapter 38 and instead of following Joseph into Egypt, the camera zooms in on another one of Jacob’s sons, Judah.

Now all we know about Judah so far in the text is that he was the 4th son of Jacob from Leah, that he might have been involved in the Schecum incident in chapter 34, and that he was apparently alright with murdering Joseph before the thought occured to him to sell him instead.

But in chapter 38 we’re going to get a really candid look at the character of Judah and his sons, and frankly, it’s not pretty.

A Man who turned to the world

Gen 38:1-5

Genesis 38:1–5 ESV

1 It happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and turned aside to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. 2 There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua. He took her and went in to her, 3 and she conceived and bore a son, and he called his name Er. 4 She conceived again and bore a son, and she called his name Onan. 5 Yet again she bore a son, and she called his name Shelah. Judah was in Chezib when she bore him.

I mentioned last week, imagine how hard hearted you would have to be to take your brothers fake bloody robe to your father and to keep up the deceit while watching him mourn as deeply as Jacob mourned. That kind of hardness of heart had to take an emotional toll on the brothers, but it seems here that it may have affected Judah the most.

Chapter 38 begins with Judah leaving his brothers, and apparently falling into a close friendship with one Hirah an Adullamite. Now I’ll admit that his brothers might not have been the perfect example of moral living, but the truth is that they were of the family of God, and at least through Jacob should have had access to Godly living and Godly teaching.

But Judah left all that, maybe because of his guilt, maybe because of his inability to see his father mourn, we will see later that he does seem to have a soft spot for his father. Whatever the reason, Judah turns aside to follow the world.

And while he’s there he takes a wife from the Canaanites of whom we know precious little about and isn’t spoken in very flattering terms. I mean when you look back at the wives of the patriarchs, in scripture records that Isaac loved Rebekah. In and 18 Jacob loved Rachel, But there is no mention of love here in chapter 38. He saw her, he took her, he went in to her, and she gave him 3 sons by the names of Er, Onan, and Shelah. We don’t even know her name, but she’s only identified by her father Shua.

A Wronged Daughter-in-Law

Genesis 38:6–11 ESV

6 And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7 But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord put him to death. 8 Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.” 9 But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went in to his brother’s wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother. 10 And what he did was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death also. 11 Then Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law, “Remain a widow in your father’s house, till Shelah my son grows up”—for he feared that he would die, like his brothers. So Tamar went and remained in her father’s house.

Genesis 38:6-

The key to understanding the rest of this chapter is to pull ourselves out of our culture and to try to see the world according to how they saw it back then.

Of course we’ve already seen with many of the other patriarchs that having children to continue on the family name and inheritance rights was a huge deal back then, and to protect the lineage of the first born there was something in place at that time and would actually be put into place in the Law of God in in , called Levirate marriage.

The way it was supposed to work is that if a brother died before he had offspring, the next brother in line would provide offspring that would be considered offspring of the deceased brother. Most probably this was to take place shortly after the brother had died in order to give the outward appearance of the offspring having been produced by the dead brother. It was a way for families to avoid shame, and in that culture it was a big deal.

- Jesus tested by the Sadducee used this concept to try to get an answer to wives after the resurrection.

We’re introduced here to a woman named Tamar, who is chosen by Judah to be a wife for his eldest son Er. But v. 7 tells us that Er, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, his exact offense is never told to us, but it was sufficiently bad enough to warrant the death penalty, leaving Tamar without a husband and without children.

Prompting Judah to command Onan to go and fulfill his duty according to the Levirate marriage system at work in that culture.

But Onan doesn’t fulfill his obligations as that of a servant, instead what Onan does is wicked in the sight of the Lord.

You see, Onan takes advantage of the situation and of Tamar, and uses her as an object for his own gratification, but purposefully denies her any offspring. His motivation appears to be driven of from the understanding that as next in line to the inheritance, if his brother doesn’t have children, then the full estate of Judah will be passed down to the next son.

And so what Onan is doing is wicked, because he’s giving the appearance of fulfilling a brotherly obligation, while in reality he has no intent to do so, he’s merely using it as a means to provide for himself.

Well God puts an end to Onan for this, and at this point Judah is thinking Tamar must be cursed. So even though she has done nothing wrong, Judah makes the decision to send her away in disgrace back to her Father’s house until his youngest son Shelah grows up. This will prove to be a lie, as Judah has no plans on sending Shelah to Tamar, as we will find out next.

Deception begets Deception

Gen 38:12-

Genesis 38:12–23 ESV

12 In the course of time the wife of Judah, Shua’s daughter, died. When Judah was comforted, he went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite. 13 And when Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,” 14 she took off her widow’s garments and covered herself with a veil, wrapping herself up, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him in marriage. 15 When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. 16 He turned to her at the roadside and said, “Come, let me come in to you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?” 17 He answered, “I will send you a young goat from the flock.” And she said, “If you give me a pledge, until you send it—” 18 He said, “What pledge shall I give you?” She replied, “Your signet 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. 19 Then she arose and went away, and taking off her veil she put on the garments of her widowhood. 20 When Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite to take back the pledge from the woman’s hand, he did not find her. 21 And he asked the men of the place, “Where is the cult prostitute who was at Enaim at the roadside?” And they said, “No cult prostitute has been here.” 22 So he returned to Judah and said, “I have not found her. Also, the men of the place said, ‘No cult prostitute has been here.’ ” 23 And Judah replied, “Let her keep the things as her own, or we shall be laughed at. You see, I sent this young goat, and you did not find her.”

Once again we see Judah’s wife treated very matter of factly as simply Shua’s daughter, and the fact that she died seems like a mere footnote in the story.

But what we see here is that deception begets deception, and lies follow lies.

Tamar hears that Judah is going up to Timnah and comes to the understanding that Judah has no intention on fulfilling the Levirate Marriage duty required by the culture so she sets her mind to carry out her own deception. From what I’ve read, another part of the Levirate Marriage system was that if there was no brother to fulfill it, then it was the duty of the father in law to do so.

The

So it seems according to their culture, that Tamar is merely attempting to force Judah to fulfill what she would have felt rightfully belonged to her. Her place within the family, her inheritance rights through her children, and her honor were at stake.

Now don’t misunderstand, none of that excuses her deception here. But we have to look past the creepiness of how this appears in our culture and try to see it as it was in theirs.

Now another cultural norm during that time was cult prostitution. These were women and men who would devote themselves to the cause of their “Fertility Gods” thinking that their actions would result in their crops and livestock being blessed with higher yields.

She chooses to do this through another cultural norm during that time, cult prostitution. These were women and men who would devote themselves to the cause of their “Fertility Gods” thinking that their actions would result in their crops and livestock being blessed with higher yields.

What’s not apparent, though I think we can read between the lines a bit here, is how did Tamar know that Judah was susceptible to this kind of activity?

It seems as though it might have been well known about Judah that he was a man very much driven by his passions, which is why he’s so easily deceived here.

In payment for her services, Tamar receives two very valuable and very identifiable objects, Judahs signet, his cord, and his staff until he could give her the young goat that he promises her.

The Discovery

Genesis 38:24–26 ESV

24 About three months later Judah was told, “Tamar your daughter-in-law has been immoral. Moreover, she is pregnant by immorality.” And Judah said, “Bring her out, and let her be burned.” 25 As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, “By the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant.” And she said, “Please identify whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff.” 26 Then Judah identified them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not know her again.

Gen 38:24-

Tamar we were told earlier conceived, and is now showing, unable to hide her condition.

Judah shows here the incredible hypocrisy that he was capable of. Here a man apparently prone to immorality himself sentences his Daughter in law, not only to death, but a death of the cruelest kind.

But Tamar is able to produce the undeniable proof of his hypocrisy, and to Judah’s credit he finally accepts that it was indeed he who was first at fault for not upholding his cultural obligations to her.

The Lineage

Genesis 38:27–30 ESV

27 When the time of her labor came, there were twins in her womb. 28 And when she was in labor, one put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.” 29 But as he drew back his hand, behold, his brother came out. And she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” Therefore his name was called Perez. 30 Afterward his brother came out with the scarlet thread on his hand, and his name was called Zerah.

Gen 38:27-

From there we ultimately get to the point of why this chapter is place here in the middle of the story of Joseph, and that is to show that the story of Joseph that we are going to read about to the end of Genesis, is not about Joseph at all. But instead it’s about the preservation of the line of Judah.

God is going to use Joseph in his place in Egypt to secure rations that will feed and protect the entire family of Jacob, but specifically, the tribe of Judah. Because it is going to be through Judah that the Christ is going to come.

It’s written in both and the genealogy of Christ, Perez the son of Tamar and Judah will father Hezron, Hezron will father Ram, Ram will father Amminadab, Amminidab will father Nahshon, Nahshon will father Salmon, Salmon will father Boaz, Boaz with father Obed, Obed will father Jesse, Jesse will father a guy by the name of David and so on all the way to Jesus the christ.

Takeaways

It’s always a mistake to leave God’s people to chase the world.

How often do we see people make this error? They might get hurt by someone in the church, they might be embarrassed about something they have done, they might consider themselves unworthy, but whatever the reason, we must know that we need the family of God.

Paul wrote in

1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV

11 Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

We can’t encourage each other if we fail to be around one another.

Deception and lies begets deception and lies

Scripture says that you reap what you sow, and boy is that ever true when it comes to dishonesty.

Look at all the deception we’ve seen in God’s chosen family so far!

Jacob deceived Isaac pretending to be Esau

Jacob’s sons deceived Jacob into thinking Joseph was dead.

Judah deceived Tamar into believing she would be treated fairly

Tamar deceived Judah

If we are to live up to being called the family of God, there is no place for deceit in our lives.

Lastly, God can and does use imperfect people for his perfect purposes

Let me just say, if you were trying to invent a religion, to invent a lineage for someone that you will worship as the son of God, I doubt you would make up a story like this to put into his history.

I mean before I knew much about the actual person of Judah, I just assumed that he would be a noble guy of great moral character, I mean when you hear “Lion of Judah” you think, man that guy Judah must have been outstanding, what an honor to have your name reference the son of God.

Then you read , and you think, WHAT? God chose THAT GUY and THAT LADY to bring about the savior of the world?

Two things about that, one is that God absolutely knows what He is doing, and we shouldn’t pretend to know better than God

Two, I think that this moment in Judah’s history is a turning point for his Character. We will read in that he has the opportunity to once again to essentially sell Jacobs favorite Son Benjamin into slavery but he refuses and instead asks for Joseph to take him instead.

continues to show us an extension of what showed us last week,

Just because you have a bad chapter in your life, doesn’t mean that God can’t use you. It doesn’t mean your story is over. You can change, you can repent, you can come home and be right with God.