Weird 

Joseph, lesson 8 

Genesis 38 

This is a weird chapter in the Bible. This chapter is one that makes us shake our heads and say, ‘the Old Testament is just weird sometimes.’ I was tempted to skip over it, not really ‘getting it’. It’s not initially intuitive as to why it appears in the middle of the story of Joseph. But I always go back to my strong belief that God’s Word is sound, pure, without error and there is always a reason for its sequence and content. This isn’t a ‘blind faith’ belief. There is textual science behind my belief as well as a strong dose of faith. But that topic is for another type of post. For today, please read through my post as I eventually discovered a pretty cool truth about our Savior. 

Genesis 37 is all about Joseph. We are just getting into the story and then this chapter takes a sharp left turn into the sinful attics of Jacobs other son and heir to the birthright of promise, Judah. From Judah, the line of king David and ultimately the Messiah is to come. But Judah doesn’t care. He departs from his family and his brothers and integrates himself into a pagan culture. 

And it came about at that time, that Judah departed from his brothers and visited a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua; and he took her and went in to her. So she conceived and bore a son and he named him Er. 

We have the heir to the line of the Messiah going rogue. All of this is happening while Joseph is living in Egypt first as a slave, then prisoner, then in the Pharoah’s court. But we’ll get to all that in our future posts. But for this chapter, God is providing us with the story of Judah, the heir to the Messiah’s bloodline. 

The chapter we are now in is actually an interesting story to read. You might want to give it a try. But it’s not really devotional. (Although I believe I do have an amazing reality of God’s purposes at the end of this post. Don’t unsubscribe just yet 🙂 ).  Judah ends up having three sons before his wife dies. His first son marries Tamar. But before they could conceive a son, the eldest son, being evil, dies. The Lord takes his life. This is bad because the eldest is usually the heir to the birthright. So Judah tells his second son to go into his eldest son’s widow, Tamar, and conceive the heir. This is insane to us in our culture but regular practice back then. 

The second son goes in to sleep with Tamar but he fakes it and doesn’t actually have intercourse with her. God takes the second son’s life for disobeying his father. Really, I’m not making this up; it’s in the text. I warned you it’s a weird chapter. 

Judah is afraid he’ll lose his third son if he sends him in so instead, he relegates Tamar to widowhood. So Tamar takes on the clothing of a widow and is relegated to sub-par status in her community. Remember, in this culture, the women who bear children, especially sons, are considered blessed. 

Tamar is not happy. So she takes the situation into her own hands. She sheds the widow clothing and puts on the attire of a prostitute. She goes out into the streets and tricks her father-in-law into sleeping with her. She doesn’t reveal her identity. But she takes Judah’s staff as payment. 

Tamar sneaks back home and puts on her widow clothing but eventually she begins to show. She is pregnant. When Judah discovers that Tamar is pregnant, he calls for her death. Tamar brings out his staff and says the man that owns this staff is the father. Oh, oh. Judah is confronted with his massive hypocrisy. He humbly admits his wickedness. 

Tamar gives birth to twins and the eldest is named Perez. Perez is the heir to the bloodline and through him will be born David and eventually, Jesus of Nazareth. What does all this teach us? It is amazing the way God allowed the bloodline from Abraham to Jesus to be littered with sinful people. Not just people who fall a little short morally from time-to-time, but wicked, treacherous, deceitful individuals who sometimes do extremely despicable things. Folks, this is the heritage of our Lord and Savior, Jesus. 

The heritage of Jesus is filled with sinful people. But you know what else? Every person who has since been saved by the Messiah, (such as us) are sinful people as well. Before Jesus and after Jesus, the heritage of the people He calls His own are sinful people. Some, very, very sinful. This should be humbling to us all. What a Savior! There is no rightousness in us. The story of God’s people, before and after Jesus’ time on earth, is the story of redemption. None of us bring our own righteousness to the table. Jesus brings righteousness to all of us, humble sinners who cling to the Savior. 

Lord, we are eternally grateful for Your saving grace and kindness toward us all who follow you. We bring nothing, except surrender, and You give us everything we need, plus more. Thank you for teaching us, day by day, the glory of the riches we have in You. Amen!