May 3, 2024
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Genesis? Here’s today’s reading:
Genesis 38 (NIV)
Judah and Tamar
1 At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah. 2 There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and made love to her; 3 she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er.……Continue Reading
This is another place where when people act far outside the will of God for their lives and they just make such a mess of things! Not sure what Er did because it isn’t mentioned but it was bad enough for God to kill him and left Tamar in a bad situation.
Onan rather than just stepping into the role he should have in a situation like this, refused to give her a son (but certainly had no problem with the sex) so as a result he suffered the same fate as his brother.
Now Tamar seems just like an inconvenience for Judah and is sent away to wait as a widow, no life any woman would want when there were certainly other brothers that could have stepped in right away. Tamar’s plan to trick Judah into having a child with her, while terrible and decietful, to her feels like the best option and certainly again not God’s will for her.
The irony of Judah wanting to burn her alive for prostitution when he was the one that actually slept with her as one rich!! Had he just took proper care of Tamar in the beginning and not fulfilled his own sinful desires with prostitutes we could have saved everyone a whole lot of trouble…ugh!
Good points Kelly.
Just when I think that this story doesn`t mean anything and why is it placed in between the history of Joseph and the history of the Jewish people? The Lord reminds me of it`s importance. I forget sometimes things that I already knew. The genealogy of Jesus Christ comes through Judah to the sons that Tamar had with Judah. The sons being Pharez and Zarah. Matthew 1: 3a { And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar } As bad as Judah and Tamar were with their decisions God worked around them to fulfill His promise to have Jesus Christ born from this line.
Quite the family history of dizygotic twins! Zarah put forth his little hand first during labor, the scarlet thread attached, then withdrew back into the womb. Pharez is birthed ahead of him. I too checked the genealogy, I Chronicles, Matthew & Luke, and of course, Christ came of Pharez. I’d like to hear this story when I see them in glory to explain why this happened.
Quite remarkable turn of events to bring the Messiah, “…till Shiloh come….” 49:10 -reb
”And it came to pass, about three months after, that Judah was told, saying, “Tamar your daughter-in-law has played the harlot; furthermore she is with child by harlotry.” So Judah said, “Bring her out and let her be burned!”“
Genesis 38:24 NKJV
Hmmm so why is Judah not burned? It takes two!
”So Judah acknowledged them and said, “She has been more righteous than I, because I did not give her to Shelah my son.” And he never knew her again.“
Genesis 38:26 NKJV
At least Judah recognizes his hypocrisy. If Tamar hadn’t tricked him, would he have accepted her?
God knows the affairs (pun intended) of men. Men act outside God’s will and He still is sovereign. Judah’s line must prevail and Perez for God’s will from the foundation of the world, that is salvation through belief in Jesus Christ.
”The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham: Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers. Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram.“
Matthew 1:1-3 NKJV
AND there is Tamar named in Jesus’ lineage.
Genesis 38
Genesis 38
Genesis 38
Genesis 38
Genesis 38. So shocked by Judahs poor decision making with the ‘prostitute’.
I was actually referring to Gen 39
As Kelly said, how bad things become when God is not the one guiding our lives. Judah’s first mistake is to get a nonJewish wife and then not raising his kids in the fear and admonition of the Lord. That leads to continued evil in his sons and the choice he makes to give his oldest a wife. She too is not instruct in the ways of God and so she does best to act in the way that she knows. Judah once again show himself to be a man of flesh and makes a decision that he should know is not a good one. He then judges Tamar for the very thing he did. It is another thing that is typical in the presence of sin to judge others for the the very things we have done. And it is sad that Tamar is acting better than Judah. It is amazing the broken and sinful vessels that God is willing to use. May we walk in faithfulness to Him as He is faithful to us in all the ways that He is.