Judah and Tamar

JUDAH AND TAMAR

An Exposition of Genesis 38:1-30

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date: May 12, 2024

Series: The Book of Genesis

Note:   Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard   Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Scriptural Text

Holy Scripture says:

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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. (Genesis 38:1-30)

INTRODUCTION

Before we walk through this interesting chapter, let me remind us why this chapter is in the Bible. First, Genesis 38 is in the Bible to direct our attention to Jesus. How this chapter directs our attention to Jesus becomes very obvious when we turn to the pages of the New Testament. If we were to turn to the very first book of the New Testament and just started reading, this is what we would read:

“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron” (Matthew 1:1-3).

The Messianic genealogy of Matthew 1:2-16 is focused upon fathers and names thirty-nine fathers who fathered a son through ordinary generation. Even so, mothers are referred to five times – taking it in reverse order, “Mary, of whom Jesus was born” (Matthew 1:16), “the wife of Uriah” (Matthew 1:6) who bore Solomon, Ruth who bore Obed (Matthew 1:5), Rahab who bore Boaz (Matthew 1:5), and Tamar who bore Perez and Zerah (Matthew 1:3). Each occurrence of a woman alerts us to an important story surrounding her: the virgin conception in the case of Mary; the Lord’s redeeming grace overriding David’s adultery with Bathsheba; the faith of a Moabite woman, Ruth, who became part of God’s covenant people; the faith of a Canaanite woman, Rahab, who was delivered from judgment and grafted into God’s covenant people; and finally Tamar, the object of mistreatment by Judah’s second son and by Judah himself before – in remarkable irony – becoming the bearer of Judah’s offspring and the key to Judah’s most significant covenant legacy. The presence of these five women in the Messiah’s genealogy proclaims the triumph of God’s grace in human affairs.

The second reason why Genesis 38 is in the Bible – hopefully you already guessed it! – is to teach us, reprove us, correct us, and train us in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). Sometimes the Bible teaches us through doctrinal instruction and moral exhortation (such as we find in commands, prohibitions, and warnings). And sometimes the Bible teaches us through positive or negative examples, and we find plenty of examples – mostly bad examples – here in Genesis 38.

WALKING THROUGH GENESIS 38 IN SIX STEPS

With these things in mind, let’s walk through the chapter in six steps.

Judah moves away and marries a Canaanite woman (v. 1-2)

First, Judah moves away and marries a Canaanite woman (v. 1-2). Judah was around 20 years old when he made this move.

It is impossible to consider Judah’s actions without remembering the dark background of Genesis 37. What kind of man was Judah when he moved away and married a Canaanite woman? He was a dishonorable, diminished, and deceitful man. He was intimately involved in the crime of selling Joseph into slavery, and he was involved in covering it up and lying to his father about it. Guilt was upon Judah, and he would carry it for twenty long years. As we ponder the actions of Judah in Genesis 38, remember that they are the actions of a man who has long and dark shadows over his heart. He is a guilty man. And so, “at that time” (v. 1) – at the time when Joseph became a slave in Egypt due to Judah’s misdeed and at the time Jacob entered a long season of inconsolable grief over the loss of Joseph due to Judah’s misdeed – at that time Judah moved away. He “went down from his brothers” (v. 1).

In due course, he found somewhere else to go: he “turned aside to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.” (v. 1) I wonder if his physical turning aside in his geographic travel is meant to echo his moral turning aside in his spiritual journey. In any case, in this new neck of the woods, Shua the Canaanite had a daughter who caught Judah’s eye, and the two were married (v. 2).

In terms of the context of the Book of Genesis, it is worth pointing out that Judah seems to be repeating the folly of his Uncle Esau. Abraham insisted that Isaac not marry a Canaanite woman (Genesis 24:1-4), and later Isaac insisted that Jacob not marry a Canaanite woman (Genesis 28:1). By contrast, Isaac’s son Esau took two Canaanite wives, to the distress of both of his parents. Like Esau, so Judah married a Canaanite woman. Moreover, “Esau [had] hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him” (Genesis 27:41), and in Genesis 37 Judah had hated the brother that his father favored. So, Judah seems to be going down the path of Esau: away from his family, away from his father, away from the covenant, away from the blessing. Judah is in a bad way. Esau forfeited the blessing. Would Judah as well?

Judah and his wife have three sons (v. 3-5)

Second, Judah and his wife have three sons (v. 3-5). The first son is named Er, the second son is named Onan, and the third son is named Shelah. When Shelah was born, Judah was in a place called Chezib. Time passes, and Judah’s sons grow up, and Er is ready for marriage.

Tamar enters the picture (v. 6-11)

Third, Tamar enters the picture (v. 6-11). We know very little about Tamar. Presumably she was a Canaanite. We don’t know whether she had learned about the Lord and, if so, whether she had put her trust in Him. What we do know is that she married into the covenant family, and her presence in Judah’s family had the practical effect of exposing their sins.

Er and Tamar

In verse 6, Judah arranges for his firstborn son Er to marry Tamar. Unfortunately, Er was a wicked man: “But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD put him to death.” (v. 7) We aren’t told any specific details about Er’s wickedness or how his wickedness might have manifested itself in his marriage to Tamar. There are some writings within ancient Judaism that speculate about Er’s specific sin, but as these are speculations and not Scripture, we must submit to Scripture’s silence on the question. The bottom line is that Er was wicked and it cost him his life.

Onan and Tamar

After Er’s death, Judah directed his second son Onan to marry Tamar. Onan’s marriage to Tamar has a special name: a levirate marriage. Levirate marriage was a custom in which a man would marry his deceased brother’s widow. A levirate marriage might occur for multiple reasons, but in the context of later Scripture, there is one very specific reason why the Lord authorized a man to marry his deceased brother’s childless widow – namely, to raise up a male heir for his deceased brother (see Deuteronomy 25:5-10). Except in this specific situation, Scripture prohibited a man from ever marrying his brother’s wife (Leviticus 18:16).

Now even though these rules pertaining to levirate marriage were not yet codified into Scripture, it is obvious that the custom behind it already existed in the days of Judah. For “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.”” (v. 8) It is important to emphasize that the basis and rationale for Onan’s marriage to Tamar was so that Onan would raise up offspring for his brother Er. Tragically, Onan was a very selfish man: he was willing to have pleasure with Tamar, but he was not willing to have children with her, and thus he practiced a very basic form of birth control (v. 9). The Lord, however, was not amused: “And what he [Onan] did was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and he put him to death also.” (v. 10)

Learning from Onan’s bad example

At this point it is important to pause and remind ourselves what true godliness consists of, and how Onan fell far short of it. What did Onan care about? Onan cared about himself. Onan had the opportunity to demonstrate love within the context of marriage, and to fulfill God’s design that a husband and wife “[be] fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). He could have demonstrated love for the Lord by embracing God’s design and purpose. He could have demonstrated love for Tamar by making her the happy mother of children. He could have demonstrated love for his father by obeying his father, making Judah a grandfather, and continuing the family line. He could have demonstrated love for his deceased brother by raising up a male heir to carry on his brother’s name. All this was at his fingertips, but he showed himself to be a stranger to the path of righteousness. Onan didn’t want to do the right and honorable thing. Onan didn’t want to render service to others. Onan would use Tamar, but he wouldn’t serve her. Onan is the sort of man who loves pleasure, but refuses to take responsibility. Onan is the sort of man who seeks to preserve his own life on his own terms, which Jesus said is the sure way to lose your life in the end. Men, we must not go down the path of Onan. It’s not about you or your renown. Humble yourself. Take up your cross and die to yourself. Find joy in serving others for their good. Shoulder the responsibility that God places upon you: shoulder it with decency and courage. Be a good steward of what the Lord has given to you. Honor your wife, your helpmate, the mother of your children. Don’t waste your potential, but build a family and a life unto the Lord. But the man who lives mainly for himself, and loves not the Lord, and loves not the people around him, will meet the same end that Onan met: “what he did was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and he [the LORD] put him to death also.”

Judah is afraid to give Shelah to Tamar

Now back to the storyline. Judah was spooked that his two oldest sons were both dead. And what did these two sons Er and Onan have in common? What they had in common was marriage to Tamar. From Judah’s perspective, marriage to Tamar greatly increased the probability of one’s untimely death, and so Judah didn’t want to play the odds with his youngest son Shelah:

“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.” (v. 11)

There is a lot going on in verse 11. Although Shelah really did need a bit longer to grow up into manhood (as verse 14 implies), nevertheless that was really just a convenient excuse on Judah’s part to avoid giving Shelah to Tamar. Judah was, in fact, afraid that if Shelah married Tamar, then Shelah would follow his brothers in death.

Judah’s fear, however, was misplaced. Judah’s fear located the problem in Tamar, but Tamar wasn’t the problem. The fundamental problem was in the hearts of Judah’s sons: they were wicked in the Lord’s sight. In his misplaced fear, Judah sought to steer Shelah away from Tamar. But if Judah had possessed the wisdom that comes from fearing the Lord, then Judah would have known that what he really needed to do was to steer Shelah into paths of righteousness. Judah should have steered Shelah away from the wickedness of Shelah’s brothers, and into the righteousness that was exemplified in Joseph, who by this time has been down in Egypt for approaching twenty years and is flourishing there as a righteous man. Too bad that Judah had acted in such a way that his son couldn’t be influenced by his righteous uncle. Judah was ill-equipped to lead Shelah in paths of righteousness, and so instead of doing that, he operated out of misplaced fear. That leads me to ask you a very simple question: are you competent to lead others in paths of righteousness, or are you attempting to protect yourself and others on the basis of your misplaced fears?

While Judah attempts to protect Shelah on the basis of his misplaced fear, Tamar must pay the price of the grief of prolonged widowhood. Our misplaced fears regularly get in the way of loving others well. We are fearful, and others pay the price. That’s not the path that love takes. But it is the path that Judah took. And mark these words: when you don’t do the right thing, you are setting yourself up to do a worse thing.

Judah plays the fool with Tamar (v. 12-23)

Fourth, Judah plays the fool with Tamar (v. 12-23). In verse 12, we are told that Judah’s wife died and, after his grief gave way to comfort, “he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite” went to his sheepshearers up in Timnah. Tamar learned that her father-in-law Judah was in the area, and she decided to show up on the road incognito: “she took off her widow’s garments and covered herself with a veil, wrapping herself up,” and there “at the entrance to Enaim” she sat and waited (v. 14). Why did she take this action? The second half of verse 14 tells us: “For she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him in marriage.” When you wrong another person, as Judah had wronged Tamar, don’t be surprised when the wronged person strikes back. I’m not encouraging wronged people to strike back – that’s not my point at all. I’m rather telling you who have wronged others that you really shouldn’t be shocked when the person you have wronged attempts to get back at you, or sets a trap for you.

Now remember what I said earlier: when you don’t do the right thing, you are setting yourself up to do a worse thing – and so it is here in Judah’s case. “When Judah saw her [Tamar]” (v. 15) along the road, Judah didn’t know that it was Tamar, but instead thought that this woman was a prostitute. You ought to be the kind of man for whom the sight of a prostitute has no power over your heart, but Judah wasn’t that kind of man. Judah saw an opportunity to obtain pleasure for himself without taking responsibility for another, and so he went for it. Onan himself had sort of treated Tamar like a prostitute (i.e., Onan took pleasure, but didn’t take responsibility), and now Judah literally treats Tamar like a prostitute, though he doesn’t know that it is Tamar. Of course, prostitution comes with a price tag, and terms must be negotiated. Tamar, under the disguise of a veiled face, let’s Judah name the price he is willing to pay, namely, “a young goat from the flock” (v. 17). But the young goat is not with Jduah, so Judah will have to send it later. Tamar is shrewd enough to require collateral against the promise of future payment, so as a pledge she ends up receiving Judah’s signet, cord, and staff, which as Andrew Steinmann points out, “were markers of his identity.”[1] Of course, Tamar will use these identity markers against Judah in the near future. How easily undisciplined men throw caution to the wind when they are inflamed with lust! Next thing you know, Tamar not only has three of Judah’s important personal possessions[2], but also his offspring! She conceived, and then she went her way and put “the garments of her widowhood” (v. 19) back on. She left that immediate area and did not return.

Eventually Judah had his friend Hirah the Adullamite take the promised young goat to the prostitute by the side of the road, but she was nowhere to be found, nor did anyone else know anything about this supposed prostitute. Judah realized that pressing on to find this disappearing prostitute would be like conducting a wild goose chase, and he didn’t want to be laughed at. Going forward, Judah wanted to keep a low profile about this whole affair. As Andrew Steinmann points out, Judah probably didn’t want to be seen as a man who had unpaid debts toward a prostitute![3] Unfortunately for Judah, the whole thing was written down in the Bible, so that we know he really did play the fool. He has been badly outmaneuvered by his daughter-in-law, and yet the reason she attempted to outmaneuver him is because he was unfaithful in withholding Shelah from her. We reap what we sow. When you don’t do the right thing, you are setting yourself up to do a worse thing. 

Tamar exposes Judah’s sin (v. 24-26)

Fifth, Tamar exposes Judah’s sin (v. 24-26). Three months pass by, and Tamar’s pregnancy becomes known. Judah is told, “Tamar your daughter-in-law has been immoral. Moreover, she is pregnant by immorality.” (v. 24) Judah responded with righteous indignation: “Bring her out, and let her be burned.” (v. 24) Tamar is not only guilty of sexual immorality in general, but also of adultery since she was pledged to be married to Shelah. But as Judah is about to learn, he is not qualified to be a righteous judge in this matter.

At this point, Tamar seeks to expose Judah for his own unrighteousness:

“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.”” (v. 25)

It is interesting to contrast this moment with a similar moment from Genesis 37. Though these events would have happened about twenty years apart, nevertheless they are side by side in terms of Chapter 37 and Chapter 38. In Genesis 37, Judah and his brothers manufactured evidence:

“… they took Joseph’s robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in blood. And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, “This we have found; please identify whether it is your son’s robe or not.”” (Genesis 37:31-32)

Now in Genesis 38, Tamar has genuine evidence, sends word to Judah, presents the evidence to him, and says, “Please identify whose these are”. Judah recognizes the signet, cord, and staff as his own (v. 26), and it is a bitter pill for Judah to swallow. Now he changes his tune: gone is the righteous indignation of verse 24 in which he called for Tamar to be burned, and now he recognizes that he himself is the worse sinner: “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” (v. 26) Although Judah has a long way to go down the path of repentance, this is a good start. For the path of repentance begins by recognizing your own sinfulness, your own unrighteousness, your own unfaithfulness. You become less eager for others to be executed for their sins, and more eager to receive mercy for your own sins. You realize that you don’t have the moral high ground, and that you stand in need of the Lord’s grace. I do not know how much Judah realized in this particular moment, but he has taken an important step: he has acknowledged and confessed the truth, he is not denying and covering up his sin like he did in Chapter 37, and he recognizes that on the scale of righteousness he is a worse sinner than Tamar. The exposure of his prostitution affair with his own daughter-in-law has sobered him up, “[and] he did not know her again” (v. 26), meaning that he did not have sexual relations with her again.

Tamar gives birth to twins (v. 27-30)

Sixth, Tamar gives birth to twins (v. 27-30): “When the time of her labor came, there were twins in her womb.” (v. 27) Just as Esau and Jacob had birth drama years earlier “with [Jacob’s] hand holding Esau’s heel” (Genesis 25:26), so there is birth drama here: one boy stuck out his hand and got a scarlet thread tied on his hand to indicate that he was the firstborn, but when “he drew back his hand” (v. 29), the other boy actually succeeded at breaking through and coming out first. So the boy “with the scarlet thread on his hand” (v. 30) was actually the second-born, and was named Zerah. The firstborn was named Perez, which means ‘a breach’, because he had made a breach for himself, that is, he had found a way to break through and burst forth ahead of his brother. And this Perez actually became part of the genealogical line leading to the Messiah. In due course, the pages of the Old Testament will turn to the Book of Ruth, which concludes with these words:

“Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminidab, Amminidab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon, Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.” (Ruth 4:18-22)

Once again we see that the sovereign Lord draws with messy and crooked lines in order to engineer our salvation. In terms of Genesis 38, Judah came close to having his physical lineage die out: Er had no children, Onan had no children, Shelah didn’t get married (though later he did have offspring, see Numbers 26:20), and thus he had one daughter-in-law with no children. And yet, through morally troubling circumstances that are far from the ideal, Judah’s physical lineage is extended through his own inappropriate affair with Tamar. We do not admire the exceeding sinfulness of mankind, but we do admire the sovereign grace that brings redemption out of the ruins!

TAKE COMFORT IN THE LORD’S GRACE

Now in addition to the lessons of morality and providence which we have already considered, what shall we take away from Genesis 38? Well, we must ponder the grace that is in this passage.

Judah gets mercy

Though we don’t know the details of Er’s sin, we know that he “was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD put him to death.” (v. 7) We do have insight into Onan’s sin, “[and] what he did was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and he [the LORD] put him to death also.” (v. 10) When the Lord imposes death on any sinner for the wickedness that he or she has done, that sinner is only getting what he or she deserves. And while not every sinner has acted out his or her wickedness to the same degree as some other sinner, the truth of the matter is “all… are under sin” (Romans 3:9), “[all] have turned aside” (Romans 3:12), “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God…. [No] one does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:10-12) And “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). When the Lord imposes death on any sinner in this present world, that sinner is getting what he or she deserves. And when the Lord imposes everlasting punishment on every unrepentant sinner at the final judgment, each sinner will be getting what he or she deserves.

If we read Genesis 38 from this larger biblical perspective, then one of the things that stands out in Genesis 38 is not that the Lord put Er and Onan to death, but that the Lord didn’t put Judah to death. Going back to Genesis 37, Judah is a man-stealer, a human trafficker, and a deceiver. Now in Genesis 38, Judah is a fearful man seeking to protect his future in accordance with his own wisdom, and in the process makes an utter mess. He proves unfaithful in withholding Shelah from Tamar. Then, to make matters far worse, he himself commits sexual immorality with a woman he thinks is a prostitute. Just as he was willing to sell Joseph in Genesis 37, so in Genesis 38 he is willing to buy the services of a prostitute. And to make matters even worse, the prostitute whose services he purchased wasn’t a prostitute at all, but his very own daughter-in-law. Objectively speaking, Judah was committing adultery with Tamar because Tamar was pledged to Shelah. Now think about this: the Old Testament law imposed the death penalty for man-stealing (Exodus 21:16); the Old Testament law imposed the death penalty for adultery (Leviticus 20:10); and the Old Testament law imposed the death penalty for a man who “lies with his daughter-in-law” (Leviticus 20:12). One of the astonishing realities of Genesis 38 isn’t who was put to death, but who wasn’t put to death. When the Lord imposes death on any sinner in this present world, that sinner is getting justice. Whenever the Lord delays, withholds, or cancels judgment on any sinner in this present world, that sinner is getting mercy.

Let this sink in: Judah gets mercy. Judah gets included in the messianic line, and with that comes a lasting covenant legacy. Indeed, we will read in Genesis 49 that Judah receives a word of blessing and honor (see Genesis 49:8-12) when Jacob speaks prophetically over his sons. Earlier I said that Judah was going down the path of Esau, and that Esau forfeited the blessing. However, the blessing found Judah! Why? The mercy and grace of God!

When we behold God’s judgments and God’s mercies side by side in Genesis 38, we ought to be sobered up. God’s judgments function as a warning: “unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3, 5), as Jesus taught. At the same time, God’s mercies are designed to lead you to repentance, and to impress the fear of the Lord upon your heart:

“If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.” (Psalm 130:3-4)

And so, we behold mercy when we turn to those first several verses in the New Testament, and see Judah and Tamar in the Messiah’s genealogy. Judah, a great sinner, is included. Tamar, a Canaanite sinner who married into the covenant family, only to face the grief of two dead husbands and a third who is withheld from her, is also included – and she gets the privilege of mothering the son who will carry on the covenant promise leading to the Messiah.

Ransomed by the blood of the Lamb

As wonderful as it is to be included in the Messiah’s physical genealogy, it is even more wonderful to be included in the Messiah’s spiritual family. And who deserves to be included in the Messiah’s spiritual family? No one. Judah had his share of grievous sins, and you have yours. And yet, by God’s grace, some are included, some are redeemed, some are made new. And why? Because the Father appointed a Redeemer to save His people from their sins.

In Revelation 5, there is “no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth [who is able] to open the scroll or look into it”, and the apostle John is deeply distressed about it (Revelation 5:3-4). But then someone said to him, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” (Revelation 5:5) John heard that the Lion of the tribe of Judah had conquered. But what did John see? John told us: “And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain” (Revelation 5:6).

The lamblike Lion conquered through the sacrifice of Himself upon the cross. The Lord Jesus is unlike Judah, who sacrificed others in service to his own petty feelings. The Lord Jesus is unlike Onan, who welcomed pleasure but shunned responsibility. The Lord Jesus is unlike Judah and his sons, who were stained with their own transgressions. Jesus is unstained by sin, takes responsibility, and sacrifices Himself to redeem people like Judah and Tamar and you and me from our iniquities.

And what a privilege it is to be part of the church, because we are well loved. Tamar had two wicked husbands, and a foolish and unfaithful father-in-law, and she had to resort to trickery to finally turn a corner. Not so the church! We have a perfect heavenly Father, and a perfect righteous Husband, and no thanks to us, our Bridegroom has loved us with an everlasting love and, with joy in His heart, He lifted us up out of our sin and brought us into His kingdom of grace. It is no wonder that the halls of heaven reverberated with a new song to the lamblike Lion of Judah:

“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:9-10) 

Genesis 38 isn’t about the worthiness of Judah and Tamar. It is rather about the worthiness of the One who is able to draw them, and us, into His redeemed family. It is about the worthiness of the One who reclaims us and washes us in His own precious blood.

ENDNOTES

[1] See Steinmann, Genesis, p. 364 (full bibliographic information below).

[2] See Fruchtenbaum, The Book of Genesis, p. 494 (full bibliographic information below).

[3] See Steinmann, Genesis, p. 364 (full bibliographic information below).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Fruchtenbaum, Arnold G. The Book of Genesis (Ariel’s Bible Commentary). Fourth Edition. San Antonio: Ariel Ministries, 2020.

Steinmann, Andrew E. Genesis (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries). Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2019.