Judah and Tamar

If you have your Bible, turn with me to Genesis chapter 38, Judah and Tamar. We're going to study a passage this morning that's filled with deceit and rebellion, immorality, incest, wickedness. It's a chapter that pretty much details modern day society. But we're going to see it in light of what God has for us this morning and understand the truth that God's Word is inspired by Him. He wants you to understand it because there's something you need to know about God, more so than about Judah, and more so than about Tamar, and all the wickedness and immorality that takes place in this chapter.

Why? Because it's through Judah that the Messiah comes. Through the fourth son of Israel comes Messiah. And in Genesis 49, verse number 10, on Jacob's deathbed, he will say to Judah that the scepter shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh comes, until that to which it belongs comes. Speaking of the Messiah, because why Messiah comes is to redeem man from his sin. That's important to understand. We also come to grips with the fact that in this chapter, we understand the character of God because God wants you to see that He's a God of grace and a God of mercy.

And then God also wants you to understand that He controls everything. You see, God wants to override your sin, and He will. He will overrule your sin. We think that when we sin, it's over. When we sin, we're done. God's done with us. That's not true. That is not true. And God will demonstrate to us in Genesis 38 how powerful He is, that even amidst the gross sins that we commit, He overrides them. He brings about His sovereign purpose so that He Himself is put on display. And that's good news because all of us are sinners.

And also God wants to demonstrate to us a contrast between Judah and Joseph. We're going to see a man this week who succumbs to temptation, who falls into sin. But next week, we're going to see Joseph who's able to flee temptation. And Genesis 39 with Joseph, we are able to see what we are to be doing. Unfortunately, a lot of us fall in chapter 38 and not in chapter 39. Our goal is to help you understand how to flee temptation, how to flee sin. God just does things in ways that we don't understand to show us that we're not in control of anything, that He's in control of everything.

So we're going to read Genesis 38, and then we're going to look at five points this morning. And it came about at that time that Judah departed from his brothers and visited a certain Adulamite whose name was Herod. And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Sheua. And he took her and went into her. So she conceived and bore a son, and he named him Ur. Then she conceived again and bore a son and named him Onan. She bore still another son and named him Shelah. And it was at Chezib that she bore him.

Now Judah took a wife for Ur, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. But Ur, Judah's firstborn, was evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord took his life. Then Judah said to Onan, go into your brother's wife and perform your duty as a brother-in-law to her and raise up offspring for your brother. And Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So it came about that when he went into his brother's wife, he wasted his seed on the ground in order not to give offspring to his brother. But what he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord, so he took his life also.

Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law, Tamar, remain a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up, for he thought, I am afraid that he too may die like his brothers. So Tamar went and lived in her father's house. Now after a considerable time, Shehua's daughter, the wife of Judah, died. And when the time of mourning was ended, Judah went up to his sheep shearers at Timnah, he and his friend Hira the Adulamite. And 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 in it, and sat in the gateway of Enah, 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 into 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 into me? He said, Therefore I will send you a kid from the flock. She said, Moreover, will you give a pledge until you send it? And 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 into her, and she conceived by him. And she arose and departed, and removed her veil, and put on her widow's garments.

When Judah sent the kid by his friend the Adulamite to receive the pledge from the woman's hand, he did not find her. And he asked the men of her place, saying, Where is the temple prostitute who was by the road at Enam? 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, lest we become a laughing stock. After all, I sent this kid, but she 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 a 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. And 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.

And 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. And afterward, his brother came out, who had the scarlet thread on his hand, and he was named Zerah. Quite a story, isn't it? There are so many truths here, we could spend weeks examining Genesis 38. We're not going to do that. We're just going to spend today. Five things I want you to see. Number one, the sin of Judah, the sons of Judah, the seduction of Judah, the shame of Judah, and the seed of Judah.

And when you leave here, you will be richly blessed because of the character of our God. Number one, the sin of Judah.

This is where the story begins. The Bible tells us that he marries a Canaanite woman. That was a sin in God's eyes. God had said to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob very clearly, You are not to take for yourselves or for your sons a wife from the Canaanites. They were an immoral people. They were an idolatrous nation. And we've talked about them. Remember, Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham had four sons. The youngest one, Canaan, committed a sexual act with his grandfather, Noah, back in Genesis chapter 9.

And God cursed Canaan and cursed his line forever. And God would tell the nation of Israel to wipe out all the Canaanites. Wipe out, yes, men, women, and children. Kill them all. See, God wants the children killed. Why? Because the children grow up to be parents, and they hold a grudge, and they will come back and turn the tables. So God says, You kill all the Canaanites.

You get rid of all of them. Destroy them all. And it wasn't until 200 years before Christ that the last Canaanite was killed. It took a while. The Canaanite people became the Phoenician people, which were a great seafaring people. They settled in North Africa, became the Carthaginians, and were ultimately destroyed at 200 BC before Christ. And yet Judah, one of the sons of Israel, disobeyed a direct command of God. But note this. This is not where it began. It began, listen carefully, in Genesis chapter 37 with a little bit of compromise.

You see, man doesn't go out and just disobey the commands of God because he has nothing else to do. It begins always with a little bit of compromise. But in Genesis 37, he was the one who suggested, Hey, you know what? Instead of killing Joseph, let's just sell Joseph to the Israelites. What he should have said was, You know what? Joseph needs to be brought up out of the pit and taken back to our father. That's what Judah should have done, but he didn't do that. He found a way to make some money.

How many times do we as Christians compromise just a little bit? If you're here today and you've compromised a little bit, beware. It will lead you to further sin down the road. It will. And we need to understand that this sin of Judah, of marrying a woman who was of a pagan culture, would lead him to further gross immorality by having sex with his daughter-in-law. But it all begins when we begin to compromise. But the sin of Judah was that he violated the law of God. It began when he would compromise a little bit, not stand strong like he should have.

It would lead him to further sin, greater sin. And that sin would lead to even greater sins. Where are you today? Where do you stand with the living God? Number two, the sons of Judah.

The sons of Judah. He had three boys, Er, Onan, Shelah. Three boys summed up in the phrase in verse number 10, that what they did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord. Now, listen carefully. Three boys. Number one, Er, firstborn son.

Judah got for his son a wife. Her name, Tamar. Tamar. And the Bible says these words about Er. It says, Er, Judah's firstborn, was evil in the sight of the Lord. So God killed him. Say, well, aren't we all evil in the sight of the Lord? Aren't we all wicked in the sight of the Lord? Yes, we are. But the word used here, same word used in Genesis 13, 13 to describe the men of Sodom. Same word. Same word used over in Deuteronomy chapter 17 to speak of the wickedness and the evil of idolatry. So whatever Er was doing, we don't know what it was.

It had to be some kind of gross, immoral sin as well as idolatry. Because the same word is used in the context of Sodom and Gomorrah, as well as idolatry in Deuteronomy chapter 17. God just took his life, wiped him out. But that's not the good part about this verse. Here's the good part. You know what Er's name means? Say, no pastor, what does it mean? It means watcher. Watcher. Tamar was a pagan woman. Judah's wife was a Canaanite. She was a pagan, immoral idolater. Er was watching his mother and learning from his mother.

And he became as wicked and as evil as she was. He learned it from his mother. You see, our children are always watching what we're doing, right? Our children are always watching our lives. And they are picking up what they see us do. It wasn't too long ago that we were watching one of the children in our family. I won't tell you which one because I don't want to embarrass them. But we were watching one of the children in our family. I looked at him and said, where did he learn that? My wife could do that kind of.

Where do you think he learned it, dear? Well, he learned it by seeing in his father. You see, our children are watchers, aren't they? So as a parent, the admonition to us is, what do your children see in your life, right? What do they view about you? Er was a watcher. He learned by what he saw. What did God do? God killed him. Wow. Can you imagine that? God just said, it's over. You're done. You're dead. Goodbye. He was dead. He was over. So what happened? Judah goes to Onan, second son.

Now here's the law. See, if you're the son and you're the second son and the oldest son is married and he dies, guess what?

You got to marry your sister-in-law. See, Israel had a built-in welfare system that worked very well for them. And so if the older one dies, then what you do is you just go in and marry your sister-in-law. That is if you're unmarried. Okay. And so Onan was next in line. And so Judah says, Onan, listen, I want you to go in and I want you to marry Tamar. But Onan knew that if she had a son, it wouldn't be his offspring, but his brother's. And therefore he would go into her. He would do the duties of being a husband.

And yet when it came time to release his seed into Tamar, he wouldn't do that. And God said, you're dead. And God killed Onan. Well, if I was Tamar, I'm not sure I would have married a third son.

Everybody's dying on me. You know what I'm saying? And so Judah says to Tamar, listen, you can have Shelah when he gets older, because I'm afraid if you marry him now, he's going to die. So we're going to wait till he gets a little older, and then you can have him for a husband. Those are the sons of Judah. Third thing I want you to see is the seduction of Judah.

For now, Judah's wife dies. Judah's wife dies in verse number 12. She was daughter of the wife of Judah died. The time of mourning had ended. Judah went up to his sheep shearers at Timnah. It was a friend. He and his friend Hira, the Edulamite. And 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 Enam, 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.

But guess what? Judah didn't do that. But Judah lost his wife. And Judah had mourned his wife. And instead of, I hate to say it this way, but instead of viewing that as a blessing from God, which he should have done because she was a pagan woman, and he should have seen the effects of evil in his household and the disobedience of his children to the law of God. Instead of counting that as a blessing, he looked at it as a heartache. And he mourned the death of his wife. Now, Tamar, realizing his loneliness, realizing his vulnerability, and realizing now something about Judah that was a character flaw in his life, decided to seduce him because he didn't keep his word.

He didn't keep his word to her. So she says, I'm going to get back at him. You know, I've got to have an offspring. You see, remember now that these women needed to have boys. The identity of Jewish women was wrapped up in the number of boys that they had because they had to carry on the line. And she had no children. Her husbands were dying right and left. So she went to Emon, which is outside Timnan. She waited there. She dressed herself up in harlot's clothes. And there she would present herself to him.

Now, Judah, being lonely, being down, being broken, vulnerable, easy prey, would succumb to temptation. He would be walking by. He would see this harlot, and he would go into her. And he would say, you know, what is it I should give to you? What is it you want from me? She says, what is it you'll give me? Because I'll give you a kid from my flocks. But I don't have one right now.

I'm not carrying it with me. So he says, what can I give you? Just give me your cord, your staff, your signatory. That'll do. And the passion of lust, immoral passions, he willingly gave those things away, which led to point number four, the shame of Judah. The shame of Judah. When it was all said and done, Tamar put her widow's clothes back on and went home to her father's house, Judah's home. He didn't know it was her. Judah sends his friend back to Emon to give the kid from the flocks to this woman, this prostitute.

So he went back to Emon and said, hey, is there a woman here? Where's the prostitute that was there? There was no prostitute here. There was never a prostitute here. Leading us to believe that this was not a place for prostitutes to hang out. There has never been a prostitute here, they said. So he went back and reported that to Judah. He said, well, I've given her some things, and I guess that'll have to do. Thus we become a shame, a laughingstock to people. At least I kept my word by going back and doing what I said I was going to do.

I kept my word. I didn't keep my commitment to Christ, but I kept my word. Listen to what John Phillips says in his commentary about this whole scenario. The signet was his ring used for impressing his signature into the clay tablets of the time. It represented his person. His bracelets were probably a valued chain of gold. They represented his possessions. His staff marked him out as a shepherd. In ancient times, many people carried a staff, often carved with some identifying symbols, such as an animal, a flower, or a bird.

The staff represented his position. Judah could thus slightly forfeit person, possessions, and position for the sake of a moment of lust. Judah indulged himself and went on his way, minus his ring, bracelets, and staff. Minus what was left of his good name, and minus what tattered shreds of his testimony had left. Again, his friend, the Adullamite, showed up hearing about the harlot. Hiram offered to act as Judah's go-between, to take the kid to the woman and redeem the security Judah had left behind.

Perhaps he wanted to meet the delectable young woman for himself. But the temple call girl was nowhere to be found. The people from the neighborhood denied all knowledge of such a woman, as Hiram described. Judah, of course, was upset, but not because he had transgressed against God. Not because he had committed an act of immorality, but because he was afraid his reputation as a man of his word might be ruined. He fussed for a while, and then forgot the whole thing. Thus lightly do men sin. But he had ignited a fuse on a time bomb, and it was already beginning to burn down.

For when you get to the next verse, you realize three months have passed, and she's pregnant. And Judah finds out. Judah, Tamar has played the harlot. Tamar is pregnant. And what is Judah's response? Burn her. How dare that woman disgrace my family? How dare she disgrace my name? One big problem. She comes out with the signet ring, and she comes out with the staff. She comes out with the bracelets, and yoo-hoo. Judah, if you examine these, then you will know who the father is. And Judah, in his arrogance, give me those things.

I'll examine them. Only to find out, your sin will find you out. They were his. He was the man. He was the father. What a story. What an amazing story. To help us understand the working of God. You see, Moses writes this down. Listen, not to expose the sin of Judah, but that he might explain the sovereignty of God. Because that leads us to our last point. And our last point deals with the seed of Judah. The seed of Judah. You see, nowhere in Judah's wildest imagination could he ever figure out what God would do through all of this.

He had no idea. But God would orchestrate a plan that would far exceed the sin of man. See, it shows you that God is in complete control of everything. That nothing escapes his notice.

That God will use even your sin, my sin, to bring about his great purposes. And that's the story of Genesis, right? God controls everything. You control nothing. He lets us see the story about Perez and Zerah being born. Came about at the time she was giving birth. And behold, there were twins in her womb. Had the twin thing going on again. And you got the maid servant in there. And what happens is that Zerah pokes out his hand. Comes out of the womb first.

This is the firstborn. So the firstborn has to be recognized. So we're going to tie a scarlet thread around the firstborn's hand. So we know who receives the inheritance. So we know who the firstborn is. And all of a sudden, Zerah brings his hand back in. It's gone. And Perez, we don't know the names yet. But because we know the story, we can give you the names. Perez inches his way out. And he comes out before Zerah does. And the maid servant's upset. She's mad. Wait a minute. You breach you? That you're going to need your name.

We're going to name you Perez because you're a breach. Then Zerah was born. You know, God does those things just to just to mess with our minds. You know, he didn't take Esau. Did he? He took Jacob. Jacob. That's what he wanted. He'd take Zerah. He took Perez. He didn't take Ishmael. He chose Isaac. And God does those things just to let you know that that he is orchestrating his sovereign purposes. And he's going to do what he wants to do. No matter how we try to finagle things our way. So when you go all the way back to Matthew chapter one, you read this.

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. To Abraham was born Isaac and Isaac, Jacob and Jacob, Judah and his brothers. And to Judah were born Perez and Zerah by Tamar. And to Perez was born Hezron. Perez is in the line of the Messiah. God would take a child born from a cursed nation. The Canaanite people take a child born from a cursed nation and put that child in the line of the Messiah to show you that Messiah has come to redeem all people, not just some people.

And that's the great news of Genesis 38. And never in Judah's wildest imagination would he ever understand how God would orchestrate his sovereign purposes to bring about what he was going to do by using him to bring about the Messiah. God would use an incestuous immoral relationship between Judah and Tamar to bring about Perez who was in the line of the Messiah. Talk about the mercy of God. Talk about the grace of God. Talk about the sovereignty of God. God says, it's all about me.

It's all about what I want to do in your life. And God is saying to you today, I don't care what sin you have committed. I don't care how far you are away from me. I don't care what nation you've been born in. I don't care how immoral you have been. I have come to redeem you from your sin. I have come to take you from where you are, captivated by Satan to bring you into my kingdom to make you a child of mine. That's what God wants you to know. And God says, if you have committed sin and you're a child of mine, I want to let you know something, that I can overrule that.

And I can bring about something that you can't even imagine because I rule over everything. If I can do it with Judah and Tamar and Perez and Zerah, I can do it with you. And that's good news, is it not? That's what God wants to do with you. If you have fallen, return for the door of mercy is open to you. The Bible says these words in Psalm 147, verse number 11.

The Lord takes pleasures in those who fear him and those who hope in his mercy. God takes pleasure in those who fear him and in those who hope in his mercy. Listen, God says to you, if you confess your sins, he will forgive your sins.

He says, if you try to hide your sin, Proverbs chapter 28, verse number 13. If you try to hide your sins and conceal your sins, you will not prosper. But if you confess and you forsake your sins, you will find the mercy of God. And God wants you to understand his mercy, his kindness and his compassion. Because he is just waiting for you to confess your sins. He's just waiting for you to turn to him. He's just waiting for you to give your life to him so he can demonstrate to you his great marvelous love.

That's our God. And Genesis 38 teaches us about what it means to fear God and to hope in his mercy. I trust that that's you this morning. Let's pray together.