Beyond The Basics

Transcript:

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Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Beyond the Basics, where we are exploring the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, one chapter at a time.

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Many of us have stories of restoration in our lives, whether it’s restoration with family member or friend after a falling out, whatever it might be. Many of us have these stories and it’s important when we consider these stories, when we tell these stories, to recognize the work of the cross in these stories of restoration.

We’re going to get into Genesis chapter 38 today, which is a story of descent into sin, confession, repentance, and restoration. And at the end, we’re going to see that there’s a scarlet thread that reminds us who is responsible for this story of restoration. So let’s get into the chapter.

Starting in verse 1, it happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers. So this was right after Joseph was sold to the Ishmaelite traders. So immediately after Joseph was sold, Judah went down from his brothers and turned aside to a certain Adulamite. It’s possible that Judah was feeling guilty for his part in selling Joseph, especially considering it was his idea.

We don’t really know why Judah left, but we know that, as I’ve mentioned several times already in the last video, several episodes as we’ve been discussing the family of Jacob. We know that Judah would have been considered the firstborn by this point because Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, who were all born before Judah, have all made serious, serious errors and have lost that right to be considered the firstborn and be considered the heir. Judah would be considered the heir at this point, the firstborn. But now Judah, even Judah is now descending from that elevated position of the firstborn, and that’s indicated by this phrase, he went down from his brothers. It’s a word picture there. It indicates his descent from being the heir and the firstborn. It also gives us a picture of a moral descent, which we’re going to see throughout this chapter because the one who proposed sending Joseph into exile is now exiled. He’s self-exiled, but he’s exiled.

So in verse 2, there Judah saw a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua. So just like Esau took Canaanite women for wives, which meant trouble for his family, now Judah is taking a Canaanite woman for a wife, which is going to, of course, foreshadow trouble. In fact, this is the first time that someone in the seed line married a Canaanite woman.

This was, of course, forbidden by Abraham. When Abraham sent his servant to find a son for Isaac, he made it very very clear to his servant that his servant was not to find a woman from the Canaanites. And not all of Abraham’s descendants have followed this command, but at least the ones so far in the seed line have. Isaac, Jacob, they’ve all gotten wives from the family of Abraham. But now Judah goes and gets a Canaanite woman. And this is troubling because the Canaanites, as we’ve seen in the last several chapters, they’re beginning to corrupt the sons of Abraham, the family of Abraham. Each generation is getting worse and worse.

Abraham had strong, strong faith, and he had his struggles, of course, but he had strong faith, and he passed that down to Isaac, although Isaac did not finish well. Jacob took a long time, a very large portion of his life, before he started recognizing the authority of God in his life, and now Jacob’s sons are almost completely corrupt. They are murderous, they’re lustful, they are power hungry, they’ve got all sorts of issues. And now we get to Judah’s sons, the next generation in this chapter, and it’s gotten so bad that now Judah’s oldest two sons are so wicked that God had to kill them. How wicked did they need to be that they did worse things than Judah and his brothers did in order to deserve God killing them?

So that’s how corrupt this family has gotten because of the influence of the Canaanites, which is one of the main themes of the book of Genesis. It’s one of the biggest themes that we see and we’ve talked about it so many times over the chapters that we’ve gone through so far. The idea that the Canaanites represent the world, obviously and the Israelites represent God’s people, and when we let the corrupting influence of the world into our lives, sometimes it takes time, but that corrupting influence grows and grows and grows and grows to the point where we’ve lost all sense of right and wrong, all sense of morality. We cannot allow that influence from the world to creep in like Abraham’s family did. We have to be vigilant. The Bible talks about being sober-minded. We have to be watchful.

Moving on, verse 2, he took her and went into her. So this Canaanite woman named Shua bore Judah three sons. First son was Er, the second son was Onan, and the third son was Shelah. And in verse 6, Judah took a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.

Moving on to verse 7, but Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord. So as I mentioned, we don’t know what Er did that was so wicked. We have no idea. There’s zero indication in the text. But what’s clear is that it was wicked in God’s sight, not necessarily wicked in man’s sight. Or it may have been a hidden sin, something that was wickedly done out of man’s sight, so that nobody else knew. But it was wicked in God’s sight. God saw it, he determined it was wicked enough, and so we find out, moving on to verse 7, that the Lord put him to death.

Now, this is an interesting phrase, the Lord put him to death, because some will say that God doesn’t ever actually kill in the Bible. He only uses agents, like a flood or an army, fire and brimstone, whatever the case may be. But this phrase right here makes it very clear that the Lord Himself put Ur to death. He killed Ur. There’s no other agent involved here. There is no other potential hitman, so to speak. It is a very hard thing. It is a very difficult thing to confront in our own hearts.

We want to think of God as loving and merciful and compassionate and slow to anger and God would never kill and God would never judge and He teaches us to not judge and why would God do those things and He is all those things. God is loving and merciful and compassionate and slow to anger. He is all those things. But we have a difficult time in our modern culture recognizing that there is a higher authority than man who has all authority to kill or to let live as he decides. And if we say that God does not kill, then we remove God’s sovereignty from him. If God doesn’t have the authority and the ability to kill, then God is not sovereign.

In Acts chapter five, verses one through five, it says, but a man named Ananias with his wife, Sapphira, sold a piece of property and with his wife’s knowledge. He kept back for himself some of the proceeds and bought only a part of it and laid it at the Apostles feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why is Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? After it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man, but to God.” When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last, and great fear came upon all who heard of it.

These are examples in the New Testament where God himself either kills or threatens to kill a human being personally himself. Lest you think that this is only an Old Testament concept, that God doesn’t do this in the New Testament, that the New Covenant did away with this type of God: God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He will still deal with sin in the same way.

This is called the fear of the Lord. When we talk about the fear of the Lord, many times we talk about awe, wonder, reverence towards God, and that’s part of it. But the fear of the Lord is also understanding that God has this power, and the fear of the Lord is a good thing. The fear of the Lord is a healthy thing. So, if you’re struggling with this concept, don’t reject it immediately. It is wisdom to wrestle with this. It is wisdom to struggle with this. It is wisdom to talk to the Lord about it and ask Him to reveal to you His nature as the sovereign God.

So let’s move on. In verse eight, then Judah said to Onan, “Go unto your brother’s wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her.” So this was called a levirate marriage. I’m not sure if I’m pronouncing that word properly. That’s the technical term for this. So Judah told Onan, “Perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her and raise up offspring for your brother.” But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his, including the inheritance that the son would receive from the deceased brother.

So Onan’s brother, Er, very likely owned some property and this offspring of Onans that would be considered Er’s offspring would inherit Er’s property. That would not be considered part of Onan’s inheritance that he would give to his children. So he didn’t want to give offspring to have children with Tamar because he didn’t want that property to go to Tamar’s son and not have an opportunity to get his grubby hands on it, because if he has no son then he, Onan, receives Er’s inheritance. So this is a big deal. So this is greed that is popping up on behalf of Onan’s part.

So moving on in verse 9, it says, So whenever he went into his brother’s wife, he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother. So essentially Onan used Tamar for sex without getting her children. Many people will use this text as proof that masturbation is a sin and that’s not to say that it is or isn’t, but this is not a proof text of that. That’s not what this text is talking about. It’s talking about denying justice to Onan’s sister-in-law. That was Onan’s sin. It was greed and refusing justice in the form of refusing Tamar children. And he essentially used her as a sex slave. She was essentially a concubine to him because he clearly still wanted to sleep with her. It’s not that he just took her into his home and put her in a room and just left her there. He clearly wanted to still sleep with her, but he wouldn’t do the right thing and give her children.

So what he did in verse 10 was wicked in the sight of the Lord and he put him to death also. So now Judah’s two oldest sons are dead. And in verse 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.

And it’s understandable why Judah would hesitate to give this woman to his youngest son. Her first two husbands have died. And it’s, the text isn’t clear if Judah knew that God was responsible for his two oldest sons’ deaths. It’s very possible that he thought Tamar was responsible. Very possible that he thought Tamar killed them. And he had a duty to give Tamar to his youngest son. So he allowed her to remain in the house, but he was afraid to give her to him because he thought that his youngest son, Shella, would die.

So, Tamar remained there, and in verse 12, we find out that Judah’s wife died. And so, he went up to Timnah to his friend, Hira, and in verse 13, Tamar was told this. So, she found out that Judah left to shear the sheep and left his son, Shelah, in charge of the home, which means he’s no longer mourning his deceased wife, and in fact, this would have been big-time party with the guys. They would be partying, Judah and the guys, so she knew that he would be partying, having a good time, and this also indicates that Shelah was old enough to marry, but Judah was not gonna give her to him. She realized this at this time.

So in verse 14, she took off her widow’s garments and covered herself with a veil, as in a wedding veil, which is how prostitutes would have dressed to signal their intention in those days. She’s using clothing to deceive Judah, just like Jacob did with Isaac in Genesis 27:27. Isaac smelled his garments and blessed him, said, see, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. Jacob dressed up like Esau in goat skins to make himself smell and feel like Esau so that he would be able to deceive his father Isaac, and also just like Joseph’s brothers with Jacob in the previous chapter. They took the robe of colors and brought it to their father, covered in blood, and said, “This we have found. Please identify whether it is your son’s robe or not.” In verse 32. And their father believed that Joseph was dead because they used Joseph’s coat to deceive their father, Jacob.

She’s only learning from her adopted family how to deceive with clothing. And it continues this cycle of deception in this family, especially to get something that rightfully belonged to them already. This has happened several times where family members, these members of this family of Abraham have used deception because they needed to get something that should have been given to them already. Obviously the birthright comes to mind with Jacob and Esau.

So she wraps herself up, which specifically refers to the uniform of a temple prostitute, and she sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. She dressed like a prostitute, but Judah was her only intended customer, because she goes and sits on the road where Judah would be on. She placed herself where she knew he would see her. She obviously would have known that he would be tempted by her.

Because as I mentioned, moving on in verse 14, for she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him in marriage. So it wasn’t like she could just go find another man to marry in those days because a woman who wasn’t a virgin was undesirable for marriage. Nobody wanted to marry a woman who wasn’t a virgin. So she was already betrothed to Shelah, which in those days was essentially a marriage and just hadn’t been consummated yet.

We think of betrothals in our modern day vernacular. We tend to think of betrothals as similar to an engagement, but a betrothal was far more binding than an engagement is today. A betrothal is a marriage. The betrothal was not able to be broken. If a man and a woman were betrothed and they decided they didn’t want to get married, they had to actually go through a divorce. And once a man or a woman is betrothed, they are no longer eligible to be given to another man because they’re already married. Just like if a man and a woman are married today to each other. They’re not eligible to marry somebody else. It’s impossible. Legally, you can’t even do it.

So this is a sinful act against Tamar by Judah. She was betrothed to Shelah. Shelah was of age and Judah refused to give her to him. He is not doing right by Tamar. He is not showing justice to her, even though he’s afraid.

So Judah saw her in verse 15, he thought she was a prostitute, so he turned to her at the roadside and said, “Come, let me come into you.” He did not know that it was Tamar. So she said, “What will you give me that you may come into me?” In verse 17, he answered, “I will send you a young goat from the flock.” So Judah didn’t have the goat with him, so he had to make a pledge. That’s what he’s doing here.

And she said, “If you give me a pledge until you send it,” 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 had to give her something of value so that she could be assured that she would actually receive the goat. So she wanted something that would obviously belong to Judah because as we’re going to find out, Tamar is going to need to prove that Judah was the one who hired her and the one responsible for getting her pregnant. Otherwise, she knew that she would be put to death once she’s found out because she was engaged in prostitution while betrothed to Shelah.

So in verse 18, he gave them to her and went into her and she conceived by him. So Judah slept with Tamar. He thought she was a random prostitute, but this is actually going to provide a contrast to Joseph’s morality in the next chapter because Judah clearly has no hesitation to sleep with a random prostitute, whereas we’re going to see in the next chapter that Joseph has a very strong sense of morality, that fornication is a sin against God.

And so, as I mentioned, she conceived by him, which was not Judah’s plan, but it was Tamar’s plan. And it was also clearly God’s plan. And I’ll get into why in just a little bit. So in verse 19, she arose and went away, keeping the pledge items with her to prove that it was Judah who had hired her because she was now pregnant.

So in verse 20, Judah sent the young goat by his friend to take back the pledge, but he did not find her. And so he tried to look for her and they could not find a cult prostitute around that area. So he returned to Judah in verse 22 and said, “I have not found her.” Also, the men of the place said, “No cult prostitute has been here.” Judah replied, “Let her keep the things as their own.” So Judah decides to just drop it and forget about it because he knows that he’s going to be embarrassed if somebody finds out.

Then in verse 24, about three months later, Judah was told, “Tamar your daughter-in-law has been immoral.” So again, as I mentioned, prostitution was actually legal in those days, especially surrounding idol worship, but adultery was not. And since she was technically betrothed, she was technically married, and so this is technically adultery. And so she should be technically put to death, which is the judgment that Judah makes.

In verse 24, he said, “Bring her out and let her be burned.” Now, Judah had committed the same sin as she had, but he was okay with putting her to death, even though he did the same thing. But in those days, Judah had the authority to do this because national governments and court systems didn’t exist. The patriarch was usually the highest authority around. The largest forms of government were in cities as city states are kings. So usually the clan leader, the patriarch of a clan or a family was usually the highest authority in a place and he could pretty much do whatever he wanted.

So in verse 25, she’s being brought out and 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.” So she produced proof that Judah was just as guilty as she was, and she actually used the same words that Judah used regarding Joseph’s coat. He used the same words in the previous chapter in verse 32, he said, “These we have found, please identify whether it is your son’s robe or not.” Saying this to Jacob.

Now, Tamar is saying to him, “Please identify who these are.” So he knows he’s been caught in his deception and he got away with it with Jacob, but now it’s being turned around on him in this chapter by Tamar.

So in verse 26, Judah identified them and just imagine what was going through Judah’s mind at that moment. He had probably forgotten about that night. This was three months later. He’d probably forgotten about that this even happened until he realized who he had done that act with. Until he realized who he had slept with. And suddenly the memories of that night comes flooding back and his stomach drops and he realized what he did.

Now he could have killed her and covered it up because his friend, Hirah, was the only one who knew. In fact, he had done it with Joseph. He had faked Joseph’s death and got away with it. But this time he chooses to do the right thing.

And he says, “She is more righteous than I.” Or, in other words, I’m more guilty than she is. And the reason she’s more righteous is because Tamar is more concerned than Judah is about preserving the family line. And this is important. The whole reason this chapter is even in the Bible is because this is the family line that would result in the Messiah. And he says, “Since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” So, not only did he confess the sin of sleeping with Tamar, but he confessed the sin of not giving her to his son as well.

And then, to finish out verse 26, it says, and he did not know her again. In verse 27, we find out that there’s twins in Tamar’s womb. And one put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.” But in verse 29, as he drew back his hand, behold, his brother came out. So the brothers are struggling with each other inside the womb, just like Jacob and Esau did.

In Genesis 25:22, it says that children struggled together within her, within Rebecca and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. And that’s when Rebecca finds out that she’s having twins. But again, in this case, yet again, the younger overcame the older to receive the birthright. Even though technically Perez came out first and was therefore the oldest son, the only reason that happened is because Zerah stuck his hand out and pulled it back in so that Perez could then come out.

So this is another example of the younger brother overcoming the older brother to receive the birthright. This is a theme that’s seen in every single family in Genesis, that God chooses the younger over the older.

So in verse 29, the midwife says, “What a breach you have made for yourself,” therefore his name was called Perez. Rashi interprets this as saying, what a strong effort you have made, which reinforces that the brothers were struggling inside the womb, and the younger overcame the older.

So, how does this chapter point to Jesus? Well, I mentioned already that this would be the Messianic line. And sure enough, Perez, who we meet at the very end of the chapter, is the ancestor of Jesus. In Matthew 1:3, it says, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram. And it goes on and on down to Jesus.

What’s interesting is that Judah’s three sons were the sons of a Canaanite woman, which means they shared in the wickedness and the corruption of the Canaanites, as we saw by the fact that God had to kill two of them. So none of them could produce the Messianic line. The Messianic line, as we’ve talked about so many times, is supposed to remain pure, uncorrupted, but Judah has three sons from a Canaanite woman, so how can any of these sons produce a child that would become one day the Messiah, if that child is corrupted by the seed of the serpent? Canaanites?

Well the answer is Tamar. The word Tamar means palm tree in Hebrew. So that indicates actually that she was a Hebrew woman, somebody from the family of Abraham. Maybe a daughter of one of his brothers, maybe a daughter of even potentially one of Esau’s children, from his Ishmaelite wife who would have still been from the family of Abraham, maybe somebody else, but she would have been a Hebrew woman or somebody from the family line of Abraham somewhere. Therefore, because she is a descendant of Abraham, she could give birth to the messianic line.

So, God orchestrated events in this chapter to result in a pure, uncorrupted son that was not corrupted by the seed of the serpent in the form of Canaanite blood. And it was only God who orchestrated these events. God took an active role by killing Er and Onan to force Judah’s hand.

Recognize what’s happening here. Judah puts himself in a corner. God had chosen Judah, but Judah married a Canaanite woman and had three sons. God cannot have a messiah coming from the line of a Canaanite woman, at least not at this point. So what is God to do? So God actively killed two of Judah’s sons, forcing Judah to be fearful of giving this woman Tamar to his third son, thinking that he would die also, setting off another cycle of deception that resulted in a Hebrew child in the form of Perez.

It seems so strange to us in our modern day that God works in these ways, but it’s so clear in this chapter that he does. We have to reconcile with that. We have to spend some time in the text and in prayer and recognize that God works in these ways because God has a bigger picture in mind.

So another way that this chapter points to Jesus is that the theme of the younger sibling receiving the birthright is present once again, as I mentioned at the end of the chapter. So here’s why this is such a big theme in the book of Genesis. And it’s because we already have a firstborn son.

Colossians 1:15 tells us that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Jesus is already the firstborn. He already has the birthright. From before the foundations of the world Jesus was there with God. So we don’t need a firstborn to be chosen from the family of Abraham, because the firstborn has already been chosen. The younger son is chosen to represent humanity. Because we are image bearers, because we bear the image of God, because we are created in the image of God, we should act as the firstborn.

Philippians 2, verses five through eight says, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

So what Jesus did by taking the form of a servant and humbling himself, we should do. And that is how the firstborn is to act. Because that’s how the firstborn actually acted, the firstborn of all creation, Jesus became a servant. And because we bear his image, we should act the same way. Humble ourselves, become obedient even to the point of death.

Another way this points to Jesus is Tamar puts on the clothing of a bride and a worshiper. I mentioned earlier in the chapter that she wears the veil and she wrapped herself. So she wears the veil, the wedding veil, which is what a prostitute would wear, but also what a bride would wear. And she wrapped herself like a cult prostitute, used in worship of whatever idol they had there. And so she uses this clothing as one who is a cult prostitute, but she gives herself to Judah, who is chosen for the Messianic line, and he’s the father who refuses to find a bride for his son. Notice all those elements.

Now Jesus is going to completely redeem this story. He’s going to purify his bride, who will give herself to Jesus, the Messiah, and the father is going to present a pure, spotless bride to his son. So this story that is steeped in prostitution, moral depravity, still points to Jesus, because Jesus is going to be the one to redeem this story.

As I mentioned at the very beginning of this episode, there’s a scarlet thread that we need to recognize when God redeems, when God reconciles, when God brings reconciliation. And that’s what is happening, that’s what this is pointing to. And in fact, at the very end, there’s a literal scarlet thread tied to Zerah’s hand, and the scarlet thread was seen again in the tabernacle in Exodus 26:1. It says, moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue and purple and scarlet yarns. You shall make them with cherubim skillfully worked into them.

The scarlet thread was seen in the priesthood in Exodus 28:6. It says, And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and of fine twined linen, skillfully worked. Then it was seen again in a later ancestor of Jesus in Joshua 2:21. It says, And she said, “According to your words, so be it.” Then she sent them away and they departed and she tied the scarlet cord in the window. This is talking about Rahab, the prostitute, another prostitute, who tied a scarlet cord to the window so that the spies would be able to see which home was hers when the walls of Jericho had fallen, so that they could rescue her, so that she wouldn’t be killed.

So this scarlet cord, this scarlet thread is seen all throughout Israel’s history. It illustrates the redemptive thread of Jesus’ blood throughout Israel’s history. That’s what this scarlet thread is representing. That Jesus and his work on the cross is present in all stories of redemption. And we need to recognize in our own stories of redemption the role of the cross. And we need to thank him. We need to worship.

That’s the question that I have for you for this episode to think about and meditate on this week is, how have you seen the role of the cross at work in your restoration story? How do you see Jesus’ blood at work in your life?

Well, let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for that scarlet thread that we see throughout the scriptures from the first book all the way to the last. Thank you that your blood is shown to be the thing that ties together all stories of redemption and it’s tied together in your work on the cross. We thank you, Lord. We pray that you would continue to work redemption and restoration in our lives and in the lives of those around us. Would you use us to minister reconciliation to others through the work on the cross? Thank you for everything that you’ve spoken to us in this chapter. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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