th in Troubled Times (Pt. 4)

 

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.” 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.” 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. (Genesis 38:24-26 ESV).

 

Remember when we began our journey through the life of Joseph I said the foundation of the story is the preeminence and sovereignty of God. The reading today is from a much larger portion of Scripture. I encourage you to read the whole chapter for context even though the center of the story is revealed in our reading. It concerns Tamar and Judah. Remember Judah was the most vehemently hateful of his brother, Joseph. From this story we see the greatness of the grace of God to forgive and restore even the greatest of sinners.

 

Here was a man so cold that he led his brothers to sell their brother into slavery (cf. Genesis 37: 25-28). On top of that, he ignored his daughter-in-law’s desperate plight (cf. Genesis 38: 11-14). However, God changed his heart, bringing him to repent over his neglect of Tamar (v. 26). Though he did evil like Simeon, Levi, and Reuben before him (34; 35:22), Judah’s repentance results finally in his restoration.

 

Tamar demonstrates the Lord’s grace a bit differently in depicting the great reward that comes to those who honor Him. This remarkable woman willingly left her pagan past to serve the one, true God and His people. When Abraham’s sons according to the flesh would not raise up children for him, ignoring the Lord’s promise, she showed herself to be Abraham’s daughter by faith when she risked her life to give heirs to Judah (cf. Genesis 38:1-26). Her faith, though not meritorious in itself, is crowned when the Lord makes her a matriarch of Israel. Tamar is as important to redemption as Isaac’s wife; like Rebekah, the younger of her twin sons is a key player in God’s plan to save His people (vv. 27–30). We understand this quite well today, for we know clearly that God used Judah and Tamar (through Perez) to bring the Messiah into the world (cf. Matthew 1:1-17). Judah is one of many figures in history who shows us that there are no sinners too wicked for God to redeem. It was God’s purpose and plan to use these means for the redemption of every believer through Jesus. Never give up in your struggle. Turn to your faith even in the most difficult of times.