Daily devotion – Genesis 38 – a messy chapter!
Genesis 38: And it was told Tamar, saying, “Look, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.” 14 So she took off her widow’s garments, covered herself with a veil and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place which was on the way to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not given to him as a wife. 15 When Judah saw her, he thought she was a harlot, because she had covered her face. 16 Then he turned to her by the way, and said, “Please let me come in to you”; for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law.
The Bible gives us the complete picture of humanity – warts and all. Genesis chapter 38 is one of those chapters that oozes things that normally are swept under the carpet.
The question we have to ask is why is this chapter, these events recorded in God’s Word in the first place? One of the major purposes of Genesis is to record the origin and development of the family of Jacob, the founder of the 12 tribes of Israel.
When the Israelites went down to Egypt, they arrived there as one large family, but just four centuries later they would exodus Egypt as a large nation!
Since the tribe of Judah is the royal tribe from which the Messiah would come, anything related to Judah is vital in the story of Genesis. Without this chapter you would wonder at finding Tamar and Perez in our Lord’s genealogy. Perez was an ancestor of King David and therefore an ancestor of Jesus Christ. – Ruth 4:18-22, Matthew 1:11.
But chapter 38 is not just an ancestral record keeping passage, it also has some practical values as well especially in regard to morality. This passage reveals how dangerous it was for God’s people to be in the land of the Canaanites – to be unequally yoked!
{2Co 6:14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?}
There was always the temptation to live like your neighbours instead of like the people of God.
In addition, we see a dramatic contrast between Judah and Joseph. Joseph refused to compromise himself with Potiphar’s wife – Gen 39:7-20 – whereas Judah casually slept with a strange woman he thought was a prostitute.
So we see a continued tragic sinful fall out in the family because of deception.
Jacob used a garment to deceive his father Isaac, and Judah and his brothers used a garment to deceive Jacob. Now Tamar used a garment to deceive Judah. We always reap what we sow!
Judah got into ‘hot water’ when he separated himself from his brothers and started to make friends with the Canaanites in the land. Just like Samson, he saw a woman he liked and took her to be his wife – Judges 14:2.
Both Abraham and Isaac had been careful to see that their sons didn’t marry women of the land lest the “chosen seed” of Israel be polluted with idolatry and immorality.
As we read this messy chapter, because it’s in the Bible, does not mean that God approved of their behaviour, or their sins! For we see their sins were ultimately revealed and judged!
But it does mean that God can take the weak things of this world and still accomplish His purposes!
Grace is amazing!