Genesis 38 – Judah and Tamar
I have decided to not preach Genesis 38 from the pulpit this week but to address it here in the newsletter. It’s certainly a difficult passage to preach, but more concerning to me is the very sexual nature of the passage and the many small children that we have with us each week in worship. It would be nearly impossible to dance around the many adult themes and still speak directly to the consequences of sin we see in this passage.
This passage is a mess! Judah, the fourth son of Leah, advocates for selling his half-brother Joseph into foreign slavery for profit, participates in a conspiracy to fake Joseph’s death, then lies to his parents about the entire thing for over twenty years. After the Joseph situation, Judah goes to Canaan and marries a foreign wife. It appears to be a purely lustful and carnal relationship. He sees her, wants her, and proceeds to have at least three sons with her (Genesis 46:12). He does marry her at some point, but it was abundantly clear to Judah that the descendants of Abraham were never to marry foreign, idol worshipping women. Judah’s grandfather was Isaac! Abraham made it abundantly clear that his descendants should never marry unbelieving, or wrongly believing, foreign women (Genesis 24).
Throughout Scripture we are constantly reminded to never marry outside of the faith. Only sadness, spiritual compromise, and divided heritage can come from trying to join the godly with the ungodly. Judah marries a foreign woman and with her raises ungodly sons. The chapter tells us that Judah’s first two sons, Er and Onan, were wicked in the sight of the Lord. The Lord intentionally executed both of them for their sinfulness. We are not told exactly what Er’s sin related to, but we are told that Onan used his dead brother’s wife for sexual pleasure, while refusing to fulfill his mandated family heritage role of bearing children.
This command is outlined in Deuteronomy 25:5-10. The command for a younger brother to have children by an older brother’s childless widow, seems bizarre and perverse in our age. However, we live in a completely different historical and cultural setting. In that ancient day a childless widow had no place in the world. The world was tied together by family relationships and inherited land and property rights. In that day, to intentionally leave a brother’s widow childless was to do her great harm. To not help her was considered insult enough, as seen in Deuteronomy 25, but to use her sexually while intentionally withholding children angered the Lord unto putting Onan to death.
With two dead sons, Judah does not give Tamar to his third son. When it becomes clear that Judah will not give her to another son, she begins to scheme to get herself pregnant. This carries on the family habit of sinful scheming to manipulate circumstances and get what you want. As the story goes, Tamar lures Judah dressed as a prostitute and is impregnated by her father-in-law! This is a universally recognized sinful and inappropriate situation. In no uncertain terms, prostitution should have no place in the life of the godly – and incestuous prostitution is on another level of perversion. Only terrible things can come from such out-of-control sexual lust.
When Tamar begins to show with pregnancy, Judah wants her executed for her “shameful” sexual sin. However, she has covered her tracks well and is able to prove that Judah is the father, which reveals his rank hypocrisy, and he changes his tune immediately. Judah leaves her alone from that point onward.
What are we to make of this chapter? Why is this short, perverse, and sinful story in the Bible? I have a few ideas. First, it is essential to understand that because a series of events are recorded in Scripture, does not mean those events are right or good. The Old Testament is filled with stories that describe events that took place, but they do not prescribe that these actions are right or good. This series of events are described but are certainly not good or to be emulated. This chapter of events stands as a negative example; an example of what we should never do.
Second, this passage stands as a great warning against sinful living, especially sexually sinful living. God takes our sexual behavior (which is tied closely to our passions) very seriously. Our sexual actions are moral actions. Sexual sin is a significant sin before the Lord. In this instance, it leads to an early death. Sexual relations must be confined to the marriage of one biological man and one biological woman where it produces all manner of blessings. All perversions outside of that produces suffering (emotional and physical) and death (both physical and spiritual).
Third, the great ungodliness of Judah is a foil to the godliness of Joseph. Examining the absolute sexual purity of Joseph in chapter 39 shines out even more compared to the sinfulness of his brother, Judah. God’s reward to Joseph for his godliness versus the death and long-term struggle of Judah for his sin are significantly worked out in the chapters to come.
Fourth, we are given great hope that through the grace of God anyone can change. Later in the story of Joseph (Genesis 44:33), Judah is the one who proves his changed character through willingness to be imprisoned in the stead of Benjamin, his younger half-brother. This is the exact opposite attitude that Judah had over 20 years ago with Joseph. It is Judah’s display of genuine character and love that finally breaks Joseph’s heart and tough posture toward his brothers. Somewhere along the way Judah had a change of heart, and the grace of God is shown toward him through the grace of Joseph.
We live in a deeply sexually sinful age, where the misery of sexual sin is compounded all around us. I urge you to be warned by passages like Genesis 38 and be inspired by passages like Genesis 39! Let us not “sin against the Lord” (Genesis 39:9) but strive toward godliness and a pure life by the help of the Lord. Let us urge our sons and daughters toward this high calling of purity and let us urge those who have wandered far away to confess their sins, receive the forgiveness of God, and go to sin no more in these ways. In the grace of God there is hope that all things can be made new!
Praise Jesus for His grace toward us,
Pastor Vic