"And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shuah; and he took her, and went in unto her. And she conceived, and bare a son; and he called his name Er. And she conceived again, and bare a son; and she called his name Onan. And she yet conceived again, and bare a son; and called his name Shelah: and he was at Chezib, when she bare him. And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, whose name was Tamar. And Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD slew him. And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased the Lord: wherefore He slew him also. Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter-in-law, Remain a widow at thy father's house, til Shelah my son be grown: for he said, Lest peradventure he die also, as his brethren did. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house. And in process of time the daughter of Shuah Judah's wife died; and Judah was comforted, and went up unto his sheepshearers to Timnath, he and his friend Hirah the Adulllamite. And it was told Tamar, saying, Behold thy father in law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep. And she put her widow's garments off from her and covered her with a vail, and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place, which is by the way to Timnath; for she saw that Shelah was grown and she was not given unto him to wife. When Judah saw her, he thought her to be an harlot; because she had covered her face. And he turned unto her by the way, and said, Go to, I pray thee, let me come in unto thee; (for he knew not that she was his daughter-in-law.) And she said, What wilt thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me? And he said, I will send thee a kid from the flock. And she said, Wilt thou give me a pledge, til thou send it? And he said, What pledge shall I give thee? And she said, Thy signet, and thy bracelets and thy staff that is in thine hand. And he gave it her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him. And she arose, and went away, and laid by her vail from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood. And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive his pledge from the woman's hand: but he found her not. Then he asked the men of that place, saying, Where is the harlot, that was openly by the way side? And they said, There was no harlot in this place. And he returned to Judah, and said, I cannot find her; and also the men of the place said, that there was no harlot in this place. And Judah said, Let her take it to her, lest we be shamed: behold, I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her." (Genesis 38:1-23)
The Holy Spirit-inspired scriptures are going to detour us away from Joseph for a bit, and cause us to focus on Judah for a moment. Actually the "moment" stretches over many years. In fact, during this detour period Judah will have three sons, and one of his sons will even marry.
Judah has already done a terrible thing in selling his brother Joseph in order to make a profit, AND in order to get rid of the pest that he is. Judah, along with most of his brothers, hates and envies Joseph. Selling him is a good way to get rid of him…forever…at least that is what Judah thinks.
But here in Genesis 38, we see Judah making a second bad decision when he decides to marry a Canaanite woman, just as his Uncle Esau had done many years before. We are never told her name; she is referred to only as the daughter of Shuah, a Canaanite. Through this nameless Canaanite woman, Judah is given three sons: the first-born is Er, the next is Onan, and the youngest is Shelah.
Er is just plain wicked, even though we are not told in what way, "and the LORD slew him." But then, Onan, the second-born son, is commanded by his father to go in unto Tamar and provide seed for her as was the custom of those times, so that his deceased brother Er will have descendants in his name (a custom which God ordained into Levitical law later on.) Onan decides not to accommodate either his father or his dead brother, and in evading his duty, he displeases God greatly…and so he is slain by the LORD as well.
And here is where Judah makes his third mistake. He lies to Tamar, his daughter in law. And he does so because, in his thinking, he has just lost two sons on account of this woman (not that she had any direct part in their deaths, it was simply their own actions that brought about their deaths); nevertheless, Judah has somehow associated their deaths with Tamar (rather than face the truth about his sons apparently), and is fearful that he might lose the third son as well. He promises Tamar his younger son as a husband, when he grows old enough, yet when the time come and the boy is of marrying age, Judah does not follow through with his promise; a promise he never had any intention of fulfilling.
Now for Judah's FOURTH mistake.
Tamar determines to trick Judah, disguises herself as a harlot (apparently she knew Judah would be drawn by a harlot which says not much for his character….as though we were thinking he was of good character to begin with?) and sure enough, Judah takes her up on her offer. He doesn't recognize her. And when he goes in to her, she conceives immediately.
But before this encounter takes place, Tamar shrewdly demands payment, which being a kid goat, Judah doesn't happen to have on him right then. So she asks for collateral, a bond, to be held by her until payment arrives. Judah, doing an even more foolish thing than being with her in the first place, gives her his very personal and unique signet ring which contains a mark or symbol that belongs to Judah alone, along with bracelets and his staff. He thinks nothing of leaving all of this with Tamar, until the kid goat is given to her, at which time he expects to get all of these things back from her.
Now that the moment of lust is passed, however, Judah is obviously aware of the shame involved in visiting this harlot, for instead of revisiting her to give the payment himself, he sends a friend to pay her, and when she cannot be found, he must choose between trying to pursue her in order to get back his very personal things, or dismiss it altogether rather than draw attention to the fact that he used a harlot. He decides to avoid further shame; which tells us he knew it was wrong to go into her in the first place.
To be continued tomorrow…
No comments:
Post a Comment