"And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt. When she was brought forth, she sent to her father in law, saying, By the man, whose these are, am I with child: and she said, Discern, I pray three, whose are these, the signet, and bracelets, and staff. And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more. And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that, behold, twins were in her womb. And it came to pass, when she travailed, that the one put out his hand: and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first. And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out: and she said, How hast thou broken forth? This breach be upon thee: therefore his name was called Pharez. And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon his hand: and his name was called Zarah." (Genesis 38:24-30)
Three months have now passed since Judah consorted with his harlot.
News gets around to Judah that his daughter in law has "played around" and is now pregnant, and so he does what any respectable Middle Eastern man of those times would do and orders her to be burned to death. But Tamar has life insurance in the form of Judah's own signet ring, bracelets and staff. And to Judah's credit, he acknowledges his wrong-doing while also acknowledging that, as deceptive as she was, she was "more righteous" than he had been in the whole incident.
But let's go now to the birth of the twin boys born to Tamar; for there is something important in the birth of these children. Remember that ALL scripture points to Jesus Christ, whether Old Testament or New Testament. It ALL points us to Jesus, if we are careful to look for Him there.
The first born son of Tamar is Pharez, whose name means "breach."
Yet, the hand of the second-born actually emerges from the mother's womb first, before Pharez is born, and the midwife ties a scarlet thread onto his wrist to identify that particular child. The second twin born ends up being the one with the scarlet thread on his wrist. The name given to Him is Zarah whose name means "a rising of light."
Now their births could just be additional information we are given, but I believe there is much meaning in God's Word and sometimes it takes us meditating on it for a bit, pondering it, for us to receive from it all that the Holy Spirit would have us receive.
There is a scripture in Isaiah that reads as follows: "And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising."(Isaiah 60:3) The word "rising" is the same Hebrew word Zerach, sometimes written as Zarah. However, Strong's concordance actually uses "a rising of light" as the definition of the word in Isaiah as well as for the word in Genesis that is written in Hebrew as Zarah.
So whose light is this passage in Isaiah speaking of? Who is most often associated with "light" in the bible? Jesus Christ, of course, who is the "light of the world":
"When jesus spoke again to the people, He said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." (John 8:12)
The light is Jesus, who also happens to have "risen from the dead":
"He is not here; He has risen, just as He said. Come and see the place where he lay." (Matthew 28:6)
It all points to Jesus Christ, whose resurrection could certainly then be referred to as "a rising of light." Could it not?
The Old Testament is full of "types and shadows" of what is to come. I believe that the details of Zarah's birth points us to, and is a type or shadow of, Jesus Christ.
But we are not done with this passage in Genesis 38. There is still more to be gleaned from it.
To be continued tomorrow…
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