Tamar's Faith (Gen 38)

Tamar's faith 

Gen 38

Key verse 38:26a Judah recognized them and said, "She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn't give her to my son Shelah."

Introduction: Genesis ends with salvation of his people Israel from famine. The salvation scheme starts from ch 37 and ends in ch 47. In the process of salvation, two people, Judah and Joseph, played the key role.  Judah’s life is described in ch 38. Joseph’s life is described in ch 39-41 until he became the prime minister of Egypt. Ch 38 describes how Judah made through his life. Here his character, learning and experience in respect to his faith are noted as ch 39-41 reveals the character, faith and learning of Joseph are recorded. The final summation event comes in ch 42-47. In these chapters these two characters collide and resolve the issue of sin and salvation.

This means that without proper understanding of ch 38, we are likely to fail to grasp full meaning and significance of what Judah did in ch 42-27.

Our bias is that because Judah was involved sexually with his daughter in law and it is an egregious sin and repugnant to our moral astuteness, there is nothing much to learn or to discuss about this chapter. One thing we must acknowledge is that God brought out two children from this union and that one of these two children made the linage to Jesus. In other word God looked at this union with positive response, giving two children despite of such sin. We must put aside our moral astuteness in order to find what God was doing. If we insist on what we know, then we are in danger of being self-righteousness, making God unjust or irresponsible.

Introduction:

Judah was a sinner.  Tamar lured her father in law and slept with him one night. Without any doubt both of them were terrible sinners to our eyes. But to them God gave two children, Perez and Zerah. And through these children Judah was not cut off among the children of Israel. Rather the tribe of Judah could proper among all tribes of Israel. Undoubtedly these two children were blessings for Judah and Tamar. How can we reconcile these two things?  God embedded the truth in Gen 38, to answer the question on why God bless them.  If we give ourselves to our own understanding and our self-righteous ideas, then we will be blinded to see what God wants to give us through this chapter. I pray that we may open out heart with humble and contrite heart and learn what God is saying through today’s passage.

Judah left his brothers

In the previous chapter, we noted that 10 brothers ganged up on Joseph and tried to kill him. But by Judah’s persuasion, Joseph’s life was saved and was sold to Median merchants.  When they came home without Joseph, these brothers had to deceive their father and their father Jacob was so depressed and mourned for Joseph for months.  Judah saw all these. He saw vividly how his brothers were evil and filled with murderous threat and hate to their own brother Joseph. He saw the lie that his brothers concocted so as to deceive his father. Most likely Judah could not put up with all these sinfulness among his brothers and left them all together in order to look for someone or some place where he did not have to think about all these. So he went to a gentile friend and He stayed with Adullam; it was a clear expression of his distaste toward his brothers and family and seeking comfort from friendship with a Canaanite man. And here he married a Canaanite woman, a daughter of Shua. Through her he got three children; Er. Onan and Shelah. All these happened at Kezib (Jacob lived in Mamre, Hebron) He got a wife for his first son Er. Her name was Tamar. But Er (7) was wicked in the Lord’s sight so the Lord put him to death. In order to bear a child for Er, Tamar was given to his brother Onan. But when he knew that the son she would bear not be his own, he spilled his semen. It was wicked in God’s eyes and the Lord put him to death as well. (8) Like this, these two sons born by the daughter of Shua were wicked and unworthy for God’s blessing.  One death may be considered as an unfortunate event. But two deaths back to back were different. It made a strong allusion for something wrong. The author stated that God put them to death because of their wickedness. If God was telling Judah through these two deaths, what might it be? Most likely like this; marrying a Canaanite woman yielded ungodly children and ungodly children cannot inherit God’s blessing.  In this way these two deaths marked God’s signature statement.  But Judah did not see this. He thought that Tamar was the source of problem. So he said this:

V11 Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Live as a widow in your father's household until my son Shelah grows up." For he thought, "He may die too, just like his brothers." So Tamar went to live in her father's household.

Judah was afraid that if Tamar was given to his third, only son Shelah, he would die as well. So he told Tamar to go back to her parents and stay there until Shelah grow up. It was just an excuse not to give her to Shelah. Though he did not express such feeling overtly, in his heart, Judah blamed Tamar as the culprit or cause of these two deaths.  Shadow of death overwhelmed him and he could not get away from the fear of death, particularly in regard to his third son Shelah.  Judah was not aware of his sins or was not willing to admit ungodliness in his family. In his spiritual blindness he blamed Tamar.

How could Tamar feel about the death of two husbands?

Death speaks a most powerful statement, no matter what the statement might be, especially when the death were premature or early death at young age.  What did she do wrong that these things happened back to back? To her it was obvious that these two brothers were evil in God’s eyes and God put them to death as punishment. But how could she defend herself from such false notion from her father in law? He was the authority and he only could make decision for her.

So, as she was told, she wore widows’ clothes and went her parent’s home. She had to live as if she was a convicted sinner in whom God’s judgment loomed around.  If she was not given to the third son Shelah, then she had no chance to prove her innocence and had to live and die as a wicked widow in whom God’s wrath was hanging. Furthermore she would be excluded from this family of God for good. Even if she was given to Shelah, unless she bore a child, then she could not undo her father-in-law’s idea and exonerate herself from false accusation. 

Since she went home and lived as widow, long time passed.

12 After a long time Judah's wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him.

We do not know how many years passed since. But it was a long time more than enough for Shelah grew up to be a mature adult.  Yet until this time, Tamar was forgotten or ignored by her father in law.  To her, Judah’s inaction made good evidence that her father in law had no intention to bring her back to his family again. This meant she had to live to die as widow and as the one who caused the deaths of two brothers.  A barren and cursed woman! She had to live as a condemned woman!  Who could understand her sorrow or how could she prove her innocence? How could she exonerate herself from such blame or false accusation? Could her life be truly meaningful and fruitful ever?

While she was living in sorrow and bitterness, she heard that her mother in law died. What comes of this?

The death of Judah’s wife implies two things:

·         There was no son except Shelah and if Shelah did not marry or would not have a child, then Judah’s name would be cut off among his brothers. There would be no one to inherit God’s blessing for him. This was a serious matter.
In reviewing the name of the children went to Egypt in Gen 46, there was no son through Shelah. With this we can possibly assume that none of the sons born through the daughter of Canaanite man Shua came to have any children to inherit God’s blessing.

·         Judah lost the comfort of his wife. It may be the occasion whereby his goodness or his ungodly desires might be revealed.

Tamar saw an opportunity to prove her innocence

How could she do that? It had to be to his father in law and it had to do with bearing a child.  So in order to challenge her father-in-law’s wrong perception on her, she thought over and over and devised a plan.

13 When Tamar was told, "Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep," 14 she took off her widow's clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.

·         She took off the widow’s clothes; this means that she lived a chaste life as a widow.  There was no indication or hint whatsoever that she had any marital unfaithfulness or unchaste life. She kept herself pure.

·         She disguised herself as a harlot, most like the shrine prostitute of the time. This was her determination to test one person, her father-in-law in his morality. Did she allure him actively or enticed him with her beauty? It was possible. But it is highly unlikely what we think of harlots of today. She was simply made herself available for him in order to see what he would do.  

·         She tested herself in God.  

In this will, she took a great risk.  She was making herself open to adultery. If this was caught, then she would surely be condemned to death. So she put life on the line by this attempt. She put all her being on this event. If she was found guilty she would be put to death and if she was not found guilty then, she would be exonerated from the charge as evil and cursed woman.

Also this was a very foolish way to entrap her father in law’s ‘ungodly’ behavior. What was the chance that Judah failed to know who she was? The chance is very slim. It is almost 99% that Judah would recognize her. If he would recognize her and charge her with adultery, what would happen? Surely a death! She was willing to die! If there was even a slim chance to prove her innocence then, she would take that chance! What about bearing a child at one night sleep? But this is also very low unless she could control all things at an exact time. But was it in her control? No! The time and place were all Judah’s choice and she had no control over when and where!

What does this tell us about Tamar? While she lived as widow, it became obvious that no one would accept her innocence. Even if her parents might accept her innocence or sympathize with her, it did not matter to her as long as he had to live as a widow and a woman of God’s wrath. Simply such life was not worthy! In this attempt she was willing to test herself if God is with her or not. If God is not with her she was willing to die. In this way, she committed her life to the invisible hand of God and entrusted all things in God’s hand.   In this decision, there was only two she counted, herself and God who controls everything.

Read v15-19, 20-23

But an impossible thing happened. Judah failed to recognize her but also took her for a night. She demanded a payment and as a token of payment she got Judah’s cord, seal and staff.  Things happened as exactly she hoped for, which was possible having less than one tenth of a percent in actual life. In addition, more remarkable thing happened.  She became pregnant.  She was hidden from Judah’s search for three month until her tommy was growing big. How could these possible? Only by God Almighty power and by His will!

On the other hand, Judah never knew what happened that night. He forgot all. Three months passed by and someone told him that Tamar played harlotry and was pregnant.  As soon as he heard this, Judah said this:

24, .."Bring her out and have her burned to death!"

Here we can see that Judah had a strong sense of right and wrong. As for Judah, Tamar should have remained as a widow. But she became pregnant. It was clear evidence that she committed adultery. All along, Judah held the belief that Tamar was the cause of death of his children.  Tamar’s pregnancy seemed to prove his belief. So he would not tolerate sin at all.. He commanded to bring her out so that she might be burned to death as the one committed adultery. After all he was so good and righteous in his own eyes.

But at this time, Tamar sent three items from his father in law—seal, cord and staff. All were his personal possessions that he gave to a shrine prostitute. Actually it was he that slept with Tamar and she became pregnant through him. He was the father of the bay in her womb. As soon as he received these articles, he was appalled and in shock, he said this;

26 Judah recognized them and said, "She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn't give her to my son Shelah." And he did not sleep with her again.

Judah saw the light of life first time in his life

Now his wife died and her death meant something more. Shelah would be the only son for him. If Shelah did not marry, there would be no chance for him to have a grandson. He had no choice but to give Tamar to Shelah. This was what he promised to her. He was still lingering in between fear and his righteousness. Not having a child is a curse from God.

This is the picture of a man who is so right in his own eyes and yet he cannot do what he should do. This is the exact picture of man’s inability to do what is right. What was the most formidable stumbling block for him? Actually it was his sin and fear of death and inability to see God’s grace and power! 

As soon as he received the three items with her word, a lightening shock came to his mind;

1.    He was the one that sinned and must be condemned to death instead of her.

2.    She was far more righteous than he. No one paid any attention to her goodness. Especially he blamed her for the two deaths of his sons. But she spoke of her innocence by her life. She gave everything, even her life, to testify to the truth. It was all by trusting God and committing her life in God’s hand.

3.    Despite of her ungodly act, God accepted her and blessed her. The evidence of God’s blessing was the child growing in her tommy.

Until this time, Judah lived a life that was good and righteous in his own eyes. He held the belief that he was right and better than his brothers and lived honestly. But for the first time Judah came to realized that he was wrong and was a helpless sinner. His daughter in law, Tamar was right and her life giving submission to God was so beautiful. It was not human goodness that made one right in the eyes of God but it is the trust that she held in God’s justice and mercy.

Judah did not see such things among his brothers. Actually he did not see this at all from anyone. At the crisis of life Tamar sought God in such desperation and God awarded her with such blessing. So for the first time in his life, Judah came to know this great faith in his life. Righteousness is not in our good and moral behavior. Many try to live good and righteous life. In some sense this was what Judah was trying to do when he left his brothers. But he himself fell into sin and disobeying God.

She was more righteous than I. He was admitting that he was worse than she and he was willing to take the responsibility her wrongs.

In this way he also admitted that she had faith that God blessed. It is amazing that what he could not do, she did it by faith, bearing a child for his next generation.

Genuine faith is that faith entrusts one’s life on God’s hand. Until we do, all else is human goodness and righteousness. It tends to justify himself or herself and bring judgment on others. It cannot overcome the huddle, fear of death.

God counted Tamar’s faith and blessed her with twin children.

Why did God accept her and bless her with two children? It is most intriguing and difficult to understand. But I will try to make a best understanding of this.

She made herself available to the sinful desire of Judah. She did not commit sin by heart but made herself vulnerable to God’s discretion in disguising herself as a prostitute before Judah.  It was the sin of Judah that made the union. It was clear in what Judah’s said, she is more righteousness than I. Judah’ was accepting full responsibility of his sin in this ungodly union. So, this does not quality to say that God accept faith even if it is expressed in morally reprehensive way.

One of her primary motive was to have a son, the posterity for the family. For this, Judah was unable to do and was struggling in fear. For this, she was willing to risk everything, even her life.

What does this say about God?

1.            God counts the faith that honors God’s sovereignty as the judge and blesser regardless of how sinful one might be. This faith is expressed by committing one’s life in God’s hand.

2.            God fulfills his promise even through those who are sinful and ungodly.

3.            God is eager to give life through the faith that trusts him.

After all what is the faith that God speaks through Tamar? It is daring action to make oneself bare to the charges of righteous judgment of men where God’s goodness and righteousness may be demonstrated.  God cherishes and seeks such kind of faith that Tamar had and was willing to give life through that faith.

How did this newly found faith work in Judah’s life?

Genesis 44:16 "What can we say to my lord?" Judah replied. "What can we say? How can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants' guilt. We are now my lord's slaves --we ourselves and the one who was found to have the cup."

Joseph did not say anything about their guilty, particularly on Judah and the rest of brothers except Benjamin. But he said ‘God has uncovered your servants’ guilt’ He mentioned God and he mentioned guilt before God. Judah saw God’s rebuke through Joseph’s demand and charge to Benjamin. It is exactly what he felt when Tamar sent his three items, cord, seal and staff. He saw invisible God and God is doing all these things.

Genesis 44:32 Your servant guaranteed the boy's safety to my father. I said, 'If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!' 33 "Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord's slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. 34 How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come on my father."

For v32 as I addressed, Judah could not keep his word because of fear of death. He lingered so long and never be able to keep his word to Tamar. But here he dared to keep what he said to his father even by his life! He did not fear! He had courage to do so!

In v33. Judah risked everything, including his life as a slave for life! He was making himself bear to Joseph’s God’s disposition no matter how awful it might be.  But in reality he was exposing himself bear to God’s goodness and His justice. He believed what God would do was right and good for him! He believed in God’s righteousness! This was exactly what Tamar did show to Judah when she presented herself with child, a committed adultery!

Since God began the work of salvation by calling one man, Abraham, God worked on salvation of men. In the life of Abraham, God delineated the content of faith. It was about who God must be in the hearts of men. In this drama of salvation for Jacob and his children, God revealed what genuine faith is in lieu of men’s sin. It first appears in the life of Tamar and this is captured by Judah and then he became able to meet the demands of sin that led to the salvation of entire family. This spirit continued in David and then in Jesus God crystalized that faith. It is seen in what Jesus said ‘my God, My God why have you forsaken me!  This is the faith that entrust everything in God’s justice and righteousness and the faith that upholds God’s absolute authority as the judge and as the blesser of all men.

It is amazing that in a woman, Tamar, the genuine faith appears first and it was carried on to man. Women in faith are the source of that power for all men!  If or when women fail to live by such faith, men may just live in blindness of self-righteousness!  Woman of faith, how precious they are then and now! This is the source of life giving power!