OUR
FATHER'S
WORD
"Thy word is a lamp unto my
feet, and a light
unto my path."
Psalm 119:105
________________________________________________________________________________
JUDAH AND TAMAR
by Jim Lisenby
________________________________________________________________________________
Genesis
38 is interesting. It is a tragic story of mistakes and
disobedience
basically concerning the subject of adultery, and preserving the pure
bloodline
of Messiah. It is also the story of the events surrounding the
relationship
between Judah and Tamar. Curiously, it appears abruptly in
the middle of the story of Joseph. Joseph's story stops
temporarily
at the end of chapter 37 and resumes again in chapter 39. It is
noteworthy
to observe that much is said of Joseph in Genesis, but not so much
about
Judah. Chapter 38 then is an important inset chapter concerning
Judah
and what happened to him and his family.
These
two, of all Jacob's children, are foremost. Judah from Jacob and
Leah, and Joseph from Jacob and Rachel. Judah received the
kingship of Israel and his descendants ultimately produced our
Redeemer.
Joseph received the birthright of Israel and his progeny
eventually
became some of the most blessed people on Earth.
Genesis
38 is important historically because it shows a link in the genealogy
of
Jesus Christ. It is also important in that it shows how God can
work
out circumstances regardless of the situation, and how that He is
faithful
to do exactly what He said He would do. Our Lord would spring
from
Judah, and Judah would receive the blessing he was promised even if he
sometimes erred just like we all do. Judah erred greatly because
of his carnal human nature and possibly because of some outside
interference
from the evil one. Satan is nowhere mentioned in the story,
but I'm not so sure that he wasn't involved.
Now,
before we get into the meat of the story we need to establish one
critical
fact. The Holy Bible contains a record of events from Adam
to Christ, but throughout it the central thread is Christ and His
genealogy,
or ancestry. It is important that you absorb this concept
thoroughly
because it is the basis of the problem in the story of Judah and Tamar.
In
this lesson I have included the entire text of Genesis 38 from
the King James Version of the Holy Bible, as well as other scriptures
from
the KJV.
Other
sources used are: Judah's Testament
from The
Testaments
of the Twelve Patriarchs, hereinafter
called Judah;
and The Book of
Jubilees, hereinafter called Jubilees.
All
Judah
and Jubilees
references and quotes are from The Old
Testament Pseudepigrapha (Doubleday), Volumes 1 and 2,
edited
by James H. Charlesworth.
The
pedigree of Jesus Christ.
The
lineage of Christ is recorded in Matthew 1 and also in Luke 3 and we
should
briefly visit them. Why? To show that Judah, Tamar and
their
son Pharez are included in those pedigrees and to firmly establish the
fact that they were the ancestors of Jesus of Nazareth. If you go
there to read all of His ancestry, don't get hung up on the fact that
these
two lineages are different. That is another lesson for another
time,
so for now be content to know that they are included in both Matthew
and
Luke as the following verses show.
Matt.
1:2 Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat
Judas
and his brethren;
Matt.
1:3 And Judas begat
Phares and Zara of Thamar;
and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram;
Luke
3:33 Which
was the son of Aminadab, which was the son of Aram, which was the son
of
Esrom, which was the son of
Phares, which was the son of Juda,
The
prohibition from God concerning adultery.
The
patriarchs of Israel (Judah's great-grandfather Abraham, his
grandfather
Isaac, and his father Jacob) knew that the Messiah, Savior of the
world,
would come through them and it was for this reason that Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob all avoided intermarriage with the Canaanites which would
have
polluted the bloodline. They knew that they were not to commit adultery.
They were not the only ones to know this,
all those in the lineage of Jesus Christ were aware of it. In
addition,
Satan and the fallen angels (the nephilim) also knew these
things and it was for that reason that Satan seduced Eve (which
produced
Cain, the first false messiah) and the fallen angels seduced the
daughters
of Adam (which produced the giants of Genesis 6). For more on
this
see my article on Adultery
at
ourfathersword.org.
Abraham
knew of the prohibition against corrupting the bloodline.
Gen.
24:1 And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age: and the LORD
had blessed Abraham in all things.
Gen. 24:2 And
Abraham
said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he
had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh:
The
King James translators may have been very cautious and polite here in
their
interpretation of this last verse. Some scholars say that
Abraham's
servant
did not put his hand under the thigh at all but actually grasped the
genitals
(the source of the man's seed, or DNA), in preparation for swearing an
oath. Don't be shocked. Whatever he did, it really was not
unlike the customs of
today
so much. In the United States we lay the left hand on the Bible
and
raise the right hand to swear an oath. The customs may have
changed with the times but the same old idea is still around, and that
is:
do something physical to produce a psychological commitment.
Gen.
24:3 And I will make thee swear by the LORD, the God of heaven,
and
the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of
the
daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell:
Gen.
24:4
But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife
unto
my son Isaac.
As you can see from these
verses, Abraham considered acquiring the proper wife for his son Isaac
was of the utmost importance.
Isaac
and Jacob knew of
the prohibition
against intermarriage.
Gen.
28:1 And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him,
and
said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.
Gen.
28:2 Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother’s
father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy
mother’s brother.
Gen.
28:3 And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and
multiply
thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people;
Gen.
28:4 And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy
seed
with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a
stranger,
which God gave unto Abraham.
Gen.
28:5 And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padanaram unto
Laban,
son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob’s and Esau’s
mother.
Gen.
28:6 When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and sent him
away
to Padanaram, to take him a wife from thence; and that as he blessed
him
he gave him a charge, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife of the
daughters
of Canaan;
Gen.
28:7 And
that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padanaram;
Rebecca
and Esau knew of it.
Rebecca knew of it, and so
her son
Esau had to know of it also, but apparently he did not care. It
was
for this reason she knew that Esau, even though he was the firstborn,
would
not be the one through whom the Messiah would come because he had
intermarried
with the Canaanites. The last two verses of Genesis 26 record
that
fact.
Gen.
26:34 And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith
the
daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the
Hittite:
Gen.
26:35
Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah
Do
you see the serious nature of the problem which Esau had created in
this
case? He did not let his parents have any say-so with regards to
whom he was to marry, but he went off on his own and did it himself
without their blessing. In so doing he made wrong choices that
disqualified him from the birthright that would have been his, as well
as having the honor of being an ancestor of Messiah. His parents
literally grieved over it. Because of what he did here, his
brother Jacob would take his place and receive the blessing.
Esau lost the right
to be a patriarchal ancestor of Messiah because
of his adultery!
The last two verses of
Genesis 26 reveal Esau's sin, and the next chapter, Genesis 27,
records
how Jacob at the behest of his mother took the birthright blessing from
Esau
because
he had polluted his bloodline. Go and read what happened in
Genesis 27.
It seems that Rebecca was
determined
that the Messiah would come with a pure semitic pedigree (descended
from Shem) because she
initiated
the action to make sure that Jacob received the birthright. It is
possible from the story line that Isaac was old, and blind, and
feeble,
and perhaps unable to resolve the problem. In other words,
Rebecca
may have been forced to take the initiative and do what she did.
Yes,
Esau was irresponsible for marrying a Canaanite and a Hittite, and so
it would be
from
his fraternal twin brother Jacob, who was renamed Israel by God,
that the Messiah would come. You can see from the verses quoted
above
from Genesis 28 that Jacob was required by Isaac (and Rebecca) to keep
his bloodline pure. How does Judah play into all this? As
it
turns out, Messiah was to come through him also. Did he know
this?
Maybe, maybe not. In any case, he blew it.
Judah
makes
the same
serious mistake that his uncle Esau did.
Gen.
38:1 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.
Gen.
38:2 And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose
name was Shuah; and he took her, and went in unto her.
Gen.
38:3 And she conceived, and bare a son; and he called his name Er.
Gen.
38:4 And she conceived again, and bare a son; and she called his
name Onan.
Gen.
38:5 And
she yet again conceived, and bare a son; and called his name Shelah:
and
he was at Chezib, when she bare him.
Judah
8:1
I had many cattle; I had Hiram the Adullamite as chief herdsman.
Judah
8:2 When
I approached
him, I saw Barsaba, the king of Adullam. He conversed with us and
held a drinking party for us. When I urged him, he gave me his
daughter,
Saba, as a wife.
Judah
8:3 She
bore me
Er, Onan, and Shelom. The Lord took away two of them, but Shelom
lived.
Judah's
wife is called Saba in Judah, Bedsuel in Jubilees,
and
the daughter of Shuah in the KJV.
Judah
11:1 And I knew that the race of the Canaanites was evil, but
youthful
impulses blinded my reason,
Judah
11:2 and when I saw her, I was led astray by the strong drink and
had intercourse with her.
Judah
was under the influence of alcohol, his hormones, and possibly some
other
things when he decided to take Saba as wife. She was a
Canaanite
and Judah was aware that he should not marry her. She was
probably
beautiful and sexy and he was strongly attracted to her.
In
any case, he set himself up for future grief and tragedy.
Tamar
enters the picture.
Gen.
38:6 And
Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, whose name was Tamar.
Judah 10:1
After this
my son Er brought from Mesopotamia, Tamar, daughter of Aram, as a wife
for himself.
Jubilees
41:1
And in the forty-fifth jubilee, in the second week, in the second year,
Judah took a wife for Er, his firstborn, from the daughters of Aram,
and
her name was Tamar.
Judah had married a Canaanite
and regreted it. He didn't want his sons to do the same so he
chose a wife for Er from the land, and people of his heritage.
Tamar
was from the area of Aram or Mesopotamia. The area from which
Isaac
and Jacob took their wives. See Gen. 24:4 and 28:7 above.
She
was of the same basic stock of Shem (she had a semitic pedigree) from
which Abraham sprang and
obviously
was acceptable to God as an ancestor of Jesus Christ.
There
was still a problem though because Er was half Canaanite and Judah
wanted
him to produce grandchildren by Tamar. Judah loved his children
regardless
of their origin and maybe he was trying to make the best the situation,
but offspring of his Canaanite sons would not be acceptable to God to
continue
his bloodline from which the Messiah was to come. Judah may have
thought that it was okay to continue with Er as long as his wife was
semitic (descended from Shem).
Gen.
38:7
And Er,
Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD
slew
him.
Was Er really that bad? I don't think so. It is
interesting to
note that the Hebrew word ra (Strong's No.
7451) which is translated wicked in this
verse can also be translated wrong in certain
cases. It seems to me that this might be the better translation
in this case. It
is fitting to say that Er was wrong to be an
ancestor of
Christ and that is why he was removed. Ra is usually
translated evil or wicked but can
mean any number of adverse or sinister things. Was Er so evil or
wicked that he had to be killed? I don't buy it. As
a general rule God doesn't just go around killing people because they
are
wicked, especially individuals as young as Er. Besides Er was not
really the problem here, it was Judah trying to force something
contrary
to God's will. Judah was the problem here but he apparently
didn't
know it and it cost him the life of his son.
It
is obvious from Genesis 38:6 and Jubilees 41:1 above that Judah picked
Tamar for Er. But, in Jubilees we find that Er never wanted Tamar
for his wife, he wanted one of the Canaanite women but Judah would not
allow it.
Judah
himself verified this in his testament which he gave many years later
after these events.
Judah
10:2
Er was wicked, and a difficulty arose concerning Tamar, because she was
not of the land of Canaan. An angel of the Lord took him away on
the third night.
So does the book of Jubilees.
Jubilees
41:2
But he hated (her) and would not lie with her because his mother was
from
the daughters of Canaan. And he wanted to take a wife from his
mother's
people, but Judah, his father, did not permit him.
Jubilees
41:3
He had
not had intercourse with her, in keeping with his mother's treacherous
scheme, because he did not want to have children by her.
Wow,
unbelievable! Er never
had intercourse with Tamar. Now hold
on a minute! Before you reject that idea totally, remember that
we
don't really know the nature of their customs back then. Let's
just
say that it is possible.
There
may have been other things that interplayed here. Perhaps she was
also too plain-Jane and modest for Er. Maybe the Canaanite girls
were sexier and more appealing to a young man. Judah was
obviously
impressed by them because he married one.
Additionally,
it is clear from the above verses that Er's mother, Saba, did not like
Tamar and turned her sons against having children by her because she
was
not of Canaan.
Er
was now dead but Judah still didn't understand what he was trying to do
was wrong. In any case, if something didn't happen to change the
situation, Judah would have no suitable offspring to carry on his
lineage. It almost seems that Judah was somehow mentally
disconnected from the idea of keeping his bloodline purely semitic
(descended from Shem). Perhaps he thought that he was the only
one that mattered, and that who, or what, his wife happened to be was
not critical.
Gen.
38:8 And
Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and
raise up seed to thy brother.
This
was a common custom in those days and was later included by God in His
law that he gave to Moses. See Deuteronomy 25:5 But even
so,
Judah was not thinking straight and he committed another serious faux
pas.
Gen.
38:9 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.
What
an interesting verse! Onan knew that the seed should
not be his and he took positive action. There could be one or
more
reasons why he did.
1) He was
honoring
a request of his mother not to have children by Tamar.
2)
He didn't want to have children for his brother.
3)
He may have realized it was against God's will for him to have children
by Tamar.
4)
Maybe he knew that the Messiah could not come through him because he
was
half Canaanite.
5)
He did
not want
to die like his brother Er.
6)
Any or all of
the above.
Consider items 3 and 4 above
very carefully. Remember that Israel (Jacob) was his grandfather
and Leah was his grandmother. They were a clan with Israel as the
patriarch and Leah as the prime matriarch. Surely Onan
received instructions in righteousness from his elders, especially from
a loving grandfather and grandmother. Perhaps he knew that the seed, or
Messiah, could not come through him. In
any case, what Onan did in this situation has been totally
misunderstood.
The birth control practice called
onanism has two meanings.
Look it up for yourself, you can find it in any good dictionary.
According
to Judah he never had intercourse with Tamar even though he was
with her for a year.
Judah
10:4
In the days designated for the bridal chamber, I assigned Onan to
fulfill
the marital role with her.
Again, we don't really know
what their
marital customs were like in those days. Just like with Er, it is
also possible that Onan did not couple with Tamar, but for a different
reason.
Gen.
38:10
And the thing which he
did displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him
also.
This
verse 10 has also been grossly misunderstood and mistaught.
He
who? The first he is Judah, not
Onan! Onan did
nothing wrong. The second he is the
LORD, and the him
is Onan.
God didn't take Onan for bad sexual conduct. He took him for the
same reason he took Er, Judah was trying to produce unacceptable heirs
through him.
If Onan was with Tamar for a
year as has been stated, then God was very
patient
with Judah with respect to the life of his second son. Finally
the situation reached critical mass
and resulted in the removal of Onan also. Under continued
pressure from
Judah,
Onan may have decided to comply with his father's wishes to couple with
Tamar, so God prevented it from ever happening in the most effective
way.
Why Tamar was so important to God in this case is not clear, but it
seems that she was. Regardless, that doesn't change the fact that
Judah was the problem. He had not produced a suitable heir for
the line to continue.
Many
times Satan had attempted to corrupt the bloodline of Christ and never
succeeded, (study my article on Adultery)
and here is Judah playing right into his hands. Even if he wasn't
directly involved how he must have enjoyed all this.
Gen
38:11 Then
said Judah to Tamar his daughter in law, Remain a widow at thy father’s
house, till 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.
Judah
is finally awakening to the fact that there just might be a problem,
after
two of his sons are dead. Sadly, most of us also require a good
bang on the
ear before we repent.
It
has been said that experience is the best teacher. Friends, that
is wrong!
Example
is the best teacher and experience is the worst, however experience can
be the most profound. Therefore, choose the best and learn from
the
examples provided in the scriptures.
Judah's Canaanite wife dies.
Gen.
38:12 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 Adullamite.
But before she died she
had Shelom marry a Canaanite wife which apparently enraged Judah.
Judah
ll:3 While I was absent, she went off and brought from Canaan a
wife
for Shelom.
Judah
11:4 When I realized what she had done, I pronounced a curse on
her
in the anguish of my soul,
Judah
11:5 and she died in her wickedness, together with her children.
If Judah actually voiced these words in his testament, then
how he must have grown to despise her. He also was embittered
concerning his children through her.
Jubilees
41:7
And he (Shelom) grew up, but Bedsuel, Judah's wife, did not
permit Selah (Shelom), her son, to marry (Tamar).
And Bedsuel, Judah's wife, died in the fifth year of that week.
Take another look at Gen.
38:12. What does it mean, and Judah was comforted?
Does it mean that he received comforting condolences and support from
others,
or is it possible that Judah came to dislike his Canaanite wife so much
that he may have drawn comfort from her death? Judah may never
have
married again after his unfortunate experience with this Canaanite
woman.
As a matter of fact, to my knowledge, he never married again. How
then would our Lord spring from Judah? What a sad state of
affairs.
And you thought that you had problems!
It
is very possible that Shelom, Judah's third and only remaining son,
married and went on to have grandchildren for him,
but they wouldn't have been acceptable as ancestors of Christ.
What happened
to Shelom after this is not recorded in the Bible.
Tamar
decides to act.
Gen.
38:13 And it was told Tamar, saying, Behold thy father in law goeth up
to Timnath to shear his sheep.
Poor
Tamar! How she must have suffered through these times. Now
everyone in Judah's family was dead except her, Judah, and
Shelom.
After waiting all these years, trusting Judah, she finally realized
that
Shelom would never be her husband. Saba had not approved of her
and
Judah had lied to her. How sad for her.
What
she did next seems bizarre, but I firmly believe that Tamar was a fine
woman, in full control of her senses, and was led to do what she did by
God's direct intervention because Judah was drifting spiritually.
Some
might say that God doesn't do things the way this happened because what
Tamar did was a sin. By whose definition of sin? 1 John 3:4
defines sin.
1
John
3:4
Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the
transgression
of the law.
Whose
law? God's law! He sets the guidelines for sin, not
man.
The law was not codified until Israel left Egypt well over two hundred
years after these events took place. As conditions change, God
makes
changes.
Example:
Men who descended from Adam were apparently allowed to marry their
sisters
in the beginning. Today, that would be incest and is
prohibited
by God's law, but not then. When the gene pool became
sufficiently
weak God disallowed it further.
Always
remember, and never forget, that God is in control. Full and
total
control. The old saying, "God works in
mysterious ways His wonders
to perform", is true. They are a mystery to us because we
can't
see
clearly. God will never perform an unrighteous act based on the
standards
He has set forth for us to live by. Unrighteous and ignorant men
accuse him of doing so because they judge by the rules of men, which in
some cases come from the devil himself, the master deceiver.
Gen.
38:14 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.
Gen. 38:15
When Judah
saw her, he thought her to be an harlot; because she had covered her
face.
Judah
12 and
Jubilees
41 record that she put her bridal array back on, made herself
beautiful
and put a veil on her face. If the events recorded in Judah
and
Jubilees
are correct, her marriages had never been consumated and she was still
a virgin, so her bridal clothes were not inappropriate.
Tamar
had decided to use Judah to impregnate her, that much is evident.
It was not really unthinkable because Judah no longer had a wife and
she
was childless. This was about to be corrected. Judah was
finally
going to be outsmarted and humbled. What a plot for a
movie!
Hollywood, wake up!
Judah is taken in by Tamar.
Gen
38:16 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?
Gen.
38:17 And he said, I will send thee a kid from the flock. And she said,
Wilt thou give me a pledge, till thou send it?
Gen.
38:18 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.
Gen.
38:19 And she arose, and went away, and laid by her vail from her, and
put on the garments of her widowhood.
Gen.
38:20 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.
Gen. 38:21
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.
I
know in my heart that no female ancestor of our Lord was ever a harlot,
acted like a harlot, or dressed like a harlot. No, not Rahab, nor
Ruth, nor Tamar.
Tamar's
name.
An
ancient wise man (perhaps Socrates or one of his ilk, I can't recall)
once
avered that in the meaning of names there is wisdom. Let us now
consider
the name Tamar
and what it means. It means palm
tree, specifically the date palm. Following
are selected exerpts describing the date palm taken from Smiths
Bible
Dictionary (Thomas Nelson Publishers), Revised and edited by F.
N. and M. A. Peloubet. The language (and presumably the
punctuation)
is of the last century. Sir William Smith, L.L.D, lived from 1813
to 1893.
"It's
trunk is straight, tall and unbroken, terminating in a crown of
emerald-green
plumes, like a diadem of gigantic ostrich-feathers; these leaves are
frequently
twenty feet in length, droop slightly at the ends, and whisper
musically
in the breeze. The palm is, in truth, a beautiful and most useful
tree. Its fruit is the daily food of millions; its sap furnishes
an agreeable wine; the fibres of the base of its leaves are woven in
ropes
and rigging; its tall stem supplies a valuable timber; its leaves are
manufactured
into brushes, mats, bags, couches and baskets. This one tree
supplies
almost all the wants of the Arab or Egyptian.-- Bible Plants."
"Perhaps
no point is more worthy of mention, if we wish to pursue the
comparison,
than the elasticity of the fibre of the palm, and its determined growth
upward even when loaded with weights."
"To these
points
of comparison may be added, its principle of growth: it is an
endogen,
and grows from within; its usefulness: the Syrians enumerating
360
different uses to which it may be put; and the statement that it bears
its best fruit in old age."
What
a fitting description for this woman, Tamar. It could also be a
model
for the faithful throughout all ages. A couple of other things
also
come to mind. The palm tree thrives in the hottest and driest
places
(persecution and adverse conditions), and is perpetually green (always
spiritually alive and productive).
I
personally believe Tamar lived up to her name.
Judah
searches for the harlot.
Judah had given Tamar some
very
important and incriminating things for her to keep as guarantee that he
would send the kid. Some say that they were symbols of his
position
and heritage, and thus were very important. He was very
anxious
to reclaim them.
Gen.
38:22 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.
Gen.
38:23 And Judah said, Let her take it to her, lest we be shamed:
behold,
I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her.
Gen. 38:24 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.
Why
Judah acted this way shows the state of his heart at this particular
time.
He demanded the harshest penalty be imposed on Tamar.
Jubilees
41:17 And Judah went to her father's house and said to her father
and her brothers, bring her out and let them burn her because she has
caused
a defilement in Israel.
Jubilees
41:18 And it came to pass when they brought her out to burn her
that
she sent to her father-in-law the signet ring and the necklace and the
staff. And she said, recognize whose these are because I am
pregnant
by him.
Judah finally
wakes up.
Jubilees
41:19 And Judah recognized (them) and said, Tamar was more
righteous
than I. And therefore let them not burn her.
Jubilees
41:20 And on account of that she was not given to Selah.
And
therefore he did not approach her again.
Jubilees
41:21 And after this she bore two children, Perez and Zerah, in
the
seventh year of this second week.
Jubilees
41:22 And after this the seven years of full harvest which Joseph
told Pharaoh (about) were completed.
Gen.
38:25 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 thee, whose are these, the signet, and bracelets, and staff.
Gen.
38:26
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.
The
humiliation and sadness that Judah must have felt here is
unspeakable.
The books of Judah and Jubilees indicate that
Judah repented bitterly for how he had acted. He still didn't
understand
though. Look at verse 26 again and see his reasoning concerning
Shelah.
Gen.
38:27 And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that,
behold,
twins were in her womb.
Gen.
38:28 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.
Gen.
38:29 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.
Gen.
38:30
And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon
his
hand: and his name was called Zarah.
Conclusion to the story.
In spite of all these things,
rule breaking and wrongheadedness, our Lord
would spring forth from the line of Judah and Tamar through Pharez over
fifteen hundred years later.
Judah and
Jubilees record that Judah went with his father Israel and the rest of
his family into Egypt
because of the famine as recorded in the story of Joseph in Genesis,
and
that he then spent the next seventy years in Egypt until his death.
What
happened to Tamar after this? I'm certain that she went with
Judah
and Israel into Egypt because it was said of Judah that he went near
her
no more, which implies she was in close proximity to him.
Furthermore,
their son Pharez had to remain with the children of Israel because he
was a link
in the lineage of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
You can bet that
Judah's
brother Joseph, who was very powerful in Egypt then, ensured that they
were all treated very well as long as he was alive. Our Father
was
always with them in Egypt also.