Thanksgiving at Judah’s House.

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 13 Oct. 2013
Presented to 614 & Warehouse in Toronto, 16 Oct. 2016

Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries 04 October 2020

By Captain Michael Ramsay

This is the original version; to view the Toronto 2016 version, click here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2016/10/genesis-38-judahs-family.html 

To view the Alberni Valley 2020 version, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2020/10/reading-genesis-38-on-mmiw-day.html

Thanksgiving is often a time for families to get together. In most homes in this part of the country there will be the Thanksgiving turkey. Not in mine, with a vegetarian family. It will be a double blessing tomorrow then that we will have a turkey dinner at the corps for all who can make it before Bible study. Thanksgiving is often a time for families to gather together, so today we are going to look a family of turkeys or people who are seemingly acting like turkeys.

We are continuing our look at the lineage of Jesus Christ. So far we have looked at Adam and Eve, Noah’s family, and Abraham and Sarah. Today we are looking at Judah and Tamar. Does anyone know who are Judah and Tamar? First, who is Judah?

Who is Judah’s father? Judah’s father was Jacob. God changed Jacob’s name; to what did He change his name? Israel. All of the tribes of Israel are descended from and named after the sons of Israel. Judah is therefore the father, the ancestor of a whole tribe of Israel.

The tribe of Judah even becomes the dominant tribe of all the tribes of Israel and long after Israel ceases to exist as a country, the Kingdom of Judah remains. This is interesting. All of this happens with Judah becoming the dominant tribe, as Judah the person is the one of Israel’s sons to receive the blessing of the birthright.

Who in theory is supposed to receive the birthright; which child? The oldest son, right? Just like with our own Monarch thus far into history. The interesting part here is that not only is Judah not the oldest son (as indeed even his father isn’t the oldest son), Judah is not even the second oldest son. Now, not only is Judah not the even second oldest son but Judah is also not even the third oldest son. On this Thanksgiving Day, Judah could be very thankful if he were still around because Judah receives the birthright usually received for the oldest brother and he is the fourth oldest brother. He has three older brothers who had to be disqualified for him to receive the birthright and that blessing. We’ll look at that in just a moment – how his older brothers disqualified themselves from the birthright and then we will look a little more into who exactly is this person of Judah of our pericope today. 

Let’s turn in our Bibles to Genesis 49. It will give us a bit of an insight into what is going on in Judah’s family. This portion of scripture records Israel/Jacob’s blessings of his sons before he dies. These are Israel’s famous last words to his children (the males anyway). Genesis 49:1-4 tells us a little bit about Ruben, Judah’s oldest brother and why he doesn’t receive the blessing of the birthright:

49:1 Then Jacob called for his sons and said: “Gather around so I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come.

2 “Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob;

listen to your father Israel.

3 “Reuben, you are my firstborn,

my might, the first sign of my strength,

excelling in honour, excelling in power.

4 Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel,

for you went up onto your father’s bed,

onto my couch and defiled it.

Jacob, says to his oldest son, who is the naturally expected heir to this birthright; Jacob says, Verse 4, “You will no longer excel, for you went up onto your father’s bed, onto my couch and defiled it.” Do you remember that story? (Israel’s family is an interesting family. One that I’m sure in comparison will make you even more thankful for your own.) Genesis 35:22 records that Reuben lay with Bilhah. Bilhah is his father’s concubine; Bilhah is not only his father’s concubine, Bilhah is his brothers’ mother. Reuben has relations with his brothers’ - Dan and Naphtali - mom. (And you think your family is messed up?) For this his birthright understandably passes down to the second oldest son: Simeon. But Simeon and Levi are just as much of turkeys as their older brother; these next two sons also disqualify themselves from the blessing of the birthright. Genesis 49:5-7:

5 “Simeon and Levi are brothers—

their swords  are weapons of violence.

6 Let me not enter their council,

let me not join their assembly,

for they have killed men in their anger

and hamstrung oxen as they pleased.

7 Cursed be their anger, so fierce,

and their fury, so cruel!

I will scatter them in Jacob

and disperse them in Israel.

This ‘blessing’ upon Simeon and Levi - when their dad is upon his deathbed – this blessing where their father declares, “let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly for they have killed men in anger” is rather sharp, to say the least! Do you know what this is about? Genesis 34 records that their sister by the same mom is raped. The man who rapes her, Shechem, repentant, comes then with his dad and asks to have her hand in marriage. Israel agrees but his sons say that all the men of Shechem’s people must be circumcised for this to happen. They agreed and they all become circumcised. Then while they were all at the height of their pain from being circumcised, Simeon and Levi – the two brothers in question here - sneak into their camp and kill all the men and take all their women and all their children and more as plunder. As a result of this, they lose their claim to the birthright and the descendants, the whole tribe, of Levi is not given any territory (other than Levite cities) and the descendants, the whole tribe, of Simeon is swallowed up in the tribe of Judah. If you want to read more about the blessings of Israel’s sons and tribes, you can read more of Genesis 49 later – it is really interesting – and it gives you bit of background as to Judah’s brothers and his life growing up, who would be around the table at big family gatherings, and why Judah receives the blessing of the birthright that is usually reserved for the eldest male child even though he is the fourth son.

Now the rest of Chapter 49 does speak about the rest of his brothers. He has quite a large family, probably as many as will be gathering around Thanksgiving tables today and tomorrow in our community. Judah has 11 brothers and an unknown number of sisters and combined nephews and nieces.

One of Judah’s youngest brothers we know fairly well. Do we know who was Israel’s second youngest son? Joseph. We remember the stories of Joseph from the Bible (Genesis 37-50). How well did Judah and the rest of Joseph’s brothers think of Joseph growing up? Not that well. Remember Joseph has all these dreams about his brothers bowing down to him? (Genesis 37:5-11) Remember that his dad shows Joseph certain favouritism and even buys him that coat of many colours and remember how Joseph’s brothers respond to all of this (Genesis 37:1-36). They take him and throw him into a well and then at Judah’s recommendation, they sell Joseph as a slave. It is Judah’s idea to sell his little brother into slavery (Genesis 37:26-27). That act itself might make one wonder why Judah didn’t also lose his birthright like his older brothers did. But he doesn’t

Judah later does redeem himself. We remember the end of the Joseph story. The years pass by and Joseph is now the one with all the power; he has risen to be second in command of the regional superpower (Genesis 41:37ff.). Joseph is a ruler of Egypt. Joseph then has one of his brothers – Simeon, who came to him looking for food – held in an Egyptian prison for an indefinite period of time (Genesis 42:24). The other brothers later return and Joseph is about to take prisoner another one of his brothers, after framing him for crime, when Judah steps up (Genesis 44:18ff.). His brothers can be thankful for Judah. Judah is the one who negotiates the freedom of his brothers and Judah is the one whom God uses to tip Joseph’s hand into revealing his identity and into forgiving and providing for his brothers and their families for generations to come. Judah shows that he is the leader among his brothers. Judah shows that he is a solid choice to inherit the birthright. This brings us to our story today. We read earlier from Genesis 38. Thanksgiving often sees family gathering from all over the country and here we have an interesting tale about Judah travelling and getting together with his daughter-in-law, Tamar.

Tamar isn’t probably an Israelite. Tamar is probably a Canaanite.[1] We remember from looking at the story of Noah the other week that the Canaanites are cursed for generations to come for the sins of their father, Ham (Genesis 9:25-29). Judah’s son then marries this cursed Canaanite woman – which is later prohibited, by the way - and then he dies before he has any children.[2]

Do we understand what is going on in the story that we read earlier today with the brothers? In Israel in those days, territorial inheritance was very important and so was having a son to inherit that property. Because of this they had a rule that if a son died without an heir then his younger brother was supposed to be with his widow and then the child that results from that would be the heir to his brother. That way the older brother would have an heir and his descendants would not lose their claim to a part of Israel. Judah cooperates with this rule and Judah gives his second son to Tamar, who is the widow of his first son. Judah’s second son however stands to inherit all of his brother’s inheritance if he doesn’t produce an heir for him; so instead of impregnating Tamar, he uses protection of sorts. He doesn’t complete the job anyway. This makes God mad because Onan was not only hurting Er, his deceased brother, but he was also hurting Tamar, his brother’s widow, and he was hurting Judah, his father, and he was hurting his whole family’s inheritance.[3] God takes Onan’s life. So now Judah has lost his two oldest sons and his eldest son’s widow Tamar is still without an heir for the family.

Now in that place and at that time there was probably not a more vulnerable person in society than a childless widow. A widow without a child has no one to care for her and Judah, while Tamar is in this state, Judah sends his daughter-in-law away. He says that his youngest son is too young for her and he sends Tamar away without providing for her the heir that is demanded. Judah puts himself before the commandment to provide an heir for his son and Judah puts himself before the commandment to look after the widow in his own household.

Judah sends her away. He doesn’t seem to concern himself with her again. His youngest child grows up and he never fulfils the opportunity to give him to Tamar and to invite Tamar back into his clan where she belongs.

Tamar, who is being the good widow at this point, even though she has been sent away by her in-laws, she has still been faithfully living in seclusion while wearing her widow’s clothing. She then hears that her father-in-law is coming to town so she puts on some nice clothes and goes to meet him. Judah sees her and mistakes her for a prostitute. Here is an opportunity that appears. Judah owes her a son and Judah thinks she’s a prostitute. Judah decides that he wants to use her services but he doesn’t have any money so Tamar – thinking on her feat here - asks for his signet and cord. A signet is like a signature in that it is unique to the individual so the reader at this point can see how Tamar is taking advantage of this God given opportunity.[4] Tamar does become pregnant. Some people find out about this and tell Judah that his daughter-in-law (who is supposed to be celibate) is pregnant. The law says that she should be put to death, especially as this happened, so the rumour has it, as a result of prostitution. It is at this point that she lets Judah know that he is the father. Judah then admits his sin, what he has done to her and to his family. She gives birth to twins. Judah takes responsibility for his children, one of whom is the direct ancestor of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Judah even admits that Tamar is more righteous than is he. Tamar is not a prostitute; she merely conceives the child promised to her.[5]

So why is this story in the Bible? It is important. The fact that a child of this encounter is an ancestor of both King David and Jesus Christ, is mentioned more than once, by more than one author, writing at more than one distinct era in history (See Ruth 4:18-23, Matthew 1:3). Matthew, in the New Testament makes a point of mentioning that it is Judah’s son by Tamar who is in Jesus’ line and the authors of Matthew and Ruth even tells us which one of the twins he is: Perez. This story is very important in the history of Israel. This story is very important in the ancestry of King David and this story is very important in the ancestry Christ Jesus, so why is it important to us? And what does it mean to us today?

I think the key point here lies in who is Tamar: Tamar is a Canaanite. The Canaanites are the cursed descendants of Ham. She is cursed; she is a woman; she is a widow; she is a cursed, abused widow who has been even further marginalized and taken advantage of by privileged Israelites and she is an ancestor of Christ. You couldn’t be much more on the margins of society than is Tamar and Tamar is the ancestor of Jesus.[6]

Jesus in his ministry is always helping the poor, the widow, and the immigrant. Tamar is just that and Tamar is Jesus’ ancestor. God used Tamar to save the whole world in that her actions led to Christ.[7] So as God can use Tamar, who was abused and marginalized to extremes that many of us can only imagine, so too can he use us and that is something for which we can all be thankful. No matter who we are in this life, if we are marginalized and appear to be nothing in our own eyes, maybe like Tamar; or if we make serious mistakes and sin like Judah; no matter who we are God loves us, and God can use even us to point others to His Salvation both now and forever. Let us pray

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[1] But cf. John H. Sailhamer, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Genesis/Exposition of Genesis/VI. The Account of Jacob (37:1-49:33)/D. Judah and Tamar (38:1-30), Book Version: 4.0.2

[2] Cf. Thomas W, Mann, The Book of the Torah: The Narrative Integrity of the Pentateuch, (Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox Press, 1988), 66-68.

[3] Derek Kidner, Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1967 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 1), S. 199: The fact that a single Hebrew word suffices for the phrase perform the duty of a brother-in-law (rsv) would confirm that this was a standard practice, even if there were no record of the law in Deuteronomy 25:5ff. Each of the three Old Testament references to this regulation (cf. Ruth 4:5f.) shows that it could be most unwelcome, chiefly through the very fact that the donor himself set great store on family inheritance—but his own. The enormity of Onan’s sin is in its studied outrage against the family, against his brother’s widow and against his own body. The standard English versions fail to make clear that this was his persistent practice. When (9) should be translated ‘whenever’

[4] Cf. Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994), 606.

[5] Cf. Walter Brueggemann, Interpretation: Genesis, (John Knox Press: Atlanta, Georgia, 1982), 311.

[6] Cf. Dorothy Jean Weaver, “‘Wherever This Good News Is Proclaimed”: Women and God in the Gospel of Matthew’, in Interpretation 64, no. 4, (October, 2010) 394-395

[7] cC. Walter Brueggemann, Interpretation: Genesis, (John Knox Press: Atlanta, Georgia, 1982), 311.