Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 13 Oct. 2013
Presented to 614 & Warehouse in Toronto, 16 Oct. 2016
Presented to 614 & Warehouse in Toronto, 16 Oct. 2016
Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries 04 October 2020
By Captain Michael Ramsay
This is the 2016 version. The original is available on-line here: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2013/10/thanksgiving-at-judahs-house.html
To view the Alberni Valley 2020 version, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2020/10/reading-genesis-38-on-mmiw-day.html
We
just had Thanksgiving. This often a time for families to get together. In most
homes in this country they had a Thanksgiving turkey. Now, everyone in my house
is a vegetarian but even so I tell you I probably was blessed to have had as
much turkey as anyone this past Thanksgiving. First we had turkey at the Argos
dinner at Harbour Light then we had turkey at the great combined service
between Warehouse and 614. This past week we had another great Turkey meal in
the café. And on Thanksgiving Monday, Susan made me a Turkey to go along with
the girls’ vegetarian dishes. It was great. Thanksgiving is often a time for
families to gather together over turkey, so today we are going to look a family
of turkeys or people who are seemingly acting like turkeys.
Today
we are looking at Judah and Tamar. Does anyone know who are Judah and Tamar?
First, who is Judah?Who was Judah’s father? (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 the ancestor of one
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
because Judah in our text is the person to receive the blessing of the
birthright.
Who
in theory is supposed to receive a birthright; which child? Who is the heir? The
oldest son, right? The interesting part here is that not only is Judah not 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
Thanksgiving Day, if they had Thanksgiving Day then and there, Judah could have
been very thankful for his birthright 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. Let’s look at that - how his older brothers
disqualified themselves from the birthright and then let’s look a little more into
who exactly is this person Judah.
Genesis
49 gives us a bit of an insight into what is going on in Judah’s family. This
portion of scripture records Jacob blessing his sons before he dies. These are
Israel’s famous last words to his sons. 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 know that story? (Israel’s
is an interesting family.) 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 sexual relations with his
brothers’ - Dan and Naphtali - mom. For this his birthright understandably
passes down to the second oldest son: Simeon. But Simeon and Levi (the 3rd
eldest) are just as much turkeys as their older brother; these next two sons
also disqualify themselves from the blessing of the birthright. Gen 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 on 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 afterwards 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 – these two older brothers - sneak into their camp and kill all
the men and take all the women and all their children and more as plunder. As a
result of this, Simeon and Levi lose their claim to the birthright and their
descendants - the whole tribe of Levi is not given any territory (other than
Levite cities) and the whole tribe of Simeon is swallowed up in the tribe of
Judah.
The
rest of Chapter 49 speaks about the rest of Judah’s brothers. He has quite a
large family, probably as many as gathered around Thanksgiving tables this past
week across our country. Judah has 11 brothers and an unknown number of sisters
and nephews and nieces.
One
of Judah’s youngest brothers we know fairly well. Do we know who was Judah’s second
youngest brother? His father’s favourite son? (Joseph). We remember the stories
of Joseph from the Bible (Gen 37-50). How highly did Judah and the rest of
Joseph’s brothers think of Joseph growing up? (Not very!) Remember Joseph has
all these dreams about his brothers bowing down to him? (Gen 37:5-11) Remember
that his dad flaunts his favouritism and even buys him that coat of many
colours and remember how Joseph’s brothers respond to all of this (Gen
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 (Gen 37:26-27). That act itself might make one
wonder why Judah doesn’t lose his birthright like his older brothers. But he
doesn’t
Judah
later does redeem himself. Do we remember the end of the Joseph story? The
years pass and Joseph is now the one with all the power; he rises to second in
command of the regional superpower (Gen 41:37ff.). Joseph is a ruler of Egypt.
Joseph then has one of his brothers – Simeon, who comes to him looking for food
– put in prison for an indefinite period of time (Gen 42:24). The other
brothers later return and Joseph frames one of them for a crime he didn’t
commit and is about to throw him in jail, when Judah steps up (Gen 44:18ff.).
His brothers can be thankful for Judah. Judah is the one who negotiates freedom
for his brothers and Judah is the one God uses to tip Joseph’s hand into
revealing his identity and forgiving and providing for his brothers and their
families for generations to come. Judah shows here that he is the leader among
his brothers. Judah shows that he is a solid choice to inherit the birthright.
This brings us back to our story today.
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, like Rahab whom we met a couple of weeks ago.[1] We remember from
the story of Noah that the Canaanites are cursed for generations for the sins
of their father, Ham (Gen 9:25-29). Judah’s son then marries a cursed Canaanite
woman – which is later prohibited - and then he dies before he has any
children.[2]
Do
we understand what is going on in this story 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 have relations with
his widow and then the child that results from that would be the heir for 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, 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; so instead of impregnating Tamar, he uses ‘protection’
of sorts. He doesn’t complete the job. 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.
In
that place and at that time there was probably not a more vulnerable person in
society than a childless widow – especially since she was a foreigner. 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 far
too young for her and he sends Tamar away without providing the heir that he
must provide. Judah puts himself before the command to provide an heir for his
son and Judah puts himself before the command 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 obligation to give him to Tamar or 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,
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 he 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 feet - asks
for his signet and cord. A signet is like a signature - it is unique to the
individual - so one 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
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
(cf Ruth 4:18-23, Mt 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 Matthew
and Ruth even tell 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 further taken advantage of by privileged Israelites and she, Tamar, 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 – and Judah - 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 some 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 sometimes think
ourselves to be nothing, maybe like Tamar; or if we make serious mistakes and commit
abusive egregious sins even like Judah; no matter who we are God loves us, He
can change us, He can save us and God can use even you and I to point others to
His Salvation both now and forever. Let us pray
---
[1]
But cf. John H. Sailhamer, The Expositor's Bible Commentary,
PradisCD-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] Cf. Walter Brueggemann,
Interpretation: Genesis, (John Knox Press: Atlanta, Georgia, 1982), 311.
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