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Judah: an OT Prodigal Son

It was tempting not to read this chapter out loud in a church service. How sordid it all seems, how unwholesome!  And while it might surprise some of our contemporaries the Bible makes it very clear that men and women did not wait until the 21^st century to discover the power of sexual attraction and the desire for sexual gratification.

The Bible that we have to read is a very up to date book indeed. If we only look at our own society we tend to think everything is so new and so unique but when we listen to the Bible we find that there is nothing new under the sun.

We ought to be grateful that the Bible does deal with the world as it is and not with some kind of romanticised Bollywood ideal. How glad we should be that the Bible knows what the real world is like, if it didn't it would have nothing to say to us.

But having said that we must be prompt to point out that the Bible does not deal with these matters in a pornographic manner. There is no dwelling on salacious details but rather a simple reporting of the sins into which certain individuals fell and out of which one at least was saved.

The details of this chapter are not recorded for the sake of titillation but to show that a man can be rescued from what ever depths of degradation he might fall. Our God is patient and long-suffering, merciful and gracious!

At the same time the inclusion of this chapter helps to heighten the tension concerning Joseph. Sold into slavery in Egypt we must wait to find out what will happen to him next. These events recorded in ch.38 took some considerable time and the time doubtless seemed long to Joseph too. Viewed against the backdrop of the sordidness of the events of this chapter, Joseph's own moral uprightness will shine the more brightly.

Our chapter begins by describing Judah's journey away from his father's settlement and his brothers. This is a geographical descent but very soon we will see that a moral descent accompanied it which was far more serious.

Did Judah find his father's perpetual mourning for the loss of his son Joseph hard to take? Did his brothers remind him that it had been his idea to sell Joseph into slavery? For whatever reason Judah is off and soon we find him entering into an unholy alliance.

Judah's marriage :

His ancestors Abraham and Isaac had been anxious about not entering into marriage alliances with local Canaanite women and throughout the Book of Genesis such marriages were never applauded. But Judah is not about to respect such qualms and he quickly marries the Canaanite woman that has attracted his fancy.

It's not long before Judah becomes the father of three boys – and Moses moves along quickly too as he records just a few details for us.

Much of this chapter is taken up with the question of descendants and offspring. When his father Jacob passes on his blessings to his various sons (cf. ch.49) Judah's importance will be made clear – rulers will come from Judah's line. Judah will indeed figure very prominently in the scheme of things as the history of the people of Israel unfolds. As yet unknown to Moses and Moses' contemporaries King David will come from Judah's line and after David the Messiah Himself.

With such a glorious future we might expect to read of an honourable beginning but if that's what we're looking for we're in for a big let-down. If Judah had hardly covered himself with glory in ch.37 with his suggestion on selling his own brother into slavery then ch.38 shows that he could yet fall far lower.

Judah arranges a marriage for his son Er :

Judah's boys are growing up and he arranges a marriage between Er his eldest and Tamar – is this to be the line through which Judah's descendants are to be traced?

Things had seemed to be going so well for Judah. His family life was going well – three boys safely born and the eldest at least grown to manhood. But the wheels were about to come off for Judah!

Er dies.

No detail is given just a declaration about his wickedness and the LORD puts him to death.

But offspring must be secured so Judah instructs Onan to raise offspring for his dead brother by going in to his brother's widow. This was standard practice of the day to be codified in later Jewish law as levirate marriage.

But Onan will only make a pretence of carrying out his duty. Yes, he's quite prepared to gratify himself by going into Tamar but he takes care not to sire any children. He knew that such a child would not be regarded as his but his brother's and in that any new child would take the birthright that Onan wanted for himself.

Onan too is struck down by the LORD – not for practising a simple method of birth control as some have tried to suggest but because he refused to do his duty towards his brother.

Now these examples are rare in the Scriptures. Evil or wicked behaviour does not normally receive such a prompt recompense as it did in the case of these two brothers. So what are we to make of it?

Well, the wages of sin is death! And the example of these men serves to remind us of the seriousness of sin in the sight of God. Because such immediate dramatic punishment does not normally follow sin we are easily tempted to imagine that sin is not as serious as it really is. Beware your sin will find you out and death, the death of everlasting destruction, will be the inevitable outcome for you if you do not repent of your sin and find pardon through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If God does not strike us down immediately because of our sin it is because in His loving patience He is providing us with the opportunity of being saved:

2Pet.3:9 "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance."

Judah blames Tamar :

Both Er and Onan are dead but it seems that Judah is reluctant to hold them as being responsible in any way rather Tamar is the dangerous one! So he sends her back to her father's house all the while suggesting that she'll be given to Shela when this third son becomes old enough.

Tamar is thus not free to marry again and so cannot have children as she is quasi-engaged to Shela though Judah evidently hopes she'll just "go away quietly" because he has no plan to give her this last son. The question of offspring is becoming increasingly important for Judah now. Of these three sons only one is left alive and now Judah own wife dies. Tamar is becoming desperate and takes matters into her own hands as she seeks children.

There is no way in which the course of action that Tamar followed can be justified or approved. She was guilty of deception, scheming and of openly pursuing incest. Nevertheless her behaviour was better by far than that of Judah who had reduced her to just such desperate measures. Though once again we learn from the Book of Genesis that the even the wicked behaviour of sinful people can and is used by God to further His holy and righteous plans.

Tamar shows that she knows the weaknesses of a sinner like Judah in a sinful culture. She chooses her time carefully. Sheep-shearing, like harvest, would be a time of celebration and the loosening of morals due to the associated drunkenness. Judah had recently lost his wife and so was sexually vulnerable. So Tamar dresses like a prostitute and waits for him to pass by.

The negotiation follows as Judah is consumed by lust for this loose woman whom he does not recognise to be his own daughter-in-law. There is a certain irony as Tamar what Judah will give her because he has clearly no intention of giving her to his third son Shela. He promises a goat and Tamar ask for a pledge – he gives her the equivalent of his driving licence and credit card!

And Tamar is pregnant.

Before Moses moves us on to the denouement of the whole episode we are given a brief glimpse of how Judah seeks to avoid being made to look ridiculous. How often are people more concerned about saving face than they are of doing the right thing?

It can't be kept secret any longer. The bump is just too visible. The word is out. Tamar is pregnant! She's been immoral! What a scandal! The news is quickly brought to Judah. After all Tamar wasn't officially free, she was still promised to Shela.

How will Judah react?

Will he show any degree of compassion or understanding? Will he not at least go to her and seek to find out just what has gone on?

No. Judah reacts as so many men do with their holier than thou attitude. No questions, no reflexions. It's obvious isn't it? Her guilt is there for all to see. Bring her out and burn her!

Now, did Judah seize upon this moment to have done with a woman who seemed to pose such a threat to his own family's prosperity and its very survival? Perhaps he saw this as a gift-wrapped opportunity that would get him off the hook once and for all. Or was he simply acting with the callous judgment of one who is himself guilty of the same crime but for which he hasn't been caught …yet?

Just how are we to understand Judah when he called for Tamar to be brought out to be burnt? Was he calling for her to be branded or disfigured on the face stigmatizing her for all time as a harlot or was he calling for the maximum penalty – death. The usual punishment would be stoning to burn would be particularly cruel.

As Tamar is being led out the pledges that she had received from Judah's own hands are given back to him – the father of my child is the owner of these, she said!

What a moment that was?

Judah is confronted with his own involvement but what will he do? Will he own up and come clean or will he bluster on?

And what do we do when we are confronted with our own sin? No, I don't expect most of us to be confronted in quite such a publicly dramatic manner but when God the Lord convicts us of sin we are faced with the same options: we too can either make a clean breast of it, admit our faults, confess our sin and cast ourselves upon Him for mercy or we can try to bluster on, justifying what we've done, excusing what we've done or even brazenly try to deny that it ever was done.

Judah is at a crucial point of his life and by the grace of God it turns out to be a turning point.

He justifies the one he had formerly been so quick to condemn and declares his own failures and short-comings.

How typical though of our poor human hearts. All talk of punishment that was so much to the fore when another was deemed guilty is let drop when we are exposed as having been guilty of the very same sin!!

Judah acknowledges that he had been in the wrong to withhold his son Shela from Tamar and that it had been this action that had been at the origin of all the tawdriness of what followed.

The transformation of grace has begun its work in the prodigal son called Judah. It is because of this transformation that Judah will appear in a much better light in the closing chapters of this Book of Genesis.

Has the transforming work of God's grace begun to do its work in your life?

Chapter 38 comes to a close with the birth of another set of twins. There is a repetition of the struggle between the elder and the younger – a harbinger of something special to come!

And looking down the centuries something very special indeed does come. The Messiah is born of this line! As we read in the genealogy of our Lord Jesus:

Mt.1:3 "and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron…"

God is not mentioned in ch.38 but is there nonetheless working His purposes out through the sordid reality that sadly makes up so much of human life.

God uses unlikely people in unlikely places to secure His plans. This in no way excuses their sin for which they are always held responsible but it does bring tremendous consolation to repentant sinners!!

Finally, we should not forget to notice the degree of humiliation to which our Lord Jesus was willing to submit Himself when He took on our flesh. Not for him the advantages and honour of an impeccable ancestry – He came to be born of line that included this sordid little incestuous affair – He the Holy One of God. We have to do not with some stand-offish or priggish Saviour but one who draws so close to sinners yet being without sin Himself.

Let us Praise His glorious Name!

Amen.