‘I can see clearly now’ (Genesis 38)

 

I think most of us work off a system of comparative righteousness.  We try to justify ourselves by comparing ourselves with other people.  ‘I know it’s wrong, but everyone else does it.’  ‘There are people who are far worse than me.’  When we confess to someone, they might unhelpfully say, ‘sure, you are only human.’  A man confessed to his priest, and the priest replied, ‘I hear a whole lot worse, you’ll be fine.’

But we are measured by God’s standard, and He does not simply compare us to everybody else.  His standard is Jesus, and we all fall short.  When we compare ourselves to Him we see our need of forgiveness and grace.

1.       Judah sees and takes (1-11)

‘At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah’ (1).

This is not the first time we meet Judah.  When his mother Leah gave birth to Judah she praised God.  But Judah does not seem to share her faith.  When Jacob’s sons turned of Joseph it was Judah who suggests to sell him rather than kill him.  Was that mercy, or was that simply a desire for profit?

Judah is probably around sixteen or seventeen at the beginning of the chapter, and as happens many people that age he falls under the spell of bad influence.  He becomes like a Canaanite.

There is an interesting comparison between the brothers Joseph and Judah in these chapters.  While Joseph left the family involuntarily, being sold into slavery, Judah chooses to leave.  Presumably he was leaving his father and his father’s faith as well.

In verse 2 Judah literally ‘saw’ a Canaanite girl—someone who did not know God—and he took her.  There is an echo of Eden here.  Like Eve he sees, he wants and he takes.  Judah and his wife conceive and she gives birth to Er, then Oran and then Shelah.  Jacob takes a wife for Er, her name is Tamar, but Er is evil in the ‘sight’ of the LORD (7), and God puts Er to death.

There was a tradition that when a son died without having an heir the widow would become the wife of the nearest relative and the first son she would have would be considered the heir of the deceased.  But Onan realises that this would not be in his best interests, he wants the share of the inheritance that would go through Er, and so he withdraws before he ejaculates.  His unwillingness to provide a son for Er was evil in the ‘sight’ of the LORD (10), so God puts him to death.

Jacob tells Tamar to wait until Shelah is old enough to marry her.  But he has no intention of going through with this promise because he thinks that Tamar is the reason his sons died.  He is a superstitious man who will not face his own sin and the sin of his sons.  ‘I might not be walking with the LORD, but at least I am not like that Canaanite woman.’

2.       Judah sees and takes, again (12-23)

We have noticed that there is an emphasis of ‘sight’ and saw’ in this chapter.  Now Judah commits evil in a place called Enam, which means either ‘two springs’ or ‘two eyes.’  God sees what we do.

Tamar is desperate.  Shelah has grown up and she now knows that Judah has no intention of going through with his promise of having her marry him.  She is likely to be a childless widow, in a society where that would leave you desperate. 

She seems to know what sort of man Judah is—he is a man who will pay for sex.  He was going off to his sheepshearers.  He has been widowed.  She has a plan.

Lust, and any evil, has a way of making a fool of us.  He does not recognise Tamar, and thinks that she is a prostitute.  He offers her the price of a goat.  As a pledge he gives her his seal, staff and cloak—think wallet, driving licence and credit cards.

In the next chapter we see Joseph resisting the seduction of Potiphar’s wife.  There is a contrast.  Joseph is under great pressure and resists.  Judah very willingly gives in to lust.

3.       Judah has his eyes opened (24-32)

When Judah finds that Tamar is unmarried and pregnant he wants justice.  He calls for her to be burned.  How different he is from Joseph, not Joseph his brother but Joseph and Mary.  That Joseph seems to do everything to show mercy (Matthew 1:18).  Judah has no mercy!

God hates the sexism and double standards that Judah applies.  Look at Hosea (4:14), ‘I will not punish your daughters when they turn to prostitution, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, because the men themselves consort with harlots and sacrifice to shrine prostitutes—a people without understanding will come to ruin.’

Now Judah has his eyes opened.  Tamar proves that he is the father.  ‘She is more righteous than I am, since I did not give her my son Shelah’ (26).  Judah sees his guilt in an absolute sense.  He is no longer trying to justify himself.  When he compares he sees that others are more righteous than he is.  He would be happy to count himself among the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15). 

You are watching something you should not on your computer and someone walks in; someone exposes a lie that you have been telling; you are overheard saying horrible things about someone, what do you do?  You could make excuses, but you should simply hold your hands up and ask God to forgive you and change your heart.

Judah actually changes.  I looked up the meaning of this chapter on Google and one person explained that this chapter shows ‘how Judah began to transform from an egocentric person willing to sell his brother into slavery, into someone willing to become a slave in the place of his brother Benjamin.’  That certainly is part of this story.

Judah seems to have been reunited with his father and his father’s God.  When they reconnect with Joseph, who is now second in command in Egypt, Joseph tells them to go home but leave Benjamin.  They haven’t recognised Joseph yet.  Judah knows that Joseph and Benjamin were his father’s favourites.  He knows that his father will be heartbroken if anything happens Benjamin.  So, Judah offers himself as a guarantee in the place of Benjamin. 

He sees clearly now.  He has seen his own sin, and he responds to God’s mercy with mercy.

Climax (33-34)

This chapter ends with the unusual birth of two twins.  Tamar gives birth, and Perez is the eldest.  The line from Abraham to Judah to David to Jesus was under threat by Judah’s sin, but God has remained in control.  Tamar, this dodgy outsider is going to be an ancestor of the Christ.  God saw Tamar in her suffering and he cared.  He does not condone her actions, but in mercy he blessed her. 

God also saw Judah, self-centred and carnal, and brought him to his senses.

Can we see clearly now?  There was a line that goes through Judah to Jesus.  Jesus who comes to save his people from their sin.  A line of grace and mercy.  A message that can make bitter people kind.  So, we pray, ‘change my heart, O Lord.’