Tucked away in Genesis, in the midst of the exciting story of Joseph’s life, is a short narrative about Judah (Gen 38:1-30), a story that seems rather unpleasant and unsavoury, and always leaves me thinking ‘Why is this here at all?’ By this time in Genesis, we are used to family narratives, lists of marriages and children, and have learned that people are far from perfect and the Bible is nothing if not honest. Nonetheless, this story of marriage, death and prostitution seems oddly out of place.
Judah, Jacob’s fourth son, has left the family home by this time, and gone to live elsewhere. He’s met and married a Canaanite woman (Shua), which, given the attention to detail Abraham paid to getting a ‘native’ wife for his son Isaac (Gen 24), sets alarm bells ringing. (Intermarriage rarely results in happiness… nor does marrying unbelievers…) He has three sons by this woman: Er, Onan and Shelah.
Er marries Tamar, an arranged marriage by Judah (some speculate that because her name is Hebraic, she was a Hebrew, rather than a Canaanite), but Er’s unspecified wickedness is so serious that ‘the Lord put him to death.’ (Gen 38:7) Sometimes I wish the Bible was far more explicit than it is!
As was the levirate custom (see Deut 25:5-6), Onan was then obliged to marry Tamar, in order to continue the eldest brother’s lineage. Clearly, Onan did not want to do this and he refused to consummate the relationship properly, a refusal which also displeased God (see Gen 38:9-10). By this time, Tamar has had two husbands and still has no children. Judah promises his third son to her, but does nothing about this, and whilst she is prepared to wait for him to do this, his procrastination reaches the point of insult and the rest of the chapter relates her actions in dealing with the humiliation and rejection she must have felt.
The fact that this involves her deceit and Judah’s casual attitude to his own sexual behaviour whilst condemning her pregnancy raises many questions. Clearly, his hypocrisy and double standards are highlighted in the chapter; when confronted with this, he admits, ‘She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.‘ (Gen 38:26)
Whatever we may think of the customs of the time and the behaviour of the two main protagonists in this story, one thing remains clear. The union between Judah and Tamar produces twin sons: Perez and Zerah. And in Matt 1:3, we see how this story connects with the lineage of Jesus, for there we read ‘Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron’, leading right through to King David and thence to Jesus.
We may well wonder why God allowed His Son to come from such a human lineage! We tend to think of the sinless Son of God as coming from the ‘best’ of humankind (which is why I love the genealogies so much, since they debunk this theory!) But God’s purposes would never have been fulfilled if He had waited for a ‘perfect’ human, for no one is capable of living righteously in their own strength (Eccl 7:20, Is 59:16, Rom 3:1-23). This story shows us, rather, that God’s plans will be worked out despite our brokenness. Our mistakes, sins and failings will somehow be redeemed through God’s grace and love. That’s not to encourage us to sin (see Rom 6:1-14), but to reassure us that nothing is able to thwart God’s purposes and plans.
Jacob later prophesied that the Messiah would come through Judah’s line (see Gen 49:8-12). There is little to praise Judah for in this story, but ultimately, he is remembered perhaps more for being an ancestor of Jesus than he is for his own behaviour. One of the names of Jesus is ‘the Lion of the tribe of Judah.’ (Rev 5:5) Perhaps that’s the whole point, really. We are covered by Jesus. God looks on us and sees the righteousness of Christ. There’s hope for all of us.
