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.

Stephen spoke tonight on the subject of boxes and stones. Boxes can come in all kinds of different shapes and be made from different materials. Some are cardboard, useful for packing things in when moving house or storing items:

Some are wooden:

Some have specific purposes, such as a jewellery box:

All too often, however, we use different boxes for different things, and if we are not careful, we can compartmentalise our lives in the same way, separating our ‘work lives’ from our ‘home lives’ from our ‘church lives’ and so on.

Stones often look similar, but on closer inspection are very different. 1 Pet 2:5 reminds us that we are all ‘living stones‘; we may look alike in some respects, but are all individuals. God wants us to allow Him to shape us and mould us. The word ‘Christian’ can be both a noun or an adjective and so often we accept the noun as a title and don’t allow the adjective to influence every sphere of our lives. Eph 4:14-16 talks of how we are supposed to be growing and maturing. Are we growing and changing as God wants us to, so that we are becoming more like His Son, or are we simply content to put God in one ‘box’ of our lives and not allow Him to influence and shape every aspect of our lives?

We need to allow the adjective Christian to permeate every area of our lives so that there is a day-to-day development in our growth and we become living stones God is shaping.

Dave continued his series on the fruit of the Spirit this morning, looking at the subject of patience. Christians may well often regard this gift in the same way that people feel when opening socks on Christmas Day! – we may need patience, but we don’t always want it! The world seems to place little value on patience, preferring a get-up-and-go attitude which sees little virtue in waiting. Nonetheless, we need this fruit and must learn to see it through God’s eyes.

What is patience?

Patience is not indifference or not caring, nor is it co-dependency (where we put up with things because we are overly dependent on someone) or laziness. Patience is restraint, learning to think before we speak and act. It is an ability to persevere, an ability not to give in to despair. It is also an awareness that ‘now’ is not the only time frame available to God!

Why is patience important?

Patience acts as the oil which helps relationships to function smoothly. Prov 14:29 reminds us of the wisdom of patience and 1 John 5:3 reminds us that God’s commands are not burdensome. When we feel that they are, it’s usually because of we are not prepared to wait; we disobey God because we want things NOW. Patience not only helps us to avoid sin, it helps us to overcome trials. Js 1:2-3 shows us that trials and testings achieve a purpose, that of developing perseverance within us. Rom 12:12 urges us to ‘be patient in affliction’, and without patience we easily become complaining whiners who fail to understand that God’s purposes often take time to be fulfilled. Abraham and Sarah had to wait many years for the fulfilment of God’s promises and we easily succumb to the temptation to ‘fix things’ our way, rather than preparing to wait for God. As we wait for God to act, we learn patience and that His timing is far superior to ours!

How does patience develop?

The Bible offers us many commands to simply ‘be patient’ (see Eph 4:2, 1 Thess 5:14, Rom 12:12, Col 3:12), without necessarily giving us clear explanations as how this happens. First of all, though, we must value patience. Instead of seeing it as the ‘Cinderella’ of God’s gifts, we have to understand the purpose of patience, ask for it (since we can bear no fruit unless we abide in Jesus, Jn 15:5) and actively seek it (Col 3:12 talks of clothing ourselves with these virtues.) God is patient with us, and as we focus on that fact, we find He develops patience within us. Patience, ultimately, is about our dependence on God, rather than wanting always to run our own lives. Waiting on God is vital if we are to become the people God wants us to be and possess the promises He has given us.

When I was at school studying chemistry, we learnt about the Periodic Table of elements and noble (or inert) gases. Noble gases are those which don’t really react very much with other elements; gases such as helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon are stable, largely because their outermost electron shell is complete and therefore there is no ‘need’ for them to form compounds with other elements in order to have a complete outer shell of electrons. To a fourteen year old student, noble gases seemed rather boring; chemistry was far more exciting when we did experiments with other elements which did react, sometimes quite dramatically!

Anthropomorphism (attributing  human characteristics and purposes to inanimate objects, animals, plants, or other natural phenomena) was how my non-scientific mind coped with the concept of elements and compounds. Thus, sodium and chlorine, the elements which combine to form sodium chloride (salt), were described as lovers (see here for a video about the ‘element dating agency’) longing for wholeness and completeness. I also readily related to elements having human emotions: impulsiveness, volatility, longing being concepts I understood far more readily than valency and reactivity… (By now, the scientists among you will be shaking their heads in frustration, but bear with me…!)

Personality varies enormously among people. Some people are hot-headed, volatile, capable of exploding at the least little thing (the hydrogen of the human world.) Some are more even-tempered but still capable of reacting under certain conditions (the iron of the human world.) Some are even more stable, apparently inert, like the Group 18 gases!

The concept of wholeness, however, could be said to have a spiritual application, as well as aiding non-scientists like me to grasp reactivity and why certain elements form compounds. Augustine spoke of the restlessness in the human heart which will only find completeness in God:

As a teenager, I was not interested in the ‘boring’ noble gases. However, these are not as ‘useless’ as I imagined them to be when I was at school; because of their non-reactive properties, they are often useful to prevent undesirable chemical reactions from taking place (for example, food is packed in inert gas to remove oxgyen gas and thus prevent bacteria from growing; historical documents can also be stored under an inert gas to avoid degradation, and these gases are often used in the chemical industry to minimise fire hazards.) Similarly, people who are stable in personality are often accused of being boring, but all of us are called to find our true identity in Christ alone (it’s in Him that we find out who we are and what we are living for, according to Eph 1:11.) God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Christ (Col 1:19) and in Him, all things hold together (Col 1:17). In the words of a hymn, ‘we are complete in Him’ (see Col 2:10). We no longer have to be restless, yearning for fulfilment through activities or human relationships or work. Our fulfilment comes from God; we have found our soul-mate and can therefore act as salt and light in our decaying world (see Matt 5:13-16), preserving and demonstrating a life that is supernatural.

Noble gases were called ‘noble’ because their unreactivity was seen as majestic and something worthy. Far from being seen as boring, uninteresting and useless, they remind us that at times, it’s better not to react when provoked! Stability of character and consistency are not weaknesses, but strengths. Let’s allow the character of God to be formed within us so that we hear the Word, act on it and produce a good crop (Matt 13:1-23.)

January is the month when self-discipline rears its head as people, shamed by Christmas excesses and prompted by the media, decide to ‘start afresh.’ Membership of gyms and attendance at slimming clubs soar in this month, as people decide to be pro-active with exercise and losing weight.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with being pro-active in these matters. Be Well Barnsley is running weight loss groups in the Dearne area (see www.bewell-barnsley.com or telephone 0800 016 9133 for further details); Slimming World meets in our community hall at 9 a.m., 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Thursdays; there is a Keep Fit group for the older generation at our community hall on Tuesdays at 10 a.m. and BPL offers exercise classes at Dearneside Leisure Centre. If you want to keep fit or lose weight, there’s a wide variety of ways to help you that are readily available on our doorstep!

What matters more than New Year’s resolutions, however, is the self-discipline to stick at these. We need the same kind of self-discipline in February, March and the rest of the year as we do in January, and it’s this kind of self-discipline which Paul discusses in 1 Cor 9:23-27. He reminds the Corinthians, using metaphors from running and boxing, of the need for self-discipline, determination, persistence and perseverance. Runners in the Isthmian Games (which featured regularly in Corinth, just as the Olympic Games were held in Athens) did not run aimlessly; they were focussed on winning (the prize being a garland or crown made of pine cones or dried celery!) Paul reminds us that ‘they do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.’ (1 Cor 9:25) Crowns are mentioned in several places in the New Testament (see James 1:12, Rev 2:10, 1 Pet 5:4, 2 Tim 4:8) and speak of the reward that God gives Christians for faithful service. One motive Paul has for how he lives is his desire not to lose his reward; he is motivated to keep going and to run well, right to the end.

Self-discipline means ‘giving up the good and the better for the best.’ Athletes often have to sacrifice a great deal in their quest to be the best. Though we are not in a competitive race in the same way (all of us can run and get a reward; there is not just one winner in this race of life!), Paul urges us to refuse to allow our bodies to dictate what spiritual progress we are going to make. Rom 8:13 reminds us ‘For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.’ The technical term for this is ‘mortification’, which has, in the past, been used to promote bodily self-harm or extreme asceticism, neither of which is what Paul actually means. Nonetheless, there can be no doubt that we are to wage a ruthless war on the self-life if we are going to see spiritual growth. We can’t afford to indulge the sinful nature (Gal 5:15-16). Self-control is one of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:23) and we have to learn to be self-disciplined every day of the year, not just at the start of it, if we are to ensure we finish the race well. As always, we can’t conveniently divide our lives into ‘physical’ and ‘spiritual.’ Self-discipline, rather than gluttony, indolence, gossip and prayerlessness, is required all year round. It will have an impact on our physical bodies (a more guaranteed result than many of the other methods we may invest in) and will also reap spiritual rewards.

Paul resolved to use his freedom as a Christian (see Gal 5:1, 13) to serve God. That meant limiting his freedom at times (refusing to eat meat if that would help someone to become stronger in their faith, for example), secure in the knowledge that he belonged to God alone (see 1 Cor 6:19-20), but choosing to serve his Christian family and the wider community through considerate love, putting other people before himself. Being ‘free of the demands and expectations of everyone’ (1 Cor 9:19, The Message) – a thought worth pondering on in itself, since many of us serve God out of a sense of duty or to live up to other people’s expectations, rather than out of thankful, grateful love – Paul nonetheless chose to serve. In this, he followed Christ’s example (see Phil 2:5-11, Heb 12:1-3), and his choice lent weight to his admonition ‘Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.’ (1 Cor 11:1)

Every day, we face a plethora of choices: what to wear, what to eat, how to travel, for example. More importantly, every day, we face choices as to how we should live. We choose to walk by faith, not by sight. (2 Cor 5:7) We choose to live by every word that comes from the mouth of God, rather than by our feelings or by the opinions of other people. (Matt 4:4) We choose to be thankful and to praise God, regardless of our circumstances (Eph 5:20, see this interview by Gareth & Ali Gilkeson of Rend Collective, talking of their choice to praise despite the pain of miscarriage, lest anyone think that joy is the prerogative only of the naturally happy temperament or propitious circumstances.)

In the same way, evangelism is not simply the choice of the extrovert who is naturally garrulous. Paul says, ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!’ (1 Cor 9:16) The duty to share the good news is not restricted to extroverts or paid Christian workers or those who are fanatical, but the fulfilment of that duty will be the result of the choices we make, choices that are based on an overflow of thankfulness and gratitude because of God’s grace and mercy to us. ‘Our aim, like Paul’s is to save people from the wrath of God and to win them for eternal life; and in loving people like this we prove the reality of our own faith and confirm our participation in the gospel,’ writes John Piper. There are rewards ahead for all who take this responsibility seriously (a ‘crown that will last forever’, see 1 Cor 9:25), but God leaves the choice to us. Let’s be prepared to make right choices!