Old Testament - Genesis 38 - March 8, 2022

 3/8/2022 – Genesis 38

This seems to be a chapter about bad decisions.

It helps quite a bit if we know the ancient customs of the Middle East: To my understanding, the brother of a deceased man should marry his widow—in order to produce a male heir for the dead man. This would perpetuate the dead man’s name and memory, but also a man’s property is involved, and it can become the property that is passed down through the eldest son. 

After the brothers sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites, Judah (one of the older brothers) married a Canaanite woman, named Shuah. They had 3 sons: Er, Onan and Shelah. Er, the oldest, married Tamar, but was not a good man. He died before they had children. According to the law at the time, a widow who had no children had claim on her husband’s next oldest brother or his closest living male relative. This man, if asked by the widow, was obligated to marry her and help her to have a son. Onan went into her, but he “spilled it (semen) on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother” (v9) Judah promised Tamar that when her 3rd son, Shelah was old enough, that son could be her husband. But when Shelah was grown, Judah did not keep his promise. 

Tamar needed to have a husband. She veiled herself and presented herself to Judah, who thought she was a harlot. She became pregnant and let all know that the father was Judah. When Judah heard that Tamar was pregnant, he was very angry and ordered her to be put to death. She saved herself because she had proof that Judah was the father of her twins: Pharez and Zarah.

Judah certainly had a twisted sense of values, although when all the facts were on the table, he fessed up and said that “she hath been more righteous than I”  (v 26).  With my understanding, the only thing I get out of this is that when Judah’s sin was exposed, he was humiliated for when he had been tempted, he immediately put all his morals aside and quickly moved forward into a serious sin. Perhaps there will be more in the upcoming chapters. Bob says it’s just like a soap opera. He’s right, and soap operas rarely lead to happy lives. Keeping the Lord’s commandments certainly keeps us much happier than when we don’t keep His commandments AND it better enables us to have His help when we are in difficult times.


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