Saving Judah?
Genesis 38:1-30
February 15, 2015
If you’ve read through Genesis with any idea of
Trying to make sense of the story you are reading,
Then this chapter has undoubtedly stuck out to you.
1) Because of its hideous account of sin and incest
2) Because it seems out of place.
Here we are right in the middle of the “fast-paced” Joseph story
And out of nowhere comes this story about Judah and Tamar.
It seems strange that it would be here.
And if you’ve thought that, you certainly are not alone.
Several commentators will tell you that they believe this to be a story added in at a later date, but not a part of Moses’ original writing.
(Similar to the story of the woman caught in adultery)
They will tell you that it was added in by some later scribe
To glorify David’s tribe or to give the origin of the levirate marriage.
They say that because, as I told you a couple of weeks ago,
They have missed the point of the end of Genesis.
If the last 14 chapters are about Joseph and his life and ascendancy in Egypt, then yes this chapter is out of place.
But the end of Genesis is not primarily about Joseph.
I told you a couple of weeks ago, that Joseph is not the next patriarch, Judah is,
And it is chapters like this that help you see that.
This chapter isn’t out of place,
It is crucial to you understanding what God is doing.
REMEMBER – GOD IS SAVING JUDAH!!!
In chapter 37 God revealed who the deliverer of Israel (& Judah) would be.
JOSEPH
God made that clear through two prophetic dreams which He gave to Joseph.
Joseph would be the family deliverer.
Incidentally that revelation nearly cost Joseph his life
And most certainly was the root cause behind his being sold into slavery in Egypt.
Now, BEFORE Moses goes on with the saga concerning Joseph,
He wants to SHOW YOU WHO JOSEPH IS SAVING.
And here he is: JUDAH
Now, prepare to be unenthused.
You aren’t going to like what you see.
• We already know that Judah has no respect for his brothers or his father.
• We already know Judah to be a lying money lover with murder in his heart.
Now we find that those may have been his good qualities.
In chapter 38, Moses sets out to show you the truth about Judah,
And to show you exactly what Joseph has been sent to save.
So let’s work our way through the chapter together and look at this man named Judah
And then we’ll talk a little more about this at the end.
I’ve divided the chapter up into 5 points
That help us see who this Judah is that Joseph has been sent to save.
#1 THE CONTEMPT OF JUDAH’S SOJOURNING
Genesis 38:1-5
We find here that Judah goes on a trip.
Verse 1 says that “Judah departed from his brothers and visited a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.”
• We also find that while he was there that a Canaanite woman caught his eye (the daughter of Shua) and he married her.
• And we find that Judah stayed there long enough to at least father three sons.
And I want you to know that this action was absolutely contemptible.
WHY?
Well, there are some themes that are running through Genesis,
That I should have pointed out to you by now,
But in all honesty, I didn’t see them at first either.
(Thanks to Vodie Baucham and “Joseph And the Gospel of Many Colors”)
When you look at Genesis as a whole, it is clear that Moses in his writing
Is COMPLETELY PREOCCUPIED WITH THREE THINGS.
1) The Promised Land
2) The Chosen Seed
3) The Sacred Covenant
Let me give you a quick synopsis of what I mean.
Take THE PROMISED LAND – it is a very important theme to Moses.
The land was created by God in chapter 1 AS THE STAGE
Where God would meet man and His plan of redemption would play out.
• Man was created from the land
• The land (as well as man) suffered under the curse of sin.
Genesis 3:17 “Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life.”
• Furthermore, it was sin that caused Adam to lose his land.
Genesis 3:22-24 “Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” — therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.”
• In Noah’s day, the sin on the land was multiplied.
Genesis 6:1-3 “Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”
And so the irony was that the land where God was to meet with man, Became a land that was a stage for sin, where man actually rejected God.
So the land was good,
Then the land was cursed,
Then the land was destroyed.
However, when Abraham comes on the scene
God issues a promise of a new land; a Promised Land.
Genesis 12:1-3 “Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
The objective of Abraham, his descendants, and Moses
Is actually to possess this Promised Land that God will bless.
It is a huge theme, it is an important achievement
The land matters.
The second major theme of Moses is THE CHOSEN SEED
The seed would be the MEANS through which
God’s redemption would be accomplished.
God established the seed very early on
As the agent of multiplying things on the earth.
Genesis 1:11-13 “Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them”; and it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning, a third day.”
• However at the fall of sin, there enmity which arose between the seed of the woman and the seed of the enemy.
Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
• This enmity was portrayed in Cain’s murdering of Abel.
But God made clear to Eve that we are to look for the Chosen Seed
As the Savior from the effects of the fall.
We are looking for him.
And we know that this chosen seed is coming through Abraham.
Genesis 22:18 “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
That seed will be none other than Jesus Christ.
Galatians 3:16 “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ.”
So the seed is vitally important; preserving the chosen line matters
It is our hope of redemption and salvation.
In fact, all of Satan’s attacks up to this point
Where either to DEFILE or DESTROY the Promised Seed.
• Pharaoh & Abimelech tried to corrupt it
• Hagar was to defile it
• Ishmael was to replace it
• Esau was to steal it
• Laban was to stop it
You get the picture.
The Chosen seed is vitally important to Moses.
We are waiting for Him, He is our means of redemption.
And the third major theme is THE SACRED COVENANT
There have been many covenants already in Genesis.
• The covenant God made with Adam that he could tend the garden but must not eat from the forbidden tree. (a covenant Adam broke)
• There is the covenant God made with Noah that He would not flood the earth again. (a covenant remembered by the rainbow)
But the most important was the covenant God forged with Abraham.
Genesis 17:1-8 “Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless. “I will establish My covenant between Me and you, And I will multiply you exceedingly.” Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, And you will be the father of a multitude of nations. “No longer shall your name be called Abram, But your name shall be Abraham; For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. “I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you. “I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. “I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”
God was to be the only God of Abraham’s descendants,
Through Abraham this great God would bless and save the world.
And you will remember that the sign of that covenant was circumcision,
And primarily it was to distinguish the chosen seed from all the other peoples.
The Covenant was vitally important.
Now I know that was pretty rapid,
And I’m not asking you to grasp it all right this second.
I simply want you to see that there were three things very important to Moses.
Moses has been focusing on
The Promised Land, The Chosen Seed, and The Sacred Covenant.
(Those three themes continually reemerge)
And then we come to Judah.
1) He has Disregarded the Promised Land
Having departed from his brothers
2) He has Defiled the Chosen Seed
Having sought out a Canaanite wife and chosen one for his sons.
3) He has Despised the Sacred Covenant
You will see him later visiting a temple prostitute (so he thinks) which was not only an act of immorality, but also an act of idolatry.
So if I can put it to you bluntly.
Not only is Judah a ruthless, greedy, lying, murderer.
He also has absolutely no concern
For the blessings and benefits and plan of God in his life.
This little trip he has taken is absolutely contemptible.
Moses is painting Judah as the worst possible culprit.
But wait, it gets better.
The Contempt of Judah’s Sojourning
#2 THE CORRUPTION OF JUDAH’S SONS
Genesis 38:6-11
Now there’s a story for you.
And one I doubt you’ll quickly forget.
It is one of those raw and shocking type of stories that if it wasn’t in the Bible,
You’d never want anyone to talk about it.
• One son is given a wife, he is so wicked that the Lord takes his life.
• The other son is asked to fulfill his duty for his brother and he refuses (in gross and graphic manner) – so the Lord kills him.
• And then the father is so paranoid that this woman must be bad luck that he refuses to give his third son to her for fear that the same will happen to him.
And from that we do recognize a few things still about Judah.
Obviously he wasn’t the greatest father.
He has succeeded in raising corrupt sons.
He has raised sons so wicked that God chose to kill them.
Beyond that we see Judah’s insatiable desire to establish his own line.
One of the chronological discrepancies of the end of Genesis
Is that there appears to be a 22 year period
From the selling of Joseph to the arrival of Jacob into Egypt.
The issue becomes in the fact that Genesis 46 says that
Judah had two grandsons when (sons of Perez) when he entered Egypt.
• So if Judah took this trip as soon as Joseph was sold he could not
have been more than about 20 or 21. (All of those boys were born in a
7 year period, Judah was #4, Joseph was #10 but by different women)
• So in a 22 year period Judah had three sons and two grandsons.
If you start doing the math that is “getting a move on” to say the least.
Judah was driven to propagate and secure his own line.
And it was obviously a wicked one.
Yet again a disdain for the Chosen Seed.
The Contempt of Judah’s Sojourning The Corruption of Judah’s Sons
#3 THE CARNALITY OF JUDAH’S SIN
Genesis 38:12-23
Boy this story just keeps getting better and better.
• A little time passes and Tamar realizes that Judah is never going to give her to his youngest son.
• And for whatever reason (her motives are not given) Tamar wants a son from Judah’s line.
• So after Judah’s wife dies and he becomes lonely he takes a trip to sheer his sheep and Tamar hears of it.
• She dresses like a prostitute and Judah’s flesh takes over from there.
• He sees her on the side of the road and with a degree of romance that every woman desires he says, “Here now, let me come in to you.”
• She then haggles for a price which turns out to be a young goat. What she really wants is his signet ring which was tied by a cord around his neck and his staff.
• When she gets that the deed is done and she conceives and then disappears.
• When Judah takes the goat she is gone and he doesn’t pursue it because he doesn’t want the shame of him having visited a prostitute to get around.
It was immorality
It was incest (all be it ignorant incest)
And Judah doesn’t seem to care other than a little embarrassment.
I don’t have to go any further to explain to you that this is a wicked man.
#4 THE CONFESSION OF JUDAH’S SHAME
Genesis 38:24-26
If there is a bright spot in the story, this is it.
• 3 months pass and it is found that Tamar is pregnant.
• Judah (with all the self-righteousness in the world) declares that she must be burned for having played the harlot. It is convenient how he has forgotten about his little previous fling.
• But he brings her out and we see why she wanted that seal and cord and staff so badly.
• It was to save her life and expose Judah as the father.
• And the plan works.
(26) “Judah recognized them, and said, “She is more righteous than I, inasmuch as I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not have relations with her again.”
This was Judah’s shame, and we are at least happy that he felt it.
It didn’t change what he was,
But at least he was willing to admit what he was.
Thus, the life of Tamar was spared.
And this was highly significant.
#5 THE CHOICE OF JUDAH’S SEED
Genesis 38:27-30
Tamar is pregnant with twins
And at their birth a truly peculiar thing happened.
One boy started out, he even got a hand out,
Which the nurse tied a scarlet thread on.
But it is as if someone on the inside pulled him back in
And beat him to the punch.
Indeed they did, it was his brother.
(29) “But it came about as he dew back his hand, that behold, his brother came out. Then she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” So he was named Perez.”
Incidentally “Perez” means “breach” or “breakthrough”,
Which is precisely what he did.
Of course we now realize in view of the Providence of God,
That it wasn’t Perez who broke through
But God who caused the breakthrough.
This account follows right in line with God’s propensity
To choose the younger over the older.
Abel over Cain
Isaac over Ishmael
Jacob over Esau
And now Perez over Zerah
And so you also realize that this child is part of the chosen lineage
From which the Christ will come.
Matthew 1:3 “Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez was the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram.”
ONCE AGAIN THE AWESOME PROVIDENCE OF GOD!
BUT THERE IS THE STORY.
We have a chapter about awful immorality that ends with a child.
And even though this child will certainly be in the Messianic line,
It still doesn’t change our view of Judah.
If we didn’t already have a low view of Judah, we certainly do now.
SO…
• Let’s remember that horrifying event we saw last week with
Joseph being sold to Egypt,
• And now let’s add to the story what a wicked man Judah was.
And let’s take inventory of where we are at.
If at this point you are sufficiently disgusted with Judah
And wonder why God would send Joseph away and let Judah live,
THEN YOU ARE RIGHT WHERE MOSES WANTS YOU.
You are supposed to be MORE ANGRY
About the injustice of Joseph now than you even were last week.
Judah has gone from bad to worse and God seems to be letting him.
In fact, God has sent the good son Joseph to go suffer in Egypt
So that he might save Judah.
• Last week we watched Joseph led off in chains as the martyr who would save his brothers.
• Here we are forced to face an even tougher question: WHAT EXACTLY IS JOSEPH SAVING?
Many of you in here have seen the movie “Saving Private Ryan”.
Captain Miller is assigned to take a small band of soldiers with the mission of finding and Private Ryan so that he can go home and be with his mother.
At one point in the movie Captain Miller has actually lost a couple of his men simply trying to find Private Ryan.
As he begins to question the worth of this mission.
He says: “He better be worth it. He better go home and cure a disease, or invent a longer-lasting light bulb.”
And Hollywood has its way because at the end of the movie we see the old man back at the grave of Captain Miller, having brought his family back he says: “My family is with me today. They wanted to come with me. To be honest with you, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel coming back here. Every day I think about what you said to me that day on the bridge. I tried to live my life the best that I could. I hope that was enough. I hope that, at least in your eyes, I’ve earned what all of you have done for me.”
And that’s the kind of thing we wanted to see here.
• Joseph, at 17 years of age, is being hauled off to Egypt, never to return.
• We know he is being taken so that he might save Judah.
Our next hope is that Judah is worth all the cost.
We hope that Judah is worth saving.
But that hope is crushed with the reading of Chapter 38
Now the whole thing just looks like even more of a tragedy.
HOW COULD GOD BE SAVING JUDAH?
• He’s a thug!
• He’s a wicked man!
• He doesn’t even care about the land or the seed or the covenant!
Why would God be so interested in saving him?
AND THEREIN LIES THE UNFATHOMABLE MYSTERY
OF THE SOVEREIGN ELECTION OF GOD.
When people question God’s election they always want to question, how God could choose to send someone to hell. But that’s not the hard question.
The hard question really is:
HOW COULD HE CHOOSE TO SAVE ANY OF US?
• You think it strange that God would send such a fine young man like Joseph to Egypt that He might save a scoundrel like Judah?
• You ought to think it strange that God would send His perfect Son to the cross to save a scoundrel like you.
And make no mistake, you are a scoundrel, you are a wretch!
Romans 3:10-18 “as it is written, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.” “THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,” “THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS”; “WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS”; “THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD, DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN.” “THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”
IN THIS STORY, YOU AREN’T JOSEPH – YOU ARE JUDAH!
But the fact that you and I were a wretch did not stop the plan of God.
Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
1 Timothy 1:15 “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.”
1 Peter 3:18 “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;”
The sting you are feeling while reading the story of Joseph
Is the sting you’re supposed to feel when you read about the cross
Does it feel wrong that God would save Judah?
Well, God is saving Judah so that God can save you.
And neither of you deserve it.
This is the Providential plan of God.
That is why we sing about
“Amazing Grace…that saved a wretch like me”
Genesis 38 IS AMAZING GRACE
Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Titus 3:3-7 “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
The story of Judah is a story of Amazing Grace!
It isn’t pretty
It doesn’t smell good
It’s not a pleasant story
BUT THAT IS WHERE AMAZING GRACE RESIDES
• Amazing grace is found in the pig pen with the prodigal son
• Amazing grace is found in the prostitute’s tent
• Amazing grace is found in the bars and with the tax collectors
• Amazing grace is found in the gutters and back alleys
• Amazing grace is found in the crack houses and the slums
AND IF WE LOSE SIGHT OF THIS,
WE MISS THE POINT OF WHAT GOD WAS DOING IN GENESIS,
AND WHAT GOD IS STILL DOING TODAY.
Matthew 9:10-13 “Then it happened that as Jesus was reclining at the table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and His disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?” But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. “But go and learn what this means: ‘ I DESIRE COMPASSION,AND NOT SACRIFICE,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
The reality is that if we have problem with the salvation of Judah,
Then we have problem with the heart of God.
That is what God does, He saves sinners.
That is what makes the end of Genesis such a beautiful story.
We again see the depth God is willing to go to in order to save sinners.
• He is sending Joseph to Egypt (even though there is not a sin listed for
Joseph in the Bible) that He might save Judah.
• And He is saving Judah so that He might save you.
• For through Judah (and the incestuous relationship he had with Tamar)
the Savior of the world is coming.
That is Amazing Grace!
And just for a moment, I want to ask you to REST IN THAT.
That God is so gracious that He is willing to pay for your sin
Through the sacrifice of His Son.
He offers your forgiveness, even though you don’t deserve it.
We don’t often get real evangelistic in here on Sundays
(Worship is supposed to occur in here, evangelism occurs out there)
HOWEVER
I am certainly aware that Judah wasn’t the only religious man in need of salvation.
It’s not about how good you’ve been (in God’s eyes it isn’t good enough)
• If we dug through our closets, each of us has a story that would be just as
embarrassing at Judah’s if God were to print it in the Bible.
• The concern is that you have thus far been willing to live with your sin
because you think a little religion is cancelling out your bad.
Friends, we all need Jesus.
We all need forgiveness.
We all need His amazing grace.
And this morning, I simply ask you to confess to Him
Your need for His forgiveness and yield your life to Him.
The “Good News” is that Christ doesn’t turn away those who come to Him
So if the Holy Spirit is moving in your heart, I’d ask you to submit to Him.
