A Note About God’s Sovereignty:
Our story this week demonstrates God’s great sovereignty over history. The writers of the Old Testament, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit were giving us not only the details of the history of Israel but also of God’s larger plan of redemption.
God sovereignly chose the women who would be the ancestors of His Son, including– Eve, Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba.
Several of these women would seem to be most unlikely for God to choose to bless in such a tremendous way. Rahab was a harlot. Bathsheba was widowed. Ruth was a Gentile. Rachel was Jacob’s favored wife, not Leah. But God is the One in charge and He chose the women He wanted for His plan of redemption.
Tamar has been accused by historians of being a prostitute because of the means that she used to get Judah to obey the Levirate law. But we will see in our story that Tamar was not a practicing harlot. She was just a human sinner like all of us. Tamar simply believed and obeyed God. Truly if God is going to work through people to accomplish His purposes, He only has sinful people to use. We should be encouraged that our sovereign God is merciful and wise as He works in the lives of His children.
Tamar –Ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ
Tamar could not possibly have known that she would become an important part of history as ancestress of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So far in our lessons we have talked about Eve, the mother of all living, and Sarah, the mother of all of the descendants of Abraham. We saw that God promised a Savior after Adam and Eve sinned. Later, we learned that God promised Abraham that “all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3). This meant, among other things, that the Lord Jesus would come through the line of Abraham.
Abraham’s son, Isaac was the next patriarch and Rebekah his wife was the next mother in the line of patriarchs. Their son Jacob and his wife Leah would be the parents of Judah who was chosen by God to carry on the ancestry of Christ. Of course, none of these people knew that they were ancestors of Christ. They just lived their lives in the land of Canaan as ordinary people.
Now let’s take a quick tour through the rest of the book of Genesis. It is very important to get the context for the story of Tamar.
We begin the story at Genesis 37:1,2 – “Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. This is the account of Jacob’s family line.”
Most Christians are very familiar with Joseph’s story and he is regarded as a great man of God. Joseph’s story is one of courage and faith even under trying circumstances. The rest of the book of Genesis, from chapters 37 through 50 take up Joseph’s story.
Jacob, now called Israel, loved his son Joseph more than the other sons. He showed Joseph many favors. The other brothers were jealous and thought they would kill him but instead they sold him to a caravan of Ishmaelites from Gilead. Eventually the traders took Joseph to Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh’s officer, the captain of the bodyguard. Meanwhile the brothers took Joseph’s tunic and smeared goat’s blood on it. They had decided to tell their father Israel that a wild animal had killed Joseph.
So, at the end of Genesis 37, we have Israel at home, grieving because he thinks that Joseph is dead. The brothers are just living out their lives, happy that the hated Joseph is no longer there to annoy them with his dreams.
Meanwhile in Egypt, Joseph is working in Potiphar’s household. We know from reading ahead in chapter 39 and following that he would get falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife of trying to assault her and be thrown into prison. God helped Joseph get out of prison when he interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams. Joseph was given leadership in Egypt, wisely guiding that country through seven years of tremendous harvests and then seven years of famine.
The famine was in Canaan too. When Jacob heard that there was food in Egypt he sent his sons there to purchase some grain. The brothers visit several times. Joseph invited the whole family to come and live in Egypt so they can have food to eat. And eventually all of the Israelites would end up in Egypt.
At the end of the book of Genesis we have the account of Joseph’s death and his extraction of a promise from his family to take his bones back to Canaan when they return. Of course they don’t get to the Promised Land for four hundred years, but we will save that part of the story for when we get to Rahab.
Genesis 38 is a “time out” in the story of Joseph and Egypt and how the Israelites eventually went there during the time of the famine.
Why do we have a whole chapter, chapter 38, in the middle of the story of the Israelites in Canaan and Egypt? What is the Bible doing suddenly taking time out for the story of just two people, Judah and Tamar? Judah is not the first born, so why aren’t we talking about the person we would expect to carry on the line of the patriarchs from Abraham forward?
It is because the writers of the Old Testament, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit were giving us not only the details of the history of Israel but also of God’s larger plan of redemption. For we find out that Tamar is an ancestress of King David and then of Jesus.
So, the story in Genesis 38 gives us the background to how Judah and Tamar came to be the great, great, ever-so-great grandparents of Jesus. It is important for us to see how God was faithful to His covenant promises.
Let’s look at this amazing story. Turn to Genesis 38:1-11:
At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah. There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and made love to her; she conceived again and became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er. She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan. She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him.
Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death.
Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.” But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from providing offspring for his brother. What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death also.
Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s household until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought “He may die too, just like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s household.
Tamar was married into Judah’s family. Judah was the fourth son of Jacob and Leah. Isaac was his grandfather and Abraham was his great-grandfather, so she married into the family of the Patriarchs.
First, Tamar had married Judah’s eldest son, Er. Er had displeased God in some way, so God took his life. Then Judah asked Onan to do the duty of a brother-in-law and raise up a child for his older brother. Later this practice will be codified in the Levirate Lawwhich is found in Deuteronomy 25:5-10. A brother could try and give a child to the widowed sister-in law so that his dead brother would have an heir. In the book of Ruth, we will see that it can extend to a near kinsman.
Onan, Er’s brother, married Tamar but “wasted his seed” instead of giving Tamar a child. He was disobeying God’s law by doing this and so God took his life too. Why did he do this? Because his inheritance would be substantially less if he had to share it with Tamar’s son. In fact, since Er was the firstborn the birthright inheritance, which was usually double, would go to Tamar’s son.
Apparently Shelah was not quite old enough to marry, so Judah sent Tamar home to her father. Judah was afraid to give Tamar to his third son, Shelah, after watching the first two sons die. We’re not sure if Judah understood at this time that God took their lives or if they died of natural causes. Perhaps he even thought Tamar was some kind of a curse for them. He sent Tamar away. Tamar remained with her family wearing her widow’s garments until she had an opportune moment to talk to Judah again.
Time went by and Judah’s wife died, after which he observed a period of mourning. Then he went back to work caring for his sheep. Someone told Tamar that Judah was going to be nearby soon for the shearing of his sheep. Tamar decided on a plan. She would deceive Judah into thinking she was a prostitute and thereby get the child by him that she had been promised.
Let’s see what she did. Turn to Genesis 38:14:
She took off her widow’s clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.
It is hard to put ourselves into Tamar’s shoes and think about why she would take such a drastic measure to get what she saw was justice for herself. Wasn’t she taking things into her own hands? Why didn’t she just trust God? What did she think would come of this? This story reminds us of Sarah, who gave her maid to Abraham, and Rebekah, who tricked Isaac into giving Jacob the blessing.
Let’s discuss the meaning of sex in the Old Testament compared to now. We have the examples of Abraham and Jacob to show that love or lust need not have been the only motive for sex. We have seen how important it is for men to get an heir. Abraham listened to Sarah and went into her maid in order to get an heir. It apparently seemed ok for Jacob to have 4 wives to get heirs. No one suggests that there was any sin involved.
So what shall we say about Tamar? Tamar chose this method to get an heir for her first husband as promised in the Levirate Law. Tamar did not think of it as incest with her father-in-law. A father-in-law may not sleep with his daughter-in-law (Lev 18:15), just as a brother-in-law may not sleep with his sister-in-law (Lev 18:16), but in-law incest rules are suspended for the purpose of the levirate law. The leviris, after all, only a surrogate for the dead husband. So here we have a surrogate husband instead of a surrogate wife like Hagar.
Back to the story. So Judah came along and saw a women that he mistook for a shrine prostitute sitting in a place on the road that signals that she is available and decided to take advantage of the situation.
Apparently Judah did not have the money to pay for her services. He offered instead to send Tamar a goat from his flock. In the meantime, he left his tribal leader’s staff and his personal seal and cord as a pledge. The seal, cord and staff had a person’s emblem carved on them, and were items of great personal worth. Judah said he would send a payment later. Tamar was wise enough to get his seal and cord and staff as a pledge for payment. She also surmised that she would need proofs later when and if she got pregnant. She was so right.
So Judah took Tamar and slept with her. He sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get his pledge back. The Adullamite could not find her. In fact, we see now further proof that Tamar was not a harlot.
Turn to Genesis 38:21,22:
The Adullamite “asked the men who live there, “Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the rad at Enaim?” “There hasn’t’ been any shrine prostitute here,” they said. So he went back to Judah and said, I didn’t find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, ‘There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here.’”
Note that the men who lived there said that there were no prostitutes in their area. If Tamar had been going out and sitting in a prominent place by the side of the road, everyone would have noticed. Tamar only made this desperate move once and she managed to keep it a secret from everyone until she couldn’t any longer.
Sure enough it was discovered that Tamar was pregnant a few months later. Since Tamar was a widow and unmarried, everyone assumed she had acted immorally. When Judah heard about her his judgment was severe and to the point: “Bring her out and have her burned to death!” (38:24).
Judah was told that Tamar was pregnant by harlotry and he believed their story. After all, Tamar was an unmarried widow. But, Tamar was also his daughter-in- law and he needed to uphold the family honor, so Judah demanded that she be brought out and punished according to the law at that time – she was to be burned.
While they were bringing Tamar out, Tamar sent word to her father-in-law that she was pregnant by the man who owned the seal and cord and staff that she possessed. Judah recognized them and was humbled. He said, “She is more righteous than I since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” (Genesis 38:26)
Judah had no more relations with Tamar. He had unwittingly fulfilled the levirate law himself and there was no need. Judah himself had produced the heir that would continue his line.
God blessed Tamar with not one but two sons. She had twins, Perez and Zerah. In fact, the name of Perez became great in Israel and was later used as an example of blessing in the book of Ruth: “And all the people who were in the gate, and the elders, said, … ‘let thy house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore unto Judah’” (Ruth 4:11-12). It was through the line of Perez that Jesus would come.
Applications
What can we learn from Tamar’s life? A woman in her place and time had very few options. We cannot just dismiss her as a terrible sinner. Judah did not. He said that she was more righteous than he was. He knew that his sin in not giving her to Shelah as he had promised led her into desperate means. If not for Tamar, Judah’s line would not continue. It was his responsibility and he neglected it.
Tamar, like Ruth was deeply loyal to the family she married into. Both women would preserve the line of ancestry for Christ by firmly obeying God’s calling on their lives.
Another lesson for us is the incredible love and mercy of God. God did not reject Tamar either. He made her an ancestress of the Savior, His Son. God works out good even from our mistakes (Romans 8:28).
But this does not mean that we can presume on God. We must always strive to obey Him without sinning. While the method that Tamar used seems wrong, we live in a sinful world and we should not judge her too harshly. Tamar was truly one of the exceptional women in Patriarchal times. God blessed her even as He does all of us sinners!!
Discussion Questions:
1. How did Tamar show that she knew of her responsibility with the brothers-in-law to produce an heir for Er, her first husband? How were her motives different from those of Onan and Judah?
2. Why would Judah say Tamar was righteous if she acted like a harlot? How does this fit in with the question of whether or not it was a sin for Tamar to entice Judah? How does this make Tamar an example of righteousness for women today?
3. Like his great-grandfather Abraham, Judah showed that he didn’t trust God to bring His word to pass. What were some steps he could have taken to conquer his fear?
4. How did Tamar reflect the image of God? In what way did she show that she was a strong “ezer”?
5. God is sovereign. Can you think of a disappointing event in your life where God eventually brought good out of pain?
Handout for Lesson 3 –
Women of God – Tamar
Tamar is the fifth female ancestor of Christ that is mentioned in the Bible.
Notes:
History Review – Genesis 11:26 – Genesis 50:26
Genesis 12:1-3; 15:5
Genesis 37:28
Genesis 46:26, 27
Genesis 38 – A “Time out” in the Genesis Story
Matthew 1:3
Genesis 38:6-11
Genesis 38:14, 26
Discussion Questions:
1. What do you make of Tamar’s decision to force Judah into keeping his promise in this way? Was is a sin?
2. Why would Judah say she was righteous if she acted like a harlot? How does this fit in with the question of whether or not it was a sin for Tamar to entice Judah?
3. Who are other Bible characters who acted on what seemed right at the time, but was wrong according to God?
4. What other situations can you think of where God brought something good in spite of our wrong actions?
Next week: Rahab
Scriptures: Joshua 2:1-24; 6:17-25; Matthew 1:5; Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25.
