Have you ever experienced a season in your life where you felt like there was distance between you and God? Whether we will admit it or not, most of us have experienced a time where we ran from or wandered from God for a season. This is because we are a people who are “prone to wander” and to “leave” the God we love.
How does the providence of God take into account the wandering of those whom He loves? Can God’s plan be thwarted by the unfaithfulness of men and women? That is a question that we are going to answer today. In Genesis 38, we are going to learn that God is faithful to accomplish His plan, even when His people are not. God’s plan is not thwarted by the depravity of His people. We can be certain that God is still providential, even when His people are unfaithful. However, what we are also going to see is that when God’s people are unfaithful, God’s providence can become painful and cause them to miss out on the joy of walking by faith in sweet surrender to Him. So another question that we want to answer to day is this: How can we learn to surrender to God and cooperate with His work of providence?
I. When We Run, Providence can be Painful (37:1-7)
[38:1] It happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and turned aside to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. [2] There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua. He took her and went in to her, [3] and she conceived and bore a son, and he called his name Er. [4] She conceived again and bore a son, and she called his name Onan. [5] Yet again she bore a son, and she called his name Shelah. Judah was in Chezib when she bore him.
The reason I bring up running in this passage is because I believe Judah is doing just that. This chapter begins by telling us that it was “at that time” that Judah decided to leave his family and take up a new life somewhere else. AT what time? This is a reference to the events in Genesis 37:18-36: the betrayal of Joseph and subsequent cover up. Judah deals with his guilt over Joseph by running, keeping the wrong company, and marrying the wrong woman. All of this is an indicator that someone is running and hiding from God. And things are about to get painful for Judah.
[6] And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. [7] But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD put him to death.
This is the first text to explicitly say this in the Bible so far, and it is a passage that should instill the fear of God in our hearts. I love what R.C. Sproul says in his book, The Holiness of God, when commenting on how we have a hard time reading a passage like this. He basically said that because God is holy and we are wicked, the real mystery is not that God would execute anyone, but that we are all still breathing!
But don’t miss what’s going on here. Because God is holy, sometimes His providence includes judgment. Judah watched his father learn the pain of losing a son in Genesis 37:34-35, and in this chapter he learns the pain of losing two. This is what I mean when I say that when we run, God’s providence can be painful. Men, please pay attention here: when we run from God, sometimes our children pay the price. Don’t be like Judah.
Friend, you cannot run from God. You cannot hide from God. There are no secrets before Him. This reminds me of the words of Psalm 139:1-12:
[139:1] O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.
Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.”
Let me say this again, you cannot run or hide from God. And if you claim to belong to God, you need to know that God is always at work for your good and His glory in your life and sometimes that means that He acts in discipline as a loving Father when you run from Him. He does so because He is AFTER you! Rather than run, the Bible teaches us to come clean with God and with those we have sinned against. If you’ve been running, come back to God and come clean with Him so you can avoid the pain of running from God.
II. When We Plot, Providence Can be Painful (37:8-26)
[8] Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.” [9] But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went in to his brother's wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother. [10] And what he did was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and he put him to death also.
Now, let me tread lightly here! To understand all that is going on here, we first need to understand something about inheritance in this culture. First, know that a firstborn son was entitled to double-portion of the family inheritance. Second, know also that is was very important in Jewish culture for a person’s lineage to continue from generation to generation. If a man died with now male heirs, it was viewed as if his name was being cut off from God’s people. In order to preserve this, something called “Levirate Marriage” was practiced where ideally a brother or at least a next of kin would take a relative’s widow and have children with her in order to raise up offspring for their dead relative. This ensured that their name would be perpetuated throughout the coming generations.
This is what Judah means when he tells Onan to “perform the duty of a brother-in-law” to Tamar and raise up offspring for his brother. And this helps us understand exactly what Onan’s wickedness was. If Onan has a son by Tamar, it will become the heir of Er, and will receive the double portion of the family’s inheritance. So Onan plays the hero by taking Tamar to wife, but secretly ensures that he won’t impregnate her by what he does. In doing so, he retains his position as the son who will receive the double portion of the inheritance, he comes across as the family hero, and as an added bonus gets frequent sex with Tamar. His sin is ultimately one of greed, but also one of deception and posing, like Annanias and Saphira (Acts 5:1-11). But Onan is not the only one we see plotting in this chapter.
[11] Then Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law, “Remain a widow in your father's house, till Shelah my son grows up”—for he feared that he would die, like his brothers. So Tamar went and remained in her father's house.
This indicates deception on Judah’s part. Apparently, he now thinks that she is bad “mojo” for his next son, since the other two sons that have married her have both died! So Judah plots to remove her from the family by deceiving her.
[12] In the course of time the wife of Judah, Shua's daughter, died. When Judah was comforted, he went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite. [13] And when Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,” [14] she took off her widow's garments and covered herself with a veil, wrapping herself up, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him in marriage.
I want you to put yourself in Tamar’s shoes for just a second. She’s widowed, she’s childless, she’s been used by Onan and deceived by Judah. In this culture, she is socially bankrupt and her only options are Shelah and Judah. So she plots to take a great risk in loyalty to the family.
[15] When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. [16] He turned to her at the roadside and said, “Come, let me come in to you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?” [17] He answered, “I will send you a young goat from the flock.” And she said, “If you give me a pledge, until you send it—” [18] He said, “What pledge shall I give you?” She replied, “Your signet and your cord and your staff that is in your hand.” So he gave them to her and went in to her, and she conceived by him. [19] Then she arose and went away, and taking off her veil she put on the garments of her widowhood.
[20] When Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite to take back the pledge from the woman's hand, he did not find her. [21] And he asked the men of the place, “Where is the cult prostitute who was at Enaim at the roadside?” And they said, “No cult prostitute has been here.” [22] So he returned to Judah and said, “I have not found her. Also, the men of the place said, ‘No cult prostitute has been here.’” [23] And Judah replied, “Let her keep the things as her own, or we shall be laughed at. You see, I sent this young goat, and you did not find her.”
Notice here that Judah is worried about his reputation, not his righteousness. He’s worried about getting laughed at, either because people would find out that he slept with a prostitute or because people would find out that he didn’t pay this prostitute, which would be another picture of Judah’ warped morality. “People are going to think we’re the kind of men that don’t pay our prostitutes!” Ironically, God sees to it that Judah still gets laughed at for this.
[24] About three months later Judah was told, “Tamar your daughter-in-law has been immoral. Moreover, she is pregnant by immorality.” And Judah said, “Bring her out, and let her be burned.” [25] As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, “By the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant.” And she said, “Please identify whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff.” [26] Then Judah identified them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not know her again.
Let’s unpack what Judah said here. First, I would like to stress that this account is descriptive and not prescriptive! This passage is not encouraging ladies to follow Tamar’s example to the letter. Second, this passage is also not commending all of Tamar’s behavior in this chapter.
What is commended as “righteous” here is this incredible risk that she takes in loyalty to the covenant family of God. This is why she is the heroine in this chapter: because she is trying to save the family at great risk to herself and she does. This is much like Rahab in Joshua 2, who shows loyalty to the covenant people of God by lying to help the Israelite spies escape at great risk to herself. Both of these women put themselves in grave danger in loyalty to God’s people, which ultimately makes them loyal to God Himself. Again, we are not commending all of her behavior, but we are commending the risk she takes, because risk taking is the essence of walking by faith and that is where God wants us to be while He providentially works things out in our lives. Rather than running, hiding, and plotting, God wants us to walk by a faith that is willing to risk all for His Glory.
Our plotting will never replace walking by faith. Everyone is plotting in this chapter. Onan plots. Judah plots. Even Tamar, the heroine, is plotting. And when we plot, God’s providence can be painful as it is for Onan, for Judah, and for even Tamar. We must remember that our plotting will never replace walking by a faith that is willing to risk it all.
III. We Must Remember that The Faithfulness of God will Never be Thwarted by the Unfaithfulness of Men and Women (37:26-30)
Ultimately, we see the faithfulness of God in this chapter, even when His people are not faithful to Him. The first place we see God’s faithfulness in Judah’s confession. [26] Then Judah identified them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not know her again.
This is an admission of guilt for Judah. He is recognizing that he has not been loyal to God’s family like Tamar has. And the next time we see Judah, he is willing to lay himself down for one of his brothers. So we see God here being faithful to redeem Judah’s character. Judah runs, but God goes after him and changes him.
[27] When the time of her labor came, there were twins in her womb. [28] And when she was in labor, one put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.” [29] But as he drew back his hand, behold, his brother came out. And she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” Therefore his name was called Perez. [30] Afterward his brother came out with the scarlet thread on his hand, and his name was called Zerah.
The next place we see God’s faithfulness is in the birth of these two sons. How many sons did Judah lose in this chapter? Now he has two sons restored! But there is something very significant about these twins. Perez, who makes a breach for himself, whose name means “a breach,” turns out to be the breach that God makes in this wicked family for the messianic line. We see this in Matthew 1:1-16. What this means is that God is working through the events in this chapter to preserve the lineage of Jesus Christ.
And here’s what is more: in making a breach for the messianic line, God makes a breach for us. Because Jesus came and lived a righteous life in our place and died on the cross in our place and rose for the dead, a BREACH has been made for us to be reconciled to God. A way has been made; a trail has been opened up and blazed. That is good news for us, because there is no way to God without Christ. Like Zerah, we were born with the scarlet thread of sin sewn on our hearts (Isaiah 1:18). This made us all spiritually stillborn, in need of someone to make a way for us to be made alive. Our greater Perez has done just that. In the midst of people running, hiding, plotting, and sinning, our God is working for their good and ours!
Friend, see the providence of God in this chapter. God again shows Himself to be a faithful God who is always at work for His glory and the good of His people. This is true even when they run. He is a God who, when His people run, providentially comes after them because He loves them. Will you stop running and hiding and plotting and surrender yourself to God today? It is true that when we walk by faith, we are taking a risk. But when we risk we gain! When we humble ourselves under the providential hand of God, we gain the joy He gives to sustain us through our trials. We miss out on this when we run, experiencing guilt and pain rather than joy and hope.
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