Genealogy of Jesus: Judah and Tamar

OT Lesson: Genesis 38:6-30 (NIV)

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 fulfil 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 avoid 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.

After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him.

When Tamar was told, ‘Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,’ 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.

When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. Not realising that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, ‘Come now, let me sleep with you.’

‘And what will you give me to sleep with you?’ she asked.

‘I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,’ he said.

‘Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?’ she asked.

He said, ‘What pledge should I give you?’

‘Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand,’ she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow’s clothes again.

Meanwhile Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her. He asked the men who lived there, ‘Where is the shrine-prostitute who was beside the road 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.”’

Then Judah said, ‘Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughing-stock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn’t find her.’

About three months later Judah was told, ‘Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.’

Judah said, ‘Bring her out and let her be burned to death!’

As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. ‘I am pregnant by the man who owns these,’ she said. And she added, ‘See if you recognise whose seal and cord and staff these are.’

Judah recognised them and said, ‘She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.’ And he did not sleep with her again.

When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, ‘This one came out first.’ But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, ‘So this is how you have broken out!’ And he was named Perez. Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out. And he was named Zerah.

NT Lesson: Matthew 1:3 (NRSV)

And Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram.

Sermon

Introduction

Happy Thanksgiving Day! Tomorrow is the Thanksgiving Day in Canada. So we can celebrate it together with our neighbour Canadians. Giving thanks more often is always a good idea. On our Thanksgiving day, precisely the Sunday before Thanksgiving day, we will have our Harvest Dinner after the worship service. I will cook turkeys, and the rest is going to be pitch-in. So come to church hungry on that Sunday. Since you don’t see Samuel, here is your weekly dose of Samuel. Now Samuel clearly understands the power dynamics in the house. He knows who has the power. Last Wednesday, I was singing one of the children’s songs. Samuel did not like it. He asked me to stop. I continued singing. He asked me again. I ignored his request. Then he said to me, ‘I’m gonna ask Mommy for Dada’s no singing.’ Obviously Samuel knows that Mommy has bigger power than Dada.

About Judah

We talked about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now we have twelve of them. Among the twelve,  Joseph has the most exciting story who was the beloved son of Jacob, then was about to be killed by his brothers, but was sold as a slave by his own brothers to a foreign country, then became successful, but then wrongfully imprisoned indefinitely, then miraculously became the Prime Minister of the most powerful empire at that time. But we are not going to talk about Joseph because he is not in the genealogy of Jesus. Jesus is from the tribe of Judah which had been historically the most powerful tribe among the twelve. But Judah himself, the founding father of the most powerful tribe, was not really a great one. When it comes to the legal matter, Reuben has all the right being the firstborn. When it comes to the spirituality, Joseph has the greatest faith whose life was most dramatic. Judah’s life has nothing to see. Today’s passage was the biggest event in his life. He was mostly kind of a lay back person—whatever. When their sister was raped, the brothers including Levi got crazy mad and murdered so many town people. Judah did not join them—why kill? When the brothers got jealousy and tried to kill their younger brother, Judah did not join them—why kill? Then the question is how he became the father of Jesus Christ. Legally, he is not the firstborn. He did not have the greatest faith. He did not have the super energy and zeal for God. What is so special of him? 

The secret is hidden in his name as usual. Judah means praise. In heaven, the praise is more important than the preaching. The praise is better than the work of faith. The praise triumphs the burning zeal for God. It is all because we are created to praise God.1 Most of you, I believe, have a car. You may love your car because of the A/C in the summer and the heater in the winter. You may like its wonderful stereo. You may love its cool design. You may like the cushion of the car seat. But even if your car has everything you love, it is useless if it does not drive. If you must choose between the two cars: One has every cool thing but broken power-train, the other has no A/C, no radio, rusty body but runs well; which one would you choose? The ultimate purpose of a car is to drive. Likewise, the ultimate purpose of human being, the reason why we are created, is to praise. The praise is so important, so the choir seats are in most churches, if not all, located on the same level as the pastor’s lectern or higher. The praise is more important than the sermon itself in the worship service. When we go to heaven—not today, some time in future—I guarantee, no one will preach but everyone will praise all the time. On earth, I am a preacher. You are a teacher, a nurse, a lawyer, an accountant, a sales person, some kind of manager or whatever, but in heaven we all are choir members. So why not join the choir little earlier like today?

Women in Genealogy

The genealogy in the gospel of Matthew is shocking in two ways. Mostly only guys are listed in the genealogy. You may think it is sexism, yes but that was just the way it was back then. But what is really shocking to me was that there are a few women’s name. In my family genealogy, there is no single woman’s name. What my genealogy does is this: under the guy’s name there is a note section which may say ‘he married to the second daughter of Mr. John Doe from the nearby town of Carmel.’ And for the daughters, it narks as daughter and then write down the son-in-law’s name with his original town. So when I was reading the genealogy in Matthew, I was like ‘Wow… extremely feminism considering it was written two thousand years ago.’ I guess that all the readers of two thousand years ago must be like, ‘What the heck is it? How dare he wrote women’s name in the genealogy?’

The other shocking thing is that those women in the genealogy are Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth. There is no Sarah, Rebecca or Leah who are venerated and kind of worshipped even today as the matriarchs and the proud founding mothers of Jewish people. All three women in the genealogy are not Jews but gentiles, and two of them were either prostitutes or acted as prostitutes. Matthew was supposed to hide these names according to the ancient writing styles and customs because these can seriously damage the fame of Jesus.

Disaster to the Family

Now Judah had three sons. And his eldest son was married to Tamar, and he died. God killed him because he was wicked. So what did he do? His name (ער) in Hebrew is backward spelling of wicked or evil (רע). So it is one of the puns in the Bible. In English, it is like, “Dab was bad.” We don’t know what kind of wicked thing Er did, but anyway he is gone without any child. Now, because of the Levirate marriage, his younger brother Onan had to sleep with Tamar. This is one of many things that we shall not do even though it is in the Bible. Nowadays marriage is between the two people. But in the ancient days, marriage was between the two families. The marriage today is like a tennis or ping-pong, but it was like a team sports such as baseball or basket ball. In the baseball, if a pitcher cannot properly throw the balls any more, then the coach sends out a new pitcher. Likewise, in the ancient marriage, if a husband cannot impregnates his wife, the father had to provide another impregnater, that is the younger brother. So Onan slept with his sister-in-law and he also died because God killed him. But this time, we know what he did.

Onan

Let me make it clear one thing. I met several people who thought it is about the masturbation, but this passage has nothing to do with the masturbation. Onan did not masturbate but he indeed slept with his brother's wife which is not only legal but moral thing to do back then. The thing is at the last moment he spilt his semen on the ground all the time. And that was evil enough for God to kill him. Does this mean that anybody practising the birth control shall be put to death? God’s very first commandment was to be fruitful and to multiply, and thus the Bible considers wasting the semen as an evil thing. But that has never been a deadly sin, just like nobody has ever been executed for jaywalking. Then what is so specially evil in this case? It is about the money.

Last Sunday, I explained that the eldest son gets the double portion of the inheritance than his brothers. If Tamar bear a son, that child is legally the son of his brother Er, even though biologically his son. In the levirate marriage, Onan is to impregnates Tamar in the name of his dead brother, Er. Then there are three people to share the inheritance of Judah: Onan’s biological son who is the legal son of his dead brother, Onan himself, and his younger brother Shelah. In this case, Onan is not the firstborn, but second place legally. His dead brother’s legal son gets half of the inheritance while Onan and his younger brother gets a quarter each. But if Tamar never has a baby, Onan becomes the legal firstborn and there are only two heirs of Judah. Onan gets two thirds, and his younger brother gets a third. Let’s say Judah has ten million dollar. If Tamar gets pregnant, Onan may inherit two and half million dollar. On the other hand if Tamar does not get a son, Onan can inherit 6.6 million dollar. 

This is a big problem for Tamar because she is a woman. In the ancient middle East, a woman has to be fed by her father before marriage, by her husband after the marriage, and by her son in her old age. No husband and no son means she has no income source. She will surely become poor and starve to death unless she becomes an illegal prostitute, which will eventually be found and be executed. Onan of course knew it clearly but he did not care—“I just want more money. I don’t care if that woman starves to death because of me or not. I am rich now but I want to be richer. That is all that matters to me.” And this was evil in the eyes of God and God killed Onan.

Moral Conflict

Tamar was in trouble in many ways. Her husband somehow died before she got pregnant. Her husband’s brother slept with her many times but he always spilt his semen so that she could not get pregnant. And then her husband’s brother also died. This is a deadly crisis to her financially. No husband and no son means she will starve to death sooner or later. Her father-in-law has one more son, and he was supposed to give him to her but instead Judah kicked her out. Judah said to her nicely to go to her father’s house and wait there. But the thing is that it was not really possible for a married woman to go back to her father’s house. Korea used to be a kingdom called Chosen Dynasty, and during the old days, some women were kicked out of the husband’s house. They were supposed to go back to their father’s house, but that was an unbearably great shame to the family. So many of them killed themselves on the way, instead of going back to their father’s house. So what Judah told her was effectively, “I don’t want to see even your face any more. Just go out somewhere and kill yourself there.” And obviously Tamar did not go back to her father’s house. How can she do the prostitute at her father’s house? She lived by herself.

But it was not only her life that was threatened and at great danger. Her morality was also at a risk because it was her moral duty to bear a son to Judah’s family. And there is no way she can do that being kicked out of the house. Not by her choice, she became an immoral and unethical woman. People might have been pointing fingers at her, “Why do you even stay alive when you don’t fulfil the purpose of your life?” And at the same time, she knew that it is immoral to sleep with her father-in-law. Tamar was in the greatest moral conflict in her life that she had to choose between the two immoral things.

Not often but sometimes some people are forced to choose between the two conflicting things. For example, all the Germans under Nazi Germany had to choose between being a good citizen and being a good Christian. To be a good Christian, you must be a bad citizen disobeying the government and all the social norms. To be a good citizen, you must be an evil Christian killing the innocent people. You may think it is very easy to tell in this case. And you are right. But if you were in that situation, it would not be that simple. And also sometimes the choices can be vague with thick grey area in between.

Tamar made her decision and chose to fulfil her moral duty and the purpose of her life. Not being able to bear a son was not her fault to begin with. All her dead husband’s family abused her in many ways, and yet she decided to fulfil her duty to them. Eventually the Bible says that Tamar was more righteous than Judah. Eventually her son became the ancestor of Jesus Christ. And she got her name on the genealogy of the Saviour where not even Sarah and Rebecca could.

Conclusion

Friends, in life we might find ourselves in the difficult situation where we are forced to make a difficult choice. The best is not to be in that place to begin with. And that is why Jesus taught us to pray “Lead us not into temptation.” But if we are in such a situation, let us pray for wisdom and courage so that we can make a wise decision. Let us always choose to fulfil our duty of being a good Christian. Let us always choose life. With the praise of Judah and with the dedication and determination of Tamar, we can also be in the family of God. Amen.