Genesis 38

Genesis 38

Judah and Tamar certainly is not a Sunday school favorite. We have this woman named Tamar. She is given over to this family in matrimony. She is first given to Er, who dies. Then Onan, who dies as ell. She is then promised the next available son when he becomes old enough. However, Judah betrays her and does not give the son over to her. Tamar retaliates by playing the harlot and finally getting her child. Interesting enough, she would end up having twins.

Remember when we were talking about Jacob and Esau and I mentioned that the Promised Messiah would not come from Rachel? The Messiah was not to come from Joseph, who we would certainly dub as the righteous one in the family. Instead, the Promised Messiah was to come from, Leah. He was to come from Judah. He was to come from Tamar. Read Matthew 1:2-3.

Three women are mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus. The first is Tamar. When you might think to yourself, “Why is this chapter in the Bible?” just consider, the entire Bible is pointing to Jesus. We Tamar, the harlot, as the first woman mentioned. I think this makes it very clear that Jesus was coming from sinners. He was not picking the most righteous group of people to come from. This is quite evident. Also consider this, Tamar is not Jewish. She is a gentile. Jesus came for the gentiles.

The other two women mentioned in Jesus’ genealogy is Rahab, the harlot, and Ruth, the Moabite. Rahab let the spies enter Jericho in Joshua 2. She is also not Jewish. To learn more about Ruth read the book of Ruth! Known as the “delightful book” of the Bible this story helps bridge the time between the judges and the age of the kings. Ruth and Boaz were King David’s great grandparents.

It is all pointing to Jesus. His whole genealogy is pieced together for us and we can see stories of His ancestors sprinkled across Israel’s history. Imagine what this story must look like to the Jew! It does not make sense. It only gives them a bad name. However, for us, it shows that Jesus came from sinners, did not sin, that we might have eternal life!