Today, we are going to be talking about dirty
laundry. Anybody have dirty laundry? We all have
dirty laundry. Real and metaphorical, right?
Yeah, we're going to be talking about dirty laundry
and what God does with it. You see, we're going
to be in Genesis 38 this morning. this chapter
reads like something that is radically out of
place with where we're at in Scripture. We have
been studying the life of Joseph, who's one of
the sons of Jacob, and his story is really what
closes out the book of Genesis, and yet we get
to chapter 38 here. And it comes right on the
heels of chapter 37, right? Big surprise. But
at the end of chapter 37, we read that Joseph
had been, you know, just sold by his brothers
into slavery. They wanted to kill him. They were
really upset and mad at him. Yet he was a young
man that God was using. He was a man who was
getting dreams from God. And so they, you know,
just really... abuse him, sell him into slavery,
lie to their father about what happened to him.
And that's how 37 ends. And then we get to chapter
38, and it's kind of like, meanwhile, Judah,
right? And it just stands out of place. It's
abrupt. It's, like I said, out of place, but
intentional. God's word is always intentional.
And, you know, as we go through this chapter
today, you might see that if the Bible were not
inspired, Genesis 38 might have been one of those
stories that got cut. But because it is inspired,
God includes this chapter here. And he includes
it for two big reasons, contrast and continuity.
You see, this chapter is about Judah, what's
happening with Judah while Joseph is now in Egypt
being a slave in Potiphar's house. And it's really
going to show us a contrast between Joseph's
purity in Egypt, which we're going to continue
to study as we move forward, and Judah's compromise
in the promised land. You see, it's an interesting
picture that it's when believers are in the world,
we're supposed to be people of purity and shining
the light of the gospel. And yet so many times
when believers are in the promised land, within
the place God has them, in community and stuff,
sometimes they can find themselves compromising.
And so that's the contrast that God's showing
in this chapter. And then the other one is continuity.
Because even though... Joseph's story is so encouraging.
He's such a godly young man, and God uses him
for great things. The Messiah doesn't ultimately
come from his line. The Messiah comes from the
line of Judah. And then this chapter gives us
a very stark picture of why God had to move Jacob's
family to Egypt in the first place. And the reason
is because they were becoming indistinguishable
from the Canaanites, the pagans that lived in
the land. This chapter, I'm going to be straight
up front. It's gross. It's messy. It's dark.
It's shocking. But I wanted to title the study
Judah. You gross. But I didn't think that would
resonate with people. But despite all of the
details that we're going to read about, it is
inspired. It is the inspired word of God. It's
breathed by God as part of his story of redemption
and salvation. And, you know, it's a story of
real family. It's a story of real people. It's
a story of God's people. And guess what? All
three of those things can be very, very messy.
But it's in the mess where God's grace works.
where God's grace shines. One of the truths that
I cling to dearly is that God is not embarrassed
to work with messy people. He is not embarrassed
to call us his children despite just the mess
in our lives and our families, despite the bad
decisions we can make. God is not embarrassed.
He's proud in a godly way to call us his children.
And so we're going to be looking at a story of
a messy man who is redeemed through confession,
through repentance, and we're just going to see
this wonderful story of what God can do through
us. sinful mankind. But first, we're going to
praise Him. We want to lift His name on high
and worship Him because He is worthy. And so,
much more than just, oh, this is how we get started
for the Bible study, this is a moment to set
our hearts right, to forget about the problems,
to forget about the challenges, to leave it all
at the door and say, God, I am here to hear from
You. God, I am here to be spoken to by Your Spirit.
Teach me, mold me, and shape me. But as we're
asking that question, we want to start with,
Lord, you're awesome. Praise your holy name.
Amen. Let's pray. God, we love you. We thank
you, Lord. And God, we're so grateful that your
word includes all the messy stories, Lord. God,
if we're to be honest, it's been one long, messy
story because mankind is a part of it. And yet,
Lord, we see the faithfulness that you have to
yourself, the faithfulness you have to your promises,
Lord, and the faithfulness you have to us, your
people. Lord, we are your creation and you love
us, Lord. That's what your word tells us. Lord,
I'm sure we all have plenty of opportunity to
wonder why you love us because, Lord, we're sinful
people. But, God, the fact that we're sinful
people really is the foundation of the story
and even the season we're entering into, God,
that because we're sinful people and there's
no hope in and of ourselves, Lord, you came to
this earth. to live and die for us, that we would
have grace and mercy and forgiveness and hope
of eternal life. And God, we're so grateful.
So Lord, just speak to us today in this chapter
that seems to stand out odd amongst the story
that it's embedded in. But Lord, we know it's
here because you want to speak to us. Lord, we
want to praise you first. Lift up your name,
God, because you are so worthy. You saved us.
We're eternally grateful, God. We love you. We
thank you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
So, we are in Genesis chapter 38. And, you know,
we're covering a difficult story here. Some stories,
you know, they start out well, right? They're
somebody who... is born and raised, and they
have the right family, and the good family, and
everything's great, and they're like, you know,
they raise up to serve the Lord, and then you
get later on in their story, and then there's
a collapse. There's a fall. There's something
like that, and then on the other hand, you have
stories that start bad, and then they surprise
you. and there's redemption. Well, chapter 38
is the second kind of story for Judah, right?
The story starts really bad, but ends with redemption,
because in Genesis 38, we find Judah, the fourth
son of Jacob, is drifting. He's compromised.
He's impulsive. He's absorbed by the culture
around him, and he's kind of a bad dude in the
beginning of this chapter, but what happens in
this chapter changes him. So much so that by
Genesis 44, he is now pleading to be a substitute
for his little brother Benjamin, risking his
own life, saying, trade my life for his. And
then by Genesis chapter 49, he receives a prophecy
that the kingly line, the Messiah, will come
through his family line. And so big change from
what we're going to see in Genesis 38 to later
in his life. And you ask the question, how did
that happen? That's what we're going to see here
in this chapter. But the New Testament tells
us this in Philippians 2 .13. For it is God who
is working in you both to will and to work according
to his good purpose. That's a great verse to
memorize. It's a great life verse for everybody
to understand that it is God who is working.
Before we jump into Judah's disaster, we need
to remember that we're actually in the beginning
of Joseph's story, right? The story of Joseph
is what carries us through the rest of Genesis.
And it's his story that we've been setting up.
He was a young man gripped by God early. He was
a young man who was receiving dreams from God.
And really, this is very important to understand
here because this chapter is included to give
us a contrast. to Joseph. Now, Joseph is a young
man who fits a biblical pattern that we see all
the way throughout Scripture, that God uses young
people to really do significantly great things.
Samuel was a young kid, and in 1 Samuel 3, we
read about God speaking to him, and his response
as a young man was, God, your servant is listening.
Now, in Jeremiah, God spoke to Jeremiah the prophet,
and Jeremiah was called to a ministry, and he
initially objected because he was young. He goes,
I'm just a kid. But in Jeremiah 1 .7, it says,
then the Lord said to me, do not say I am only
a youth, for you will go to everyone I send you
and speak whatever I tell you. In the book of
Daniel, in chapter 1, verse 4, Daniel is called
a young man who was brought in to serve the king.
And when he was done so, it tells us that he
was determined that he would not defile himself.
That as a young man, he decided, I'm not going
to dishonor God in my life. And then, of course,
we're familiar in 1 Timothy, chapter 4, verse
12, Paul the apostle told young Timothy, let
no one despise your youth. You see, when God
grabs a hold of someone young, he is shaping
an entire lifetime of usefulness to the kingdom.
You know, if he gets a hold of someone when they're
in junior high, and there used to be a statistic,
I don't know if the statistic is accurate anymore,
but the statistic used to say that a majority
of all people who get saved do so when they're
in junior high. And when God gets a hold of someone
in junior high, you look at the whole rest of
their life that can be used for the kingdom and
for God and for God's purposes. Now, this doesn't
mean that when he gets a hold of somebody in
their old age that that's any less important.
But we would have to agree that 50 years of work
in the kingdom is just a lot more time than 10
years of work in the kingdom. And so Joseph is
this story of God getting a hold of somebody
young, what he can do with the young and their
faithfulness to him. And so if you're a young
person in the room today or watching online,
I want you to know that God can do great, great,
great things with you. It doesn't matter how
young you are. It matters that you trust him.
It matters that you're faithful to him. It matters
that you grow to know him more, and God could
use you. And so don't feel like, oh, I'm just
a kid. I can't do anything for the kingdom. The
Bible speaks quite the opposite, okay? So Joseph's
story is that. Now, here in Genesis 38, all of
a sudden we get Judah interjected into the story
of this young faithful man, and it's here to
show the contrast. It's here to show the contrast
of what happens when someone who's been with
the Lord for a long time makes compromises in
the middle of their life, and it's a story of
midlife collapse and unfaithfulness. Now, the
reason I believe God put this in the story here
is because both are real, right? Young faithfulness.
Old collapse. They're both real. They're both
here in our church at Hosanna. They're both in
the church as a whole. And so this story is here
to speak to all of us regardless of what side
of the equation we're on. So with that, read
with me here in verse one of Genesis 38. It says,
at that time, this was when Joseph had been sold
into slavery in Egypt. Judah left his brothers
and settled near an Adulamite named Hira. There
Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite named Shua,
and he took her as a wife and slept with her.
She conceived and gave birth to a son, and he
named him Ur. She conceived again, gave birth
to a son, and he named him Onan. She gave birth
to another son and named him Shelah. It was at
Chezeb that she gave birth to him. Now, sons
were considered a great blessing that if your
children were boys, it was, wow, big deal. God
is honoring you. God is blessing. At least that's
how it was considered in the culture there. Here,
Judah is in a place where he shouldn't be. You
see, Judah, as one of Jacob's sons, knew the
covenant instructions. Genesis 24 .3, Abraham
was told, do not intermarry with the Canaanite
women. That was passed down to Isaac. In Genesis
28, Isaac told Jacob the same thing. Do not intermarry
with the Canaanite women. And yet here we see
that's exactly what Judah is doing. They're in
the promised land, but the land wasn't Israel's
yet. There were still pagans and Canaanites living
there. And here we have Judah at this point doing
something that is just very wrong. We also have
to understand that at this point, Judah effectively
carried the birthright of the family, that he
carried what was going to be the right to lead
and rule the family. And we know that because
we read earlier how Reuben disqualified himself
by sleeping with Jacob's concubine. And Jacob's
like, you're done, bro. You dishonored me greatly.
And then Simeon and Levi were the two sons that
led the slaughter in Shechem. And Jacob was like,
you guys have made me stink in the land, right?
So effectively, they had lost their position
to be the heir of the family authority. And so
Judah, being the number four son, was the one
in line for that. But instead of remaining close
to the family, what we're told here right off
the bat is that he chooses to leave the family
and go live in the world. He left his brothers
and settled near an Adulamite named Hira. Now,
Adulamite is a people group that lived in the
land of Canaan. Collectively, all the people
there were considered Canaanites. And so he went
to go settle near this guy Hira. Now, Hira is
going to be what we would call a bad influence
on his life, someone that really didn't hold
him accountable to godly things. Judah's error
here, as we're opening this chapter, is distancing
himself from God's family. Distance will always
produce decay. When community, this community,
your godly church community, when that becomes
optional, compromise is inevitable. We just have
to understand that. This comes in relationships.
This comes in dating situations, in business,
all kinds of things. We just have to understand
that when we separate from the godly community,
the community that's praying for us and holding
us accountable and encouraging us in the Lord,
and we go to hang out with and settle near the
world, those who don't know the Lord don't care
about the Lord. We may have noble intentions.
I'm going to go save them all. But what always
happens is they corrupt you. They lead you away
from your godly values, and this is what we see
happening with Judah. That distance has led to
his decay. Now, again, this good friend Hira,
he settles near. We're going to see later that
they actually have a relationship, and then it
just gets right into it. Judah saw a daughter
of a Canaanite named Shua, and he took her as
a wife and slept with her. It's kind of impulsive
the way it reads in the original language. That
it wasn't a thought. He didn't stop. He didn't
pray about it. He didn't say God. He just said,
wow. And then he went and he married her and
it's a direct violation of the covenant instructions.
Do not intermarry with the Canaanite women. And
it doesn't even seem to have much ceremony here,
right? It's a union that's driven by chemistry
instead of principle. And those unions are never
going to be unions that work out right for those
who are the people of God. There's countless
stories of people who have entered into marriages
where they knew. They knew the other person was
not the godly spouse that they should be with.
But we have chemistry. We click. We connect.
And wow, I think they're really beautiful and
this and that. And so, you know, we can work
on those things. And then a marriage happens
and it's terrible. right? This is where it goes
into what they call missionary dating, right?
Oh, he's so handsome, and yeah, but he's not
a godly man. I'll change him. And then five years
later, I made a mistake. Why did I marry this
man? And the counsel, according to the Word of
God, is stay there and pray, right? And God can
work in those things, yes, but it's unnecessary
difficulty sometimes people put themselves into.
And so he impulsively marries this woman. They
have three sons. All three of these sons have
Canaanite names. What does that tell you about
the influence in the household? Is it the godly
influence from Judah's family, or is it the Canaanite
influence that is leading this family? And the
answer is it's the Canaanite influence. The kids
are named with Canaanite names. I do think it's
ironic that the first kid is named Er. Right?
Have you guys ever heard that phrase, to err
is human, right? Err, first kid, mistake. Wow,
how did that be a kid to grow up with that name,
right? I don't know if that's what it means in
original language, but I just find it ironic.
But the idea here is Judah has separated from
the family of God. Judah is not the one shaping
his home. His faith and beliefs are not the one
shaping his home. Canaan is. And so verse 6,
it says, Judah got a wife for Ur, his firstborn,
and her name was Tamar. Now Ur, Judah's firstborn,
was evil in the Lord's sight and the Lord put
him to death. Then Judah said to Onan, this is
son number two, sleep with your brother's wife,
perform your duty as her brother -in -law and
produce offspring for your brother. But Onan
knew that the offspring would not be his. So
whenever he slept with his brother's wife, he
released his semen on the ground so that he would
not produce offspring for his brother. What he
did was evil in the Lord's sight, and so he put
him to death also. Now, yeah, I really just read
that, and it did say what you heard it to say,
right? These are one of those parts of the Bible
where we go, does the Bible really say that?
Yes, it does. The Bible deals with real things
in real life in real ways. Now, Ur, or Er, or
whatever you want to call him, he gets married
to this woman Tamar. His dad... finds a bride
as was custom and as he was supposed to do. And
then he dies due to some unnamed evil. It doesn't
even tell us what it was. It's just that he wasn't
a godly person and God put him to death. Now,
the culture of the time and what was later codified
in the Jewish law called the Levirate responsibility
was that if you had multiple brothers, if the
firstborn was married and he died, Since he was
the one supposed to inherit everything and he
doesn't have a son, the second brother was obligated
to marry the wife and produce an offspring that
would be his first brother's offspring. Does
that make sense? It was a responsibility. Now,
Onan... It tells us didn't want to do any of
that. Why? Because Onan was now the one going
to inherit everything because his brother died.
If he produced an offspring, that offspring would
be the one that would inherit everything that
the first brother was supposed to inherit. So
Onan says, no, I'm not going to do that. But
he still ends up sleeping with her. And basically
what that's telling us is he just used her as
an object. He used her for sexual gratification.
just used her for his own pleasure instead of
doing what was the honorable thing in the culture
and producing a son. And so the whole idea of
this is that Onan acted very, very ungodly in
regards to the rights and responsibilities. And
so God killed him too. It's very interesting.
When I was in South Sudan, this practice is still
very, very active in the culture there. That
when the older brother dies, the second brother
is obligated. Take the wife and produce a son
for her. And one of the big questions that came
up when we were talking to these men and these
chaplains and stuff is their culture is take
the wife, take the wife, right? And so you'll
have these South Sudanese men that will end up
with two, three, four wives. Just... doing what
they're supposed to do in producing offspring
for their older brothers. But then they get saved
and become a Christian, and Christianity is like
you have one wife. Especially if you're getting
into ministry, you're a man of one wife. And
they would go, what do I do? Do I abandon them?
Do I, right? Really difficult question in their
culture. Now, I don't have time to give you my
answer. But, you know, there's godly ways that
they deal with that there and how they still
take care of the women and the children and still
honor the Lord and all that. But really interesting.
It happens in quite a few places, honestly. And
so, Onan, instead of getting her pregnant, just
exploits her. God kills him for that. And now
Judah is down two sons. Right? Sons are what
the family name carried on. It's where all the
inheritance and property rights and everything
went through. So now Judah lets fear begin to
drive his decision -making. Verse 11. Then Judah
said to his daughter -in -law Tamar, remain a
widow in your father's house until my son Shelah
grows up. So the third son was supposed to take
the wife because brother one and brother two
died, but he was too young to marry. And so the
instructions were, go back to your dad's house.
Be a widow, and that included putting on widow's
garb so that everybody knew that's a widow of
a husband who died, and remain there until son
three is old enough. But it tells us, for he
thought he might die too, like his brothers.
No intention on giving his third son to Tamar,
giving Tamar to him. The intention was, Tamar,
you're poison. You're the common denominator.
Two of my kids have died, so... I'm going to
set you aside and just tell you to wait. So Tamar
went to live at her father's house. Verse 12.
After a long time, Judah's wife, the daughter
of Shua, died. When Judah had finished mourning,
he and his friend Hira, the Adulamite, went up
to Timnah to his sheep shearers. Tamar was told,
your father -in -law is going up to Timnah to
shear his sheep. So she took off her widow's
clothes, veiled her face, covered herself, and
sat at the entrance to Enayim, which is on the
way to Timnah. For she saw that though Sheila
had grown up, she had not been given to him as
wife. When Judah saw her, he thought she was
a prostitute, for she had covered her face. He
went over to her and said, Come, let me sleep
with you. For he did not know that she was his
daughter -in -law. She said, What will you give
me for sleeping with me? I will send you a young
goat from my flock, he replied. But she said,
Only if you leave something with me until you
send it. What should I give you, he asked. She
answered, your signet ring, your cord, and the
staff in your hand. So he gave them to her, and
he slept with her, and she became pregnant by
him. She got up and left, then removed her veil
and put her widow's clothes back on. So, ew,
right? Judah had promised her his third son with
no intention of ever honoring that promise. And
so, like I said, two sons had died connected
to her. I'm not going to risk my third son. And
so, from the earthly standpoint here, in the
moment of this story, the future of Judah's line,
the messianic line as we know that the line of
Judah is, is kind of impossible. The covenant
line is dying here. Shelah doesn't have a wife.
He won't marry Tamar. Judah won't give Tamar
to him, and things are bad. So, years pass. Sheila
grows up. Tamar is still sequestered over here.
And her situation was really bad because as a
widowed woman who was promised to someone else,
she couldn't remarry. But because she was sequestered
over here, she was also not under the care and
the financial provision of Judah's house. So
she had no money. She was poor. She had no status.
She couldn't marry anybody else. She had no kids.
As a woman in the culture, it was basically she
had no life. And so she waited, and she waited.
Judah's wife ends up dying. He grieves, and then
he needs a change of scenery, right? So he goes
with his friend Hira up to this place called
Timnah, where the sheep were. Now, Tamar, being
in this situation where she was just left, hatches
a plan. You see, in the time of Timnah, or in
the time of this culture, this area of Timnah
and where they're going up to shear the sheep,
it was actually a festival that was taking place
in the area. And this festival time came with
what festivals come with, food, wine. loosened
morals. Now at this area in the Canaanite lands,
and this was common throughout the land of Canaan
that was without God, is that their false worship
of the false gods included cult prostitutes.
That sleeping with these prostitutes that were
a part of these false god cults was a part of
their worship. And so it was a very common thing
to see these prostitutes everywhere. And this
festival atmosphere explains Tamar's tactic,
that she knew there would be prostitutes, and
so she's going to go dress up as one on the way
into the festival area, and then it also explains
to us why Judah assumed she was a prostitute,
right? But Judah doesn't hesitate. What does
that tell us about Judah's spiritual condition?
What does that tell us about where he's at with
his own walk with the Lord? He doesn't hesitate.
He's walking down the road, hey, how much? Just
right into it. He's compromised at this point.
He's forgotten his own values and, you know,
it's just, this is what happens when a Christian
departs from the family of God and surrounds
himself by the world. Yes, God is all powerful
and God can do all promises and fulfilled and
all this stuff, but he works through us. And
when we don't work with him the way he wants
us to, to be empowered by prayer and encouraged
by the body and strengthened through his word,
when we separate from that, we get weak. And
compromise comes every single time. So just as
the story tells us there, they negotiate the
contract. He says, how much? She goes, well,
it's going to be this much. He goes, I'll give
you a goat. A goat in South Sudan right now,
incidentally, is 80 American dollars, right?
So there's a value to these things. And she goes,
well, I don't offer credit, so I need collateral,
right? I need collateral for this. And he's like,
okay, I'll give you my ring, my cord, and my
staff. And so they negotiate the contract. They
do the deed. She gets pregnant, and she leaves.
Now, it's just interesting to me right now that
three generations have now sinned. through deception
involving goats, right? It's Jacob deceived his
father Isaac with goat skins on his arms to look
like his brother, and then Jacob was deceived
himself by goat's blood on Joseph's robe, you
know, and now you have Tamar here, you know,
being promised a goat for services, and so, but
reading the story, you go, this is just kind
of wild, and why is she doing this? What is her
motivation, right? Some people read the story
and go, oh, she's just doing what women in her
position would do. That when they were sequestered
and cast off like that and left to rot, often
they would turn to prostitution because they
had to make money. You had to eat, right? There
was no financial provision. There was no covering.
But that's not what's taking place here. I mean,
yeah, it's wrong on so many levels, right? It's
wrong what she's doing, but lust is not driving
her. Greed is not driving her. Again, we have
to put ourselves in the shoes of a woman in this
society. Her situations with Ur and Onan had
left her childless, had left her twice widowed
in a patriarchal culture. where she had some
rights, but really not much, especially in the
fact that she was now a widowed bride in this
family. Judah effectively had control over her
life and was preventing her from moving on with
her life, preventing her from being financially
secure. I mean, it was a very, very difficult
situation for her. Economically, socially, she
was in a very, very vulnerable and poor situation.
And like I said, yes, culturally, many women
who found themselves in situations like this
would indeed turn to prostitution just to survive.
But the reality here is that when Judah did not
call her to marry Shelah, when he became old
enough to marry her, was a serious breach of
duty. It was a serious... illegal act, if you
want to call it that, because what he is doing,
Judah is willfully withholding what is legally
and rightfully hers. The rights of bearing the
children, the rights of being included in the
family, being provided for and taken care of
in the family, he just abandons her. And from
her position, And really, when we look at the
whole story from a bird's eye view, she is a
victim of Judah's deception. Judah, who knows
better, is the godly man, is the patriarch of
his household. He knows better, and he deceives
her, and she now has no husband, no children,
no prospect of marriage left to rot. Now, sometimes
the greatest wounds in our life don't come from
what people do to us. They come from what people
don't do. when they don't honor a promise, when
they don't follow through, when they don't do
the thing that they're supposed to do, and she's
wounded by all of this. And so Judah's injustice
really is what's motivating her to disguise herself
and to do this because, again, burying the child
was really the... the primary pinnacle of what
women in the family would do in this day, to
bear children to carry on the family name. And
she's not just trying to get a child. She's trying
to get the child that the family owes her. Now,
this is speculation on my part, but I believe
the fact that she had been with Judah and the
family for a while, that even though Judah was
compromised, I believe she had heard about Judah's
family and about who they were. And about the
covenant and about the expectations and stuff.
And maybe Judah had possibly shared that and
just thought, yeah, that's just, you know, my
dad believes all that stuff and whatever. But
I think she knew the importance of being a part
of this family more than just I need to be taken
care of. And so she is robbed of all of that
by Judah. And so, yeah, she has been robbed of
the connection to her husband's name, robbed
of the connection to her husband's inheritance,
robbed of the connection to her husband's covenant
place, as well as her safety and her own well
-being. And so, she does this thing. Not a good
thing. But she's kind of like Jacob in the sense
of, remember in the beginning when Jacob was
a kid? He believed God's promises. He believed
the covenant. He believed all the stuff that
God had said, and he believed it so strongly
that he connived to steal it from his older brother.
And you're like, well, commendable that you believed
the promise that much. Not commendable how you
went about getting it, right? There's kind of
a little bit of that here in my opinion that
she just knows. What is at stake here? And so
she insists on this pledge of a promised payment,
and I do believe this was also a calculated move
on her part because she's about to... be in a
position where she's going to need to legally
defend her place, legally defend her rights to
be a part of this family and what's going on
here. And so the seal, the cord, and the staff,
this is the ancient equivalent of his driver's
license and his signature stamp and his credit
card, right? It's like, leave the collateral.
We've all done that in places, right? Oh, yeah,
leave a driver's license. You can go test drive
the car. So it's his identity. It's his authority.
It's his position within the family because he
is the one that makes the final call within his
family. But he's not just leaving all his identifying
elements. He's surrendering his integrity is
what he does here. So verse 20. When Judah sent
the young goat by his friend the Adulamite in
order to get back the items he had left with
the woman, he could not find her. He asked the
men of the place, where is the cult prostitute
who is beside the roads at Enim? There has been
no cult prostitute here, they answered. So the
Adulamite returned to Judah saying, I couldn't
find her. And besides, the men of the place said
there was no cult prostitute here. So Judah replied,
let her keep the items for herself. Otherwise,
we will become a laughingstock. After all, I
did send this young goat, but you couldn't find
her. These verses reveal Judah's heart more clearly
than anything else in this chapter, in my opinion.
You see, he wants his ID back because who wants
to go to the DMV to get a new ID, right? He wants
his credit card back because, come on, you lose
your credit card, you've got to redo all of your
auto drafts and stuff, it's a pain. But he doesn't
want to face the woman. He sends his worldly
buddy, hey, can you go just pay the bill for
me? This is the early stage of guilt management.
This is... how we know that Judah knows he's
done wrong. He has sinned. He's done something
he knows he shouldn't have done, but instead
of facing it, instead of repenting or confessing
or any of that, he's trying to manage his guilt.
Well, if I pay the bill like I said I was, we're
good. His friend goes, can't find the prostitute.
In fact, he asks around and then dun, dun, dun.
There were no cult prostitutes here. Now, Judah
is in a difficult spot right there because if
he presses the issue, he risks public embarrassment.
No, there was. She looked like this. I slept
with her. I gave her these things, right? But
he says, let her keep the items for herself.
Otherwise, we'll become a laughingstock. He's
more worried about his shame than he is about
his sin. He's more worried about being found
out. He cares more about his image than his integrity.
He prefers secrecy to repentance. Does this sound
familiar to anybody? Sounds familiar to me. I'm
a sinful man. Just like everybody in here is
a sinful person, and we all deal with this. We
sin, we mess up, we know we did wrong, and we
have that temptation to manage the guilt instead
of deal with it. To want to figure out ways to
hide it or to keep it a secret. And it's far
too often we want to get past the sin instead
of confessing it. I just want it to be done.
So we send someone else. Hey, buddy, can you
go tell her? Can you go tell him? We want someone
else to deal with it for us instead of issuing
or confronting the issue personally. when the
consequences of our sin become really awkward,
we just want to drop it. We just want the story
to go away. Let's just move on and forget about
it, right? We all deal with that because our
sinful nature is prideful. And we don't want
to be held accountable. But to use a phrase that
the kids use today, God has all the receipts.
He knows every detail. He knows every bit of
it, and Tamar now holds the evidence that God
will later use to break Judah. So let's move
on. Verse 24. About three months later, Judah
was told, your daughter -in -law Tamar has been
acting like a prostitute, and now she is pregnant.
Bring her out, Judah said, and let her be burned
to death. As she was being brought out, she sent
her father -in -law this message. I am pregnant
by the man to whom these items belong. And she
added, examine them. Whose signet ring, cord,
and staff are these? Judah recognized them. Can
you imagine that moment, right? She is more in
the right than I am, since I did not give her
to my son, Sheila. and he did not know her intimately
again. Three months after his deed, Tamar is
visibly pregnant. She's a widow. Everybody knows
that. She's in the widow's garb all the time.
She's being reserved for Sheila. That's her position
in life. She cannot do anything else, and yet
she's pregnant. Everybody starts calling her
names, calling her a whore, calling her all these
terrible things. Look, she's been acting like
a prostitute sleeping around. And then Judah's
told him, oh my gosh, what dishonor on the family
name. What a sinful piece of trash. I cannot
believe. Bring her out and we'll burn her to
death. No compassion. No reflection on his own
sin. No self -awareness. No curiosity about the
truth. He's just outraged by her sin and totally
blinded to his own. You know, one of the things
God has done in my life to teach me grace and
mercy and forgiveness is to reflect before you
condemn, right? somebody sins against you or,
you know, in my position as a pastor, you know,
you have a ministry leader that did something
that they shouldn't have done or whatever and
you find out about it and they're like, oh my
God, I can't believe they did that. Burn them
at the stake, right? And yet God says, great,
that's awesome. They should be judged for their
sin, right? Yes, absolutely. And then what God
has always said to me is, cool, are we going
to start with you? Like, what are you talking
about? Well, I mean, you want to enact judgment
for sin. You're not free from sin, so let's start
with you. And you reflect, I am a sinner. You
know, and God says, well, did I kill you? No.
What did I do to you? You extended forgiveness
and grace and mercy through my confession and
my repentance. Okay, so now what are you going
to do? Well, I guess I'm going to extend forgiveness
and grace and mercy through confession and repentance.
Yeah. Now, this doesn't mean there's not consequences
that come with things. I mean, we all experience
the consequences, but how can I not forgive when
God has forgiven me of so much? How can we not
extend grace and mercy when God continually extends
grace and mercy to us? And Judah here, he's so
blinded to his own sin, so encapsulated in his
own self -righteousness. Why? Because this secret
sin, this guilt and this condemnation he's been
living with, he suppressed it and he buried it.
And what that causes us to do is then build this
false facade of righteousness. I'm a good person.
Remember when David was confronted by Nathan?
After David had Bathsheba's husband murdered,
killed in the front lines of battle, cover it
up, make it look like a combat injury, he's dead.
Nathan comes to King David and says, hey man,
we have a problem, sir. There's this guy who
has like a bazillion sheep, and then there's
this guy over here who just had one and he loved
it so much, but this guy with the bazillion sheep
killed him and took his sheep. And David's like,
that's wrong. How dare he kill that man? And
what did Nathan say? You're the man. Wow. Our
judgment changes quite quickly when we're the
man, right? Oh, wait. But the point is, is God
wants us to reflect and just, yes. Yes, consequences.
Yes, people need to be held accountable. I'm
not saying that at all. But be forgiving. Be
gracious. Be merciful. Because God has forgiven
you. And this isn't what Judah's doing here.
She says examine these things. It's very interesting
she says that because That was the same language
that Judah used with his dad, right, when they
dipped Joseph's robe in blood and sent it back
to their dad. They knew the stinking robe. They
knew who it was, and they knew their dad would
recognize it, but they go, Dad, is this Joseph's
robe? We don't know. And she says the same thing
to him, right? Examine this ring, this cord,
and their staff. You know, God often uses the
things we fear most. to set us free. For Judah,
what he feared most was exposure. What he feared
most was people knowing the truth about who he
was. To damage whatever self -image he had created
for himself. And if people knew, oh my goodness,
that was terrible for him. And yet his sin was
no longer going to be secret. Everybody would
know. Is this your driver's license? It has your
picture on it. Is this your ring that you as
the patriarch of this tribe, this signature card
that only you have because is this your ring?
Everybody would know. And, you know, God is eventually
going to ask every single sinner this question.
Do you recognize this? Do you recognize that
lie you told? Do you? Do you recognize that vow
you broke? How about that person you wounded?
Do you recognize that hypocrisy you're hiding
behind? What about that behavior that you excused?
Do you recognize it? God will do that because
he's going to face us with what we need to be
faced with so that we come to the place of repentance
and confession. Conviction is God's mercy, not
his cruelty. If God exposes you, it's his mercy,
not him being mean. Now, like I said, her words,
they just echo. And I believe when he heard the
words of the message, examine this. And then
he realized that those things were his. I believe
he was feeling the sting of his hypocrisy. I
did this exact thing to my dad. And I tried to
do it again. I'm trying to cover my sin instead
of facing it. I'm trying to hide behind this
false facade so I don't have to deal with my
guilt. I did it with Joseph, and now here I am.
I did it again. And he breaks. He breaks. He
finally breaks. This is his moment of change.
He recognized him and said, she is more in the
right than I. He's not saying she's without sin.
This isn't God justifying or excusing what she
did. deceiving and prostituting and all that
stuff. What he's saying is what I did to her
far exceeds what she's doing to me. I robbed
her of her life. I robbed her of her rights.
I robbed her of a child. I robbed her of marriage
and protection. I robbed her of life. She got
me. He admits his failure, his deception. He's
admitting his injustice towards her, and that's
what confession is. Confession is a doorway to
transformation. That's why God will expose us.
That's why God will bring these things to light
so that we stop hiding and stop lying and stop
playing the hypocrite and finally go, wow, yep,
I did that. I did that. I own it. God, I'm so
sorry. He owns it. He confesses. And he's changed.
You see this transformation. This is the moment
where he begins to become the person that we
read about in Genesis 44 and 49. This is the
moment where he becomes the person instead of
hiding his own sin and trying to just play the
part. Yeah, I don't want to sacrifice anything
in my life. This is where he becomes the person
who in Genesis 44 will say, Please take my life
instead of Benjamin. He's my little brother.
I will sacrifice everything just that he could
be free. That's a different man than we've been
reading about here in Genesis 38. Verse 27. When
the time came for her to give birth, there were
twins in her womb. And as she was giving birth,
one of them put out his hand and the midwife
took it and tied a scarlet thread around it,
announcing this one came out first. But then
he pulled his hand back and out came his brother.
And she said, what a breakout you have made for
yourself. So he was named Perez. Then his brother,
who had the scarlet thread tied around his hand,
came out and was named Zerah. So this is just
like with Jacob and Esau, right? Younger brother
and older brother fighting for position here.
I don't know if Perez was like, hey, I read the
story about grabbing the heel. That doesn't work.
Ah, tries to punch out. Or Zerah, I mean, Zerah
punches out. They're like, well, he's first.
He's the first one out of the womb. They tie
this string around his wrist, and then he pulls
his hand back in, and then Perez is born, which
makes Perez actually the younger of the two brothers,
the younger overtaking the older again. Now,
God's servant choices are... They're unexpected,
but they're all according to His will. They're
all according to His will. You see, God is advancing
His redemptive line through very surprising people
here, through very messy stories. Because Perez,
who is the younger of these two, according to
birth order in that sense, he is the one that
becomes the ancestor of King David and the ancestor
of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. You see, what looked
hopeless here God worked in and through the mess
and redeemed it. And then on top of this, you
know, if you go read the genealogy of Jesus Christ
in Matthew, there's a few names in there that
are kind of surprising, right? The first one
we read is Tamar, this woman, this deceiver who
is acting in desperation. She's included in the
genealogy of the Messiah. Later on, you'll read
a name Rahab, who was an actual prostitute. Ruth,
a Moabite, Moabitess, an outsider to the family
of God. Three Gentile women that are recorded
in the lineage of the Messiah. And then there's
also Bathsheba, who was an Israelite woman, but
she was a woman caught up in terrible, horrible
scandal with David. Why does God include these
women in the genealogy of Jesus Christ? To reveal
God's grace towards Gentiles. Way back here in
the beginning, God said the Gentiles are a part
of this plan. Now, over history, the Jewish nation,
they kind of forgot that and got elitist and
thought, no, we're the chosen ones and everybody
else is just trash. God has humbled the nation
Israel and he's going to deal with them again
in tribulation and raise them back up and redeem
that nation. Why does God reveal Tamar of all
people in the genealogy of Jesus Christ? All
this stuff she did, it's to normalize the existence
of scandal in the line of the Messiah. To normalize
it. It's not perfect people who are in the family
of Christ. It's imperfect people. We are scandal.
And yet God says, I love you so much. I died
for you. Put your faith in me. You're in my family.
And then it's to also foreshadow Mary's socially
suspect pregnancy. And we'll be talking about
that this month coming up. But really to show
that God brings Christ through deeply imperfect
people. And in these stories, I mean, if you
think your background disqualifies you from being
in the family of God, Tamar and Perez should
tell you otherwise. God loves to rewrite stories.
You go, here's my terrible story, and God's like,
nah, here's the ending. And it's beautiful. You
see, we're God's people. We're all prone to corruption.
It's a part of the nature we have. Judah is proof
of that. For one, godly heritage cannot replace
personal holiness. Just because you were born
and raised in a Christian home and went to church
and went to youth group does not mean you got
a lock on heaven. Because as we see, Judah was
from the line, the family, and yet he still strays
into corruption. So when you distance yourself
from God's people, when you marry outside of
God's people, something the Bible talks a lot
about, when you live like the surrounding culture,
when you have a casual attitude about sexual
sin and temptation, When you value your own fake
reputation over repentance, you're going to drift,
you're going to wander, you're going to fall.
Sin is not often a sudden fall. That's how we
see it. We hear about someone falling and we
go, how did that happen? How did that happen?
Because there was months and years of secrets
that nobody knew about of compromise and sin.
That just boiled over in that moment that is
so public. But on the other side of that, you
have God who is marked by holiness and grace.
Holiness, right? In holiness, he judges Ur and
Onan and they die. In the New Testament, Ananias
and Sapphira lie to the Holy Spirit and they
die. I'm glad he doesn't do that all the time.
But we understand how seriously God takes holiness,
don't we? He disciplines Judah through pain and
loss and shame and exposure. But Judah responds
appropriately. Man, I've sinned. So you have
God's holiness, but you also have God's grace.
God kept his promise, his line of a Messiah alive
through Tamar and her wrong choices. But her
pursuing the godly promises, God preserved that.
He uses the shocking to accomplish the sacred.
He turns a Canaanite outsider into a matriarch
of the Messiah. In the line of Jesus Christ,
and he transforms Judah from a hypocrite into
an intercessor, and then ultimately to the tribe
of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Tamar's
persistence is used by God. She refuses to accept
injustice and the barrenness that would be on
her life because of that. She insists on participating
in the promise. Yeah, her means are flawed. We
don't say, oh, what she did was okay, but there's
a shrewdness in her. And it just shows us that
God uses the overlooked and the powerless and
the culturally excluded to move his purposes
forward. In Judah, his turning point came when
Tamar asked him, do you recognize these things?
Do these things belong to you? And God will often
confront us in the same way. Whether it's a moment
of exposure, whether it's a conversation, a lingering
conviction we have, a guilt that we keep trying
to hide in the background. It might be somebody
who shows up holding the receipts. Or it might
be a sin we see in someone else. We get so righteously
indignant and all it is is a reflection of our
own sin. Know that exposure is not condemnation.
It's an invitation to transformation. The gritty,
uncomfortable, you gross chapter here. It just
shows us again that God writes his story through
people who are compromised and drifting and sinful
and hypocritical and wounded and desperate and
outsiders to the world around them because it's
those people who are the ones who are completely
surprised by grace. You love me? Are you sure?
Why? I'm messed up. I'm all these things. And
God goes, yeah. I got a whole book of people
like that that I just did awesome things through.
You should read it. So if you're drifting, Judah
is a warning to you. If you're wounded or overlooked
or feel cast aside, Tamar is an encouragement
to you. If you're ashamed, Well, God's grace
is inviting you to repentance. If you feel like
your story is too messy to possibly be allowed
into the family of God, well, the genealogy of
Jesus Christ refutes you. If you're convinced
you can't change, Judah's transformation is here
to give you hope. If you fear exposure, remember
that God exposes only what he intends to heal.
He doesn't expose to just embarrass you and point
the finger and laugh. He exposes it so that you
may repent and be healed. So that you may confess
and own it and then come to God for healing and
that he would heal you and change you. You see
Philippians 2 .13. For it is God who is working
in you both to will and to work according to
his good purpose. So if God can weave this chapter
into the story of Joseph and ultimately into
the story of salvation through Jesus Christ,
if God can take all of our dirty laundry and
make it white as snow, then he could weave your
story, your life, even the gross, messy parts
into his redemption story. You just have to come
to him and receive it. Let's pray. Father, we
love you so much. God, so many of us, Lord, I
would risk saying all of us, Lord, can see ourselves
in this story in some parts. There are some of
us, Lord, that like Judah, we've known you for
a long time and walked with you for a long time,
but we've drifted. We distanced ourselves from
the family of God. We've made friends of those
who would lead us astray, Lord. Not that we're
not supposed to be in the world, but not to be
of the world. God, some hearing this, Lord, may
feel like Tamar. They may feel like they've been
promised things by people, by the world, by whatever,
Lord, and those promises haven't been fulfilled
and they feel like they've been forgotten and
cast off and overlooked. And yet, Lord, they
believe you to the point where they would entertain
doing not good things to realize the promises
you have for them, God. Maybe there's some here,
Lord, that God just are fearing exposure, and
they've been living this lie, and God, you're
bringing things to them. asking them if they
recognize these sins. That, Lord, in your graciousness,
you're saying, look, you are the person. Repent.
God, maybe there's some in here that you're going
to have to expose in a very publicly and embarrassing,
humiliating way, but Lord, we know you do everything
you do for our well -being. That we would have
hope in our future. That we would have strength
to live righteously for you. God, we know we're
fallen people and we know we have this sin nature
that will be with us until we die, but God, we
want to use as much of our life as possible to
do good, to affect the world positively for the
kingdom of Jesus Christ, to lead those who don't
know you to salvation. So, Lord, I pray right
now, God, if there's anybody in this room, Lord,
that you've been speaking to that needs to recommit
themselves to you, Lord, like Judah, to come
to that place of finally saying, I've sinned.
I've been living in sin. I've been living a lie,
and I'm done. Lord, if there's someone in here
that doesn't know you and... For whatever reason,
Lord, they're here in church today to hear this
message. That your Holy Spirit is speaking to
them and they're understanding that you are calling
them, that they are not overlooked, that you
see them and you want to save them. Lord, I just
pray for all of those, God, that even right now
they would say, Lord God, I believe you are God.
I believe you are almighty. I believe you already
have all the receipts. And Lord, I want to be
right with you. I want to be close to you. I
don't want to play the life of the hypocrite.
I don't want to feel that I'm overlooked and
worthless. So Lord, I confess all of my sin to
you. I am a sinner. I have sinned against you
and you alone. And God, I ask you to forgive
me. To heal me. To extend grace and mercy to
me. Because Lord, I know you could rewrite the
end of my story. And to make it something glorious.
That my name will be written in the Lamb's book
of life. That I will be saved. Help me to live
for you, Lord. Help me to live in obedience.
Help me to walk faithfully. That I would use
every year I have left on this earth to glorify
you in my life. Thank you for loving me so much.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, if you found
yourselves very spoken to this morning in any
one of those situations, I want to invite you
to come forward after we're done worshiping.
Because myself and other elders and stuff, we'd
love to pray with you and pray for you. Don't
forget that we do have an all -church prayer
meeting after, which is just a great time to
come together to pray for whatever. I just can't
stress how much God loves you. And it doesn't
matter if you believe it or not. It doesn't matter
if you feel like you're worth it or not. He loves
you. He loves you with a love that's everlasting
that you'll never understand but you can experience
if you just come to him and embrace him. So do
that. Let's praise God for what he's done in
our life. Let's praise God that he uses the messy
and the scandalous to work his will. Because
that's all of us. Amen? Amen. God bless you guys.