"Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram..."
{Matthew 1:3} (NIV)
When we read a book, we know that there is one author who has tied everything together and thought through the book from start to finish. So when we read odd events early in a book it causes us to anticipate closure later on. When we read Genesis 38, we wonder why we need to know this sort of detail, and then it becomes clear to us when we read Matthew 1:3. The amazing thing is that Genesis was written around 1,500 BC and Matthew was written by someone else shortly after the death of Christ some 1,500 years later. But they were both inspired (written) by one Author who is the Holy Spirit.
There are no moral lessons to be learned out of Genesis 38; there are no easy applications. All we see is the story of Judah leaving his brothers after the terrible things they did together to Joseph. Settling down, marrying, and making a life for himself, away from his family.
The story quickly focuses on his oldest son’s wife named Tamar, the one through whom Judah’s line will be extended. What this story communicates is that this woman who wanted to have a child in the worst way (this woman who submitted herself to three different men all for the purpose of becoming a mother) was used by God to fulfill His promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and was used by God to fulfill His promise of a Saviour to the world. In our church culture today, we would to our shame, look down upon a woman that lived Tamar’s life. We would judge her and ostracize her, and yet God blessed her, and honoured her by making her a direct ancestor of our Lord Jesus, as we see in Matthew 1:3.
Friend may we bless and honour mothers, all mothers, despite their outward circumstance. May we say as Judah said, “She is more righteous than I”
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