Beware Your Lies Will Catch Up To You Series

Beware your Lies will catch up to you

Character of Judah

Caught in his own deceit

You know all of us here in Dillingham have heard the story our elders tell of going to school barefooted, both ways uphill.

Well maybe not that one. It could have been the six-foot rabbits or the one about the big fish that got away.

In any culture there are certain tall tales that go around and you may have heard one or two. Some of this is just people having fun but the problem comes when peoples characters are clouded by deceitful thoughts.

Have you ever been tempted to put in for something you knew you shouldn’t.

Maybe claim a deduction on your income tax that really doesn’t exist.

Try to make someone believe that you have done something that you have not done.

That you tithe the amount indicated by God, if you do not.

That you are totally given to the work of God, if you are not.

These are things that can and will mark you as an unreasonable or undesirable character. These actions also are something we as Christians want to strictly avoid.

Why, will it do me harm as a Christian?

The simple and direct answer is yes. We do receive consequences for sin in our lives. And even greater reason to not be associated with this kind of character is to avoid bringing reproach on the will and work of God. God has set you and I apart, we are holy because He is holy.

Let us learn as we walk with Jacob’s son Judah this week. Remember, Judah was a ringleader with the plan to sell his brother Joseph to the Ismaelites. Let us join with the account of Genesis Chapter 38.

Character of Judah

Genesis 38:1-

Genesis 38:1-14 (ESV)

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.

[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. [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.

Remember we were able to see the wise stewardship of Jacob in separating himself and his people from the Canaanites at Shechem. Here following delivering his brother to the Ismaelites, Judah went to be with a friend an Adullamite. An inhabitant of Adullam, a city of Canaan, afterwards given for a possession to the sons of Judah, Joshua 15:1, 35. It appears as if this Adullamite had kept a kind of lodging house, for Shuah the Canaanite and his family lodged with him; and there Judah lodged also. As the woman was a Canaanitess, Judah had the example of his fathers to prove at least the impropriety of such a connection. As this chapter attests—Judah’s character would fail.

And he was at Chezib when she bare him—This town is also known by the name of Achzib. “The name, has in Hebrew the signification of lying; and to it the prophet alludes, saying the houses of Achzib shall be (Achzab) a lie to the kings of Israel, Micah 1:14.”

Er—was wicked in the sight of the Lord—What this wickedness consisted in we are

not told; but the phrase sight of the Lord being added, proves that it was some very great

evil. It is worthy of remark that the Hebrew word used to express Er’s wickedness is his

own name, the letters reversed. Er øò wicked, òø ra. Strong’s gives us the following definitions of ra-- bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) :- adversity, affliction, bad, calamity, + displease (-ure), distress, evil ([-favouredness], man, thing), + exceedingly, × great, grief (-vous), harm, heavy, hurt (-ful), ill (favoured), + mark, mischief (-vous), misery, naught (-ty), noisome, + not please, sad (-ly), sore, sorrow, trouble, vex, wicked (-ly, -ness, one), worse (-st). It is as if the inspired writer had said, “Er was altogether wicked, a completely abandoned character.” We see the fruit of his evil character is death.