Airport security personnel have a fairly mundane job. They scan people with metal detectors, look through their bags, check their shoes, and sometimes pat them down. It’s probably not uncommon to find a knife accidentally left in someone’s pocket. On rare occasions they might find drugs or fire arms or explosives. For the most part it’s boring and routine.
Imagine how surprised security personnel at Dusseldorf airport in Germany must have been when a man headed for Libya asked them not to pat him down too hard because he had birds in his pants. That’s right, he had four pigeons hidden in his pockets. They were pets he didn’t want to leave at home for such a long trip. That’s weird and random. But guess what? This has happened before. On February 3rd a man attempting to board a plane in Melbourne, Australia was stopped and searched. He had 2 pigeons hidden inside his pants that he was trying to smuggle out of the country. Search “pigeon in pants” on Google News and you can actually see a picture of the guy’s extremely hairy legs with the pigeons strapped to them.
Why did I tell you these weird and random stories? Chapter 38 of Genesis is weird and seemingly random and I couldn’t think of a better introduction. This incident is so strange and out of place that many scholars think some later editor smashed it into the Joseph narrative. They think it’s just an odd story not really tied to big picture. Peculiar things happen in the story that will make you blush in mixed company if you’re paying attention. Roman Catholics have used one incident in the chapter as proof that God hates birth control. But that’s not really the message being conveyed here.
The story is really about the rehab of a scoundrel. We’ve already seen this in the life of Jacob where God reshaped his character. Compared to Judah, the star of this story, Jacob was a boy scout. Here are the ways he’s described in chapters 37 and 38: slave trader (a crime punishable by death in the Bible – Deut. 24:7); befriended a godless playboy Canaanite; married a godless Canaanite; shirked his duty to train up his boys; irreligious; blamed others for his own problems; fornicator; and a hypocrite. That’s all we learn from two chapters. I imagine there was much more. Nevertheless God providentially rehabilitated this man Judah. His life changed so dramatically that by the end of Genesis he’s given leadership of the tribe. God blessed Judah to such an extent that from his descendants arose the royal line of David and, eventually, Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
What this story reveals is God’s amazing and scandalous grace. God used methods to transform Judah that make the theologically correct a little bit nervous. We can learn some lessons from God’s methods which will help us to deal with some of the scoundrels in our lives. God will also use this process to rehabilitate the scoundrel in you.
I do need to add this word of caution. The treatment for this level of sin is a lot like chemotherapy or some kind of invasive surgery. The solution is so drastic that it has the potential to kill you. I do not recommend that you try to practice the following voluntarily, but if you ever find yourself in these situation remember that it could be part of the cure.
Bad Medicine to Kill or Cure You
Disconnection from the community of faith
As a pastor I almost hate to say this, but the first step in Judah’s rehabilitation was a step away from the community of faith. The chapter begins with ominous details of Judah’s departure from God’s people.
At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah. There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her … Genesis 38:1-2
That doesn’t seem like a big deal to us, but the original audience of this story would have been horrified. To leave the faith community was to abandon the covenant, protection, and blessings of God. In fact, in later Israelite history the only punishment worse that death to the Hebrew was banishment from the community. This was true in Jesus’ day as well. Many people refused to openly confess faith in Jesus for fear of being “put out of the synagogue.” To lose entrance to the synagogue meant that you simultaneously lost connection to the community. You lost the personal security of friends and family as well as your relationship with God, so they believed.
When Judah walked away from his family he turned his back on the God of his family. Thankfully, for Judah, God wasn’t finished with him. He was just getting started.
Let’s learn a lesson from this. In the modern church one of the worst events we can conceive is someone leaving. I think this may be the reason why we tend to coddle members. We have no expectation of holiness on the part of church folks because we want desperately to keep them. It’s a business mentality. When someone leaves it feels like we’ve lost a customer and that’s bad for business.
Not so for God. Do you realize that disconnection from the community is one of the ways He prescribes their rehabilitation? In 1 Corinthians 5 Paul describes a situation in the Corinthian church where a man was sleeping with his step mother. He was an unrepentant sinner. Paul’s advice to them was harsh and straight forward:
“Expel the wicked man from among you.” 1 Corinthians 5:13
Did he tell them to do this so that the man would be humiliated and punished? No. His hope was the man’s restoration. He wanted him to realize his sin and turn from it.
…hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord. 1 Corinthians 5:5
Out of the community of faith means out of the protection and blessings of God. Guest whose company you’re keeping when you step outside? You got it … Satan. He’s a pretty good pal at first. He pays your way and shows you a good time, but eventually you’ll start picking up the tab. It’s bad medicine that can kill you. I do not recommend anyone stepping outside the community of faith. We need to connection to God and His people. But sometimes the medicine is bad enough to cure
The second dose of medicine is worse than the first …
Wallowing in the wages of sin
Judah paid a steep price. The sons he produced from a pagan Canaanite wife inherited their father’s evil and took it even further. They never had a chance. Judah didn’t teach them anything about what’s right in the eyes of the Lord. I’m certain that they picked up all of his bad habits, though. It’s likely that their unnamed mother brought them up in corrupt Canaanite faith. The firstborn son was so bad that God killed him. We don’t even know the reason why. The second son was no better. It was his duty to produce offspring from his dead brother. But he was greedy. He knew that if he sired a kid with his brother’s widow, Tamar, that that kid would be designated Judah’s firstborn and receive the birthright, a double portion of the inheritance. As you know, Onan, the second son didn’t follow through with his obligation, but did use it as an opportunity to have some pleasure at Tamar’s expense. God killed him too. Eventually, Judah’s Canaanite wife died.
For all of this to fit chronologically, these deaths all happened within about two years’ time. Judah experienced one tragedy after another and it was his fault. This was all the consequence of his sin. He made his bed and now he had to sleep in it. Judah was the original prodigal son wallowing in the pig sty of his own making. The reason he didn’t allow his third son to produce a son through Tamar was a fear that he’d be next. It’s highly likely that in the back of Judah’s mind he believed he was being punished for selling his brother into slavery.
In Judah’s case the consequences of his sin led him to salvation. But I do not recommend that you go there. This medicine can kill. Romans 6:23 tells us:
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. . Romans 6:23
Understand that when we abandon God and His community, He doesn’t come gunning for us. Yes, He hates our sin. Yes, He will punish us for our sin if we don’t repent. Yet, God loves us so much that He sometimes uses our sin to bring us back to Himself.
Let me get a little more shocking. In this story, God used Judah’s lust to bring him back around. Think about it. Where did Tamar get the idea to disguise herself as a veiled, cult prostitute to seduce her father-in-law? How was she able to overhear where he was going to be and when? How was she able to pull off yet another dopey ruse in the book of Genesis? God’s providence. Did God tempt Judah to sin? No. What Tamar did was perfectly acceptable according to the law of the day. Hittite law said that if the brothers of a deceased husband couldn’t produce children, it was the responsibility of the father-in-law. Judah wasn’t married at this point, so no adultery was involved. Nonetheless, God used Judah’s lust and loneliness to lure him into this situation.
Sometimes I think we’re way more squeamish with God’s methods that He is. This wasn’t the last time He would use immorality to accomplish His purpose. He maneuvered thick-headed Samson into a position to defeat the Philistines through the man’s selfishness and lust. He led the wise men to Jesus through the practice of astrology, an activity forbidden to the Jewish people by God’s own law. He accomplished His greatest purpose in Jesus the same way:
“Men of Israel: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, signs, and wonders, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross. But God raised Him from the dead …” Acts 2:22-24a
Wallowing in the wages of sin is bad medicine. It can kill you or cure you. This is true for the third dose too:
Moving into the crisis moment
Judah unknowingly impregnated his daughter-in-law, Tamar. Upon learning that she was three months pregnant he hypocritically ordered her execution. Remember, he still retained authority over her. I picture his shock overseeing the gathering of wood for the fire when Tamar brings out the necklace holding his document stamp and the walking staff with his initial on it. That was a crisis moment for Judah.
The story could have unfolded differently here. Judah could have denied Tamar’s claims and condemned her as a thief as well as an adulterer. He could have hardened himself to his previous sins. Judah could have gone to the opposite extreme. Recognition of his evil could have driven him to despair. He might have simply walked away depressed and lived his remaining days searching for the next thing to anesthetize his aching soul. Instead, the crisis moment brought him to repentance. We know this by his response:
“She is more righteous than I …” Genesis 38:26
One commentator said it’d be better to translate Judah’s words as, “She is righteous and I am not.” When the crisis came, Judah confessed his sin. He owned up to his wickedness and expressed sorrow over it. This was a big deal for a man of his stature. Judah demonstrated a profound humility for the first time in his life. We know that his repentance was real because with it he made a commitment. He did not attempt to sleep with Tamar again. It was a way of saying that he was leaving his old ways behind.
Let me pause and give some credit to Tamar. She took her life into her hands here. She risked it all. Why? She was a Canaanite just like Judah’s former wife. She could have taken off her widow’s clothing and married a Canaanite man. She could have become a religious prostitute and it would have been completely acceptable. Instead, she chose the house of Judah. I’m speculating here, but I bet Tamar saw the man Judah could be. I bet she saw past his scoundrel ways to what he might be with a little rehab. What I don’t need to speculate about is her faith in Judah’s God. Although it is unspoken in the narrative, the one she really took a chance on was the God of Israel. How she knew we cannot be sure, because Genesis provides no details. Yet she was willing to abandon her home and her god for the house of Judah and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. As a result, she took a place in salvation history along with other female outsiders like Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. It’s not apparent in the text, but she was a woman of extraordinary faith. It’s helpful to have one of those around when you’re dosing up on God’s bad medicine.
It could have killed Judah, but we know that it cured him. How? The evidence is crystal clear. The first recorded words of Judah were these:
“What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” Genesis 37:26
He cared about no one, but himself. He wanted some chump change from selling his brother, but even more he wanted to get rid of Joseph to make sure he gained the birthright. He didn’t care if he had to betray a brother and grieve a father to get it.
His last recorded words are all together different. Standing before Joseph, who was disguised as an Egyptian official, and fearing that his father’s beloved younger son might be kept in slavery, Judah offered his own life:
“Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come upon my father.” Genesis 44:33-34
Would you say that a profound change had occurred in this man’s character? The rehab for a scoundrel worked. He was willing to give up his own life for the sake of others. Judah was beginning to reflect one of his future descendants, Jesus Christ, who said:
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13
This is not some random story, like pigeons in a pair of pants. There’s no moralistic list of sexual dos and don’ts. This is a story of God’s magnificent, unrelenting, but silent grace. And just think, if there’s rehab for a scoundrel like Judah there’s hope for scoundrels like you and me.
