Looks Like I'm Going To Have To Make Something Happen
Genesis 38: 1- 30 Text: v. 8-10
And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased the Lord: wherefore he slew him also. The next statement in the Bible says that Onan did evil and that God slew him. Genesis 38:8-10
As we look at our text today one could not help but recognize that although this chapter is in Genesis one would overlook it because from Genesis 37-50 it deals with the life of the last Patriarch Joseph. Some would even say that this story is actually an intrusion on the story of Joseph. It is here that Judah (you know the one who suggested that his brothers sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites) anyways Judah leaves and goes about 15 miles N.W. of Hebron to a town called Adullam. It is there that he meets and marries a Canaanite woman named Shua .
During this union they have 3 sons: Er, Onan and Shelah.
Judah's 1st son, Er who died because he was wicked in the sight of the Lord, leaves a widow named Tamar who also was a Canaanite woman.
During those times there was a custom that required the brother of the dead man to marry his brothers widow and father a son who would assume the dead man's name. This law which was called the law of marriage or the Levirate. Lever which means "husbands brother" pointed to the next son who would be Onan. Now Onan was to marry Tamar, the widow of his brother and raise up an offspring for his dead brother, again this child would carry on the dead brothers name in stead of the real father since any child born would not legally be considered his heir. (Deut 25:6-10) That son would be called his dead brother's, and inherit his estate; and this is the sin, which from Onan is called Onania,according to the Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary it was also called "Onanism" - which described it as Self-gratification; Masturbation or Coitus Interruptus.
Coitus interruptus, also known as the rejected sexual intercourse, withdrawal or pull-out method, is a method of birth control in which a man, during sexual intercourse, withdraws his penis from a woman's vagina prior to orgasm (and ejaculation) and then directs his ejaculate (semen) away from the vagina in an effort to avoid insemination.
The Bible says that when Onan had sex with his Sister-In-Law Tamar, he withdrew before his orgasm and "spilled his seed [or semen] on the ground" he used that opportunity for a time of self - sexual gratification i.e. he took advantage of the situation, but he refused the responsibility that went with it. So God took his life.
Like many males today Onan would never accept his responsibility to father a child. Onan in a sense "got his rocks off" he wasn't a player but he sure did play some "hit and run." As a result of this He was judged for his continued, planned rebellion against the purpose of the marriage.
There are times when we want to do things our way and not God's way. Onan didn't want to give his brother a name because he wanted something that he could call his own.
You've heard me say this before and today I'll say it again. "Your dream will never come true until you make somebody else's dream come true."
That seed had life in it but on the ground it was dead. See God needs something to work with. If God can use anything its the very thing that nobody else wants.
Tamar isn't innocent from this story as well for from the first eight verses, the reader is made clear that Tamar is not seeking to have a relationship with Onan, she is only getting her due. (She wants a Baby)
Now remember remember Er is killed, Onan prevented conception and Shelah was too young. Tamar doesnt have a lot of time. ( Her biological clock is ticking) she reminds me of a person who wanted something so bad that she didnt care who got in her way all she cared about was getting what she wanted. She was a thinker and planner. Some of you here this morning are going over things in your mind. You're planning, scheming, thinking things over imagining, trying to envision a conclusion to what you must do in order to make that thing happen. And then all of a sudden "BAM" your answer comes to you because God doesn't want you to be limited and restricted in what he would have you to do.
By this time Shelah is grown and Judah has not even thought about giving him to Tamar. So she takes off her widow's garments , covers herself with a veil, wrapped herself and sat in an open place which was on the way to Timnah; for she was not given to him as a wife. She's so desperate that she doesn't want to risk the thought of not being without child. So Tamar begins to deceptively lure Judah into an immoral union by playing the role of an Prostitute.
This is one of the most controversial stories in the Bible.
Listen, Tamar is an amazing and brilliant woman. She waited a long time for Judah to do the right thing, she lived the life of a grieving widow for years without getting her due, she was still hoping that Judah would do the right thing. But Tamar realizes that she is going to have to make something happen.
In an amazing turn of events, after Judah is out of mourning for his wife, he plans a trip to Timnah to get his his flock sheared.
She stations herself where Judah will see her, and Judah indeed makes her an offer. He offers to give her a kid from the flock (a baby animal), but of course he doesn’t have the animal with him, so he’ll come back and pay her later, after having sex with her.
She accepts his offer, but requires him to leave her with some kind of token of his pledge. They agree that the token will be his staff, signet, and cord. They have sex, Judah goes back to the flock, and sends his friend Hirah the Adullamite back to town to bring his payment to the harlot but she is no where to be found.
After they have sex, however, Tamar takes off the veil, puts back on the clothes of mourning, and goes home immediately—with Judah’s staff, signet, and cord. She knows exactly what she is doing, she has planned it out.
When the messenger brings the payment back to town, he can’t find the harlot. He asks around, but is told there is no harlot who stands in that particular spot.
We pick the story back up at verse 22 - 26:
And he [the messenger] returned to Judah, and said: 'I have not found her; and also the men of the place said: There hath been no harlot here.' And Judah said: 'Let her take it, lest we be put to shame; behold, I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her.'[Interesting that his concern is not for having sex with a paid sex worker, but for the shame of not managing to pay her what she is due.] And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying: 'Tamar thy daughter-in-law hath played the harlot; and moreover, behold, she is with child by harlotry.' And Judah said: 'Bring her forth, and let her be burnt.' When she was brought forth, she sent to her father-in-law, saying: 'By the man, whose these are, am I with child'; and she said: 'Discern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet, and the cords, and the staff.' And Judah acknowledged them, and said: 'She is more righteous than I; forasmuch as I gave her not to Shelah my son.' And he knew her again no more.
Read verses 27 - 30
We may think that what Tamar did was appalling but Tamar knew she held the key to her deliverance. Her deliverance was in the seed. She didn't know anything about the mourning women or the wailing women spoken of in Jeremiah 9. However she did know something was trying to destroy her hope, her faith and her dreams.
Tamar changed the course of Israels History. Like Ruth Tamar valued the promises of God and got a glimpse of the fact that the promised Messiah was coming through her for it was Perez who would become an ancestor of Jesus. (Matthew 1:3)
Listen the enemy may be trying to take out. Away from what God has promised. Away from the place God has placed you. He's trying to bring you to a point of extinction, he doesn't want you to exist. But don't you dare move......stay right where you are..... dont let the enemy kill whats coming your way!
I heard some of the saints singing the other day and it reminded me of David they sang "Like a tree planted by the rivers of the water" you know the rest....."I shall not be moved"
God may have not authorized or sanctioned what she did but He over road her evil to His own good purpose. Aint no need in you sitting back and stressing over what has happened in your past. According to God in Romans 8:28 it says "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."
What you don't understand is that yours is a story of Grace just like Tamar's, because God is in the business of working through our messes.
You may not know why you did it that way but it was because God was working on something.
Call it a tragedy but Tamar was following her heart.
God had a destiny for Tamar.....thats why she turned the table. On one side was carelessness, failure and weakness. On the other side was Purpose, Destiny and Privilege.
Even though much is not mentioned about Tamar she was spoken of throughout the generations for it was the people and the elders in Ruth 4:11, 12 that said this about Ruth.
"And all the people that were in the gate, and the elders, said, We are witnesses. The Lord make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel: and do thou worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Bethlehem: And let thy house be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bare unto Judah, of the seed which the Lord shall give thee of this young woman.
God was gracious to another outsider (TAMAR) and incorporated her into the family of Israel and even into the special line of blessing just as He now did for RUTH. ( Her Story of the Kinsman Redeemer)
The ending of the story is this she was pregnant with twins, a sign of God’s grace, and one of the sons Perez was the line through Judah who became the People of Judah, the religion of Judaism.
Also, the Christians claim that line as the heritage of Jesus.
Dr Charles C Jones
2/16/2019
