WOMEN OF WONDER - Tamar: Posing as a Prostitute
May 5, 2019
Genesis 38:11-19 (p. 28)
Introduction:
My mother in law, Nancy, is a pretty amazing woman…She is one of the most creative people I’ve ever met and passed those creative genes down to her daughter, my wife, Kari. A few years ago Nancy got really involved in genealogy…She started tracing the roots of all our families…I knew I had French and German ancestry…with the names “Bach” and “Burdette” that wasn’t too tough to figure out…but Nancy’s genealogy went way deeper…especially when it came to my great, great grandparents on both sides of my family…she recorded their nicknames and the fact that my mom’s family and my dad’s family migrated from Scotland and ended up living about 30 miles apart in Eastern KY and West Virginia…It was pretty cool to watch the providence of God that brought my family into existence…my great grandfather Hiram lost his 1st wife at 54…married a 25 year old and had 5 more children…Arthur, my grandfather being one of them…Hiram’s one of my heroes (LOL).
And folks, there are some things in my heritage that are pretty scandalous…I’m probably not going to shout them out loud in public…but the truth is…people are sinful…my people…your people…ALL PEOPLE.
So whether you have a horse thief or a murderer in your family tree that’s not abnormal…it’s just the truth of the human condition.
It’s amazing that Jesus, the perfect Son of God, has the same truth in His genealogy…There are murderers, thieves, adulterous and scandalous events scattered in His lineage…
May is the month of Mother’s Day and so I wanted to share a series called…Women of Wonder…In June we’ll look at some Super Men, since it’s the month of Father’s Day.
The lineage of Jesus recorded by Matthew does something bold and unusual for when it was written…it includes the names of 4 women…Women of Wonder :) Tamar, Rahab, Ruth…and Uriah’s wife (it’s Bathsheba…but her name isn’t written).
Matthew 1:3 mentions Tamar first…Judah the Father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar.
The story of Judah and Tamar reminds us that God’s grace and His plan are far greater than our sin. We make messes…and God turns it into a message of grace.
I’m going to promise you you’ve never heard many sermons from Genesis 38…It’s not boring…It’s not deep theology…It’s not irrelevant.
But, it’s cringe worthy in how racy it is. And it occurs right in the middle of Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers…Genesis 38 is one of those biblical chapters where you go…huh? This is a weird place for this story!
Judah is one of Joseph’s brothers…He’s the one who comes up with the idea to sell him instead of kill him…
GENESIS 37:26-28 (p. 27)
Joseph is eventually sold by the Midianites to Potiphar, the Captain of Pharaoh’s guard. It’s in this time frame Judah heads into godless country to see a friend.
It’s how…
I. THE STORY OF JUDAH AND TAMAR BEGINS
Listen:
GENESIS 38:1-10 (p. 28)
Judah is a compromiser…let’s not kill Joseph…let’s sell him…(Both are wrong). Judah has a friendship with a guy name Hirah…the Adullamite. Hirah’s a Canaanite…He worships idols…many of them are sexual in nature.
So Judah, on the heels of one sin…heads to see his buddy who doesn’t worship God and gets involved with another sin…He marries a Canaanite woman, the daughter of Shuah…Part of these traditions involve prostitutes at their shrines.
Judah and Shuah have a son whom they name Er…They have another son they name Onan and a 3rd son named Shelah…
When Er is old enough to marry Judah gets him a wife…not from God’s people but from the Canaanites…Her name is Tamar. This is the woman who will become Jesus’ great great (another 38 greats) Grandmother.
Verse 7 in Genesis 38 says Er is wicked and the Lord takes his life…Tamar is now a widow…Judah requires Onan to marry her and produce an heir…It’s a custom called the “Leverite marriage.”
But in vividly clean language, Onan rejects this responsibility and takes advantage of this situation for his own sexual gratification God punishes Onan for this selfish act and Onan’s life is also cut short by the Lord.
Tamar has been widowed twice. Judah now has 2 dead sons…and his third son is too young to marry…so he sends Tamar to her father’s house to live as a widow until his 3rd son Shelah grows up…
But Judah also realizes marrying Tamar is hazardous…he reasons…my third son might die too.
So, Tamar goes to live in her father’s house.
Are you with me so far…you think your family is dysfunctional…you think God doesn’t have a plan for you…well hold on to your hat…because
II. THIS IS A STORY ABOUT GRACE IN SPITE OF OUR SIN
Listen:
GENESIS 38:12-19 (p. 28)
Judah’s Canaanite wife dies…and after his time of grieving Judah seeks out his old buddy Hirah during sheep shearing time. It’s a time of festivities and celebration in this society of shepherds.
It’s been years since Judah promised Tamar that she could marry Shelah, his 3rd son. But Tamar knows he’s not going to keep this pledge. She’s going to remain forever a widow in her father’s house…so she comes up with a plan to deceive the compromiser. Tamar dresses as a prostitute and gains Judah as a customer.
For the price of her services, Tamar accepts a young goat - something that Judah did not have with him at the time (Gen 38:16-19). She makes him leave a pledge that he will fulfill his promise to pay her. For the pledge, she asks for his seal and cord, and his staff. A seal was an important piece of identity, most likely a cylinder with etchings on it. It would be rolled over wax to seal a letter with your identification, or rolled over the handle of a clay pot when it is being made to identify it as yours. The cord might have allowed Judah to wear this around his neck. Giving this to Tamar was the equivalent of giving her his drivers license to hold until he returned with the money. She also asked for his staff, something that no one would have normally given up. It is obvious that Judah is completely committed to having sex with this woman who he thinks is a prostitute.
Judah sends Hirah back to the town of Timnah to retrieve his seal and pay off the prostitute with a goat. Hirah looks for the woman Judah describes but can’t find her…He returns with the goat but no cord and seal or staff. Judah thinks the whole sinful deal is over…but as Numbers 32:23 tells us…“Be sure your sins will find you out!”
Tamar is now pregnant from this encounter with her father-in-law. Judah hears the report and indignantly demands that Tamar pay for her sins with her life Genesis 38:24 “About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.” Judah said, “Bring her out and have her burned to death!”
Tamar exposes Judah’s sins by showing that she possesses his cord, seal and staff. Judah is embarrassed and realizes that he has sinned in two ways, first for his illicit affair with a prostitute, and second for his refusal to provide for Tamar’s needs. Genesis 38:26 “Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not sleep with her again.”
The result of the story is that Tamar gives birth to twin boys. One of the boys is named Perez. He is in the lineage of Jesus, eight generations from David, King of Israel!
As I end this morning I want to emphasize two aspects of God’s amazing grace.
1. God uses the most unexpected situations and people for His glory.
Tamar is spoken of with great respect by the Elders of Bethlehem. Ruth 4:11-12 “Then the elders and all those at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem.” “Through the offspring the Lord give you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.” And Tamar is specifically mentioned in the opening verses of the New Testament where only a few women are mentioned in the lineage of Jesus. Matthew 1:3 “Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram.” Think about Tamar. She is a Canaanite, she seduced Judah and gave birth to a son through the guise of prostitution. Yet God’s grace establishes her as one of the key people in the lineage of Jesus! God chose to bring his Son into the world through the sordid story contained in Genesis 38. If he can do that, he can certainly use the likes of you and me!
And finally
2. Grace always points us to Jesus.
Even though the name Messiah is not mentioned in Genesis 38, the chapter is ultimately about Jesus! The child of Judah and Tamar is conspicuously a part of the lineage of Jesus. This chapter, and the sordid tale told here points us to Jesus! The twisted parts of our lives point to Jesus. He is our hope. If your life is a mess, he can still become the center. He will clean you up and give you hope. He will take your mess and forgive you. He will use you again even if you have failed him. This is his grace and he delights to make it known to you.
[Two of my favorite people I share ministry with are named Jani and Ron…one used to run a strip club and one used to work there. Both have a testimony of being redeemed by Jesus…Ron became an elder at Southland and Jani poured her life into a ministry called “Natalie’s Sisters” who rescue women involved in the sex industry from the streets and the clubs…]
Grace takes our past and uses it for God’s rescuing glory…Judah becomes a godly ruler over his brothers…Tamar became an example that the elders held up for other women.
Rick Burdette, the former pothead and High School dropout became the grateful proclaimer of a Savior who rescues us from Hell.
Genesis 38 includes marriage, incest, death, sexual selfishness, prostitution, conspiracy, deception and pregnancy.
This story, the story of all the redeemed is a reminder that God’s grace comes to us in spite of our sin - even through our sin…Grace enters the mess of our lives and through Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection it becomes a “message” of what God’s plan is all about.
A Savior names Jesus…through a woman named Tamar…That’s a wonder!
