When we consider famous brothers… … some famous brothers come to mind…
1) Wilbur and Orville Wright ushered in the era of flight;
2) The Brothers Grimm, Wilhelm and Jacob, popularized fairy tales such as “Snow White,” “Cinderella,” and “Sleeping Beauty”;
3) Outlaws Frank and Jesse James;
4) The brothers Manning – Eli and Payton;
5) And there’s the first two brothers in all of history, Cain and Abel;
But today we have another set of brothers that are not quite as famous but just as (if not more) important: Joseph and Judah.
Have you witnessed two brothers or sisters, who were so different in their personality, you wondered, “How could these two people come from the genetic pool?” Today, I want you to see two brothers who were very different from each other. Last week was Mother’s Day, and today we celebrate Brother’s Day ?.
And while the focus of so many famous brothers is often on their professional careers … …today’s story of two brothers will focus more on the lasting legacy of their personal lives.
Family Background
Joseph and Jacob comes from a family that would score great ratings on daytime television talk shows. If their story was available on Netflix, you’d binge watch the whole thing one weekend – it’s just that gripping. In the story of Joseph, you witness a house torn apart by the quarrels of mothers, a father’s preferential treatment of his younger son, and the jealous rage of his older brothers. Through it all, it’s a beautiful story of brotherly jealousy that eventually turns to brotherly kindness. Yet, this isn’t just any family – it’s God’s chosen family. Of all the people and all of the families in the world, God choose this family to work through to eventually bring His Son, Jesus, into the world. God said these word to Abraham: “I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” (Genesis 22:17-18).
You don’t need to see the story of Joseph as a lake, all by itself. Instead, Joseph’s story is more like a river, flowing into the grand design of God’s big purpose in working with His people. You see the river of God’s grace run through the genetic pool of Jacob and Joseph all the way to Bethlehem and Golgotha to Jesus Christ. In Joseph’s family, we see the gospel of God’s grace.
Now there were twelve brothers in all making some 70 total descendants for their father, Jacob. Of the twelve brothers, the Bible really focuses on two boys in particular: Judah and Joseph. The story of the two brothers is as old as time (approximately 1,900 years before Christ) but as fresh as our day.
Similarities
It’s important to note the similarities between the two brothers. Both are great grandsons to Abraham, the Father of the Faithful. They both move off, living in foreign lands (Judah by choice and Joseph by force). The both marry wives from other nations and they both are fathers of Hebrew tribes (Judah by choice and Joseph by force). Joseph’s two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, will be the powerhouse tribes in northern Israel, while Judah will prominent in the south.
But here’s where it gets interesting… Both men are faced with sexual temptation with women who are not their wives. Judah faces his sexual temptation when he is older and he fails the test… … while Joseph is faced by the lure of his master’s wife when he is but a young man… …but he passes the test with flying colors. And both leave behind significant items that can be traced to them in the hands of these respective women during the temptation that later help identify them. Yet, it’s the differences between the boys that are so instructive. Let’s concentrate on Judah first and proceed to his brother, Joseph, next.
Judah
Meet Judah, he’s the fourth oldest son of Jacob and his first wife, Leah. And he’s the eventual the leader of the twelve brothers. Is this story out of place? Chapter 37 ends with the brothers sell Josephs to Potiphar while the story picks right back up in chapter 39. And nearly everyone wonders, “Why is chapter 38 place here?” Even as far back as people in the medieval ages wondered this. The stories of Judah and Joseph are never presented in clearer contrast that Genesis 38 and 39. The last time we saw Judah, we witnessed him scheming the sale of his brother, Joseph, as a slave, for a small profit.
In the course of time the wife of Judah, Shua's daughter, died. When Judah was comforted, he went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite. 13 And when Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,” 14 she took off her widow's garments and covered herself with a veil, wrapping herself up, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him in marriage. 15 When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. 16 He turned to her at the roadside and said, “Come, let me come in to you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?” 17 He answered, “I will send you a young goat from the flock.” And she said, “If you give me a pledge, until you send it—” 18 He said, “What pledge shall I give you?” She replied, “Your signet and your cord and your staff that is in your hand.” So he gave them to her and went in to her, and she conceived by him. 19 Then she arose and went away, and taking off her veil she put on the garments of her widowhood.” (Genesis 38:12-19)
As our story opens, Judah’s wife has died. While the story concentrates on two people, Judah and Tamar, it’s important you know what happened to Tamar’s husband. Tamar was the daughter-in-law to Judah, as she married his oldest son. And while I started reading halfway through the story, earlier we read that God actually kills Tamar’s husband, Er, because he was a wicked men. No sooner than Er died, than his brother, Onan, was asked by the father to produce children with Tamar. It was customary in the day for a brother to marry the widow on behalf of his brother – it was called levirate marriage.
Judah is in denial over the tragedy that was his two oldest boys. Instead of seeing them for who they were, Judah blames his daughter-in-law, Tamar, for his sons’ deaths.Because he blamed her, he outwardly played the respectable father-in-law part for society but he inwardly and secretly deceived his daughter-in-law. Somewhere along the way, Tamar realized what was going on. She woke up to realize that Judah wasn’t go to keep his promise to protect and provide for her. So when Tamar learns that Judah is coming her way, she instinctively launches an unbelievably bold and fascinating plan. When she hears her father-in-law is on his way to her, Tamar goes into action.
“She took off her widow’s clothes. She covered herself with a veil to disguise herself. She sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah.” (Genesis 38:14)
Judah goes by, sees her, thinks she’s a prostitute, goes in, lays with her, not knowing it’s his daughter-in-law, and leaves as a pledge his seal, cord, and staff. The seal was a way of basically, making contracts. In our day, Tamar might as well held Judah’s driver’s license and social security card.
The Sexual Double-Standard
Tamar brilliantly and ingeniously uses the sexual double standard of Judah and that society against him. What’s a sexual double standard? It’s one standard for men and another one for women. You notice Judah has sex when he wants. How else would Tamar know if he saw a prostitute on the road, he’d ask for her services? Like a boomerang, Tamar tricks Judah just as he had tricked her.
Let’s fast-forward to the last part of the story. She goes home and she has his seal and signet (not a ring but a cylinder). In verse 24 we see these words: “About three months later Judah was told, ‘Tamar your daughter-in-law has been immoral. Moreover, she is pregnant by immorality.’” (Genesis 38:24) Judah thought Tamar was the problem all along. He thought she was the reason his sons were in the grave. Judah needed to believe the worst about her in order to believe the best about his sons.
Just before Judah moves to burn Tamar alive, Tamar sends word to her former father-in-law. Now watch the parallel between the brothers carefully… They both leave something behind that can be traced back to them during their sexual temptations. Dramatically, Tamar pulls out a package just before her execution, and Judah saw his personal items. Tamar says in effect, “By the way, the man who should go into the fire with me, is the owner of this. Do you recognize them?” She isn’t just saying, “Do you recognize your things?” She is saying, “Do you recognize yourself? Do you see who you are? Do you see what you’ve become?”
“Then Judah identified them and said, ‘She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not know her again.’” (Genesis 38:26)
This is the beginning of a change, a softening, we see in Judah that we will see resurface later in the story. But let’s turn from Judah to look at his younger brother, Joseph.
Joseph
When we last saw Joseph, we were tempted to think God had abandoned him…
“Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. 7 And after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.” 8 But he refused and said to his master's wife, “Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. 9 He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” 10 And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her.
11 But one day, when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was there in the house, 12 she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house.
16 Then she laid up his garment by her until his master came home, 17 and she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to laugh at me. 18 But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house.”
19 As soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, “This is the way your servant treated me,” his anger was kindled. 20 And Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison.” (Genesis 39:2b-12, 16-20)
Joseph inherited the good looks of his mother, Rachel – both were described as beautiful people to look at. In fact, in all of the Bible, these two – Rachel and Joseph – are the only two people to receive the double reference to their good looks. It was in Joseph’s genes. Again, while there are so many similarities between the brothers, it’s the differences between the two that are so revealing.
Judah’s moral weakness stands in direct contrast to Joseph’s moral strength. But where Joseph had the looks, Judah had the power. Judah calls “the shots” while Joseph is in slave’s chains. Yet, Judah, succumbs to temptation, while the younger, Joseph, successfully resists.
Younger and Favored
What’s odd about this is this: Joseph was both younger and his father’s favorite. Studies show the favored children often think they can “get by” with more than their brothers and sisters.
Siblings will often introduce the youngest as the one that “got away” with the most. Just a decade ago, country music singer, Blake Shelton, topped the charts with his song, The Baby. The song describes how a mother thinks about her youngest child:
My brother said that I was rotten to the core
I was the youngest child, so I got by with more
I guess she was tired by the time I came along
She'd laugh until she cried, I could do no wrong
She would always save me because I was her baby.
Joseph was the baby and yet he possessed the personal discipline that was missing from his older brother, Judah. Despite being the baby and his father’s favorite, Joseph had more moral fiber than Judah. Notice what the two brothers leave behind. Judah sees his deception only when Tamar shows him his signet and seal. Where we see Joseph’s integrity in the clothes he leaves behind.
Take Aways
1. Joseph, the Outlier
Joseph’s resistance should encourage all of us. What is so surprising in this story is this: Joseph resists sexual temptation when so very few in his family are able to resist. Joseph is an outlier. You’ve already seen Judah’s surrender, but look at Joseph against his family as a whole. Jacob, Joseph’s father, violated God’s design for marriage by having four wives. And Jacob isn’t the only one guilty of polygamy in Joseph’s family: his great-grandfather, Abraham and his great-uncle, Esau are also guilty. That’s three polygamists for those keeping score. Sexual problems are everywhere in this family!
Once more, Dinah (pronounce like eating at a “dinner”), Joseph’s sister, was tragically raped when Joseph was around 11 years old. And Reuben, his brother, shamefully slept with one of his father’s wives. Some people blame their sin on their inheritance: “Well, I’m just like my dad. It’s in my genes. It’s in my glands. It’s just the way that I was raised. There is too much of my dad in me. If I had just had a different mom and dad I would have been different.”
The next time you snap somebody’s head off because he made you mad, don’t reach for your usual “I’m a redhead” or “I’m a hot-blooded Latin (or Irish, or Black, or [insert your ethnic excuse]).” Stop and ask yourself if your ethnic background, hair color, or the angry home in which you were raised, is a sufficient excuse for sin.
Never make the mistake that only good kids come from good families. Joseph teaches us that dysfunctional families don’t define us. Jacob, the Outlier
2. The Strategy of Temptation
Again, Joseph’s resistance should encourage all of us. Mrs. Potiphar places Joseph under a sexual siege. Joseph was no more than 19 or 20 years old and his hormones were working in overdrive. Her two words were met by 35 words from him. In short, he refused her for three reasons: 1) because of her husband’s trust in him; 2) because she was married; and lastly, 3) it was a sin against God Himself (verses 8-10). This would be a good place to say, “Amen!” for Joseph.
2.1 Her Strategy
At first, she tried a direct frontal assault at first. The English translation of her demand, at the end of verse 8, doesn’t do her demand justice. In essence, this married woman says to her husband’s slave, “Sex! Now!” But she soon tried a more subtle approach: “And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her.” (Genesis 38:10) She progressively stepped up her approach. Sexual temptation comes in inches. Today, the “Mrs. Potiphar’s” of the world are all over swimsuit issues and across the Internet. Too many “Mrs. Potiphar’s” fail to see that modesty is so badly needed for young men to be successful. Before they lay with you they ask you to lie beside them. Sexual temptation is a battle of inches.
2.2 His Strategy
It’s important to see what Joseph didn’t do – he didn’t sleep with Mrs. Potiphar thinking she would be a valuable ally. Surely this thought passes through his mind: “If I lay with her, she will work to promote me.” Joseph knew what few others bother to see: the sins committed behind locked doors in dark rooms is in the broad daylight on heaven’s main street – God sees all. And you’ll resist sexual temptation if place distance and construct barriers between you and your temptation. The Bible’s strategy for successfully resisting sexual temptation is really clear: On Screen: “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18)
Joseph knew he was confronted with an evil woman… …so he constructed a barrier – he kept his distance and refused even to lie next to her. Joseph refused her at every turn. Be like Joseph - put a barrier between you and sexual temptation. Put a barrier between pornography and you. Put a barrier between the “office flirt” and your marriage. Some of you are Joseph while others of you are Judah.
The Japanese Joseph
It’s been almost forty years, but it’s a sad beginning for what some called the Japanese Joseph. Megumi Yokota was a bubbly 13-year-old when she disappeared on a winter night in November 1977, a couple of hundred yards from her home in Japan. She was on her way home from badminton practice when she completely vanished. Megumi had been to badminton practice in the gym after school – she was a promising player – and then, wearing her grey and white uniform, she left for home with two friends. One friend peeled off to the left, the other to the right. Megumi reached the top of the hill, where she would have turned left to reach her home in a couple of minutes. Her parents and two younger brothers waited for her to join them for dinner. But she didn’t arrive. Her parents had no clue what happened to their daughter as nearby beaches were searched with police dogs. Through her grief, the mother found Christ through the help of some missionaries to Japan. Where less than 1% of population is Christian, Megumi’s mothers said Christ gave meaning to her life and provided something solid for her. Sixteen years later, long after the family had resigned themselves to Megumi's death, a North Korean defector made a stunning claim. A Japanese woman named Megumi, who played badminton, was living in North Korea at a training institute for intelligence agents. He said perhaps hundreds of Japanese had been kidnapped to teach spies their language and culture. He provided heartrending details of Megumi’s capture: Agents had seized her, wrapped her in a straw mat, and rowed her to a waiting spy ship, where she had spent the night scratching against the hold with bloody fingers, crying “Mother!”
Rescue efforts have included meeting with President Obama in the last decade. And while efforts continue to find out what had to Megumi, the parents have been given the opportunity to meet their granddaughter in recent days. You should know that Megumi is the Japanese word for “grace.” Some 30 years later, Megumi’s mother has shared her testimony of hope and redemption with 1,000s of Japanese people. Megumi’s story, like the story of Joseph’s abduction, is known by nearly every Japanese person and her mother has testified to God’s good grace.
The brothers, Joseph and Judah, show us two strategies for defeating sin. Judah’s repentance Joseph flees sin while Judah confesses his sin. It’s Judah’s repentance here that paves the way for marvelous things in his future days. Tamar breaks through to him so that he sees his selfishness.
