Gen.37:36- 38:30. Judah’s sins
Last time we looked at how maliciously the brothers dealt with Joseph and how in their hatred towards Joseph they threw him in that pit without any mercy.
Not only that the dealt maliciously with their brother but they dealt deceitfully with their father. Knowing exactly what happened to their brother they broke their father’s heart by lying to him.
As you look at the entire account, up until this moment, you will discover a definite chain reaction in so far as sin is concerned.
Favoritism led to rivalry.
Rivalry led to bitterness.
Bitterness let to hatred.
Hatred led to evil speaking.
Evil speaking led to murderous thoughts.
That led to selling in slavery.
They had to justify that to the father and that led to deception.
If there is anything that we can learn from chapter 37 is this: Sin always leads to sin. Two wrongs never make a right. Two wrongs lead to the third and so on.
If sin is not dealt with it always has a snow balling effects. That’s why God says in Hebrews 12:1 “let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnare us”.
The picture is that of a tree that has on its trunk one of those plants that keep creeping up and in the process of it strangles the life out of the tree.
There is a sense in which that’s what happened with Joseph’s brothers. One wrong led to the other.
If Joseph was their main problem, now Joseph is gone and one would think that the brothers would really grow up. Ch.38 proves that the heart of the problem is the problem in the heart.
Joseph wasn’t their problem. Their problem was their heart. They did not have an external problem but an internal problem.
A lot of people say that if people had a better environment and more education we would have less problems in our society. Education makes evil people smart it doesn’t make them better. The problem is in the heart not in circumstances.
As we come to chapter 38 we continue to discover that, even with Joseph removed, Joseph’s brothers continued to do what they knew best.
The chapter centers almost exclusively on Judah and makes no reference to Joseph. For a very casual reading the chapter seems almost out of place, because it kind of breaks the flow of the story about Joseph. So why did the Holy Spirit inspire Moses to put this chapter here?
There are a couple of reasons for which I believe that God inspired to write this chapter about Judah and his sexual antiques.
a) I believe that this chapter shows, first of all, why the Egyptian slavery was necessary. Let me explain to you what I mean by that.
Abraham’s descendants were beginning to intermarry with the Canaanites, who were entirely pagan. They were beginning to be swallowed up by the Canaanites. Judah, our main subject, had married a Canaanite woman.
Even though the twelve tribes would suffer in the slavery, through it God would preserve them, because the Egyptians disliked foreigners and consequently the nation of Israel had to stick together.
This is the wonder of God’s sovereignty, that out of evil God brings good, even though at the time we may not see it.
Even though they endured a lot of pain in their slavery, they left Egypt, wealthier, more numerous and more united than they went into it.
b) The second main reason for which God allowed this chapter to be here is because it provides a contrast with Joseph’s attitude towards temptation and sin in the next chapter.
In this chapter, Judah fell for the sexual temptation, hook, line and sinker. But in the next chapter Joseph is faced with the same temptation and he goes past it as straight as an arrow.
I want to talk to you about three things that come out of these verses that we have read.
1) Joseph’s spirituality.
Although I want to talk to you about Joseph’s spirituality I do no want to spend a long time because we will talk about it in more detail later on. However, I want us to notice some things.
V. 36 “Now the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar…”
Now Joseph is in Egypt. While Egypt was a very wealthy and advanced nation, at the time, it was one of the most pagan societies in the world.
In fact throughout the bible, on repeated occasions Egypt is synonymous with everything that is evil.
Egypt was a polytheistic society that had a lot of gods. If one god did not please you, you could go to another one. There was a big selection of gods and everybody had several gods for various circumstances. So, for Joseph…
“When in Rome, do as the Romans do”, right? He was a 17 year old slave, far from home, no one who believed in the God that he believed in. Why not go with the flow? Not Joseph
Throughout his time in Egypt he retained two great things: his character and his awareness of God’s presence.
F.B. Mayer writes, “Though stripped of his coat, he had not been stripped of his character”. Joseph proved that when everybody else says yes to sin, it is possible to say no and to keep the character and the integrity.
Also, I want you to notice that Joseph was constantly aware of God’s presence. When you read Joseph’s story, do you ever do you ever notice that his speech is constantly filled with references about God?
When Potiphar’s wise tempted him what did he say? “How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” (Gen.39:9)
When he was thrown in prison, the butler and the baker went to him about their dreams. What did Joseph say? “Do not interpretations belong to God?” (40:8)
When he was about to interpret Pharaoh’s dream, what did he say? “I cannot do it … but God will Pharaoh the answer” (41:16)
When he revealed himself to his brothers, what did he say? “It was to save lives that God sent me ahead… so then, it was not you who sent me here but God” (45:5,7-8).
Joseph said of His sons Ephraim and Manasseh “They are the sons that God has given to me here” (48:9)
What did Joseph say at the end to his brothers? “You meant it for evil but God meant it for good” (50:19-20)
What were Joseph’s last words? “I am about to die, but God will surely come to your aid” (50:24-25).
God! God! God! God! That’s how Joseph lived his live and that’s why he was able to have such a spiritual life.
2) Judah’s sinfulness
As we look at this chapter we discover, without any great effort that Judah was so much unlike his brother. While Joseph progressed spiritually in spite of the circumstances Judah sunk progressively in sin.
Chapter 38 tells us that shortly after, Joseph was sold into slavery Judah went down to Adullam where he married Shua’s daughter.
That was the first of Judah’s sins. I rephrase that. The sin wasn’t in the fact that he got married.
By the way. Did you hear about the pastor who married a couple? A week after he married a young couple at the church, he received the following thank you note from the bridegroom: "Dear Reverend, I want to thank you for the beautiful way you brought my happiness to a conclusion."
Or the man who went into a room full of men and asked “is any of you happy or are you all married here?”
Judah’s sin was in the fact that he married an unbelieving, pagan, idol worshipping, Canaanite woman.
Her unbelieving character was presumably passed on to her sons, two of whom God put to death for their wickedness. (vv.7,10)
Even though Judah married this unbelieving woman we will see that God in his sovereignty, out of evil and sin brought good out of it.
However, the principle of not marrying an unbeliever is clearly stated in the NT where scripture says, “what fellowship can light have with darkness?”
Statistics show that in situations where believers married unbelievers there are a greater number of believers drifting into the world than unbelievers coming to Christ through their spouses.
I guess the underlying principle is this: you never make friends with the devil to cross the river.
Although I have not crystallized my theology with regards to marriages I would not want to perform a marriage ceremony where there is a professed believer marrying a professing unbeliever.
Scripture says, “Do not be yoked with unbelievers”.
Judah’s third sin was in the fact that he was unfaithful to his most solemn promises. In other words, what he said and what he thought were two different things.
How did he break his promises?
One of Judah’s sons, Er married Tamar. For whatever wicked thing he did God struck him dead. The custom of the day was that when an older brother died without leaving any children behind, the younger brother had to take his place in marrying the older brother’s wife so that she could produce some children.
This is called the levirate marriage, from the Latin word levir, meaning “brother-in-law”
In the ancient world it was a wide spread practice and obligation because maintaining family lines was of great importance.
So with Er being struck dead, Judah took Onan and gave him to Tamar.
Whatever Onan had against Tamar, he would not want to have children with Tamar. Probably because the children would not be regarded as his but as his deceased older brother.
So, God strikes Onan dead as well for failing to fulfill to family duties. At that point Judah should have been given to the third son but here is what Judah tells Tamar: v.11
Quite a woman to be married to. The first husband dies the second one dies, probably you would understand Judah’s reluctance in giving his third son as a husband to Tamar.
Did you hear about the woman that was in court about three husbands that died while being married to her?
The district attorney asked her, "What happened to your first husband?"
"He died of mushroom poisoning," said Mrs. Reston.
"How about your second husband?" asked the D.A.
"He died of mushroom poisoning, too," replied Mrs. Reston.
"Well," asked the D.A., "what about your third husband?"
Mrs. Reston replied, "He died of a fractured skull."
The prosecutor asked, "Why did that happen?"
Mrs. Reston hesitated, then answered, "He didn’t particularly like mushrooms."
To get back to Judah, he promised to give his third son when in fact he had no intention of doing it.
That led to the third of Judah’s sins. Sexual immorality with a prostitute, who unknown to him was in fact his daughter in law. She became pregnant by her father in law. In a sense she was getting unlawfully what should have been lawfully coming to her.
What a contrast between Judah and Joseph?
But it’s not all gloom and doom because in the midst of sin and wickedness, while people suffer consequences for it God works good.
3) God’s sovereignty
Judah’s example challenges despair. If Judah who was privileged to have Isaac as his grandfather and Jacob as his father and could fall into that depth of sinfulness that shows us that it is possible to fall into sin regardless of the status that one has.
This incident should not give anyone a license to sin but it should encourage those who are already down or struggling with various sinful attitudes.
How did God work sovereignly in spite of Judah’s sinfulness?
If you read Matthew’s presentation of Christ’s genealogy in ch.1 you will discover that in the space of four verses Matthew includes some important people.
Turn to that... vs.3-7
Notice four women that are mentioned here. This is remarkable because it was not customary for woman to be included in genealogies.
All of these women have two things in common. They were all notoriously sinful and they were all Gentiles.
What does that tell us?
It tells us that God, in spite of the sinful elements in Christ’s genealogy, He brought in this world His sinless Son, Jesus Christ.
The second thing it tells us is that Jesus had in His genealogical line Gentiles. That means that the blessing of salvation that Jesus would bring would not be restricted to race nationality and color but it was to be made available to all.
