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“Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.² The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.”NIV

Just a word about the context of chapter 39 before I comment on the first two verses. The contrast with chapter 38 is stark, and F.B. Meyer makes this point:

‘What a contrast between this chapter and the former: that like a Rembrandt background throws up the bright colours of this.’

The chapter opens with these words:

“Now Joseph had been taken to Egypt” (1a).

He had been “taken” by the Ishmaelite merchants. But the subtext of the story is that it was God who took him there. The best place to be in the world is wherever God puts you – wherever He sets you down. There is no sweeter place to lay your head.

Sometimes we are not simply taken; we also go. We make our plans in view of God’s guidance. We are actively involved in choosing to move somewhere we sense the Lord wants us to be.

But then there are those times when we are just “taken.” We have no control over the events. We are moved by sheer force of circumstances. So it was for Joseph. But if the Lord is “with” us wherever we go, we will have nothing to fear. That is not to say life will be trouble-free, but God will work out His purposes in us, for us, and through us in the places where He takes us.

PRAYER: ‘Yea choose the path for me, although I may not see, the reason thou dost choose to lead me so.’ (From the hymn: ‘Thy blessed will divine, with joy I make it mine.’

^“27 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. ²⁸ As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, ‘This one came out first.’ ²⁹ But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, ‘So this is how you have broken out!’ And he was named Perez.³⁰ Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out. And he was named Zerah.” NIV

As we take our leave of chapter 38, it’s time to emphasise the point once more that God, in His mysterious sovereignty, uses even the sins of people to further His purposes. Listen to Tom Hale’s words. While he acknowledges that Tamar’s act was sinful, he adds that it:

‘…was all the more significant in that it resulted in twin sons, one of whom, Perez (verse 29), would become the ancestor of Israel’s King David and ultimately of Christ Himself (Matthew 1:3)…Tamar gave birth to twin boys. One boy seemed to be coming out first because his hand appeared, and the midwife marked it by tying a thread around the wrist. But it was actually the other twin who “broke out” first and thus became the firstborn. He was named Perez, which means “breaking out.” Once again, as with Isaac and Ishmael, and with Jacob and Esau, we see God reversing the order and causing the son who should have been second to become the first and thus obtain the birthright.

In this way the line of Judah was preserved through Perez and on through Old Testament history (Ruth 4:18-22), culminating in the birth of Jesus the Messiah. Once again we see God’s purposes being fulfilled, even through the sins and failings of ordinary people like Judah and Tamar.’ ‘The Applied Old Testament Commentary’, p.186.

“ Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor?” “Who has ever given to God that God should repay him?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen.” (Romans 11:33-36).

¹² After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him.¹³ When Tamar was told, ‘Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,’ ¹⁴ she took off her widow’s clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.¹⁵ When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. ¹⁶ Not realising that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, ‘Come now, let me sleep with you.’‘And what will you give me to sleep with you?’ she asked.¹⁷ ‘I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,’ he said.‘Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?’ she asked.¹⁸ He said, ‘What pledge should I give you?’‘Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand,’ she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. ¹⁹ After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow’s clothes again.²⁰ Meanwhile Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her. ²¹ He asked the men who lived there, ‘Where is the shrine-prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?’‘There hasn’t been any shrine-prostitute here,’ they said.²² So he went back to Judah and said, ‘I didn’t find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, “There hasn’t been any shrine-prostitute here.”’²³ Then Judah said, ‘Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughing-stock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn’t find her.’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 let her be burned to death!’²⁵ As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. ‘I am pregnant by the man who owns these,’ she said. And she added, ‘See if you recognise whose seal and cord and staff these are.’²⁶ Judah recognised 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.”NIV

“You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things’’ (Romans 2:1)

Who was it who said, ‘When you point a finger at someone else, you have three pointing back at yourself?’ We have a tendency to shout loudly about our own sins when we see them in others.

This is undoubtedly a sad and sordid story. There seems to be no doubt that Tamar intended to obtain offspring through her father-in-law. Maybe it was because she knew him only too well that she realised disguising herself as a prostitute would work.

What atrocious double-standards men (in particular) can have (24). It was fine for Judah to use a prostitute, but not for Tamar to be one. But you can be sure your sin will find you out. Warren Wiersbe points out that the items left in (18) were like leaving behind fingerprints. Each man’s was unique. So, when Judah found himself caught in the searchlights (25, 26), he admitted it was ‘a fair cop’, and that Tamar was ‘’more righteous’’ than he. That, at least, was to his credit. Yet, as we have seen, the Lord overruled, and worked out His purposes through this sinner.

Come to think of it, He does the same thing through you and me!

^“11 Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, ‘Live as a widow in your father’s household until my son Shelah grows up.’ For he thought, ‘He may die too, just like his brothers.’ So Tamar went to live in her father’s household.¹² After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him.¹³ When Tamar was told, ‘Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,’ ¹⁴ she took off her widow’s clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.”NIV

“For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife” (14b).

Judah gave a false assurance to Tamar. He implied that he would give her his son,Shelah, in marriage, when the boy was grown up. But, when it came to it, he did not arrange the marriage. It seems he never intended to. If Onan was motivated by self-centredness, it was fear turning Judah’s wheels – at least it was at this point. Fear can make one selfish.

Well, there is more than one way to lie.

Dishonesty should play no part in the life of one who is a new creation in Christ:

‘’You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbour, for we are all members of one body’’ (Ephesians 4:25);

“Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (Colossians 3:9, 10).

In Christ, we should and we can be honest. We have the resources. We do have the ‘power under the bonnet.’ Truthfulness is one of the hallmarks of the new creation.

It is interesting to note that, as in the story of Jacob, so it is with Judah, that he who deceived is about to be deceived. We reap what we sow.

^“6 Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. ⁷ But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death.⁸ Then Judah said to Onan, ‘Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfil your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.’ ⁹ But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to avoid providing offspring for his brother. ¹⁰ What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death also.¹¹ Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, ‘Live as a widow in your father’s household until my son Shelah grows up.’ For he thought, ‘He may die too, just like his brothers.’ So Tamar went to live in her father’s household.”NIV

“But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his…” (9a).

‘According to ancient custom, if an older brother died without children, his younger brother was expected to marry the widow and produce a son to maintain the dead brother’s line. The marrying of one’s sister-in-law under such circumstances was called a “levirate marriage”; this custom was later incorporated into the Jewish law (Deuteronomy 25:5-6). It was the responsibility of the father (in this case, Judah) to see that the younger son fulfilled his obligation.’ Tom Hale: ‘The Applied Old Testament Commentary’, pp. 185,186.

Onan certainly did not want to do his duty. Such selfishness displeases God, and robs others of the blessings we might be (or give) to them. Ironically, we are also robbing ourselves in ways we maybe do not understand.

Notice the slightly different in wording here:

“But Er…was wicked in the LORD’s sight…”(7);

“What he did was wicked in the LORD’s sight…” (10 – regarding Onan).

In all that we have seen recently about the mercy of God, we need to remember that He is also holy, righteous and just. He is love, but He is also a God of holy justice, and wrath against sin. He sees us as individuals. He observes our behaviour. How we live matters to Him. He gives life, and He has the right to take it back, as and when He chooses. Surely, to live in the fear of God means to allow this truth about Him to sink deeply into our beings, and profoundly affect our conduct from moment to moment and day to day.

‘’Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.” “ (Hebrews 12:28,29).

Admittedly, we may find this a difficult passage in some ways. But many years ago I heard an outstanding sermon on another emotionally challenging passage. The message was about the death of Uzzah, when he reached out his hand to steady the Ark (2 Sam 6:6). The preacher said, ‘If I rightly understand the truth about the holiness of God and the seriousness of sin, my question will not be, ‘Why did Uzzah die? But, ‘Why am I still alive?’

PRAYER: How we thank you for the Cross, Lord; that Jesus bore the penalty for all our sins in His own body. We cling to that ‘old rugged Cross’, knowing something of how selfish, self-centred and sinful we are. Day by day we need fresh cleansing in your blood, and renewal by the power of the Spirit. Lord have mercy; Christ have mercy; Lord have mercy.

“At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah. ² There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and made love to her; ³ she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er. ⁴ She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan. ⁵ She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him.”NIV

‘’There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man…He married her…” (2).

‘The events described in this chapter demonstrate the danger faced by Jacob’s family in Canaan: the danger of being assimilated into the surrounding Canaanite culture through intermarriage. Judah, now the preeminent son of Jacob, married the daughter of a Canaanite (verse 2). Though Jacob’s family had grown and prospered, they were still a tiny number compared with the Canaanites around them. How was God going to preserve His chosen covenant people as a distinct and holy nation in the midst of the ungodly Canaanites?

God had a plan: He would send Jacob’s family to Egypt. There they would not be inclined to mix with the Egyptians, because the Egyptians would soon begin to despise them: instead they would remain, free to grow into a distinct nation. Seventy members of Jacob’s family would go into Egypt; four hundred years later they would be a great multitude (Exodus 1:6-7). And the means of their entering Egypt and prospering there would be a seventeen-year-old slave boy named Joseph, second youngest son of Jacob!’ Tom Hale: ‘The Applied Old Testament Commentary’, p.185.

‘God had a plan’ – but regularly we find that His plans are vastly different to ours. His ways and thoughts are far higher than ours. I remember reading Jim Packer’s classic book ‘Knowing God’ early in my ministry, and it probably shaped my thinking more than I know. It hit me like a theological sledgehammer. I seem to remember Packer saying that God, in His sovereignty, even uses the sins of His people to further His purposes. It’s not that He wills them, causes them, or is responsible for them, but He definitely uses them. We see this in chapter 38.

2020, sadly again saw its fair share of high profile ministry ‘moral failures’. On occasions one hears of believers who are stumbled by the bad behaviour of a fellow-believer – even to the point of walking away from the faith and/or stopping attending church. But read the Bible. Read Genesis 38 for example. God has always had people in His family who give Him, and the family, a bad Name. It’s not that such behaviour is to be excused, but we marvel at the mercy and grace of God: at who He uses, and who He restores.

I only have to look in the mirror to see that His grace is amazing!

PRAYER: Help me Lord to so live, that I do not cause anyone to stumble, or give the ungodly further reason to revile your precious Name.

Tomorrow we will look a little more closely at the detail of this chapter. But for today, I’d like to share a couple of ‘overview’ quotes. They deal more with the big picture, rather than the detail:

‘This chapter gives an account of Judah and his family, and such an account it is, that it seems a wonder that of all Jacob’s sons, our Lord should spring out of Judah, Hebrews 7:14. But God will show that his choice is of grace and not of merit, and that Christ came into the world to save sinners, even the chief. Also, that the worthiness of Christ is of himself, and not from his ancestors. How little reason had the Jews, who were so called from this Judah, to boast as they did, John 8:41. What awful examples the Lord proclaims in his punishments, of his utter displeasure at sin! Let us seek grace from God to avoid every appearance of sin. And let that state of humbleness to which Jesus submitted, when he came to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, in appointing such characters as those here recorded, to be his ancestors, endear the Redeemer to our hearts.’ Matthew Henry.

‘Why is this sordid chapter in the Bible? For one thing, we see the contrast between Judah’s sin and Joseph’s victory (chap.39), and we realise the importance of purity.But the main reason is to add another link in the Redeemer’s family tree (v.29; Ruth 4:18-22; Matt.1:3). How gracious God is to mention a prostitute like Tamar in the genealogy of the Saviour!’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘With the Word’, p.41.

I would want to add to that, how gracious is God to allow any of us sinners to benefit from the Saviour’s death!! Sin is sin, whatever form it takes, and as F.B. Meyer correctly observes: ‘O my soul, remember that the possibilities of all these sins are latent in thee.’

^“34 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. ³⁵ All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. ‘No,’ he said, ‘I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.’ So his father wept for him.³⁶ Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.”NIV

‘’…but he refused to be comforted’’ (35).

It was an expression in a book by Gordon Macdonald. He was writing about the different types of people a pastor may encounter in a lifetime of ministry, and he mentioned ‘the unrelievables.’ That phrase struck a chord with me, because I recognise there are people who remain ‘stuck’ in an emotional quagmire, because they choose to be. No matter how much time or attention you give to them, they will not heal, because their wounds, their sense of victimhood, define them. This, tragically, has become their identity.

Now, of course, Jacob was not that kind of person. But the statement that ‘’he refused to be comforted’’ reminded me of Gordon Macdonald’s words. Our hearts go out to Jacob in his great loss and sorrow. As far as he was concerned, he was now bereft of his dearest son. What parent would not grieve? Furthermore, the journey through grief is deeply personal, and no-one can say just when the grieving (or the worst of it) will – or should – end for anyone. But one thing is for sure, if a person should ‘refuse’ to be comforted they will not be.

However, there is one other thing to point out here: Jacob was believing a lie. Again, we can’t blame Jacob for believing the lie. It was told him by his sons. Why would he disbelieve them? Also, he was presented with ‘evidence’ (31-33) and came to his own natural, and logical, conclusion from it. But for all that it appeared true, the lie was a lie, and Jacob lived with the heart-wrenching pain of it for too long.

“No…I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave’’ (35).

But as the very next verse shows, Joseph was not dead and in the grave, he was alive, in Egypt!

Oh how bitterly we will pay for believing a lie.

PRAYER: Lord, please lead me by your Spirit into all truth. Help me to know the truth and its liberating power.

^“26 Judah said to his brothers, ‘What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? ²⁷ 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.’ His brothers agreed.” NIV

Before moving on into the murky waters of chapter 38, I want to linger over a couple of places in the second half of chapter 37. Here’s the first of them:

‘Judah said to his brothers, “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.’’ ‘

To that I want to say, ‘Big deal!’ Judah would have been happy enough to kill his brother, until he realised that there was actually greater gain to be had in selling him. He saw him (or came to see him) as a commodity, and no longer valued his personhood. Although it doesn’t always take on such a grotesque expression, this is what happens when we see people only in terms of what we can get out of them, rather than what we can give to them. What can I gain from my relationship with you? This is my only concern.

I was disturbed to read an account written by a brilliant Puerto Rican woman, in which she told of her distress upon attending a conference one time. She realised that people were looking past her to find someone ‘more important’ or ‘more influential’ with whom to network. She described how she fled to her hotel room and broke her heart, convulsed with great sobs. Many of us will be able to identify. We have been at similar events, and we know how people can make you feel little and insignificant without them having to say very much. There are those who use people as step-ladders to try to climb higher in the world.

How we treat people is so important. Jesus emphasised this when He said,

“I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40; see also v.45).