Morning. All right, Genesis 38. Genesis 38. Now, as a reminder,
when we were in Genesis 37, it was Judah who said, come and let us sell
Joseph to the Ishmaelites. and let not our hand be upon
him. And they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit and
sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver. And
they brought Joseph into Egypt. And then after that, they had
to go to their father and tell their father that Joseph had
died by an animal. They didn't own it. They came
in the blood. came in the blood and gave that
to the father, and the father received them. But this led to
Jacob being very sorrowful. That was his well-beloved son.
That was the son that he loved above all his sons. And he's sorrowing now. And then
we come to this chapter. If you read chapter 37 and then
went right to 39, you wouldn't miss a beat. It would pick right
up with Joseph. But the Holy Spirit has seen fit to put this
chapter 38 right in between. Right in between those there.
And it's an odd sort of thing. It seems out of place. If you're
reading it and you come to this chapter, it just seems out of
place. And it's a chapter full of intrigue. It's a chapter full of deception.
It's a chapter full of incest, fornication, harlotry. It's full of sin, full of sin
that that's brought up here in this chapter. And so it seems
strange, seems strange, but when you think about it, the Lord
is showing us who Joseph is laying down his life for. It's showing
us the type of people that Joseph is going into Egypt ahead of
time to provide for, to save these people, Judah and Tamar,
sinners, sinners, and all their sin is brought out here in this
chapter, and this is the people that Joseph is laying down his
life for, making this sacrifice for. And that speaks to what
the Lord Jesus Christ did for us. It shows us a picture of
Jesus Christ the righteous, the well-beloved son, sacrificing
himself for sinners such as are detailed here with Judah and
Tamar, with all their intrigue, all their deception, their harlotry,
their incest, their fornication, their sins. their sins. That's
who Christ gave his life for. The scripture hath concluded
all under sin, were all under sin, that the promise by faith
of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. To those
in whom the Lord reveals his grace, calls sinners to himself,
and reveals Christ to them. That's what this is showing us
here. And so we're going to see the
gospel declared in this chapter 38 of Genesis that seems so out
of place. And it really is amazing to think
how God, how the Son of God, how God in the flesh would come
and lay down his life for sinners like us described here with Judah
and Tamar. So let's begin. We're going to
read this chapter. We're going to have comments
as we go through this chapter, and we'll see what the Lord is
teaching us. Verse 1, Genesis 38, 1, and it came to pass at
that time that Judah went down from his brethren and turned
into a certain Adulamite whose name was Hira. And so this is
saying that Judah, his brethren, were kind of in the north of
Israel, and he went south. But there's also some symbolic
pictures here. He did go down. He probably did
feel guilty about what he had done to his brother. He runs
into his dad. Every time he runs into his dad,
he sees how mournful, how sorrowful he is. And he probably just doesn't
want to see it anymore. And so he leaves. He says, I've
got to get out of this drama. I've got to get away from here.
And he goes south to his friend in the Dulamite named Hira. And
Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite. And as far
as I know, the Israelites weren't to be marrying Canaanites, and
yet he sees this woman, a Canaanite, of a certain Canaanite. Her father
was a Canaanite named Shua. It doesn't give her name, this
is the name of her father. And he took her and went in unto
her. So Judah's going down further.
He's just sinking further and further. Everything he does,
he's just going down further. And she conceived embarrassed
son and called his name Er, and that means watchful. And she
conceived again embarrassed son, and she called his name Onan,
and that means strong. And she yet again conceived embarrassed
son and called his name Shelah, meaning prayer, or prayerful,
or petition. And he was at Chizib, or Kizib,
and that means false. When she bare him, she was at
Kizib, and it means false. And at that time, Judah was neither
watchful, nor strong, nor prayerful. Everything he showed on the exterior,
all his religion, was false. It was a lie. It was a lie. Verse 6, and Judah took a wife
for heir, his firstborn, whose name was Tamar. Now, she's named. She's named. And heir, Judah's
firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord
slew him. Usually when the Lord slew a
man described like this, typically it It's because of some religious
sin, religious sins that they committed. Usually they did something
very boldly, very proud, very arrogantly in religion. But it
doesn't say here, And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's
wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. 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 his seed
on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother." So
there is a practice here that if a man died childless, his
brother would take his wife to be his wife, and he would give
his brother seed, because inheritance had to do with this. His brother's
inheritance would disappear. Onan, the second born, realizes
this is the elder brother. And we know there are special
things associated with the elder brother. And he's thinking, if
I give my brother seed, my son, who I gave to my brother, he's
going to get all the inheritance. I want the inheritance for myself.
So he didn't want to bring forth seed to his brother's name. He
wanted to let this thing die out and he could inherit the
eldest inheritance, something like that. And the thing which
he did displeased the Lord, wherefore he slew him also. And so things didn't work out
the way Onan thought they would work out, and that's often how
it is with us. All our scheming, our fleshly
works, they just don't work out the way that we think they're
going to work out. Then said Judah to Tamar, his daughter-in-law,
remain a widow at thy father's house till Shelah, my son, be
grown. For, he said, lest peradventure
he die also, as his brethren did, and Tamar went and dwelt
in her father's house." In other words, Judah has no intention
of giving Shelah to Tamar to raise up See. He's just saying
what he has to say to get rid of her, hoping she just disappears,
falls off the face of the earth, and just forgets about this,
and this never comes to pass. Because he's thinking, every
time I give a son to Tamar, they wind up dead. And I don't want
to lose another son. Verse 12. And in process of time,
the daughter of Shewa, Judah's wife, died. This unnamed wife
here. And Judah was comforted, meaning
he went through his time of mourning, and went up unto his sheep shearers
to Timnath. He and his friend Hired the Edulamite. And it was told Tamar, saying,
Behold, thy father-in-law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep. So now we're going to see Tamar's
scheming. Now she's got a plan that she's
hatching. She's saying, you ain't going
to do right by me. I'm going to show you. I'm going
to get you. And she put her widow's garments
off from her, and covered her with a veil, and wrapped herself,
and sat in an open place, which is by the way to Timnath. For
she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not given unto him,
to wife." So she sees how this is playing out, and she realizes,
I've been had here in this thing. And so she turns to the works
of the flesh. She's turning to the works of
the flesh to try and make right the wrong that was given to her.
Verse 15, when Judah saw her, he thought her to be in harlot
because she had covered her face. And perhaps Judah was known for
this sin. Maybe she knew this was a weakness
that her father had, something that he was prone to do, and
she set herself up there. And he turned unto her by the
way and said, go to, I pray thee, Let me come in unto thee. For
he knew not that she was his daughter-in-law. And she said,
what wilt thou give me that thou mayest come in unto me? And he
said, I will send thee a kid from the flock. And she said,
wilt thou give me a pledge till thou send it? I need more than
just your word. I need an earnest. I need something
that tells me you're going to follow through on your word.
And he said, what pledge shall I give thee? she said thy signet
and thy bracelets and thy staff that is in thine hand and he
gave it her and came in unto her and she conceived by him
she conceived of the seed that he gave her now the signet and
is a ring and it's equivalent to our signature. And when we
sign a contract, we're bound by that contract, right? And
he's given her his signature. He's giving her his identity. That's what he's given her. She's
receiving his identity here. This is an important piece, especially
then. This signet ring was no joke. This is an important piece of
jewelry here. They would put a wax seal on
a contract or something like that. They'd heat it up a little
bit, and then you could roll that ring in there, and it would
put your seal, which was your signature. This was you. You
bound yourself to whatever was in that contract there. Now,
the word bracelets there is actually not very clear. There's one website
that I like to look at, but it translates that as being the
piece of yarn or some kind of metal, something that would hold
that ring around your neck and keep it near to you. And it might
be that. That might be what it means. As I was reading some commentaries,
it also brought out the fact that in other versions, like
the Septuagint, one of those older versions, it's actually
described as a cloak, as an outer garment, some kind of garment,
some kind of covering that he had, that he wore, and she said,
I want that, I want that covering. We see that she asked for his
staff. And that staff was a means of
providing safe travel. With that staff, he could lean
on that as a walking stick. With that staff, he could fend
off and defend himself. He could provide for his sheep.
It could be a shepherd's crook or something to that effect.
And so she's taking Judah's identity. She's taking all these things
from Judah. and as an earnest, as a down
payment, as a surety for her reward, for her payment, for
her reward. And he gave it her, and came
in unto her, and she conceived, and was fruit brought in her
womb. Verse 19. And she arose and went
away, and laid by her veil from her, and put on the garments of her
widowhood. So she was being crafty there. She was going to get away with
this crime that she had committed here. And Judah sent the kid
by the hand of his friend, the Edulamite, to receive his pledge
from the woman's hand, but he found her not. Then he asked
the men of that place, saying, where is the harlot that was
openly by the wayside? And they said, there's no harlot
here. been no harlot here. We don't have that here. She
ain't here. We never saw such a thing. And
he returned to Judah and said, I cannot find her. And also the
men of the place said that there was no harlot in this place.
And Judah said, let her take it, lest we be shamed. Behold,
I sent this kid, and thou hast not found her. In other words,
he's saying, she's made off with some important things. He's owning
up to saying, I don't really want to bring this to light,
what a fool I've been, and giving her my identity just so I could
satisfy my lusts. He realizes this isn't going
to look good for us, so let's just let it go. Let's just let
this go away quietly. Verse 24, 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 also, behold,
she is with child by Hortam. And Judah said, bring her forth
and let her be burnt." Let her be burnt. Now, this was a painful,
horrific way to die, to be burnt like this for a horrific sin. This is a painful thing here,
but notice there is a gospel truth being brought out in this
which we all need to hear. The Lord's showing us he's exposing
one of our sinful conditions, our ability to justify ourselves
of our own sin and our part in it and yet so easily condemn
others to death. So easily condemn others to death
for their sin. We could be guilty of the same
thing, and yet we find an excuse for ourselves. And yet when another
does it, a brother, a family member, a friend, someone we
don't know, we're just quick to condemn. They need to die. They need to die. They need to
die the death. And the Gospel says to us what
we need to hear. Romans 2.1 says it this way,
Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man. To me, I'm the inexcused
one. Whosoever thou art that judgest,
for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself, for
thou that judgest doest the same things. We do the same things
that we're condemning other people for. Yet somehow it's okay. We had a reason when we did it.
We can justify ourselves and make excuses for ourselves, but
when someone else does it, that's inexcusable. That's just not
right. You can't do that. Verse 25. 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
to Cern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet, and bracelets,
and staff? And Judah acknowledged them.
He acknowledged them. He was humbled. He was humbled,
and he acknowledged them and said, she hath been more righteous
than I, because that I gave her not to Shelah my son, and he
knew her again no more. And he's saying, she was wrong,
but I'm more wrong. And it was by my works, my actions,
the things I did that brought her to this. And I don't like
what she did. What she did was wrong. It was
sinful. There's no excuse for it. But
I'm guilty of putting her in that position, because I didn't
do what I was supposed to do. And he acknowledged that. He
was humbled and shamed by it. And so it appears that the Lord
was gracious to him. He didn't harden Judah's heart. He softened Judah's heart. He
showed him his own sin, and by the grace of God, he owned it.
And that is what the Lord does for his people. We're all sinners.
Every one of us is a sinner, and by the grace of God, he shows
us that we're a sinner. that all are under sin, including
me, that we might hear the promise of God by faith in Jesus Christ. We would know I cannot save myself. I cannot make amends for my sin.
I need the blood of Christ, whom the Father has sent to save his
people from their sins. I need this salvation. I need
his life. Lord, save me. Forgive me. I'm
the sinner. I'm the sinner. I'm so busy pointing
at everybody else, and here I am, the sinner. Save me, Lord. And
thankfully, the Lord tells us that it's for sinners that Christ
came. That's who he came to save, not the righteous, but sinners,
to bring us sinners to repentance and to see our need of him and
to receive him and embrace him and say, Lord, keep me, keep
me, to hear his word and to follow him and to continue in that word.
So the Lord restored Judah. He saved Judah. He restored Judah
there. It is through Tamar's son, Faraz,
that our Lord's birth and lineage came, according to the flesh,
not God. But Jesus, the man, came through
this Tamar. It was through this birth, through
Phares, that down the line, through that lineage, through the generations
that Christ, according to the flesh, would come. And it's of
note to me that it's always by these women that are named in
the scripture. Tamar, she's the first one that's
named, the first woman named whereby we know our Lord came
through. this lineage. And they always had these questionable
checkered pasts here. She was, from what I could tell,
a Gentile. And she conceived by incest and
whoredom. And yet the Lord was pleased,
because it's not according to the flesh. It's not according
to the flesh. And then after Tamar, who was
it? It was Rahab, right? Rahab the
harlot, a Gentile harlot, that the Lord brought our Lord. And then after that was Ruth.
She was of Moab, also of incest. That Moab was born. And she was
a Gentile. And the Lord came through there.
And that's how David came through that. His grandfather and father
came through Ruth. And then I think there's somebody
else. I think there's five. I just can't remember. And then
there's Mary, a virgin. who you know the people charged
her with sin. There's no way that she conceived
this child by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost. No, no, she
got that child by horde. And so even she was accused of
wickedness in that thing. But the Lord is pleased to come
through these women here named. Now returning to Jude and Tamar,
what saved Tamar from being burned? What saved Tamar from being burnt?
She had Judah's identity. She had Judah's identity. That's what saved her. And it's
a picture, right, of our deserving, by our sins, to be cast into
the lake of fire. We're to be burnt for our sins
and our wickedness. What delivers the child of God
from being burnt in the eternal lake of fire? The identity of
Christ. that he's our husband, he's our
Savior, he's given us his identity, he's given us his name. We are his and that's how we
are delivered. Jesus Christ was sent of the
Father, the Son of God sent of the Father to bear the sins of
his people, to take their place to be what we are, to stand in
our place as our substitute, to bear the wrath of God for
us, that we deserve, that we earn, that we built up. It's
our debt. And he did this, and he went
under the fiery wrath of God to deliver his bride from that
fiery wrath of God. He bore the wrath of God to deliver
us from the hand of justice that we deserve, that we deserve.
He said in Psalm 69, it's one of those Psalms that's clearly
speaking of Christ. It's quoted many times that it's
of Christ. And in verse 4, at the end, it
says, of the Lord speaking, then I restored that which I took
not away. I didn't fall in the garden.
Adam did, of whom we all come forth of his seed, corrupt sinners. Christ didn't do that. He said,
but I'm restoring it. I'm going to reconcile my people
to my father, even though I'm not the one who committed the
crime. But I'm going to own it. It's going to be mine. Oh, God,
thou knowest my foolishness. And my sins are not hid from
thee. I don't understand that. But
he's owning that. He's saying, it's on me. I'm bearing it. And I'm bearing
the responsibility and the wrath for it. You put that on my account. He bore our sins that he might
justly bear the wrath of God. He justly bore that wrath. Not
as if, but he bore it. He bore it justly. As Paul said
in 2 Corinthians 5.21, for he hath made him to be sin for us
who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God by him, through him, in him. That's how we're made righteous,
by that substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, whereby
he obtained eternal redemption for his people, and his righteousness
is imputed unto us. So we now bear his identity.
You think of it, what are these things that Judah gave her picture?
That signet ring, that signature, that which speaks of him, which
stamps his image, is what? The giving of the Holy Ghost.
By the giving of the Holy Ghost, we have the image of Christ stamped
in us, that new man born of his creation. That seed of Christ
is wrought in us and brings forth fruit to the praise, honor, and
glory of our Savior. We bear the image of Christ in
us, declaring, I am His and He is mine. And then we wear that
garment, the cloak of His righteousness. Whatever those bracelets meant
there, we bear that righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
covers my nakedness. And I was all exposed before
God, and He covered my nakedness. So that now I stand before the
throne of God, believing in Him, trusting in Him, righteous, faultless,
without spot, without blemish, not naked at all, but covered
in the righteousness of Christ. And His rod and staff, they comfort
me. They comfort me. And I'm blessed
and you're blessed to lean on the provision of the Lord Jesus
Christ who promised, I'll give them and provide for them everything
they need to bring them safely to heavenly Canaan, to bring
us safely home without harm. He leads us by his word, by his
spirit, by his grace, through paths of righteousness for his
name's sake. And he's bringing us home safely.
He's bringing us home. He's feeding us, providing for
us, putting salve on our wounds, healing us, comforting us, giving
everything we need to bring us safely home. All the provision
that we need, he giveth it as our day, as our day demands it.
And with that all, that would be a sufficient picture. There's
actually just a little more wrapped in this chapter. I'm just going
to touch on it here. It's with this birth. So look
at verse 27. It came to pass at the time of
her travail that, behold, twins were in her womb. And it came
to pass when she travailed that the one put out his hand, and
the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying,
this came out first. So his hand pops out somehow. She puts a little scarlet thread
around that thing. And this boy here pictures what
we are in Adam, that which first comes forth, the flesh. That's
what comes forth in Adam. And it came to pass as he drew
back his hand. And to me, it just speaks to,
I can see Adam. He's right there. He's been given
all dominion over all things, and he just withdraws his hand. and we fall in Adam. We just
fall in sin and it all comes down. And as he drew back his
hand, that behold, his brother came out, and she said, how hast
thou broken forth? And all my years as a midwife,
I've never seen this. How did this happen? This kid
doesn't have the scarred thread on his wrist. How did this happen?
This breach be upon thee. Therefore, his name was called
Phares. Judah named him Pharaz, which
means breach. And the midwife said, this breach
be upon thee. And so this was an incredible
thing that this midwife had never seen such a thing like this.
I mean, the kid was right there. And yet came forth Pharaz. and
went before him through the veil. He went before him. He came out
before his brother then. This is the second man who broke
forth now. He comes out and goes through
the veil, causing that child, that first man, to go back into
his mother's womb to be born again, as it were, a second time. A second time. If you can hear
it, he was born again, if you will. Now, pharas means breach. And that midwife is saying, I
don't know how this happened, but if any harm comes to this
mother or this child, it's on you. It's on you, boy. You did
this. It's on you. If any harm comes
to them, it's on you who made this breach. This breach be upon
thee. You bear the responsibility of
them. You bear the responsibility of
their care and their well-being. Now again, our Lord sprang from
this line. He sprang from Phares, the breach. He sprang from Phares' line. And what did our Lord Jesus Christ
do? When the Father chose a people and gave them to Christ, Christ
said, I will be responsible for them. I will be their surety. I will provide for their care
and their well-being. and under my hand no harm will
come to them. I'm responsible. The glory of
my father, the glory of my name is at stake here and no harm
will come to you that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is our surety. He is the word of God. He is
the pledge of God. He is the promise of God and
he provides everything we need in him for our well-being. no
harm comes upon us. He did not fail, brethren. By
one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified."
And that's why his people are called, they're brought, and
they hear the gospel. And not just with the ear, the
natural ear, but their ear by the grace of God is opened, and
the Spirit opens their heart, And to receive that word, to
hear that word, and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And
to cry out, Lord, I'm the sinner. I'm Judah. I'm the one who's
offended. My sins are the greater sins
and the great crime. Save me, Lord. Save me. Have
mercy on me. Because that's what he does.
It's not just saying, yeah, I believe Jesus. It's, I need salvation. I'm to be burnt. I deserve hell. Lord, save me. By his grace and
mercy, he does that, calls us out, and keeps us ever looking
to Christ. He ensures our new birth. And verse 30 says, afterward
came out his brother that had the scarlet thread upon his hand,
and his name was called Zarah. And Zarah means rising. He was born a second time, rising
from the dead as a result of his brother, Fares, going before
him. going before him and bearing
responsibility for his care and well-being. And so he's the one
born again. He's got that scarlet thread
on his wrist. It's a picture of Christ and
his blood, which was shed for his people, ensuring our salvation,
our birth into the kingdom of God and his life. So this otherwise
seemingly strange account that's dropped in the middle of Joseph's
story It shows who the Lord saved. It shows who the Lord saves.
It shows sinners, us. It's a picture of us. These crimes,
this wickedness, this filth, this mess that we are and cause
every day in ourselves. But it all shows what Joseph
would accomplish for his brethren, which pictures what our Lord
Jesus Christ, our elder brother, what he accomplished for us.
for us. So I pray the Lord bless that
word and delight your heart in Christ in it. Amen.