Genesis chapter 38. This chapter
38 of Genesis is inserted into the
story of Joseph and seems on the surface to have nothing to
do with it. In fact, you might wonder why
this chapter is here at all, why we have an account of this.
If you just read through You could read chapter 37 and go
right to chapter 39 and pick up the narrative of Joseph's
story without missing a beat. And this is such an unusual and
depressing story. Why is it recorded in the word
of God? Paul tells us why. in Romans
15, 4. For whatsoever things were written
aforetime were written for our learning, that we, through patience and
comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. We have hope because
of what is recorded in Genesis chapter 38. And you may wonder when I read
it how in the world we're going to derive any hope or comfort from this passage of scripture,
but I pray the Lord will make it so. It came to pass at that time
that Judah went down from his brethren and turned in to a certain
Adolamite whose name was Hira. And Judah saw there a daughter
of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shua. And he took her
and went in unto her, and she conceived and bare a son, and
he called his name Ur. And she conceived again and bare
a son, and she called his name Onan. And she yet again conceived
and bare a son, and called his name Shelah. And he was at Chezed,
when she bare him. And Judah took a wife for Ur,
his firstborn, whose name was Tamar. And Ur, Judah's firstborn,
was wicked in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord slew him. You know, sometimes God does
that. Sometimes he slays somebody just
because they're wicked. He doesn't always do that. I'm
thankful, aren't you? Why did he take so-and-so, so
young, you know, before his time, no? It wasn't before anything. Sometimes God just kills somebody
because they deserve it. We all deserve it. But many times he delays it.
He's long-suffering. And Judah said unto Onan, go
unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed
to thy brother. Now this may seem very strange.
Judah commanded Ur's brother to become husband to his dead
brother's wife. That seemed like a very strange
thing to us. It is. No other people in the
world have ever been instructed to do this. But God commanded
this, as we'll see. Later in God's written law, it
was expressly commanded. But before there was a written
law, God commanded this. And there's a reason why. Because
God had promised Abraham a seed. Singular. And by God's means
and providence and power and grace throughout the ages, there
was a seed preserved through which the seed would come. And
this is the way the Lord did that. Verse nine, and Onan knew
that the seed should not be his. And so he refused to cooperate. He refused to have anything to
do with it. He didn't have, he wasn't man enough to just tell
his father up front, I'm not going to do it. But he secretly
refused to obey this. He's refusing to obey God. Verse
10, and the thing which he did displeased the Lord, and God
killed him too. You see, God's already determined
that his seed is going to come through Tamar, this woman. But he doesn't need her, and
he doesn't need Oman. He doesn't need anybody. God's
gonna see to it that what he's ordained shall come to pass.
Exactly the way he has ordained it. And we're either with him or
against him. Isn't that what the Lord Jesus said? He that's
not with me is against me. And then said Judah, verse 11,
to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, remain a widow at thy father's
house till Shelah my son be grown, the third son. He's gonna give
We tell the third son, he says to Tamar that he's going to have
the other brother raise up children with her. But he said, wait till
Sheila, my son, be grown. For he said, as per adventure,
he die also. I suspect that Judah just didn't want to
lose his last son. And so he lied here. He said,
I'm going to send my son when the time is right. And Tamar went and dwelt in her
father's house. And in process of time, the daughter
of Shua, Judah's wife, died. And Judah was comforted and went
up under his sheep shearers to Timnath, he and his friend Hira,
the Adullamite. And it was told Tamar, saying,
behold, thy father-in-law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep.
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. When Judas saw her, he thought
her to be in Harlot, because she had covered her face. 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? And he said, What pledge shall
I give thee? She said, Thy signet. thy bracelets, and thy staff
that is in thine hand. And he gave it her, came in unto
her, and she conceived by him. And she arose and went away,
and laid by her veil from her, and put on the garments of her
wittedhood. And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend, the Adolamite, to receive his
pledge from the woman's hand, but he found her not. And then
he asked the men of that place, saying, where is the harlot that
was openly by the wayside? And they said, there was no harlot
in this place. 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 to her, lest we be shamed. Don't make a big deal about it,
because it'll just draw attention to what I did. Behold, I sent this kid, and
thou hast not found her. And it came to pass, verse 24,
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 whoredom. And Judah said, bring her forth,
and let her be burnt. You see, Judah doesn't realize
yet that she was with child by him. He didn't know that was
her. And so he said, let her be burnt. 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, discern, I pray
thee, whose are these, the signet and bracelets and staff? And
Judah acknowledged them and said, she hath been more righteous
than I. because that I gave her not to Sheila my son and he knew
her again no more. And it came to pass in 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. And it came to pass as he drew
back his hand that behold his brother came out and she said,
how hast thou broken forth? this breach be upon thee, therefore
his name was called Phares. And afterward came out his brother
that had the scarlet thread upon his hand, and his name was called
Zerah. Verse 1 says Judah went down. Remember that Judah was the man
in chapter 37 of the brothers of Joseph when they were planning their
mischief against their brother Joseph, Judah was the one who
said in verses 26 and 27, listen, Judah said unto his brethren,
what profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood?
What's in that for us? Come and let us sell him to the
Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our
brother in our flesh, and his brethren were content. What's
in it for us if we just kill him? Let's make a profit here. It probably wouldn't surprise
you to know that the Hebrew name Judah has a Greek equivalent
in the New Testament, Judas, who also was interested in profiting
from the death of a brother. In the lineage of our Lord Jesus
Christ recorded in Matthew chapter 1, Judah here, as we saw in chapter
38, is referred to as Judas, because that was his name in
Greek. One sin leads to another. Judas was complicit in the death
of his brother and in breaking his father's heart. And it says
he went down. Even from there, he went down.
There are no bounds to our wickedness. Judah, most likely out of guilt
for having done what he did to Joseph and to his father Jacob,
leaves his father's house and goes with this godless friend
of his named Hira. and marries a woman that he's
forbidden to marry, a Canaanite woman. But I say he most likely
did this out of guilt. Can you imagine? Could you look
your father in the eye after doing what they did and watching
his heart break? And as we just read, Judah ends up having twins by
his own daughter-in-law. When it says that he went down,
that is common language for just going from north to south. We
say, you know, I'm going to go down to Texas or I'm going to
go up to Kentucky. But there's more to it than that.
There's spiritual significance here. In the story of the Good
Samaritan in Luke 1030, it says a certain man went down. And that's me. I am that certain man. I went
down from where? From Jerusalem, the city of peace. Salem is peace, Jerusalem. From
God's city of peace, I went down from there to Jericho. Jericho
is the notoriously cursed of God city in the scriptures. And that's what we did. We went
down from peace with God to the place of God's curse. And like
this man, we fell among thieves. And we were stripped of our arraignments.
We say these things like it's just a story. Oh, if God would just reveal
to us what happened in the garden, we would mourn it all of our
days. And bless God for for rescuing
us from where we are by nature. And this pictures our fall from
the paradise of God to the sin-cursed earth that was the consequence
of our evil rebellion against God, but it also pictures our
utter spiritual ruin. Everybody was probably thinking
as we read this chapter 38 and we saw what Judah did in verse
37 what a wretch Judah was what a vile man I mean look at him
look at what what he did and the things that he said and his his wickedness his godlessness but would to
God that we would all begin to think if we do not already what
a wretch I am May God give us the blessed gift
of spiritual sight concerning ourselves and our condition before
him. You will never cry for mercy
until you need it. What a wretch I am. Paul was
able to say by God's grace, oh, wretched man that I am. Amazing
grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. That's
too offensive for some religious people, though. They'd rather
say that saved a soul like me. If you're not a wretch, he didn't
save you. He came to save wretches. So you sing it how you'd like
to. Paul said, Oh, wretched man that
I am, somebody save me. Who shall deliver me? If you
ever see yourself that way, you'll say the same thing. Who's gonna
save me from this? I thank God. My Lord Jesus Christ
has saved me. Do you have any idea what you
are? I ask myself that. Do I have
any idea what sin is? We come home from the worship
this morning, and some of our neighbors are out working in
their yards, and you don't want to... We don't look down on people,
but you can't help but think, people go through their entire
lives, and they mow their grass, and they watch the news on Sunday
morning, and never a thought for God. They'll never know what
sin is unless God intervenes. Never have any idea what they
are. They're working on making their good outweigh their bad
so they can get to heaven when they die. That's all they're
caring about. And don't much care about that. Because they're
pretty sure that if there's a God at all, he loves everybody anyway.
It'll just all work out somehow. Do we know what enmity against
God means? The natural man is empty against
God. We despise God. Our problem, you see, and we
have to be reminded of this pretty often, don't we? I do. Our problem
is not that we steal things and tell lies and so on. Our problem
is that we hate God. That's why we do what we do. And all the evil that we think
and say and do are symptoms of that problem. We want to be God
and we want the true God gone so we can be God. I started to say we want to murder
God, but that's what we did do. We did murder God. We didn't
just want to, we did murder God. so that we could be God without
rival. And we have completely deceived
ourselves concerning this. It would shock and offend anyone
if you confronted them with this truth. You hate God. You murdered
God's Son. Peter didn't have a problem.
Once the Lord gave him the heart, the bold heart, to proclaim the
truth of the gospel. He said, you killed the prince
of life, and the blood of God is on your hands. Can you imagine how shocked someone
would be if you walked over when they turned their lawnmower off
and said, you're a murderer of God, you hate God, and you're
going to go to hell for it, unless he has mercy on you. We deceive ourselves. Jeremiah
17, 9, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked. Who can know it? The masses probably this very
night are singing, Oh, how I love Jesus. And while they're singing
it, they're crucifying the son of God in their hearts afresh. That's deception. That's blindness. We nailed the prince of life
to a cross and laughed and played with dice while he bled out.
And we do the same thing in our hearts every day that we live,
except for the grace of God. Who can know it? The heart is
wicked, desperately wicked and deceitful. Who can even know
it? We have no idea really what we are. If we ever do, We'll cry for mercy every day
until we have it. We won't rest until we'll say,
I won't let you go. And we'll praise God for his
grace every day. If he's been gracious to us, if
we ever see what we are, and perhaps if we do see what
we are and the pit from whence we were digged, maybe once and
for all we'll commit ourselves to the Son of God and quit playing around and living
for ourselves and calling ourselves Christians. Judah went down from God's covenant
blessed people the family of God walking this earth in that
day. He went down from there, went
to a godless Gentile named Hira. He sought refuge and companionship
in this world, and he suffered for it. He suffered for it. Judah's sons
Ur and Onan were wicked like their father. Scripture says, train up a child
in the way he should go. When he's old, he won't depart
from it. But what example did Judah's sons have? And they grew up wicked just
like he was, and God killed them. And as I said, what Judah instructed
Onan to do, to go in And Mary, his brother's wife, his dead
brother's wife, was later established as a written part of God's Word
in Deuteronomy 25. We find that. And so we know
that it was God's will before and revealed to his people. If
a brother died with no children, the next oldest was to raise
up children by his brother's wife. God required this of the
people of Israel only, no one else. Because God had promised
Abraham a seed. And God puts in place the means
that bring about his eternal purposes. And they are as infallible
as his purposes. A seed in whom God would bless
all of the nations of the earth. And so God established these
earthly means whereby that covenant promise would be brought to pass
centuries later. So think about what Onan did.
He revealed that God's will, God's covenant blessing, God's
grace and favor, God's promised seed, the Lord Jesus Christ,
meant absolutely nothing to him. And you saw why he did what he
did, because he knew there was nothing in it for him. He said,
my brother, these are going to be considered his children, not
mine. There's nothing in this for me.
And that's what we're all about. That's us by nature. I don't
care what God said or what God required. What's in it for me
now? Does that remind you of anybody?
Esau, who sold his birthright for a meal to satisfy his flesh
for temporal pleasure and satisfaction. He sold that birthright that
God had established. It was the gift and blessing
and signified the favor and authority of God put upon that firstborn. And Esau was called a profane
fornicator by Paul in Hebrews 12, 16, because he likewise despised
that which amounted to the free favor and blessing of God. And
picture the spiritual grace and blessing of God. It didn't mean
anything to him. And this meant nothing to Onan.
He was all about himself. just like we are. God killed him. And here's what we need to understand.
God kills everyone that hates him and his son. He kills everyone
and puts them in hell where they belong. It just takes him longer
with some than it does others. And when I say it takes him longer,
I mean he does it in his own good time. And he kills every
one of them, all of his enemies. The psalmist exhorted us in Psalm
2, 12, kiss the son, lest he be angry. You don't want to defy
God's son. And that's what Esau did. That's
what Onan did. This law was given by God even
before it was ever written in stone because of God's eternal
purpose of grace toward his people. And we do not, we dare not set
ourselves up in opposition to that. Kiss the son lest he be angry
and you perish from the way. When his wrath is kindled, but
a little. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in him." That's what we did. Put your trust in him. Paul said, if any man love not
the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be a curse. And after Judah saw his two sons
killed for their wickedness, he went right on in his wickedness,
unaffected in any great way. And again, we're reminded of
ourselves. Obstinate and foolish, like cattle
going to the slaughter. And Judah commits the evil described
in these later verses of chapter 38. God had just got through
killing Judah's sons because they were wicked. And yet Judah does this. But
God doesn't kill Judah. Why? Because Judah was God's
chosen. That said, it wasn't because
he didn't deserve it. It wasn't because he was less wicked than
Ur and Oman. It's because God loved him. Because
God had mercy on him, because he was God's chosen, elect, beloved
son. God's son. We pray, Father, Father,
our Father in heaven, we're his sons. I like what Joe said this
morning. When the apostle was thinking
about what it means to be a son of God, he expressed it like
this, behold what manner of love. What kind of love would take a vile, heartless,
godless rebel like me and change me into a son, a beloved Son
in whom God takes delight See that same grace that loved
Judah displayed even in the sin of Judah even in this depressing
story We see God's love shine forth So bright and beautifully
And this doesn't excuse Judah's sin. Not a bit. But God used Judah's
sin even for Judah's good and for the good of all of his elect. Tamar has no children. Tamar's husband died. Er, died. And Judah sends Onan
to raise up children by his dead brother's wife. But that doesn't
happen either. So Tamar's just not going to
have any children, I guess. Oh, yes, she is. Oh, yes, she
is. She has no children, but by this
terrible, dark means. By these means, as we see in
the lineage recorded in Matthew chapter one, Our Lord Jesus Christ
came into this world by these means Look at it with me just
briefly Matthew chapter 1. I want you to see it with your
own eyes. I Matthew 1.1, the book of the
generation of Jesus Christ. This is the lineage of Jesus
Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat
Isaac and Isaac begat Jacob and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren. That's Judah. And Judah begat
Phares and Zerah of Tamar, those twins. that by means of that
horrible sin on both of their parts, and Phares, one of those
twins, begat Ezra and so on down the line until our Lord Jesus
Christ comes into this world, the Savior of Judas and everybody
else that he chose from eternity. Does it disturb you that our
Lord would come to be born of such terrible means. Does it
maybe offend your refined sensibilities? You know, I've seen this not
only in religion, but I've seen some trusted commentators of
scripture, such as in the case of the story of Hosea and Gomer. I've seen commentators that I've
otherwise trusted on expounding the scriptures say that that's
not what God was doing. He wouldn't use a harlot to show
forth his redeeming love for his people. He wouldn't do that.
That's exactly what he did. That's exactly what he did. You
know why? Because you and I are worse than harlots. See, what
Judah said was right. God gave him grace in the end
to confess his sin before God. And he said, That vile harlot is more righteous
than me. That's the truth. That's the
truth. If it offends your refined sensibilities
that our Lord has harlots in his family tree, then you probably
would have been offended like Simon when our Lord allowed a
harlot to kiss his feet. And like the Pharisees who said,
this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. He can't be
God's son. Simon was offended, but our Lord
rebuked Simon the hypocrite and saved the harlot. What a lesson for us. You see,
that's who God saves. He saves sinners. vile, wretched,
despicable, disgusting sinners. He said to Simon, her sins, which
are many, are forgiven her. They're forgiven. In God's unalterable purpose
and providence and power, by king and by harlot, not only
in spite of the treachery of evil men, but by means of it
has brought salvation to his people. He has sent his only
begotten son into this world by these seemingly strange and
dark means to redeem us, even by means of our hatred and enmity
and crucifying the son of God. He has overruled our evil for
His glory and for our own eternal good. Does that bless your heart? That's why this chapter is inserted
here in the book of Genesis. Because God is showing us how
that our Lord Jesus Christ is associated with evil sinners
in His lineage and in His life. He condescended, didn't He? How
low He came. As a man, He humbled Himself
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
He came and dwelt amongst us. He became one of us, yet without
sin. It is not a shame to call us
His brothers. One whom a harlot is more righteous
than. The Lord Jesus said, he's my
brother. God has overruled and used. Now think about this and I'll
be through. I want to be brief tonight. I'm tired just like
you are. But may God give me and you grace. As tired as we are. Paul was able to say, when I'm
weak, that's when I'm strong. I'm not sure all what he meant
by that. But I know this, the Lord can break through our infirmity. The spirit is willing, but the
flesh is weak. But our Lord is not weak in any
way. God has overruled and used the
evil of wicked men to bring Christ to me. God with me. And he overruled and used my
own evil to bring me to Christ. When I look back upon my own
life, I marvel at the gracious and powerful providence of God
that preserved me and brought me to the place like he did Judah
in our text where I acknowledged my sin before him. When Judah was told, your daughter-in-law
has played the harlot and is with child by whoredom, Judah said, she's more righteous
than I am. If God ever brings you and I
to the place where we can acknowledge our sin before Him, we'll thank
Him and praise Him forever for it. because you see first john
john said in first john one nine if we confess our sins if god
gives you that grace that which by nature we hide and excuse
and justify and cover up and lie about and deceive ourselves
about if god ever gives us grace to confess them you know how
contrary to our nature that is just to just to rip your heart
open before God and say, I'm a wicked man. I'm a wicked
man. Peter said, depart from me, Lord. But if by his grace, through
the preaching of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, we see
our sin, We see our Savior, and by God's mercy and power,
we openly confess our sinfulness before God. He's faithful and just. If there's going to be forgiveness,
it's going to be just forgiveness. It's not going to be God sweeping
your sins under a rug. That's what you've been doing.
What God's going to do is pay for them. with the blood of His
precious Son. He's faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Your
sins, which are many, are forgiven you. That's the power of His
blood. Let's bow in prayer.