Judah finds out that his widowed daughter-in-law is pregnant and he wants the harshest penalty passed on her. Or at least that's how he feels until he finds out he's the daddy.
"About three months later Judah was told, 'Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.'" (Genesis 38:24a) The first three months of pregnancy is when miscarriage is most likely to occur, so I assume Tamar didn't announce her pregnancy until she was three months along and felt fairly sure the pregnancy would continue to term. Most women in our own times still don't publicly announce their pregnancies until after completing the third month. It's too heartbreaking to happily announce an early pregnancy and then have something go wrong and have to share the sad news with so many people.
Judah is enraged when he hears Tamar has been sexually immoral. "Judah said, 'Bring her out and have her burned to death!'" (Genesis 38:24b) If we looked up the word "hypocrite" in the dictionary right now we might find Judah's picture beside of it. He has no right to pass judgment on anyone's sexual immorality because he has been sexually immoral himself. He thought nothing of hiring a prostitute on his way up to the sheep shearing festival, yet he has the gall to want Tamar condemned to death for having sold sexual favors. At this time he doesn't yet know that Tamar and the veiled prostitute he hired are the same person.
Another way he's being a hypocrite is because he's incensed on behalf of his son, Shelah, whom he promised to Tamar in marriage. But Judah never had any intention of actually ever setting a wedding date for the two of them. He's behaving like Tamar has been unfaithful to his son because engagement in those days was almost as binding as marriage. Being unfaithful to one's betrothed was considered as serious as committing adultery. Judah only promised his son to Tamar to keep her from marrying again. If she marries again then the shares of his estate which had belonged to his dead sons Er and Onan (Tamar's previous husbands) will go to her new husband. But if she remains a widow I believe that upon her death these shares would revert to Judah's son Shelah if Tamar is engaged to Shelah when she dies. We can see why a genuine engagement and marriage would have been beneficial to everyone. An heir of Tamar and Shelah would inherit the entire estate as a whole someday. None of the property would pass outside the family if these two united in marriage and had a son together. But this arrangement is unfair to Tamar because Judah doesn't want the marriage to ever take place. She can't fall in love with and marry anyone else. She can't have any children. Her life is stuck in the same old rut day after day after day while she languishes in her father's household waiting to marry this younger man. The arrangement isn't fair to Shelah either. He can't marry or father any children, at least not while Tamar is alive.
A dramatic scene now ensues. Judah puts on all the airs of a father-in-law whose dignity has been wounded and rounds up officials and witnesses to march over to Tamar's house to have her burned at the stake. I picture men building a blazing bonfire in the front yard. I hear a judge reading the charges aloud at the top of his voice so everyone assembled in the yard and everyone huddled behind the locked door of the house can hear him. I see Tamar handing off some articles to a household servant and quickly telling him exactly what to say in a message to her father-in-law. Then the door is kicked in and men grab hold of Tamar and drag her out of the house.
This is the moment Tamar has been waiting for. For three long months she's held her peace, knowing this day would come, knowing that when it came she would not be the person who is actually on trial. Judah is the one on trial here. In front of all these witnesses, Judah's sins against this woman will be made plain for all to see. "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 recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.'" (Genesis 38:25) Imagine his shock when he's given the message and handed the personal items he knows are his. These are the items he gave the "prostitute" to hold until he could send back the goat he promised her in payment for his services. This moment is just like those on some of the popular TV shows where an envelope containing DNA results is opened and an unhappy man is told, "You are the father!"
The whole scene comes to a screeching halt. I bet you could have heard a pin drop while everyone present stares at the shocked Judah who is standing there holding his own seal, cord, and staff. To his credit, he immediately accepts the blame for the current circumstances. Right here in front of all these witnesses, he openly admits his sin and repents of it. "Judah recognized them and said, 'She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn't give her to my son Shelah.'" (Genesis 38:26a) He's saying, "Let her go and lay all the blame for any sins she's committed at my feet. I'm the one who drove her to such desperate measures. I deprived her of the blessings of a husband and a son and a secure future by not keeping my promise to her. As far as I'm concerned, she is to be considered innocent and she must have her dignity restored to her in everyone's eyes. Everything that has happened is my fault. I have sinned against her and I was wrong and I'm sorry. She is to be considered my wife now and this child is to be considered my legitimate son."
We know she is legally considered his wife now because this next verse indicates she and Judah had the right to an ongoing physical relationship with each other and that such a relationship would not have been considered sinful. "And he did not sleep with her again." (Genesis 38:26b) He could have lived with her as husband and wife, sexually speaking, but he didn't. This is a marriage but in name only. It's not a love match. Judah doesn't expect her to perform the physical duties of a wife and it's likely she prefers not to. Their one sexual union was a combination of loneliness and sexual frustration on Judah's part after the death of his wife and revenge on Tamar's part. Judah has given her his name and the protected status of a legally married woman. He has given legitimacy to the child they conceived together. He is going to provide for them as a husband and father should. He and Tamar don't end up falling in love and making a real home together, but I think he treated her courteously and respectfully from then on.
One more surprise is revealed when Tamar gives birth. She's having twins. "When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. 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.' 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. Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his hand, came out. And he was named Zerah." (Genesis 38:27-30) The name "Perez" means "breaking out" and the name "Zerah" means "scarlet".
We can't help but be reminded of the birth of the twins Jacob and Esau. The two of them struggled together in the womb and Jacob came out behind Esau grasping Esau's heel. This was symbolic that Jacob would be the one to inherit the birthright, the blessings of the firstborn, and the promises of the Abrahamic covenant. Tamar's sons also struggle in the womb for preeminence. It appears at first that Zerah will be the firstborn, but Perez is stronger and he arrives ahead of his brother. This is because Perez is going to be the twin who is the ancestor of the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the genealogies given in Matthew's gospel account and in Luke's gospel account. Perez is the inheritor of the covenant promises God made to Abraham. It is his line that will lead to the birth of the promised Messiah.
Neither Judah nor Tamar has behaved very righteously at all in Chapter 38. Judah, because of his lack of spiritual insight, felt superstitious toward Tamar as if she somehow caused the death of his two eldest sons. He failed to understand that their deaths were a result of their own sinful ways of living. In his fear of Tamar he made a promise to her he didn't intend to keep. Judah has been a liar, a promise-breaker, a hypocrite, a person lacking in compassion, and a sexually immoral individual. Tamar was wronged, to be sure, and we don't want to overlook that. But she allowed her anger and bitterness to fester and took charge of the situation in a sinful manner. I think it's quite possible she could have brought a legal case against Judah for his failure to allow the marriage between her and his son Shelah to take place. She might have won in court and Judah would have had to follow through. But instead she put on a deception and was sexually immoral in order to get what she was owed.
This story illustrates the depths to which a person can sink in sin, but it also illustrates the lengths to which the Lord will go to redeem persons from sin. Out of this scandalous and sinful situation comes an ancestor of the Redeemer. This story shines a spotlight on God's awesome grace and His ability to bring triumph out of tragedy and to turn ugliness into beauty. The Bible is filled with people who made mistakes. The family tree of the Messiah has a lot of bad apples hanging on it. And this ought to make us shout for joy because we've been some bad apples ourselves, haven't we? We've made mistakes. We've wasted opportunities. We've chosen wrong paths. There have been times when, to anyone on the outside looking in, we appeared unredeemable. We looked like a lost cause. Right now the family line from Abraham down to Perez looks like a lost cause, doesn't it? Everyone in this family has made terrible choices and appears unredeemable and unusable by God. And maybe that would have been true if God had washed His hands of them. But God is a promise keeper. God is merciful. He doesn't look at us and see who we are now or who we used to be. He sees what we can be if we allow Him to be Lord of our lives. He sees our potential. Right now it doesn't look like the family of Jacob has any potential. Maybe they don't, on their own. But with God all things are possible.
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