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[0:00] Genesis and the 38th chapter. This the first in a series of five messages leading to Advent and Christmas.

[0:15] Would you please stand with me as we together hear God's Word read? Genesis chapter 38. It happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and turned aside to a certain Adulamite whose name was Herah.

[0:37] There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua. He took her and went into her and she conceived and bore a son.

[0:47] And he called his name Ur. She conceived again and bore a son and she called his name Onan. She again bore a son and she called his name Shelah.

[1:01] Judah was in Shaziv when she bore him. And Judah took a wife for Ur, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. But Ur, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord and the Lord put him to death.

[1:18] Then Judah said to Onan, Go into your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her and raise up offspring for your brother. But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his.

[1:32] So whenever he went into his brother's wife, he would waste the semen on the ground so as not to give offspring to his brother. And what he did was wicked in the sight of the Lord and he put him to death also.

[1:47] Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, Remain a widow in your father's house till Shelah, my son, grows up. For he feared that he would die like his brothers.

[2:00] So Tamar went and remained in her father's house. In the course of time, the wife of Judah, Shewa's daughter, died.

[2:11] When Judah was comforted, he went up to Timnah to his sheep shearers, he and his friend Herod, the Adulamite. And when Tamar was told, Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep, She took off her widow's garments and covered herself with a veil, wrapping herself up and sat at the entrance to Enayim, which is on the road to Timnah.

[2:36] For she saw that Shelah was grown up and she had not been given to him in marriage. When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.

[2:49] He turned to her at the roadside and said, Come, let me come into you. For he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, What will you give me that you may come into me?

[3:00] He answered, I will send you a young goat from the flock. And she said, If you give me a pledge until you send it. He said, What pledge shall I give you?

[3:13] She replied, Your signet and your cord and your staff that is in your hand. So he gave them to her. And went into her.

[3:24] And she conceived by him. Then she arose and went away. And taking off her veil, she put on the garments of her widowhood.

[3:35] When Judah sent the young goat by his friend, the Adulamite, to take back the pledge from the woman's hand, he did not find her. And he asked the men of the place, Where is the cult prostitute who was at Aniam by the roadside?

[3:50] And they said, No cult prostitute has been here. So he returned to Judah and said, I have not found her. Also, the men of the place said, No cult prostitute has been here.

[4:01] And Judah replied, Let her keep the things as her own, or we shall be laughed at. You see, I sent this young goat, and you did not find her.

[4:13] About three months later, Judah was told, Tamar, your daughter-in-law has been immoral. Moreover, she is pregnant by immorality.

[4:24] And Judah said, Bring her out and let her be burned. As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, By the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant.

[4:41] And she said, Please identify who these are, the signet and the cord and the staff. Then Judah identified them, and said, She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.

[5:02] And he did not know her again. When the time of her labor came, there were twins in her womb. And when she was in labor, one hand, one put out a hand.

[5:15] And the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, This one came out first. But as he drew back his hand, behold, his brother came out. And she said, What a breach you have made for yourself.

[5:28] Therefore, his name was Perez. Afterward, his brother came out with the scarlet thread on his hand, and his name was called Zerah.

[5:40] This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Well, what a Christmas text.

[6:00] Yet, Matthew in his genealogy traces the birth of Jesus, the Christ, through the line of Judah.

[6:14] And in particular, he mentions in his Christmas genealogy, Tamar. Tamar, one of Matthew's five women of Christmas, followed by Rahab, and then Ruth, and then Bathsheba, and ultimately, the scandal of the birth of Jesus through the virgin betrothed to Joseph, named Mary.

[6:57] This Advent season, we intend to preach the Old Testament narratives of the New Testament Christmas genealogy.

[7:10] And so, we come first to Tamar. What a surprise. What a scandal. The surprise and scandal of Christmas.

[7:29] Genesis 38 is nearly as surprising had we been giving ourselves to reading over Genesis these weeks as it is scandalous.

[7:44] I mean, to its surprise, it is the interruption of the Joseph story that catches the reader immediately off guard.

[7:58] And to its scandal, it's the indiscretion of Judah and the interpolation of Tamar into the family tree of Christmas that is contrary to all moral sensitivities.

[8:17] In other words, the surprise and scandal of Genesis 38 are first that it appears contextually out of place.

[8:29] What is it doing here? And its scandal, of course, is the conduct of its central characters. Definitely out of order.

[8:42] And so, as we walk toward Christmas, we consider today first its surprise and then its scandal.

[8:55] It was the Old Testament scholar Spicer who wrote concerning Genesis 38 that the narrative is a complete independent unit.

[9:10] It has no connection to the drama of Joseph to which it interrupts at the conclusion of Acts 1.

[9:21] Act 1. And that's the way it looks. If you're unfamiliar with the Genesis narrative, the Joseph story comprises the events between chapters 37 and chapter 50.

[9:42] Take a look back in your Bible, in the text. Chapter 37 opens with Joseph's and his two dreams. And then his ill-fated visit to his brothers in the field.

[9:57] And then the betrayal of his brothers toward him and his descent all the way to Egypt. And if you look beyond our text, chapter 39, the Joseph story resumes again.

[10:15] And it carries the reader all the way through the end of Genesis with Joseph's burial, his death.

[10:26] it's the surprise or the discontinuity of chapter 38 that catches the reader off guard. What are we to make of it?

[10:39] And what does it have to say to us about Christmas? Well, I've come to think that we have misread the Joseph story and its true point of emphases.

[10:58] Clues abound that the center of gravity lies elsewhere. Not with Joseph, but rather with Jacob and Judah.

[11:12] Take a look. Chapter 37, verse 1. Jacob lived in the land and his father's sojournings in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob.

[11:25] according to the narrator, we are following the one to whom the promise had been given. And the whole Joseph's story is subordinate to the promise being carried forward to Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham.

[11:49] Abraham. In fact, that little clue in 37, 1, that we're reading a story about Jacob should have arrested us from thinking that Joseph was the central figure.

[12:06] And it also accounts for what takes place in chapter 49. If you flip your Bible forward a ways, you are given an entire chapter to the closing words of Jacob to his children at the time of his passing from the world.

[12:26] not only is the Joseph's story embedded in the primary character of Jacob, but the Joseph's story, I have come to think, is also a foil for the reader to observe the transformation of Judah.

[12:50] He appears in the Joseph's story as a rising figure. In the opening verse of chapter 38, he's actually separated from his brothers.

[13:05] We are already dealing with Judah on his own. Of course, he is the deplorable one of chapter 38, but in the narrative, he goes on to become the trusted one, rising above even the firstborn Reuben in the eyes of his father.

[13:33] Turn just a little forward to chapter 42 and 43. If you're familiar with the Joseph story, you'll know that they had to leave their brother in Egypt and they could not return for more grain without him.

[13:53] and it is Reuben at that time who asks that he would be a pledge. Verse 37, then Reuben said to his father, kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you.

[14:11] That is Simeon who had been incarcerated until they returned with the youngest of all brothers. And so Reuben is stepping forward as the firstborn, as the primary figure, and he says if harm should happen to him on the journey, that is Benjamin, that would come with him, then Judas says you would bring my hairs with sorrow down to Sheol.

[14:39] In other words, verse 38, Jacob has said, my son shall not go down with you. Reuben. But in 43, some time had passed.

[14:56] And Judah now rises in verses 8-11 as the trusted one, although the fourth born. Look at verse 8 of chapter 43.

[15:08] And Judah said to Israel his father, send the boy with me, and we will arise and go that we may live and not die both we and you and our little ones.

[15:20] I will be a pledge. What a word. But that word indeed appeared in our text and we'll return to it later. But he says, I will be a pledge of his safety.

[15:33] From my hand you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever. If we had not delayed, we would now have returned twice.

[15:45] verse 11, then their father Israel said to them, if it must be so, then do this. So as you're reading the story of the promises God had made to Jacob, you're seeing the deplorable actions of Judah in chapter 38, but you're seeing by chapter 42 and 43 that he has become the trusted one in the eyes of his father.

[16:16] And notice in chapter 44, when they actually stand before Joseph and Joseph's trap has been completely laid, and it looks as if Benjamin himself will now have to live in servitude in Egypt.

[16:34] Who's the one who speaks? Who's the intercessor among all the brothers for the youngest born? It is Judah.

[16:48] And in this chapter, chapter 44, we have the most elevated event in all of Judah's life. Judah stands before Joseph in verse 18 and says, Oh my Lord, please let your servant speak a word.

[17:07] He's interceding. He goes on in verse 33 and he says, Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my Lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers.

[17:25] For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father. What a moment in the transformation of Judah.

[17:38] He is now substituting his own life for the life of his youngest brother. He is now fulfilling his pledge, my life for his.

[17:58] Something almost Christ-like has happened to Judah. He's a different man. He's changed.

[18:09] He's completely renewed. And Joseph knows it. And so we have the deplorable one, giving way to being the trusted one.

[18:24] And then the elevation of Judah as the intercessor, the intercessory one, the substitutionary one. Judah himself becomes the blessed one.

[18:40] He becomes the one who will carry on the promise first given to Abraham and then Isaac and then Jacob.

[18:51] Look at verses 8 and chapter 49. These are the final words of Jacob to Judah. Judah, your brothers shall praise you and your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies.

[19:05] Your father's son shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion's cub. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down.

[19:16] He crouched as a lion and as a lioness. Who dares rouse him? Look at this phrase in verse 10. This prophetic word. The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until tribute comes to him and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

[19:41] Binding his fold to the vine and his donkey's colt to the choice vine. He has washed his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine and his teeth whiter than milk.

[19:57] The scepter, the promise, the Christ, the rule would not depart from Judah.

[20:08] This one who on the night of our text so quickly departed with his ruler's staff.

[20:21] life. That's the surprise of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38.

[20:34] We have misread the story. We have thought that Joseph was at the center. In reality, the interpolation of Judah has been hidden in the text all along.

[20:50] Let me put it this way. The Joseph's story exists because the Judah story must. God would have failed in his promise for the lack of seed offspring had Joseph not gone to store up seed of a different sort.

[21:29] Now think of that when you then think of Christmas. What an irony. The Joseph's story is the narrative interlude and Judah's is the narrative of the incarnation.

[21:45] Now what do we learn from all of this? Well first, as I've thought about it this week, God must take great pleasure in hiding things.

[22:02] For we went right by it. The attention getting events of human history are almost always foils for the hidden work of his redemption.

[22:20] There's a great difference between God's wisdom and God's ways and that of the world. We wouldn't write the story in this way. We are eager to show and tell all that we know.

[22:32] God takes enjoyment in hiding his work until it can be revealed in the fullness of time that the reader might say, you're kidding me!

[22:44] And it was there all the while. So it is with his son and his birth and the fulfillment of Scripture.

[22:55] God's delight is like that of a magician. There's this divine slight of hand twinkle in his eye.

[23:08] He makes a sudden gesture. He catches your attention and in a moment of distraction places the real object of his concern all the while in your presence but out of the sight of your eyes.

[23:25] That's God. He hides things in the narrative of human history. Proverbs 25.2 says as much, it is the glory of God to conceal things.

[23:39] But the glory of kings is to search the matter out. The story of Joseph? Well, Judah was there all the while and we never read it as God would have it read.

[24:00] Christmas catches humanity by surprise. Think of the way it happened in the stories of the New Testament.

[24:12] The wise men come from afar and where are they going? To the palace. To Jerusalem. To the king of the world.

[24:23] For certainly in the great narrative of human history, if God is doing anything, he does it there. And they arrive and say, where is the one who was born king? King?

[24:36] Well, I don't know. Gentlemen, everyone return to your study. Where is the king to be born? Well, he's born in the backwater of Bethlehem, this O ye little town of.

[24:52] That's God. That's Christmas. He delights in that kind of surprise. What does it mean for us then?

[25:05] You and I are not the center of the narrative of our own life. Christmas ought to remind you of that.

[25:19] Jesus Christ is the center of all that God is doing. You may get your thirteen chapters. but he is the dominant figure.

[25:34] And so the question as you prepare for Christmas concerning its surprise, just as we've seen the context of Genesis 38 altering the surprising truths of that narrative is this.

[25:47] Not God, what are you going to do in the world through me? God, what have you done in the world through Christ?

[25:59] And how might I find my rightful place in your story? For if Christmas teaches us anything, it teaches us this.

[26:13] The story is not about us. it has great implications for us, but it humbles us.

[26:25] May we find, all of us, this season, our place in the narrative of God's story.

[26:35] family. But what about the scandal of Christmas? What about the scandal turning back to Genesis 38? When Genesis 38 is played out, the scandal is clear and there are lessons for us here as well.

[26:57] Let's walk through chapter 38 in regard to its scandal. It divides, it opens itself up along these phrases of time.

[27:08] Did you notice them? Chapter 38 1, it happened at that time and that carries the first movement through verse 11 and then verse 12, in the course of time and you realize you've been carried on to another movement within the narrative and then verse 24 about three months later and the third movement is underway and then verse 27 when the time of her labor came the four movements of Genesis 38 and its scandal the first 11 verses concerning the humiliation of Tamar the humiliation of Tamar three observations her marriage to must have been an unsatisfying union from the start the scriptures call him a wicked man who wants to be married to a wicked man who wants to be married to a man so wicked that the scriptures say

[28:22] God killed him and he doesn't even give you a reason for it the humiliation of Tamar is that her union to Ur must have been unsatisfying from the start and what a tragic marriage it was for Ur was the son of the promise and yet he was as degenerate as any to the point of God taking his own life not the kind of man you want coming home to you at the end of the day but this was the man who came home to Tamar secondly her union to Onan only brought her into a relationship that was given over to sexual perversion and selfish greed verses 8 to 10 now interestingly the principle of taking the spouse the living spouse when the brother dies later in

[29:34] Israel's history is penned into law at the time of Moses it's become something called leveret marriage that if there was a husband who died the wife would be given to the next brother that his line might go forward in the world and that her life might have purpose and usefulness and that she might be provided for so it is already being worked out as a principle that was in play and it wasn't just that it was in play among the nations when he doesn't fulfill it it says God took his life this meant something to God Onan brings her into a relationship where he only treats her with this what you could only call sexual disdain and perversion she becomes an object a toy to be played with but not a woman to be honored and to give offspring to her dead husband why because he was selfishly greedy he knew that he stood to gain half of the inheritance but if he gives children to

[30:55] Tamar his own inheritance is cut he will get less and because it won't be his own he won't have anything to do with it it is a wicked selfish greedy sexually perverted husband the humiliation of Tamar through Ur through Onan and finally she was subjected to social disgrace at the hands of Judah look at verse 11 then Judah said to her remain a widow in your father's house and we know later his deception is clear he would not give her to Shelah because he thought she was responsible for the deaths of his own two sons two of my boys have married this girl they're gone I'm not giving her to another one my only one my youngest one go home out of my life

[32:03] I'm not providing for you my sons will not provide for you and she has to take that walk social disgrace back into her own community after having attached herself to the people of God back into her own home wearing the garments of her widowhood Tamar's humiliation an unsatisfied union with her a relationship rooted in selfish greed and sexual perversion to Onan and the stamp of social disgrace by her father-in-law Judah it's interesting how God has his eye on those who have been so sinned against that's the only way I think you can see verses 12 to 23

[33:07] Tamar's humiliation gives way to Tamar's desperation you have to see Tamar's action in light of the sins that were committed against her and in light of the justice that was due her this is a woman who wants justice at any cost even if it means the complete giving of herself away Thomas Mann I think got it right when he said it is not for nothing that the word interpolation comes to mind as though it had a will of its own interpolation insertion pushing in these for the motive of the hour they were Tamar's watchword and mainspring she was bent on pushing herself into the great history and she did it with amazing strength of purpose it was the most spacious scene of which she had knowledge that is the promises of God and she would not at any price whatsoever be shut out of it and so she comes here's

[34:29] Judah leaving the sheep shearing party at Timnah which in 1st Samuel we learn that when you sheared the sheep it was a time of great festivity food drink the strength of men who have been holding their sheep and the cutting of wool and the accumulation of wealth and the selling of it it was an hour when you began to ask yourself what have we made in the last quarter and it's at that moment that Judah leaves the shearing of sheep and he thought himself a lion and all the world his pride the narrative is terse it is coarse it is raw it is hidden it is immediate

[35:32] Tamar immediately seeks a pledge and he is willing to give a pledge for a momentary pleasure and he gives her his signet and cord they go together for the signet was a small hollowed out cylinder through which a cord ran and on the cylinder would have been engraved a what would become when you roll it over clay or wax your your seal your your own legal tender tender he notarized his activities in dealings with people through that in other words it was all of his credit cards all of his legal tender that's what the signet and cord is you made an imprint by rolling it over and your name was then vindicated or validated and stamped as good for payment and not only that his staff any chieftain number 1717 among the peoples of Israel carried a staff this was the symbol of your rule your your class your standing among the people and it would have had an engraved head upon it that was unique to who you were your scepter and he surrenders them on the side of the road and we can envision

[37:29] Judah pulling the cord over his neck the great mane being cut although he's completely unaware and his hair in a sense falling unnoticed to him among the grass his relinquishing of the wood scepter from his hand to hers emptying himself of all dignity manliness kingly stature and rule Judah the proud lion taken down of his own choosing into the tall grass as a twitching prey and then that moment in verses 20 to 23 where he attempts the recovery of his pledge and he's like look

[38:47] I don't want to be a laughing stock paralleling of course the events that will take place in Genesis 39 between the righteous Joseph who Potiphar comes and says he's come to make a laughing stock of me he left his garment and all of these scenes being played out in the narrative of Jacob's lineage Judah not wanting to be laughed at but Tamar's desperation won he took her she conceived and so then that leaves her vindication in verses 24 and 25 she's vindicated the time three months is in she's beginning to show it's inescapable that she's with child the news goes forth and Tamar in all of her justified glory has been sitting on these pledges these months and she waits until the very moment when Judah is enraged and the peoples are encircled and the word comes forth bring her out and burn her and as she comes out she brings these please identify for I am indeed pregnant by the one who owns these the very words that

[40:22] Judah and his brothers the chapter before brought to Jacob when they received deceived him concerning Joseph and his being killed purportedly at the hands of a wild animal they brought him his cloak of many colors and said to Jacob please identify whose these are and Tamar has him now in the open and Judah comes with voice she is more right than I am for I did not give her to my son Shelah the vindication of Tamar and then her children and their connection to Christmas twins bringing the mind of the reader back to

[41:30] Isaac's Rebecca where in Genesis 25 she gave birth to Esau the red but the younger one Jacob who would supplant him two sons to replace the two that Judah had lost ten generations from Perez to David king king of Israel king of Israel what a scandal the surprise and scandal of Christmas it won't be very many days from now when the first soft snow will fall on the streets of Chicago and the sounds of a sentimental Christmas will rise on our streets thank God for the scriptures that keep us clear of all sentimentality and snow and call us again to a consideration that out of the soil of sinful life

[42:48] God runs in the muck to bring about his man your savior his son the Lord Jesus it defies all moral sensitivity that the Christ would descend from such a union but we ought to ask should I be able to be in union with Christ what a scandal that we become children of the living God with all that is in our heart with all that is in our history the scandal of

[43:49] Christmas my union with Christ that he should descend to such a sinner as I doubtless this shall be our everlasting admiration that so rich a crown should fit the head of so vile a sinner I'm reminded as Calvin was when he commented on Genesis 38 of Philippians chapter 2 when the Lord Jesus emptied himself and plummeted into our world and took on flesh that of a servant Calvin wrote we know that the riches of God's grace shines chiefly in this that Christ clothed himself in our flesh with the design of making himself of no reputation

[44:57] Emmanuel God with us what a surprise what a scandal what a glory what a Savior prepare yourself to see him even in this season of Advent our Lord Jesus Christ we come to you tonight again filled with the wonder of a birth and Lord that we should be united to the Lord Jesus Christ in all of his purity all of his glory all of his love that we should be adopted into your family given the behavior of our lives along the way is indeed rich and to be celebrated humble us this month but rise in our hearts that we would sing with praise the carols of our

[46:12]  Christ the lover of our soul in whose name we pray amen! to be to be