10.2.07

 

What is this? 

So I know that some of you reading this were expecting a study on the book of Ruth - don't be upset.  We're still going to study the book of Ruth, however, as I was preparing for the study and digging into the background I was lead to the lineage of Christ.  (Not difficult considering this is how the book of Ruth ends....)  But that spurred me to examine the more complete lineage listed in Matthew chapter 1.  Upon perusing the list, I immediately noticed that Rahab was Ruth's mother-in-law, a little known fact I am quick to forget.  This prompted me to dig into Rahab's story a little bit deeper.  Soon I wanted even MORE background information and figured I might as well start at the top of this lineage and familiarize myself with the tribe of Judah.  Low and behold, another woman's name took my notice - Tamar.  At this point I figured, if I was this interested in who these women of infamy were, you might be too.  So I made an executive decision and expanded our study beyond that of simply Ruth to the four women named in Jesus' lineage.  So there you have it.  


The Line-up

If we take a look at the first part of Matthew 1 we will see that from Abraham to Jesus there are three sections of 14 generations.  The first section begins with Abraham and concludes with David.  It is also in this first section that three of the four women's names are mentioned.  So it is this particular portion of biblical history in which we will be getting familiar with.  The final woman is of course Mary, the mother of Jesus.  We will dig into the history of her story as well, but for now we'll begin with Abraham.


From Abraham to Judah: a Quick Review

Now, just to make sure we're all on the same page, we're going to do a quick review beginning with Abraham (note: this is not exhaustive - it's my quick summary.  For a more thorough history crack your bible and check out Genesis starting at chapter 12).

 

God called Abraham and told him he would be blessed and have a zillion decedents; more than the grains of the sand.  But as it turned out, Abraham's wife Sarah couldn't get pregnant for the life of her.  After Abraham and Sarah stop trying to take matters into their own hands (read: the Ishmael debacle - see Genesis 16) they finally have Isaac.  God tests Abraham and asks him to sacrifice Isaac.  When God sees that Abraham is really going to do it, he spares Isaac.  

 

Isaac grows up and eventually marries Rebekah and they in turn, have twin boys: Esau and Jacob.  Esau is supposed to receive his father's blessing as the firsts born, but after some clever tom-foolery Esau sells his birthright to Jacob and dressed as Esau, Jacob receives his father's blessing (Genesis 27). 


Jacob grows up and falls in love with Rachel.  When he asks to marry her, her father negotiates that Jacob will work for him for 7 years first, then he may have her.  Come the end of the 7 years, Jacob is on the receiving end of some tom-foolery himself and finds that he has accidentally married Leah, Rachel's older sister.  When Jacob confronts his new father-in-law he is told that if he works 7 more years, he may have Rachel (poor guy).  Jacob agrees, works 7 more years, and then marries Rachel as well.  

 

Needless to say there is competition between the sisters, specifically with bearing children.  Turns out Leah can pop out sons like no one's business, while Rachel is barren.  Competition escalates and the sisters end up giving their maid-servants to Jacob as their representatives and more sons are born.  Eventually Rachel does conceive on her own and at the end of all this, Jacob has 12 sons (as well as at least one daughter) from all 4 women.  God renames Jacob Israel and his 12 sons (for the most part) become the 12 tribes of Israel (which makes total sense).  

From Fourth to First

Now, based on our reading of Matthew 1, we know that Abraham's line continues from Jacob to Judah.  However, when we examine the text of Genesis, we learn that Judah is not the first born of Jacob, Reuben is.  In fact, Judah is the fourth son born to Jacob (Genesis 35:23-26).  So how does the fourth child in line end up with a patriarch's blessing and the privilege of continuing Abraham's line to the Messiah?  Great question.  Here is where we're really going to start digging into the Word.  

 

Brotherly "Love" 

Let's start with a little "background" info from Genesis 37, the infamous story of Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers, and see what we can learn about the character of Jacob's sons.  

 


For the most part we see all the siblings represented with one voice, one mind.  In verses 4-11 their collective jealously and hatred is mentioned four separate times and in vs 18 - 20 together they plot to kill him.   However in verse 22 one brother singles himself out to speak against the others.  Reuben, the oldest son of Jacob, tries to save Joseph by suggesting they capture him instead of killing him.   Now, one might argue that this he simply suggests the lesser of two evils and isn't necessarily any more righteous than the rest; however, in the last portion of v 22 we learn that Reuben is planning to save Joseph.  The suggestion of capture is to placate his brothers and buy himself some time.  

 


Now if we take a step back from the story and look at it objectively, it makes sense that Reuben is the one to take this step of action.  He is the oldest of 12 boys, and likely to be a natural leader.  The oldest child (and especially the oldest son) in any family tends to act as an authority when mom and dad aren't around.   Similarly, they tend to take responsibility for things that go wrong on their "watch".  I think what we're seeing here is no different.  In v 29 & 30 Reuben tears his clothes as a sign of grief and exclaims, "Where can I turn now?" indicating his responsibility in the matter.  So we learn that Reuben is at least on some level what we might expect the eldest sibling to be.


 

But Reuben isn't the only brother to set himself apart in this situation.  Interestingly enough, we also hear straight from Judah.  Now, unlike Reuben, Judah's input seems to be of a more selfish manner suggesting that they sell Joseph instead of killing him.  This way they will gain not only his lack of presence, but a little change in their pockets...."after all, he is their brother".  It seems that Judah's suggestion is at least remotely based on compassion for his brother.  Now, it doesn't appear to me that Judah is trying to save Joseph per se, but in any case he is arguing for an act of mercy.


Now before we go congratulating Reuben on his righteousness and condemning Judah for his selfishness, let's continue on with their stories, shall we?


The Sins of the Brothers

As we already know Reuben was due to inherit the birthright, but does not.  But why not?  Well, the answer lies in one single verse.  In Genesis 35:22 we learn that Reuben slept with his father's concubine, Bilhah and daddy heard about it.  Now keep in mind, this wasn't simply a piece of property to Jacob or one-of-many from a harem or something like that; Bilhah was mother to two of Reuben's brothers.  This act was inexcusable and considered incestuous.  Now, while he was not technically "related" to her - you can still see why the union was NOT kosher.  The verse does not tell us Jacob's response to the situation; just simply that he knew about it.  However, fourteen chapters later when  Jacob is on his death bed, we learn exactly how he felt about it.  In Genesis 49:3, 4 Jacob strips Reuben of his right as the oldest son and specifically references this instance as the reason for the denial.  

 


Next in line was Simeon followed by Levi.  In Genesis 34 we learn that the pair of brothers (a bit over zealously) killed an entire city as retribution for a Hivite's son sleeping with their sister Dinah.   Near the end of the chapter Jacob admonishes them for their rash behavior, pointing out the vulnerable position his sons have placed him in.  This is not to say Jacob approved of what had been done to his daughter, or that had Simeon and Levi not slaughtered everyone that he would have allowed the union to happen...we don't know.  However, it is clear that their aggressive actions were enough to deny them too the birthright they were next in line for.  As Jacob continues his blessing narrative in Gen 49, in v 5-7 we see exactly how he felt about their actions: not happy.   

 


Which brings us to Judah.  Now it would be natural to assume that despite his little cameo appearance earlier in chapter 37 that Judah has no other big skeletons in his closet, thus he was eligible to receive Jacob's blessing.  However, that isn't exactly the case.  In fact, there is an entire chapter devoted to Judah's tale of unrighteousness.  

Judah and Tamar

In chapter 38 we learn Judah's sordid story.  Shortly after selling Joseph down the river, Judah leaves his family and lives in a land not of his people.  There he marries a woman and has 3 sons.  The oldest son, Er, marries a woman named Tamar.  However, he is so wicked that the Lord puts him to death.  Now it was customary (and later recorded as part of God's law in Deuteronomy 25: 5-6) that if a man dies childless, his brother is to sleep with the widow and produce a family in his place.   Thus is was required of Judah's second son, Onan, to sleep with Tamar and provide an heir.  However, Onan was selfish and unwilling to do so and does a little "birth control" of his own.  Because of this, he was considered wicked by the Lord and thus he was put to death.  

 


Now instead of considering the character of his own sons, Judah assumes the "jinx" has something to do with the woman, Tamar.  So he tells a half-truth and convinces Tamar to go back to her father's household because Judah's youngest son is not yet old enough to marry.  However, once the son is old enough to marry, Judah makes no effort to give him to Tamar.  She learns of it and decides to take matters into her own hands.  According to her custom, there was a Shittite law similar to God's law that allowed the father-in-law to fulfill the duty to the widow.  Thus she takes matters into her own hands.


 

Notice that once Judah realizes what Tamar has done, he doesn't call her righteous; he says she is MORE righteous than himself.  She had a right to a son from that family and they were willfully denying her of it.  Her methods may not have been ethical, however, she was scheming in the name of justice (so to speak).  Judah, on the other hand, seemed to have no righteousness about him at all: he was living in a land not of his father, or his people, he failed to recognize the wickedness of his own children, and when confronted with another's sin, made a huge spectacle of the situation demanding that she be punished to the fullest extent.  Let's contrast this with Tamar: she had an opportunity to publicly humiliate Judah and clear her own name, but instead she quietly sends Judah a message and opens his eyes to the real situation.  Again, I wouldn't necessarily call Tamar righteous in this situation, but I think that Judah accurately describes the situation when he says she is more righteous than himself.  Thus Tamar gives birth to twins and the oldest, Perez, continues the family line.

A Question of Righteousness...

Now if you're anything like me, you may be asking yourself, how could Judah have a whopper of an "oops" like that in his past and still receive the blessing from Jacob?  I mean, a sin is a sin, right?  There is no distinction of worse when it comes to sin.  Besides, Reuben and Judah's stories both involve sexual sin.  So why is Judah different?  

 


I have to be honest, this question really bothered me.  I know Jacob can be prone to showing favorites (*cough* Rachel & Joseph *cough*), but if that were the case, then why doesn't he pass the birthright onto Joseph?  Hmm.  In fact, this bothered me enough that the night before bible study I prayed about it.  "God," I said, "Why is it different?  I don't understand - could you please explain it to me?"  And wouldn't you know it, shortly before I drifted off into slumber for the evening, it suddenly occurred to me that yes, though all the men in question sinned, only Judah had not sinned against his father.  

 

Now, I'm no biblical scholar, but I do believe in answered prayer and I think this is nothing short of an answer.  No one is perfect, but when it comes to the matter of passing on the family leadership, the family lineage, in essence an entire birthright, the fact that Judah had maintained a right relationship with his father was crucial.  And it was that preservation that allowed Judah to continue the family line. (See Jacob's blessing of Judah: Genesis 49: 8-12).


So Why Mention Tamar?

Knowing what I did about the goodness of Ruth and the purity of Mary, I made an assumption that the women listed in Jesus' lineage were all examples of something good, something to be patterned after, something to take note of.  However with our examination of the very first woman on the list, it seems that I am wrong.  While it turned out that Tamar was more righteous than Judah had been, I couldn't claim to say she exemplified characteristics of our Savior that I want to pattern my life after.  So why include her?  Why is she mentioned?  

 


Well, I think the answer was two-fold.  On the more practical side because she wasn't Judah's wife, but she was the mother of his heir.  Throughout the rest of the lineage, only the father and son's names are listed - mothers are assumed to be the wives of the fathers.  Since this situation deviated from the normal, it was worth noting.  

 


However, I think there is more to it than mere practicality.  I think Tamar is listed so that the Jews remember exactly where they come from.  That is, to remind them that they are to take no pride in themselves for where they came from.  Their righteousness is not to be found in a family line, but in God alone.  Everyone has a messy and imperfect family - even Jesus.


Bring It Home

So what's the take home message from Judah and Tamar?  Well one of the biggest things I see in all of this is that God uses us even when we're disobedient, unrighteous, and "bad".  Judah was not in a "good place" as we Christians are such fans of calling it, but God still worked through is life.  God used him for his ultimate purpose, for his will.  This is absolutely crucial to remember in our every day lives!  If you believe that God can't use you because you don't pray enough or read your bible enough or because you judge other people or habitually tell white lies, then you're wrong!!  We can claim NO righteousness on our own.  Righteousness comes from God alone - and he knows that.  He doesn't hold it over our heads or punish us for it.  Instead, he paid a price for it.  He gives us righteousness through Christ.  Don't make waste of the gift he has given us, claiming that you aren't "good" enough to be used by God, or blessed by God or loved by God.  When you do that, you put God in a box and tell him he's not enough.  You're claiming that he is held captive by our sin.  That because of our sin, he can't save us.  But that isn't true.  In spite of our sin he saved us.  

 


Where did we get the notion that God can only accomplish his plans through the good, or the obedient, or the righteous?  God can (and DOES!) use us while we are sinful.  Do you realize what that means?  While we are in the midst of sin, when we're dirty, and before repentance - God uses us!  He knows exactly who and what we are.  He does not expect righteousness of us, he offers it to us.  Don't let Satan deceive you any longer my friend, God wants to use you for his kingdom, right here, right now.