Okay, we're going to look today at Genesis chapter 38. When we are reading the book of Genesis, I teach and I like to study the Bible, but I also teach it chronologically according to a timeline. And the book of Genesis obviously is the book of beginnings. But when we are reading Genesis chapter 38, we have to keep something in mind. First of all, This is pre-Levitical law. We're going to refer to Levitical law, but this is pre-Levitical law in its written form. Second of all, we have to remember that we're going to be talking about Judah, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. he was the third of the three patriarchs. We had Abraham who came from Ur of the Chaldees and given the promise that all the land would belong to him and to his seed and the Abrahamic covenant as we call it which was reiterated to Isaac and then to Jacob. And when Jacob was giving the blessing to his sons we find and we will find that the Lord Jesus Christ in his earthly lineage was to come through the tribe of Judah so we are in the book of Genesis in chapter 38 and if you go back when you have a little free time and you look back into chapter 37 you find that we have the story of Joseph and going to find his brothers and his brothers seeing him come And they put him in the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites and he ended up in Egypt in slavery. And so we begin chapter 38. And we'll pick up reading there. It's a long chapter. We're not going to read it all for sake of time. But I, as we talk about it, we'll read the text. And I encourage you, as I said, to go back and to read it in its entirety. And it came to pass at that time that Judah went down from his brethren and turned then to a certain Adulamite whose name was Hira. Now when we look at verse 1 we see the phrase at that time. This probably is referring to the time of Joseph's captivity. In which chapter 38 is like a parenthetical. we have we're talking about Joseph and then we stop here for a moment and then we'll resume talking about Joseph after this but right here in chapter 38 we have a parenthetical and more than likely it's to show it's to focus not on Joseph but on Judah and to show again the genealogical line of the Messiah now most commentators reckon that Judah was probably about two to three years older than Joseph and Joseph was probably about 17 when he was taken into captivity in Egypt which would have put Judah about 20 years of age and sometime after he and his brethren conspired to sell Joseph and they returned to inform their father that Judah left his brothers and went down from his brethren to a certain city by the name of Adullam and this city was about eight miles southwest of Jerusalem and we find in the scriptures that at one point it's mentioned when David took refuge in a cave there But we're told in verse 1 that Judah makes friends with a native of that city by the name of Hira. And it's interesting here, oftentimes in the people that we've been studying, I've tried to look in all of the commentaries that we have Gil and Jameson Fawcett Brown and Simeon and Matthew pull of Matthew Henry, and I encourage you when you're studying a text of scripture to search out Everyone what everyone has to say look at the original look at the Look at your Bible dictionaries find out definitions we believe in the historical grammatical interpretation of the scripture. So you must know what the words actually are saying and you need to know the historical context of the scripture that you're learning about. And then you can understand what was being talked about in their frame of reference. And so I thought it was interesting because as not much was said when we studied the book of Ruth about Naomi and we had our opinions about Naomi on the other hand a great deal is said in the commentaries about this particular chapter and one of the interesting quotes I thought was from Matthew Henry and regarding Judah going down from his brother and after this horrific thing of selling their brother into captivity Matthew Henry wrote when young people that have been well-educated began to change their company, they will soon change their manners and lose their good education. It is of great consequence to young people to choose proper associates, for these they will imitate, study to recommend themselves to, and by their opinion of them, value themselves. An error in this choice is often fatal. Now, my mother always said to me, birds of a feather will flock together. And in short, that's what Matthew Henry is saying. If you're brought up in a Christian home, and then you go out into the world, then you're going to become concerned about their opinion of you rather than what the Christians with whom you were reared are concerned. And you're going to forget about what the scripture says. And that's often fatal. And so we see here that Judah, for whatever reason, perhaps he had a falling out with his brethren after they consorted together and they despised their brother and sold their own flesh and blood into slavery. You know, perhaps he says, look, you know, I'm going to get a change of venue here. I'm just leaving. Not that he does anything particularly godly, or that he was particularly godly himself but he went down to Adulam and there he made friends with Hira then we see in verse 2 and Judas saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua and he took her and went into her now it's interesting here the father was Shua We don't know the daughter's name. We're not told that. But in this city, away from his family, and connected with his Dulomite friend, he marries a Canaanite woman. Again, Matthew Henry says, one wicked league entangles men in another. And it's interesting too, this is before, as I said, the Levitical Law, however, Judah was without excuse in knowing that he was not to marry into the Canaanites. Abraham had sent his servant Eliezer back to Ur for a wife for Isaac and he wanted to be sure that Isaac did not take a wife of the Canaanites. And then we find that Isaac sent Jacob back to Ur to also secure a wife and we find also in that same part of scripture that Rebecca and Isaac had the conversation about how Esau had troubled them and broken their hearts because he had taken a Canaanite wife and when it showed how much it upset them and he wanted to displease them more he took another Canaanite wife and so Judah has absolutely no excuse for doing this. His own father had ended up spending 20 years at least in the land of Ur in order to keep from marrying a Canaanite woman. Now Judah was probably a young child when he returned from Uncle Laban's and how much interaction he had with Esau is not revealed but obviously the influence of Esau was made upon Jacob's children at least as being an example. and then of course he left home as a very young man and children away from home and falling in with the wrong crowd can often fall into sin with very little persuasion or assistance and we note that from our story there of the prodigal son also another thing is we must be very careful concerning mixed multitudes and later on we'll find that the Canaanites were never taken completely out of the land and there was often trouble in Israel because of the intermixing with the Canaanites and the adopting of the Canaanite pagan religion and practices. Then we see in verse 3 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 Kezib when she bare him. Now we see here then that the Canaanite bore three sons to Judah. And in verse 6, Judah took a wife for her as firstborn, whose name was Tamar. Tamar means palm tree. Now the Targum, some of the writers claim that she was Jewish. And one Arab writer, according to Dr. Gill, claimed that she was from a Levite family. But it is more probable that she too was a Canaanite. I think that's the most probable assumption is that he had taken up residence there in among the Canaanites, he had married a Canaanite, and when he began to find a wife for his son, he also found Canaanite. And verse 7, And ere Judas firstborn was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord slew him. Now we don't know what his wickedness was, but we do know a few things about it from this verse. First of all, he's slain by the Lord for his wickedness. We don't know what it is, but we know it was extreme enough for the Lord to kill him or could not possibly have been very old probably in his late teens and we know that he was wicked in the sight of the Lord we don't know anything else about it but that it was enough to provoke the Lord to slay him and I thought this was interesting Matthew Henry again quoting him sometimes God makes quick work with sinners and takes them away in his wrath when they are but just setting out in a wicked course of life and I can think back on my high school days and I can remember students that I knew and in those days drinking was about the worst thing that you could do and I remember that they loved to party and drink and what not and I remember Hearing of a horrible car crash one night some of them were in a car together and they wrapped it around a tree and it was such a bad wreck that the bodies were decapitated and I thought of the horror of that this before I became a Christian and It was a sobering thought that they could be 16 17 years old and stepped out into eternity but And yet you look at men and women who are of great age and they're still living in wickedness and yet God chooses from time to time to end the wickedness of someone very quickly and very early. It doesn't mean necessarily that you're going to live to be a ripe old age and remain a sinner. And so we have a case here in which Ur was slain by the Lord and then we see in verse 8 and Judas said unto Onan go in unto thy brother's wife and marry her and raise up seed to thy brother now this is an interesting thing because the commentators did not agree on it some said that it was a custom among all the people of that time that if an older brother passed away without leaving someone a child to carry on his name that the next brother in line would marry them and obviously this is pre-Levitical law others say no this was purely something that the Jews did whatever the case we do find that first of all that Moses uses a word here for go in or for marrying Tamar which was peculiar to this particular law that we find in Deuteronomy 25 5 that we talked about in the book of Ruth. The marriage of a deceased brother's wife in order to bring up an inheritance for that particular brother. Gil was persuaded that it was a practice that other nations learned from the Jews, rather than the Jews learning it from other natures, to secure the primogeniture, which is the state of being the firstborn of the children of the same parents, or the exclusive right of inheritance belonging to the eldest son. If you die without that, without that oldest son or that eldest son, then it's incumbent upon the brother in line to provide you with one. Onan went in as his father directed him in verse 9 he 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 it on the ground lest he should give seed to his brother and the thing which he did displeased the Lord wherefore he slew him also and so we find that Onan would not participate in what appeared to be the will of God assuming that God instituted it in the Mosaic Law and so Onan was inconsiderate of the will of God in the multiplication of Abraham's seed and particularly the seed of Judah from whom the Messiah would come therefore God slew him and I didn't put it in my notes but one of the interesting things and I don't remember which commentator said it but This particular practice of Onan was so despicable even among heathen people that through the ages it has come to be known as the Onanian sin. But at any rate, the Lord slew him. Then we come to verse 11. Then said Judah to Tamar and his daughter-in-law, uh, Tamar, his daughter-in-law, remain a widow at thy father's house till Shelah my son be grown. For, he said, this is Judah talking, lest peradventure he die also as his brethren did. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house. Now this is very interesting. It's possible and even probable that Judah was blaming Tamar for the death of his two sons. That he had some sort of superstition and he was attributing the death to them being married to her rather than to their sin and he never intended to marry Shelah and he said to Tamar you go to your father's house and wait for Sheila and then it was as if he turned aside and said lest he get tripped up by you and beguiled by you and then die also and so by this last remark it may be safe to assume that he never really truly meant to marry her to Sheila that he considered her tainted merchandise so he sent her back to her father's house but the interesting thing was he told her to remain a widow you go back to your father's house and you remain a widow now Matthew Henry commented if he did this if he sent her back and never intended for her to marry Sheila then it was an inexcusable piece of prevarication that he was guilty of but whenever Tamar obeyed and returned to her father's house now if Judah did not intend to give Sheila to Tamar it was his obligation as her father-in-law to release her so that she could remarry or that he was to give her in marriage to someone else in other words he was to release her from the family obligation so that she could marry into another family but he did not he didn't do that so it seems that in the process of time as we see in verse 12 that his wife died and Judah was comforted he passed the proper time of mourning and then he went to do the sheep shearing now from in verse 12 we find that he went up unto his sheep shearers to Timnath with his friend Hira the Dolomite. Now sheep shearing was done there in those parts near the end of March and it usually was attended with festivities and meals and sometimes the owner of the flocks would go up to see how their workers were doing and then they would reward them with feasting and meals and so forth and so it was a party time it was a time of festivity and it was told Tamar in verse 13 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 now we don't know how long this was from the point that Onan had died to the point that Shelah was old enough to be married we're not sure but however long that was to that point Tamar was without any fault she had done exactly what she was told to do She had remained a widow, she had remained in her widow's weeds in her father's house. But she's told that Judah is going to pass by that way. So she removes her widow's weeds and she covers herself with a veil and sets in an open place. Probably near the gate of the city or at one of the crossroads there on the way up to Timnath. Now the veil was not necessarily to indicate that she was a prostitute. It was probably more of a disguise to keep him from recognizing her. It's the place where she sat. It was in the open place that made her be portrayed as available. There's speculation Well, let's back up. Let's look at verse 15. When Judas saw her, he thought her to be a harlot because she had covered her face. So for her, her plan so far is that he's not recognizing her. And he turned in to her by the way and said, Go 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 into me so she's playing the part of a harlot what are you going to pay me? what are you going to give to me? now there's speculation as to her true motive here some say she wanted a child That's all she wanted. She didn't really care that much about the marriage. What she wanted was the baby, the child. Others say she wanted revenge on Judah. Others say that she was a confirmed Jewish proselyte and she knew that the lineage of Christ was coming through Judah and she wanted to participate in that honor. That perhaps it would come through her children. that I don't know that that may be the case but at any rate whatever her true motivation was or motivations the whole plot has some noteworthy characteristics she took advantage of the opportunity that she had and she exposed herself openly as a harlot whatever her motivations she she had she saw an opportunity and she seized on it and she knew exactly what she was going to do. Now, whether or not she wanted a child, this is just an aside, we discussed this at an earlier time, whether or not she wanted a child, I think, physically, medically speaking, it's possible that she could have known whether or not her the probability of her becoming pregnant was more or less but the fact that it was everything kind of aligned together it was sheep sharing time, Judah was going to be available and the probability of her being able to get pregnant in a liaison that is kind of stretching it a little bit however you know, it could be that she was thinking too that anytime that, there's always that possibility of obtaining a child, but it could also kind of lean us more to the idea that maybe she wanted to be revenged on Judah. He wasn't giving her, he wasn't releasing her, and he wasn't giving her his son. And if enough time had passed, and or Judah had allowed his thoughts to be known in the community that maybe she was tainted merchandise she may not have had the opportunity to remarry if he had released her it could be that he had brought enough he had disparaged her enough that she was pretty well had no opportunity at all she was doomed to this for the rest of her life and there couldn't have been she could not have been a very old woman I mean they married at early ages in those days and to have looked for the rest of her life to nothing but widowhood in her father's house was an unpleasant thought so it's possible that she did want a child and if she had a child that her widowhood would be bearable but the fact that she went out at this time and that everything came together may lend itself more to the fact that she wanted to to make a point to Judah that he had wronged her he had just simply wronged her but at any rate everything came together and there she was and so they began to negotiate Judah said to her in verse 17, and he said, I will send thee a kid of the flock. A kid of the flock. Now, a kid, a goat, a baby goat, a kid, was a sacred gift for the Canaanite goddess Ashtoreth. And it's possible that Judah thought she was one of the virgins, or one of the harlots that worked for the goddess Ashtoreth. Now when you read the Old Testament, this is just an aside, you'll find Baal, Balaam, Ashtoreth. Well, Balaam is just the plural for false gods. That's what that means. Baal is the male god, Ashtoreth is the female god or goddess. And she would be like the goddess Venus in Roman society so it's probable that he was negotiating with her thinking that she may be one of the prostitutes for the goddess and so he's going to give her a gift that would have been a sacred gift for the Canaanite goddess in verse 18 well sorry in verse 17 she says and what will you give me a pledge till you send me that kid now Tamar is this again is showing that she thought this thing through Tamar requested the pledge and Judah said in verse 18 well he said what pledge shall I give you and she said thy signet and thy bracelets and thy staff that is in thine hand and he gave it her and came into her and she conceded by him. Tamar requested a pledge and Judah left his signet ring that was commonly hung around the neck by a twisted cord and that signet ring was the proof of his identity any transaction he entered into that signet ring was stamped on that transaction The bracelets, the Hebrew men wore armlets, but it's possible that it was referring to the twisted cord itself on which the signet would hang. And then the staff was a walking stick, and a lot of times they would have an ornately carved top on the walking stick, and if a man was of wealth or authority, sometimes he would hang his signet onto the top of that staff. At any rate, you didn't give away your staff and signet. That's like giving somebody your driver's license and your credit card. But, Matthew Poole noted, God ordered things providentially to be certain that Judah's sin was going to be exposed. And so we see in verse 18 that she conceived. And she arose and went away and laid by her veil from her and put on the garments of her widowhood. So Tamar's childlessness was the fault of Judah. But her plan, whether it was for revenge or simply to get a child or both, involved incest. Now some say that her Canaanite background may not have proved that incest to be as objectionable as maybe she should have seen it. I don't know, but I do know that often times wronged women can come up with plans, can't they? And at the time when they conceive them, they're really not concerned with how objectionable they might be. And no doubt Tamar had waited and waited and waited And Judah had not kept his word, and obviously by his demeanor and his behavior, he didn't intend to keep his word. And so she took matters into her own hands. So in verse 20, we see that Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend, the Adulamite, to receive back his pledge from her hand, but he found her not. Then he asked the men of that place saying, where's the harlot that was openly by the wayside? And they said, there was no harlot in this place. Now the word used for harlot in verse 21 is different than the word used for harlot in verse 15. And Judah saw her, he thought her to be a harlot, and then in verse 21, Hira is asking where the harlot was and they said there was no harlot the word This word is referring to a female that's consecrated to the service of asterisk. So evidently there was that Assumption that she was where she was on in this time of festivity Sitting there in an open place because she was part of this worship of asterisk But Tamar had returned to her widow's weeds and taken back up where she had left off after the death of Onan. And Hira goes back to Judah and he says, I can't find her. And Judah says in verse 23, let her take it to her, lest we be shamed. Behold, I sent this kid and thou has not found her. So he's saying, let her keep the pledges. let's just keep the matter hushed up and let's not talk about it but even though she had his ID she had his signature his signet ring Matthew Henry believes that Judah didn't want the matter pursued lest his sin become known and talked about publicly or which I'm more inclined to believe or he didn't want people to find out that he had actually given a harlot his signet and his staff and thinking that she would actually be there when he got back and that he would be laughed at as being a fool for trusting her. I think that seems more inclined to what I would lean toward is that it wasn't so necessarily that he was ashamed because he had been living in this land now long enough to have birthed three sons and buried his wife. I'm sure that they've known about Judah and who he was and what he did. His best friend was a Canaanite. Somehow I don't think that he would have been particularly shamed because he had visited a harlot. I think it was that he was foolish enough to leave his signet and his staff with her, thinking that she'd be there when he got back with a kid. And then in verse 24 we see, 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 whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt. Now this is where it's going to get, it's going to move from the it's about them to it's about us. Because this is where it gets personal. Judah demanded that Tamar be brought to the magistrate and condemned. Even though he didn't have the direct authority over her since she was living in her father's house he commanded that this wrong be righted. It was considered adultery because he had told Tamar that she was betrothed to Shelah. So in her betrothal she was an adulteress and she was punishable by death and later we'll see in the Levitical law in Deuteronomy 22, 22 through 23 that if she had participated in this willingly she was to be stoned but Judah called her out to be burnt now let's think about that first of all he knew she was going to have a baby and that baby was somebody's but he wants her burned now when I was reading that I thought you read in high school the scarlet letter at least when she was taken in adultery she was allowed the child was allowed to be born she was punished but the child was still allowed to be born but Judah wants this baby and the mother burned now his condemnation then was evidently not for justice but for convenience because later on we see again in the Mosaic, the Levitical Law in Deuteronomy 24 16 God is clear when he says the fathers shall not be put to death for the children neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers but it's possible that Judah only wanted her to be burned or branded in the cheek or the forehead to be stigmatized but others say no that he wanted her to be put to death if he did wouldn't that be handy because he won't have a daughter-in-law problem anymore and here's where it gets personal he's intending to put her to death under the pretense of zeal against her sin but also it would take care of all the problems that he would have that he could face if the child would be allowed to live and I thought it was so interesting Matthew Henry said it is a common thing for men to be severe against those very sins in others in which yet they allow themselves and so in judging others they condemn themselves here was Judah who turned aside to a harlot but he wants to burn and he was going to pay the harlot a kid out of the flock and he gives this harlot his signet and his staff but now he wants to burn his daughter-in-law he wants to invoke the law now and Romans 2.1 says therefore thou art inexcusable O man whosoever thou art that judges for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thyself for thou that judgest doest the same things and then again Paul wrote in Romans 14 22 hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth and then Matthew Henry went on to say it is a common thing but a very bad thing to cover malice against men's persons with a show of zeal against their vices. In other words, Judah didn't like Tamar. She had been a thorn in his side. Two of his sons were dead. Sheila, no doubt, had not been married yet because this thorny issue of what to do, what to do. There's Tamar and I don't want her to have him. and now Tamar is giving him an out so instead of saying oh I don't like you Tamar now we have this perfectly good excuse she is so wicked and we get rid of her and then he doesn't have the problem anymore and as he said it's it's such a it's a common thing it's a bad thing that we don't like the person so we show great zeal against their vices and we've often talked about that haven't we if you really like somebody you can put up with a lot of stuff in them that you ought not put up with and if you don't like somebody you can't even stand to hear them or see them or know about them so it a lot of it is not it's perfect it's totally subjective in that if I like you, you can get away with murder and if I don't like you, you really can't even breathe right and so we see that here Judah doesn't like Tamar so he's going to hone in on her sins and then he's got all this mess cleaned up she's gone and now Sheila can get married and he has no more problems and that sounds quite a bit like what we would do if we found ourselves in the same dilemma that he found himself in what can he do to save faith? and obviously it's time for Sheila to get married because Tamar realized that but yet what could Judah do? and so we see then Judah said she's got to be burned, burn her then in verse 25 she was brought forth and she 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 now you just really can't get by that can you Judah is the is he's caught right there and it's interesting that one of the Jewish writers believed that Judah was the very son who said in Genesis 37 32 you remember when they took Joseph's coat and they dipped it in blood animal blood and then they took it back to Israel and they said look probably a wild animal got him and one of the Jewish writers says it was probably Judah who held the coat out and said see father isn't this Joseph's coat And now we find Tamar holding out his signet and saying, see, the man that is the father of this child owns these. It's the same thing, your sin coming home again. He was not so quick to want to save Tamar. as he had been to want to save his own brother remember he said let's don't kill Joseph let's don't shed his blood look there's the Ishmaelites let's just sell him but he hadn't been that quick to want to save Tamar he wanted her burned so I think that in itself sheds a little light on maybe his motives but then in verse 26 Judah acknowledged them and said she has been more righteous than I because that I gave her not to Shelah my son and he knew her again no more for whatever reason Tamar acted as she did and bad as it was Judah acknowledged that he had acted less righteously than Tamar he owned the wrong that he had done her and then it says he knew her again no more in the sense of the relationship that he had with her as a harlot. Tamar had kept her word, she had remained in widowhood, she had been pure, but Judah had not kept his word. Shelah also, we find later on in the genealogies that Shelah had not had to marry Tamar because of this act of incest Sheila had not married her. So we don't see that she was given in marriage. Judah didn't go back to her. Sheila did not have to marry her. And Matthew Henry allows that Judah repented. He says that those who do not truly repent of their sins do not forsake them. So I don't know. They're taking it quite literally that because he didn't have any more children, one commentator said that he didn't have any other relations with any women from that point forward. I don't know that we can stand on that, but whatever about the relationship with other women, the Bible is clear that he had no more relationship with Tamar. Now we are going to focus the chapter turns from Judah to the birth of the children because this is again where we are going to take up why is this chapter even relevant? We see here in verse 27 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 Zara. It seems that Tamar was having a hard delivery here and of course the commentators believe that it was a correction for her sin. But the fact that the babies were struggling in her womb reminds us again of Jacob and Esau in Rebekah's womb. the baby, the one baby put forth his hand and there again the commentator said that that showed that he was in an abnormal birthing position more than likely they said he was in a breached position he put forth his hand and the midwife barked it as the firstborn which was extremely important even in the case of twins the one that was born first was the elder son and so she marked that child as being the elder son and then somehow the other child was able to come be born first and hence the name Theraz means a breach or a rent and the midwife's words ask Deleach says literally she says hast thou broken through a rent or rent meaning a forced passage for thyself in other words she meant this child is blocking you how did you get out first how did you break through his block his walls have you forced yourself out by him the Septuagint says has the fence been broken through by you again meaning his body was as a fence and this Phares broke through it to be born first Calvin says, as if the body of the brother who had appeared first lay like an opposing wall in his way and he burst through it and the second brother's name Zara means arriving now this Matthew Henry compares Zara to the Jews and Pharos to the Gentiles he says the Jews which was Zara bade fair for the birthright. In other words, they were the firstborn. And they were marked with the scarlet thread as those that came out first. The Messiah came through them, the scriptures came through them, they were the chosen people. But then, Pharaoh broke through like the Gentiles, as a son of violence, and got the start of them by that violence which the kingdom of heaven suffers, and attained to the righteousness of which the Jews came short. Yet, he says, when the fullness of time is come, all Israel shall be saved. And it is interesting, if you look in the genealogy in Matthew 1-3, both sons are mentioned, Jews and Gentiles. It says the sons of Tamar by Judah were Pharaz and Zarah. And he says that they're named in the genealogy of our Savior to perpetuate the story as an instance of the humiliation of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, let's conclude this chapter. Why did this genealogy break right into the middle of a narrative about Joseph well for one thing it probably fit chronologically more than likely Judah did leave and go down to this place after Joseph was sold and Judah decided to go off on his own he married a Canaanite woman and only one of her sons survived and it's interesting we find in Numbers 26 20 through 22 when the families there are being numbered and counted Judah's family is listed as Sheila, Fayrez, and Zarah. And it's pronounced, it's Z-E-R-A in numbers. Z-E-R-A-H. Er and Onan are not listed. Another interesting thing is, Tamar is one of the four women named specifically in the genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1-3. If you read Matthew 1.3, which we looked at when we studied Ruth, which is interesting, in the genealogy in Matthew, we find, and Judas beget Theraz, and Zarah of Thamar. And then you go down and you find, and Salmon beget Boaz of Rahab, and Boaz Obed of Ruth. So we see here Tamar the Canaanite, Ruth the Moabitess, and Rahab the harlot of Jericho. And so we see here then Matthew Henry says this was to show the disreputable character of Christ's ancestry. He made himself of no reputation. Christ's worthiness and his worth are personal of himself and not derived from his ancestors. God shows that his choice is of grace and not of merit and that he came into the world to save sinners. He is not ashamed upon their repentance to be allied to them and yet the Jews boasted that they were not a fornication. If you look at John chapter 8 verse 41, you see the Jews in a dialogue with Christ and the Lord says, you do the deeds of your father. And they turned around and said to him, but we're not born of fornication. We have one father, even God. And we say, what piety? Because here's Theraz, beget of Tamar in incest. And so we can take heart when we look at Tamar in the lineage of Christ. Whatever her motives were, the Lord works all things according to His own good pleasure. He does not condone sin. We should not condone sin. But we see here that women from all walks of life are incorporated into the genealogy of Christ to show that he always intended that Jews and Gentiles be in the body of Christ. That's a blessing for those of us who are Gentiles, but also to know that there's no sin that's too vile that he will not forgive. I look at women in the jail every week and I say to them, you have not done something that is so heinous that Christ cannot forgive. He paid the debt for his people. And any sin is sin, if you think about it. Any wrongdoing. But to say that I am too wicked, I am this, I am that, I'm a Canaanite, I'm a Moabite, I'm a harlot, and yet Christ cleanses and forgives what a blessing it is and I hope that we have looked at not just Tamar but at Judah's behavior too there he was a Jew mixed in with the Canaanites but he wanted to invoke a righteous law when it suited his purposes he wanted to look at someone else's sin in a different light than his own and to give his word and not hold himself to it. So we can learn not from just Tamar, but also from Judah. So I hope this has been a blessing. Does anyone have anything that they'd like to share? Any thoughts about it? So let's close in a word of prayer.