Our scripture text today, Genesis chapter 38. Genesis chapter 38, hear now the word of God. So it came to pass at that time that Judah departed from his brothers and visited a certain Adulamite whose name was Hira. And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua, and he married her and went into her. So she conceived and bore a son, and he called his name Ur. And she conceived again and bore a son, and she called his name Onan. And she conceived yet again and bore a son, and called his name Shelah. He was at Kezib when she bore him. Then 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 killed him. And Judah said to Onan, Go into your brother's wife and marry her, and raise up an heir to your brother. But Onan knew that the heir would not be his, and it came to pass when he went into his brother's wife, that he emitted on the ground, lest he should give an heir to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased the Lord, therefore he killed him also. Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, remain a widow in your father's house till my son Shelah is grown. For he said, lest he also die like his brothers. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house. Now in the process of time, the daughter of Shelah, Judah's wife, died, and Judah was comforted and went up to his sheep shearers at Timnah, he and his friend Hira the Adulamite. And it was told Tamar, saying, Look, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep. So she took off her widow's garments, covered herself with a veil and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place which was on the way to Timnah. For she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not given to him as a wife. When Judah saw her, he thought she was a harlot because she had covered her face. Then he turned to her by the way and said, please let me come into you, for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. So she said, what will you give me that you may come into me? And he said, I will send a young goat from the flock. So she said, will you give me a pledge till you send it? Then he said, what pledge shall I give you? So she said, your signet and cord and your staff that is in your hand. Then he gave them to her and went into her and she conceived by him. So she arose and went away and laid aside her veil and put on the garments of her widowhood. And Judah sent the young goat by the hand of his friend, the Adulamite, to receive his pledge from the woman's hand, but he did not find her. Then he asked the men of that place saying, Where is the harlot who is openly by the roadside? And they said, there was no harlot in this place. So he returned to Judah and said, I cannot find her. Also, the men of the place said, there was no harlot in this place. Then Judah said, let her take them for herself, lest we be shamed. For I sent this young goat and you have not found her. And it came to pass, about three months after, that Judah was told, saying, Tamar, your daughter-in-law has played the harlot. Furthermore, she is with child by harlotry. So Judah said, bring her out and let her be burned. When she was brought out, she sent to her father-in-law, saying, by the man to whom these belong, I am with child. And she said, please determine whose these are, the signet and cord and staff. So Judah acknowledged them and said, she has been more righteous than I because I did not give her to Sheila, my son. And he never knew her again. Now it came to pass, at the time for giving birth, that, behold, twins were in her womb. And so it was, when she was giving birth, that the one put out his hand, and the midwife took a scarlet thread and bound it on his hand, saying, this one came out first. Then it happened, as he drew back his hand, that his brother came out unexpectedly, and she said, how did you break through? This breach be upon you. Therefore, his name was called Perez. Afterward, his brother came out, who had the scarlet thread on his hand, and his name was called Zerah. So for the reading of God's word, amen. You may be seated. Brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, last week we looked through Genesis 37. And we noted that when we come to Genesis 37, to the end of the book, to chapter 50, we have this long section, this long narrative, which kind of stands together as a unit in the book of Genesis. And we noted that Joseph features very prominently in this section of the book, and that some have called this the Joseph story, perhaps the Joseph narrative. And so much of that is true. But as you're reading through this long text of scripture, Genesis 37 to 50, you'll notice that Joseph is not the only prominent character in this section. There's also the character of Judah. So this is better called, in my opinion, the Joseph and Judah narrative, the Joseph and Judah story. And so, for example, if you're reading through this and you finally get to the end, Genesis 49, as Jacob is giving these blessings to his sons, which of Jacob's sons receives the messianic blessing? You'll see it's not Joseph, but you'll read in Genesis 49.10, the scepter shall not depart from Judah. So then if you've been reading through this portion of scripture and not paying careful attention, that might take you by surprise. So then you might wanna step back and kind of rewind. Go back to Genesis 37, read it again, and notice Judah. So whereas last week we saw God's way with Joseph in Genesis 37, here we're gonna see God's way with Judah and begin to see why it is that Judah falls in the line of Christ And this really helps us to make sense of this chapter in general. As all of you just noticed, this is a chapter that is filled with disgusting and gross sin. And you might ask the question, why is a chapter like this even in the Bible? Why are such gross and disgusting acts even recorded for us? Is this just part of a certain patriarch's history that Moses has included in Genesis just because it happened? Or is it there for a bigger reason? Is it there? Because it is through a chapter like this that, so to speak, appears to just interrupt Joseph's story as we read all these years about Judah's life. Do we not see here that God is doing something special? This chapter is certainly not out of place. It belongs here. God is doing something, and God is working with Judah. in this chapter. As a little bit of brief recap, and this will be helpful to you, remember who Jacob's oldest sons are. He has Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. As you read through the text, you will see how Reuben disqualifies himself as being this special heir, this firstborn inheritance if you will, who might be expected to receive this messianic blessing to be in the line of Christ. Reuben disqualifies himself. You see this as well with Simeon and Levi in the chapter that comes before that. We're talking Genesis 35 and Genesis 34, and I'll get to some of that later. And so now it falls, so to speak, to Judah. And as you read through this chapter and see Judah's gross sin, you might think, well, Judah has disqualified himself as well. However, the Lord works in Judah. And it appears to us that the Lord redeems him, and it is through Judah that the Christ will come. So in this text, Genesis 38, as we see God's way with Judah, with the Lord's help, we're going to unfold this with a few notes of exposition, then of doctrine, and then of application. Genesis 38. So for some points of exposition, how can we walk through this text? What are some ways to divide it and to pull things out from the text? Well, firstly, see that God deals with Judah in terms of his sons. First of all, in Genesis 38, verses 1 through 11, note how Judah loses his sons. In verses 1 through 5, we note Judah's wife and their sons, how Judah takes his wife and then she bears him these sons. In the beginning of the text, we notice how Judah departs from his brothers. Now, what's interesting about this, that he departs from his brothers? Well, we already noted in chapter 37 that these brothers departed from Israel. They departed from Jacob. So they already left the place and the person where they could expect God's blessing. They had separated themselves from Him. And it appears now that this might not even be enough for Judah, but it looks like he might be separating himself from those that are already separated, living far from them and even dwelling among pagans. We don't necessarily know Judah's reasons for doing this. Perhaps he thought he would have better land for his animals, perhaps as Lot did in Genesis 13. Perhaps he couldn't bear to be with his brothers and be reminded of the way that he betrayed Joseph. Or if he did come back with his brothers to be with his father, maybe he couldn't bear to look his dear father in the face and know that he had the secret key to his father's grief. He was mourning over the death, so he thought of his son, Joseph, knowing what he did to him. I also want to note as we look at verse 1, it says that Judah departed from his brothers. The literal Hebrew has the idea or is the word of he went down or he descended. He descended from his brothers as he went down into this place of Canaan. There might not be much there that meets the eye, but this is a certain phrase that occurs through Genesis and at least one other point in the Old Testament that's used with Egypt. When people go down in Genesis, you can almost expect that they're going down to Egypt. You see this in Genesis 12, when Abraham goes down to Egypt. In Genesis 26, when God is speaking to Isaac, he tells him not to go down to Egypt. Genesis 46, where it says, where God tells Jacob he may go down to Egypt. And even in the previous chapter, in chapter 37, verse 25, it says that the Midianites carried Joseph down to Egypt. So it appears here just with the language that's being used, that Judah is described at least as going down to a bad place. A place where he's going to need redemption. A place where you must expect the Lord to work if any redemption, if any good thing is now gonna come out of Judah of any significance. This is exactly what we're gonna see. Notice as we look at verse two that Judah sees this woman and then he takes her, he marries her. And these two words that appear together, saw and took, indicate to us lust. These two words are used together in the Old Testament at several times to indicate an unlawful lust and desire for something. You see it first, I believe, with Eve. How is it described? The way that Eve sins, how she falls. She saw the fruit of the tree and she took it and ate it. We see it later with Achan in Joshua chapter seven, how he sees these goods of Jericho and he takes them. Genesis chapter six, you see that the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were beautiful. They took them. See as well in Genesis chapter 12 how it was how Sarah was seen to be beautiful and then Pharaoh takes her. And then also the last one I'll give here that I'm aware of is with Samson in Judges 14. He sees a woman and he takes this woman as his wife. What's interesting is that this is in the exact same city as these events here, the city of Timna. It appears that Samson is replicating Judah's sin. He's going to this exact place he sees and he takes lust. So after we see Judah's wife and their sons, verses 1 through 5, then we see Judah's sons and their wife, if you will, in verses 6 through 11. And as you read through this, you will see this certain pattern of what you do see in the Old Testament, this practice that God expects of what we now call leveret marriage, this concept in the Old Testament that God ordained, where if the firstborn does not have any children with his wife, then she would be expected to be given to the secondborn, and that he would raise up an offspring through her, that would carry on his elder brother's name, his legacy, his inheritance, so that the elder brother's line, his inheritance, would not be cut off. So we see that. We see that Judah does not give Tamar to his youngest son, Shelah. although he is supposed to. Then we see the sin of Onan, and Onan's sin here is multifaceted. You can't just say there's one thing that he's doing wrong here. There are multiple things that he is doing wrong. For one, you see his sin of envy against his brother, of how he is hating his brother. He will not raise up an heir for his elder brother, which is his God-given right, and Onan's God-given duty. He is content for his older brother's name, for his legacy to be wiped off the face of the earth. This is a duty in the Old Testament. It's actually rather important. Just listen as God would later enshrine this duty into law in Deuteronomy 25. Deuteronomy 25 verse 5. not be married to a stranger outside the family, her husband's brother shall go into her, take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. And it shall be that the firstborn son which she bears will succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. But still reading Deuteronomy 25. But if the man does not want to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate to the elders and say, my husband's brother refuses to raise up a name to his brother in Israel. He will not perform the duty of my husband's brother. Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him. But if he stands firm and says, I do not want to take her, then his brother's wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, spit in his face, and answer and say, so shall it be done to the man who will not build up his brother's house. So we see that legislation later in the Old Testament that God would enshrine herein to law, that there is this expectation and we see how serious this is, how serious it is in this case for Onan not to do this thing. And part of the reason that this is serious is in this Old Testament system, in my understanding, the inheritance of the firstborn was connected to the promise of the land and having an inheritance to live in in the land of Canaan. The land of Canaan, the promised land, being a symbol, a type of heaven. So to be cut off from the land, to be cast out from the land, would be the theological equivalent of being cut off from God's promises, of being cut off from heaven, so to speak. That's the theological message that that's going to give. So we see more layers to Onan's sin. We also see his sin of being unloving to Tamar. of how he despises Tamar and not giving her this certain pleasure that a wife deserves, but also, and more importantly, and not giving her a son, which is now her right. And Tamar is a woman who has this God-given desire to be a mother, to bear children. And it's Onan's right at this point to raise up a child with her, but he refuses this right to her. Then also the fact that what Onan does here is unnatural. And we're going to come to that later as we give some application. But we see Onan's sins and these multifaceted layers about them. But here's perhaps the greatest sin. I think this is Onan's greatest sin in what he does. And it regards God's plan to raise up a Messiah. Now, what is the first promise of Christ's coming that you see in scripture? And you're gonna say Genesis 3.15, where the Lord promises that there will be a seed of the woman that will crush the head of the seed of the serpent. So this is the first promise of Christ. So from the get go, if you will, from the very beginning, we are expecting that this Christ is going to come through what means, but through the means of this seed. And so we know already that this promise has been narrowed down to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob. And as far as we know now, you have Reuben, Simeon, and Levi that have been disqualified from this promise. So it appears now it falls to the next oldest in line, which is Judah. And then Judah has a son whose name is Onan, who's to raise up a son for his elder brother, Ur. So you can expect now, if nothing else happens, that this is the line through which the Messiah would come, as God's promisier of Christ would be through this seed. But then what does Onan do with his seed, if you will allow me? But he wastes it. So I hope you see the connection here between Onan's sin and the promise of this Christ who was to come, and how Onan appears to be disregarding this great promise, instead of looking to be the one and hoping now to be the one through whom Christ would come. It is almost as if he is now wishing and casting Christ aside, the Messiah aside, wishing that he would never even be born. And guess what the Lord does? The Lord kills him. It's a just punishment, it's a just vengeance on Onan, especially when we see the grievous heinousness of his sin, and as we can even expect that Onan now would be standing in this line of lineage to Christ. One thing I don't want you to miss here is Judah's personal blows that he sustains when he loses these sons. Don't forget, in this text, we're seeing how God deals with Judah, God's way with Judah. Judah sustains these powerful blows of losing his own children. And note here how God is treating Judah as Judah treated his father. So Judah robbed his father of his beloved son. And now Judah has lost his own sons. Judah appears, even amid all of his problems and his great sins, not to be a callous father, but a father who truly loves his son. And we see this with his third son, Shelah, who doesn't give Tamar to him. Why? Because he doesn't want him to die also. So we see in this way that Judah sustains these powerful blows from the hand of the Lord. I think these are gonna be some of the first seeds of God's dealing with him and turning his life around. So we see how God deals with Judah with his sons, and then we come to how God deals with Judah with his wife. Verses 12 through 23, now Judah loses his wife. Not only that, he's deceived by his son's wife and he sins in prostitution. All of these sins that are connected to him now not having a wife. They are in some way connected to the realm of marriage or what you'd expect to happen in marriage, I should say, if that's clear. So in verses 12 to 14, we see Tamar's plan that she hatches. And of course it's sinful what she does. But she is acting sinfully out of a God-given good desire to be a mother, to have a son. If she couldn't be a wife and a mother through Judah's sons, well, at this point, she is going to sinfully seek this through Judah, with this void, not having a wife, that he now has in his life. And of course, it appears that Tamar knows the kind of man that Judah is. She knows his lust. So she goes to this place and hatches this plan. I will note in verse 14 where it says that she sat in an open place which was on the way to Timnah. The Hebrew for an open place might literally be translated as the door of the eyes. The door of the eyes. which suggests to us, perhaps, that this is where Judah's opening of the eyes is going to happen. It is through this door. And, of course, at the end of the text, at least in a certain respect, Judah now sees things clearly when he says, she has been more righteous than I. So Tamar's plan, Judah falls into it in verses 15 through 19, when he lies, when he sleeps with his daughter-in-law, Tamar. Now, you would think this is, at least on one level, a human level, very strange that he wouldn't recognize who she is, not what her face is covered with a veil, but he doesn't even recognize her voice. And does this remind you of anything else that happens in this story? Perhaps that happens with this family. Maybe Judah's dad, maybe Jacob, who unknowingly married the wrong sister. He didn't know this until the next morning. So we see something similar that happens with Jacob now happening with Judah. And also, Yes, and so now Jacob's son is deceived similarly with this woman, lying with this woman whom he should have known. You would have expected that. And then you see Judah's inability to make things right on his own, in his own plan, in a sinful way, verses 20 through 23. We have another pattern here. You can think all the way back to Judah's grandfather, Isaac. Now he was deceived, was he not, as an old man. He had Jacob and Esau. And how does Jacob deceive him? He uses a goat. He makes a cloak out of this goat and Jacob deceives Isaac. But then you also see Judah doing this with his father, Jacob. So as we saw last week, as Jacob deceived his father with a goat, now Judah deceives his father, Jacob, with a goat when he dips Joseph's coat in the goat's blood and presents this goat to his father. But then now we see something similar happening with Judah himself as he is deceived with this young goat. So we have God's dealing with Judah and Judah losing his sons in this way in which Judah now loses his wife, which by the way, he loses her at an early age, at this premature age, as he still has plenty of life ahead of him. You'd expect you would have plenty of life ahead of her, but now she is gone. Similar perhaps in the way that Jacob lost his wife, Rachel, prematurely. So then you have in verses 24 through 26, Judah's moment of realization. You have this great climactic moment where his sin is now publicly exposed. And publicly exposed in a humiliating way. And we can hear look through, just look at Judah's sins that are in these three verses, 24 to 26, then also see some signs of transformation. What are some of Judah's sins that we see right here? Well, we can see that he himself engaged in prostitution, which we know, of course, is a terribly grotesque, perverse sin. But now that's coming out here in the open. There's another similarity with Onan, his son, as we see kind of some of these patterns with fathers being passed down to the sons, even sometimes these sins of the fathers being replicated and reappearing in the sons. So with Onan we saw this unlawful means of enjoying sexual pleasure and we see that with his father Judah who engages in prostitution. And we also see Judah's hypocrisy, his hypocritical bravado, this display of zeal that we see here. And actually in this, I think we see that Judah might be about to commit one of Onan's errors. And we noted one of Onan's sins is that he would, as it were, prevent the Messiah's line, prevent the Lord from ever being born through his own seed. But here, you see with Judah that he has his own son. His son is going to be named Perez, and we know as we read through later scripture that he will indeed stand in the line of Christ, that Christ will come through him. And now Tamar is pregnant with this very son of Judah. And what does Judah want to do with this son? Does he show any concern for the life of the one person who is innocent in this event? Not at all. He is willing, he's content for Tamar, along with this innocent son, whom we know, Judah doesn't know this at this point, but this son, who is going to be this child of the covenant, so to speak, through whom the covenant promises of Christ will flow. However, unlike Onan, God stops him. There is intervention, and God keeps him from committing this terrible sin of murdering this innocent person. You see, those sins, also Judah's sin of not giving Tamar to Shelah, which itself was a sin. Judah recognizes that this was a sin in this part of scripture. And here in this moment of realization, we see some of Judah's great sins, but also a few signs of Judah's transformation of God working in his heart. And where do we see this? I noted already that the place that's called an open place back in verse 14 can literally be translated an opening of or excuse me the door of the eyes or maybe the opening of the eyes which I think we're beginning to see her. But you also have this phrase that sounds pretty curious and perhaps unexpected where it says that Judah did not know her again. Now Obviously, this is true. It's going to be obvious once he knows this. In my opinion, he's not going to commit this sin again. And so what's the point in writing this? What's the point in this phrase? If not, that it suggests a heart transformation of some kind in Judah. Suggests to us this is indeed a turning point, maybe the turning point in Judah's life and the way that God deals with him. I want you to notice this as well. This is important, where you have Judah's symbols that come back to him. His signet, his cord, and his staff. And at least two of these are significant as kingly items. His signet and his staff. If you were just to do a word search in the Old Testament for this word for signet, you will see how it is laden with kingly imagery. In Genesis 41, this might be the next time that you see this word, it's Joseph that has this signet that he's received from Pharaoh, with this royal authority. We see it with the king as well, or perhaps the queen, I'm not really sure. In 1 Kings 21, it appears again. It appears in Daniel 6, Jeremiah 22, and Haggai 2, towards the end of the Old Testament story, Haggai 2, Zerubbabel is called the Lord's signet. So this is a term that is so laden with kingly imagery, and this is when Judah received this, he receives all this back. You also have the staff that he receives back, and this staff is similar to what? To what kingly item? to the scepter. And actually in Psalm 110, verse 2, this is the exact same Hebrew word that's used for the rod of the one to whom it says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool. And then in the next verse, it describes his scepter using this same word for a rod. This is a kingly item. And of course, This is what we think of in Genesis 49.10. When we have Jacob's great blessing to his sons and about Judah, he says, the scepter will not depart from Judah. Was the scepter always with Judah? No. Remember how Tamar takes these items with him, and it's at that point where it appears to us as the reader that these are symbolic of him disqualifying himself. And as Tamar walks away with these items of identification that Judah has, it's as if she takes Judah's rights of inheritance, of heirship, of being within the line of Christ with her, and Judah has them no more. But God isn't done with Judah, even though he has committed such great sin, is he? You see that Judah does receive these things back. And then Genesis 49 says, the scepter will not depart, which gets me thinking, yes, these things have now come back to Judah, and now they will never depart again. They will never leave him. So great is the grace of God in a man like Judah. Judah. So then in that part of the text, 24 to 26, we see Judah's moment of realization. And then at the end, verses 27 through 30, you have the conclusion of this great text where you have Judah's blessing. Blessing for the wayward. So this helps us to understand why Judah here gets this whole chapter that interrupts this Joseph story that seems perhaps to some like it shouldn't even be there. But it's important as we read especially through these three verses. And I want you to note in these verses that this is the only birth in this chapter of Judah's heirs that would be through Tamar. Of course, we have his sons Ur, Onan, and Shelah, but there are problems, obviously, with Tamar giving birth earlier in the text. This is the only time where it happens. We expected it before, we didn't have it before, but now we have it. And does this mean anything significant? Well, we can think childbearing itself is a gift from God and children are blessings from the Lord. So that itself might indicate here that there is a blessing that is upon this childbirth. But then also think of this in the context of the patriarch's lineage, as they are expecting for this messianic line, if you will, to continue. I think this as well, to a greater extent, indicates God's blessing on this childbirth. Here's another reason for that. That it appears to imitate, it mimics in a literary way the birth of Jacob and Esau. Because earlier in Genesis you have these two twins who are wrestling in the womb there appears to be some conflict and we know of course Jacob's favored line and as we're reading this text verses 27 through through 30 that might be what we are reminded of it's what I think of at least and if we know that that God has has blessed in that case Jacob one of those sons to be the heir of the Messiah we might expect to see it here as well with these two twins that are within the womb and you see some kind of struggle there as well And of course, we know through later scripture that this son, Perez, is in the line of Christ. I won't turn there, but if you look at Ruth chapter four, you'll see how the book of Ruth ends. And how does it end? With a genealogy, a glorious genealogy. And who is the first name in that genealogy that leads up to the great King David? from whom we know the Christ will come, its parents. It is this son of Judah that is written about, who is the first name mentioned in Ruth chapter four. And also, another reason to look at this great blessing of the Messianic line is if we follow Jacob's rightful offspring, as I noted already. And as I said at the beginning, you have Jacob's oldest sons, Reuben, Levi, and Simeon, who also were born through his first wife, his wife Leah, the only woman that he should have married. And as you go through these sons, chapter 35, Reuben disqualifies himself by going into another one of his father's wives to sin. Simeon and Levi disqualify themselves, chapter 34, wherein unspeakable evil, they massacre an entire city of their males. When Jacob is giving his blessings, chapter 49, he mentions these sins of Reuben, of Simeon, and Levi. And for this reason, they do not receive the inheritance. At least for this reason, they do not. So then this birth narrative suggests to us, as we read verses 27 through 30, that Judah, even though he sinned and he fell, He was redeemed. The Lord redeemed him. And Judah did not end up ultimately in this way, disqualifying himself. So we see Judah in the line of Christ. And last week we looked at Joseph. this great son of Jacob, who is, you can call him a pattern of Christ. And the commentators have noted, as you look through Joseph's life and all these events, how so many of them line up with the events in the life of Christ. But Joseph is not the one through whom Christ will come. It is Judah, in fact. And so we can call Joseph the pattern of kingship, of Christly kingship, and Judah the promise of it. To use a couple terms from a professor of mine, Joseph is the pattern and Judah as the promise. And that takes us, well, now transitioning from our notes of exposition a little bit more briefly to our notes of doctrine, things that we can learn theologically that are connected to this text. And the first one of them is Christ himself. It's Judah as a forerunner of Christ, as one who is in his line, whereas Joseph has a pattern of You can call it pattern of kingship, or perhaps more clearly, I should say, that he is a pattern in his life and his personal work for what you're going to see Christ doing. We see Judah has a promise that the Christ will come through him. And actually, if you're going to read through the rest of scripture, you can do that with a lens to seeing the interplay between these two men, between Joseph and Judah, and the way that God handles and treats both of them. But I'm just going to read one text in which they're both talked about. This is the end of Psalm 78, one of the longest psalms, 72 verses long. It's a psalm of history, and it ends when talking about the Lord's dealings with Joseph and with Judah. End of Psalm 78. Moreover, he rejected the tent of Joseph and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim. Remember, Ephraim is one of Joseph's sons. But he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved, and he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth, which he established forever. He also chose David, his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds. From following the youths that had young, he brought him to shepherd Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance." So God's people, Israel, Jacob, They're being shepherded through David because God chose Judah. It says God rejected the tent of Joseph. As we saw last week, Joseph bears traits of Christ. Joseph was a king, so to speak. He was given second command, second in authority in the greatest nation in the world. Judah was not a king. But kings would come from Judah, which is itself a great blessing. And I wasn't going to give this illustration. I don't want to be distracting here, but I can't help but think of Macbeth, where you have these two friends that are each given a promise. One of them is promised that he will be king. The other one is not promised that he will be king in his life, but his offspring will be king till eight generations, which itself is a great blessing. promise. We see something similar here with Joseph and Judah. Perhaps that's the model for what Shakespeare was doing. I don't know. But anyway, we have how Christ will follow in the line of Judah. As I said, Judah receives these signs of kingship where told his scepter will not depart. But there's another important thing that we see in this Joseph-Judah story and things that we see in Judah. So I mentioned the end in Genesis 49. The scepter does not depart from him. He has the messianic promise. And we've looked at the beginning of this section in chapter 38 in these certain ways in which God is dealing with Judah, perhaps breaking Judah and crushing him. And through all these trials and through the public humiliation and exposure, it appears that it is through this that Judah has a transformed heart. And we see this transformed heart later in the book of Genesis. As you continue to read through this, you will see how Joseph's brothers will then go down to Egypt and Jacob, who's the father of Joseph, does not want to send Benjamin. He feels like he can't afford to lose his favorite son, Benjamin, also a son of his beloved wife, Rachel. What does Judah do? He offers himself to his father in case he should lose Benjamin. He says to his father, if I can remember it correctly, actually, that he will be the one that takes responsibility for Benjamin. And as this professor of mine that I mentioned has said, maybe Jacob never Maybe he always struggled with the story that Judah and his brothers presented to him, the way that they knew the kind of men that they were, how violent they were, the way that they hated Joseph. And perhaps in the back of his mind, from time to time, he wondered if something else actually happened. And perhaps as Judah explains this to his father Jacob, he sees something else in his eyes, something that suggests he's sincere, he truly loves Benjamin. And he lets them go. And then in chapter 44, you have this great moment where Benjamin is found condemned to a life of slavery in Egypt. The exact same thing that happened to Joseph as Joseph sets up this plot here, these things that are going to happen, and he's going to see what his brothers do. So now the exact same fate that befell Jacob's son with Rachel now befalls Benjamin, his other son with Rachel. And how does he act? Does he act in the same way? Is he happy to be rid of this beloved son? No, at this point, Judah is a transformed man. As you read Genesis 44, and I've heard that this is the longest speech in the book of Genesis, uninterrupted speech that's given. It's given by Judah. who stands the gap, if you will, who offers up himself in the place of Benjamin to a life of bitter slavery in Egypt. This is the man who once broke his father's heart, who is now acting on this beloved son's behalf. This is the one, Judah, who once sold his brother into slavery, who now offers himself in slavery for his brother, his brother who was condemned, and he did it to please his father. And now friends, brothers and sisters in the Lord, does this remind you of anyone as we think of one who offered himself for his brother who was condemned in order to please his father? Does it not remind us of the Lord Jesus Christ? Does not a text like this as we read about God's way with Judah remind us of the Lord Jesus Christ? The Lord Jesus was the one who offered himself, who not only put himself forward and said, I am willing, but the one who went through with this offering, the one who suffered the wrath of God, not simply a lifetime of bitter slavery in Egypt, but who drank down the infinite wrath of God and atonement for his people in their place. So Judah here models for us the Lord Jesus Christ giving himself up in atonement in place for his brother. So in a text like this, a text like Genesis 37, excuse me, 38, Of all things, we see God's way with Judah, which is going to lead to such a marvelous picture of what the Lord Jesus Christ will do in atoning for his people. So we see Christ here modeled in Judah. We also see, perhaps you don't see this exactly in the text, but it's related to this text, the virgin birth. So why do I say this? So Christ was born of a virgin. He was born sinless. He has to be born of a virgin, first of all, to be truly God. This is the way in which God ordained that he would take to himself human nature. And also being sinless, he can atone for our sin. It's a wonderful, marvelous miracle, and one that we can grasp from Scripture and understand, although we can't really fully comprehend this great mystery of the Incarnation. And why do I say that this kind of touches on the text here? Well, in the text here, we have these sons the son Perez, who is born of immorality, he is born of impurity, and yet he is in the line of Christ. This reminds me of what we see later in the messianic lineage with Judah's greater son, David. And who is David's heir? The one who will also be a forerunner of Christ in his line. It's Solomon. And how does he beget Solomon? Also through sexual immorality, adultery with Bathsheba. But this is not how the Lord Jesus Christ was born. In contrast to these men's sin, he was born in utmost purity. And of course, we do not deny the perfect chastity and purity that there is between a husband and wife who have children together. That's perfect and good. But here we have a virgin birth. As the person of Jesus Christ, God the Son takes to himself a human nature. And as Luke 1.35 says, he is conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary. So even here, and this is by way of contrast, we can see this great doctrine of the virgin birth. And so when we come to, I think it's John 8, and we can see how utterly blasphemous is the suggestion that people give to Jesus when they say, we were not born of sexual immorality. And for a true believer in Christ who loves him, how utterly repugnant is the suggestion that this is where our Lord comes from. It should utterly rivet us that the one who we see transfigured on Mount Transfiguration, the Lord of Glory, is spoken of in this way. It's evil. What can we also pull out from this text? We can see this, that God judges sin. We see God judging sin with er and with Onan. These are not isolated incidents in which men sin and the Lord takes their lives. And we don't know how many times the Lord does this in the times of Scripture or even in today's day. The Lord doesn't tell us that. But Scripture does teach us this fact, that the Lord judges sin. We see this with the flood. The Lord acts in what appears to be this marvelous, supernatural way. to judge the world of their sin. We see it as well with the Exodus, as Pharaoh's armies are drowned in this miraculous way. In Acts chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira, this is a New Testament text by the way, they sin in lying to the Holy Ghost. The Lord takes their life. First Corinthians 11, it says that some people have become sick and some have died because of their abuse of the Lord's supper. This happens in the New Testament. I can expect that there are times after that, maybe even today, where the Lord acts in a similar way. We don't necessarily know. The Lord doesn't tell us that explicitly now. But one thing that we can take away from that is to be warned that the Lord judges sin. It is the Lord's right to give life and to take life away. And then fourthly here is a point of doctrine, look at God's providence. So look at such a chapter that is filled with such gross and disgusting sin and see the great things that the Lord brings out of this. There is an exceedingly ugly situation here and yet the Lord works through this to provide a glorious outcome in the midst of all the ugliness and all the dismal circumstances and all the sin So think about in your own life. We know that we go through trials. Every Christian who's lived for some time knows this and every Christian knows the struggle with sin and how perhaps even other people's sins play into their lives and kind of seem to throw things out of whack to make situations ugly and dismal. And you might not know why God decreed these things to happen, but you can know that God did decree these things to happen and that the Lord will be glorified through these things, through things that you are going through in your own life. Perhaps not such an ugly situation as with Judah, but indeed the Lord will be glorified. There is no way in which he will not receive glory. There's no way for that to happen. Lastly here, let us note a few points of application. Here's one of them. Do not separate yourself from the people of God, from the church. We saw what happened in Genesis 37. Joseph's brothers depart from Israel. Literally, Jacob renamed Israel. The sin that they then commit. We see what happens with Judah here. He departs from his brothers. Certainly, he departs from his father, Israel, as well. And so, for us as Christians today, We have the covenant people of God, the church, and we know that this is where the Lord has commanded us to be on the Lord's day, to be in his house, the church, that we are to be a part of this body. So there is a sin to avoid in separating yourself from the people of God. This is in itself sinful. And we also see kind of added on to that how separating yourself leads to bad influences. As you read through Genesis 38, you never hear the name of Judah's wife, interestingly enough. She's the daughter of Shua, a man who is apparently this Canaanite. And from all we know, Shua and his daughter are pagans. You have these bad influences, which are probably going to be carried on and replicated in his sons. Judah himself, a terribly sinful man, his wife probably as well. A person whose name is mentioned is that of Hiram. He's mentioned, I think, three times. And in each of these times, Judah's making a terrible mistake. He's mentioned at the beginning of the text when he departs from his brothers. He goes down to this place and he befriends this Adulamite whose name is Hira. And that's the way that the text begins with this man who's evidently a bad influence. We see it again in verse 12 or in verse 13. As Judah makes this decision, which will turn out to be a terrible choice, to go up with Hira to shear his sheep. Of course, that in itself might not be wrong, but it ends up in a terrible circumstance, and it seems like Hira is with him during this time. He's mentioned again, and he sends this young goat, if I remember the text correctly, yeah, in verse 20, he sends this goat through him. So now Hira seems to be complicit in Judah's sin. He's playing along with it. So separating yourself from the people of God is itself sinful. It leads to having bad influences in your life. Perhaps also bad influences can cause you, can lead you to go away from the people of God. And then once you do that, other sins begin to unfold. So of course you've heard that there is pleasure in sin for a season, a verse that's taken from Hebrews chapter 11 where it says that Moses chose against the fleeting pleasure of sin to suffer reproach with the people of God, the reproach of Christ. So there is in some sense a pleasure that is within sin, but also sin makes you terribly irrational. We see how these sins multiply, how Judah gives these precious items of of his own personal identification instead of a goat, which would have been much less valuable. And he commits this sin, this one-time act, for just the pleasure of the moment. So, his first application, do not separate yourself from the people of God, the church. Here's another application, and that is one of sexual purity. The scripture teaches purity in being faithful to your spouse and not giving such marital love to any other. So what does purity look like? And the application will be different based on where you are in life. So what if you're married? There is purity in marriage, purity of intimacy for your spouse. This is actually a duty. Hopefully it shouldn't be seen and viewed as a duty, but as a pleasure. But indeed, this is what scripture teaches. This is purity of marriage. What about for those who are single? There is purity as, well, it looks different. This is a purity of abstinence. This is God's call of self-denial to those who are single. This is what purity looks like outside of marriage. And now if I can speak to men in the room and give an application in a manner that is both, what's the word I'm looking for? It's sensitive and also direct. This regards those who are inside or outside of marriage. Recall the way that Onan wasted his seed. We can be clear here. Let's not, being around the bush. What Onan does here is a sin. It is a sin for us as well, so we should avoid Onan's sin. It is a sin to purposefully enjoy this pleasure, not enjoy it together with a spouse. Scripture teaches this. I think that's Onan's sin here in verse chapter 38. And also, conscience bears witness to this as well. So even without the Bible, even without a chapter such as this, you men know that it is a sin. This applies for single men, men who are not married, who don't have this certain outlet, if you will, for this pleasure. The Lord has called single men to this great degree of self-denial, and also to find contentment being single. As Paul said, we should also be able to say and strive to say that in all things I have learned to be content, can learn contentment to enjoy our relationship, our fellowship with the Lord. This is what God would have for men like me in this case. To sin for married men as well And a sin I believe that is more heinous and more aggravated because married men do have this outlet, this channel for such a marital sexual pleasure. And so it is an uncomfortable subject, an uncomfortable sin to discuss. Perhaps a sin, I certainly believe a sin that is besetting our world today and probably very prevalent even in the church at large. But it is for that reason that it should be addressed delicately and directly and one that we can expect as regenerated Christians to overcome by the grace of God. You can also avoid Onan's other sins, and his other sins seem to be even more heinous. And let's not miss these either, of how he despises his own brother. He wants his own name to be wiped off from the face of the earth. He's totally fine with that. His name, his legacy, that was there by right. So there's an application as well to show love for your brother. even your natural brother, your brother by birth. Look at the way that he is unloving. He despises Tamar. And so husbands should want to give their own wives children and this pleasure that is within marriage. There is also the sin of despising the messianic the messianic lineage that Onan commits as well, in a way sinning and despising the Messiah himself, if he even knew about the Christ that was to come. And hopefully he did. Hopefully Judah would have told him. And so for Christians today, for the world today, we see the Christ that has come looking in the past with far more clarity. So let us not despise him. Let us love him. Let us rejoice in the fact that he has been born, that he has come to the earth. What a marvelous truth the incarnation is. We spoke a few minutes ago about the virgin birth. Here's a final application for us. and it regards trials and hardship. And I spoke about something relevant to this a few minutes ago as we spoke of God's providence. But through trials and hardship, we have a lesson. What does Romans 8, 28 say? That God works all things together for good to those who love him. And so through all of your trials and all of your hardships that you face in life, we have a promise. As those who love God, that some way, somehow, God is working that for His glory, and He is working it for your personal good. So many other things could be said on a passage like this. We see God's wonderful grace in the way that He deals with Judah. More importantly, we see the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the greatest gift that's ever been given, the Lord Jesus Christ, God himself, sent from heaven to poor, needy sinners. We see how he is portrayed in scripture, and the way that you work with unruly servants at times, the way you work with men like Judah, You work such great things for the sake, for the glory of the Lord Jesus. So Lord, we pray that we would behold the glory of Jesus, that it would be demonstrated to us in the scripture that we read. We would behold him, look to him, hear him, and love him. Forgive us of our many sins, dear Lord. We pray that you'd send us out with your blessing, with a renewed desire to live holy lives to you as we seek to imitate our great Savior, the Lord Jesus, who is faithful in all that you have appointed him and all that he did. He was humbled, he was humiliated and exalted. He has offered himself on behalf of the sins of his people. Dear Lord, we pray that you would help us. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, brother.