HE'S A "BAD" MAN!

Blogging Genesis 38

Judah was bad man.  Not bad meaning “cool and charismatic,”  though Judah was cool and charismatic.  I mean Judah, son of Israel, father of kings, ancestor of Jesus, was a terrible human being.

Judah, with his other siblings seriously conspired to murder his younger brother Jospeh.  But then Judah thought, “What’s in it for me?”

So Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?   Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh.” And his brothers listened (Genesis 37: 26-27)

Judah lied to his father and youngest brother, pushing his dad into a state of deep depression from which he never fully recovered.  Then he moved out, married a pagan woman, and raised two sons ---- badly.  So badly that Judah’s eldest sons grew up so evil that God personally killed them. 

But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord killed him. . . And the thing which [Onan, Judah’s second son] did displeased the Lord; therefore He killed him also (Genesis 38: 7,10)

Of course Judah didn’t acknowledge his son’s sins because then he would’ve had to acknowledge his own.  Judah did what bad men do:  he blamed the woman. 

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.” (Genesis 38:11)

Hold up, now.  Think that through. 

Tamar had already surrendered the security of her father’s house.  Through no sin on her part, she was now a non-virgin, husband-less, childless, and twice-widowed woman in a society where any one of those descriptors left her vulnerable to the point of desperation.   Judah promised to save her from social disgrace and economic doom if she’d just “remain a widow,” just waive the possibility of any other match.  Judah basically convinced Tamar to trust him with her life savings which he promised to give back to her with dividends as soon as that Shelah investment matured in a few years.

The years passed.  Judah became widower/ single-father.  His son became a young man of marriageable age.  Tamar was still a grown woman living with her parents waiting on a wedding date from a fiancé she hadn’t heard from.  And then “she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not given to him as a wife” (Genesis 38:14).

Judah had taken Tamar’s life savings, literally the self/life she had saved on his word, and disappeared.

How was Judah processing the internal turmoil of making such a hard choice?   By hanging out with his pagan friends and picking up prostitutes. 

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 in to you. . .

She said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to 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” (Genesis 38:15-18).

Judah, son of Israel, father of kings, ancestor of Jesus, paid for a hooker on credit.  On credit!

And don’t dismiss this as the impetuous actions of a passionate young man entrapped by a temptress.   

 First of all, he thought this woman was prostitute because her face WAS covered?  That’s like saying “She must be a sl*t because she never flirts with anybody.”   That’s just having a filthy mind. 

 Second of all, he propositioned her.             

And third, remember that Judah had raised 3 sons to adulthood.  He was old enough to be a grandfather.  Judah wasn’t a naiive youth. He was a dirty old man.

But this dirty old man, tippin’ round with that young girl didn’t know that his lady of the evening wasn’t a call girl.  She was Tamar.   Yep.  Judah slept with his daughter-in-law, his sons’ widow, and his youngest son’s betrayed fiancé.   On credit.

Judah had falsely blamed Tamar for his son’s self-destructive lifestyles.  He’d tricked her into closing off all possibility of personal happiness with false promises.  He’d ignored her for years. And he’d conducted his own life with not “questionable” ethics but with a un-questionable absence of ethics.  But when Judah heard that Tamar was pregnant, he was shocked.  Shocked, I say! 

In his “righteous?” indignation, Judah ordered the men of the community, “Bring her out and let her be burned!” (Genesis 38:24)

However, before they could punish this nasty woman, Tamar “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.’ “

Judah had been a BAD man.

At this point, you’re probably re-evaluating Judah’s honored status in the pantheon of holy patriarchs.   If you’re a Bible reader, you might be thinking that the nation of Judah’s sinfulness could be linked to the evil of the nation’s namesake.   If you’re a Bible scholar, you might be contemplating the implications of Jesus as the genetic bearer of Judah’s sins as it applies to the salvific function of the god-man.

Now verse 26.  This is where Judah’s story shifts.  Here’s where he turns his life around and becomes the father of kings and noble ancestor we think of when someone sings of the “Lion of the Tribe of Judah.” 

For the rest of Genesis Judah is honorable, brave, wise, and correct in almost every decision he makes.  He is charismatic in leadership and cool under pressure.  He is the only one of Jacob’s son not born to Rachel to have his father’s genuine respect.  Judah earned that and transmitted those leadership qualities through a thousand years of descendants.  Judah was a bad man. 

Now, notice how you’re already forgetting how bad Judah was.  Feel that anger slip away as you read on for me to give you a moral about the power of repentance in even the most depraved lives.  You’re waiting on a word about how God can take a thug and make him father of kings, how the Lord can take a mess and make a message, how Jesus can transform a hustler-man into a holy man! 

Yeah, O.K.  That’s good, but that’s not what I was about to say.

So, it’s easy to think of Judah as either a good man or a bad one.  As either noble or terrible.  As the man way he used to be OR as the man he became.  But what about both simultaneously? 

Try to make your mind imagine a terrible person who is a good person.  Wait.  Don’t imagine a misunderstood person.  Don’t imagine someone who only seems terrible or only seems good.  Imagine a genuine villain who is a genuine hero.  See how hard that is?

It’s the intellectual equivalent of trying to flip a coin fast enough to see both sides at once. 

Flip.  Bill Cosby the model of positive Black fatherhood that inspired a generation.  Flip.  Bill Cosby the sexual predator.  Flip.  Michael Jackson the artist.  Flip.  Michael Jackson the pedophile.  Flip.  Your hero.  Flip. The next article revealing the evil your hero has done all the year they’ve been doing the things that made them your hero. Flip. Flip.  Flip-flip-flip-flip-flipflipflipfliiiipppp. Spin.

Our minds are conditioned to see into the spin.  We only process one flip at a time, and that’s why we sit next to each other looking at the same stories and seeing opposite truths. 

Judah was a bad, bad man.

Most people are.   

So while you try to see both sides of the next story, take these 3 lessons:

1.   Repent or you’ll never realize your potential. 

The Messiah could’ve been born to ANY son of Jacob-Israel.  The honor passed to Judah after Judah confessed his sins, repaired Tamar’s reputation, and turned from his evil ways.  

If you’re living in your sin you are not living into the legacy God could give you. 

2.  Salvation eternally removes God’s judgment from your future.  Salvation does NOT retroactively remove earthly consequences from your past.      

Judah got right but his two sons stayed dead.

God promises to heal the wounds you sustained, not the wounds you caused.

3.  Time’s up for pew pimpin’.

Judah’s hypocrisy enslaved a young man and nearly ended an innocent woman’s life but Judah was always safe. 

We’ve historically acted like saving the church requires us to protect bad bad men.  Maybe the salvation of a dying church depends on protecting them young girls.

Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram. Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon. Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, ⁶ and Jesse begot David the king.

God chose Tamar to be the mother of kings and the ancestor of Jesus. 

Church, let’s try harder to see into the spin.  Let’s be less inclined to protect our heroes by burning their victims and/or side-chicks before we consider the evidence.   Let’s try harder to consider the possibility that just maybe our hero and her villain could be the same. 

--Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama. He writes a blog called A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

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