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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
Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Support by check or money order may be mailed to
Miles Chapel CME Church
P O Box 132
Fairfield, Al 35064
