The "Soap Opera" Story of Judah and Tamar

             The story of Judah and Tamar is one that at first makes you question how it ever ended up in the Bible.  It reads like a soap opera, but it becomes a beautiful picture of how God uses ordinary people and redeems their mistakes for His glory. Judah, one of the Israel tribal leaders, ultimately became the ancestor of Jesus, the Messiah.  However, in our minds, his story in Genesis 38 makes him unworthy of that honor.  God had another idea.

            Judah had two sons who married, in succession, a Canaanite woman, Tamar.  Each son died before producing an heir.  Judah had one son left and to avoid marrying him off to this “black widow”, he made excuses.  That’s where the trickery and deceit began.

            When Tamar realized that her father-in-law had no intention of allowing another of his sons to marry her, she took matters into her own hands.  Learning that Judah would be traveling near her, she dressed as a prostitute, concealing her identity, and waited for him to walk by.  When Judah saw her, he seduced her, offering to send her a young goat as payment.  Tamar demanded tangible proof to seal the deal.  He gave her his seal, cord, and staff as a promise that he would provide the goat.

            Later, when it became clear that Tamar was pregnant, Judah found out.  Not knowing that the child was his, he demanded that she be burned for her sins.  Then, Tamar sent him a note, saying, “I am pregnant by the man who owns these,” (Genesis 38: 25), referring to his seal, cord, and staff.  Only then did Judah acknowledge that she was more righteous than him (verse 26).  Tamar gave birth to twins, one of whom, Perez, became the ancestor of Christ.

            As you can see, this story has all the makings of a good soap opera—death, deceit, lies, trickery, righteous indignation, and hypocrisy.  So, what can we learn from this “soap opera”?

God uses ordinary, sinful people to fulfill His purposes.  Since all have sinned, all of Jesus’ earthly ancestors were sinners.  Judah and Tamar were no different.

Our sins will find us out.  Most of us have probably heard our mothers tell us that at one time or another, and how true it is.  We may pull the wool over someone’s eyes but don’t ever think that you can deceive God!

Lying and scheming are never good options in any situation. It’s generally best to face our difficult situations head-on.  If Tamar had sat down with Judah in the beginning, perhaps they could have reached a solution.  We’ll never know since neither of them made that a priority.

We are all sinners and we’ve probably all had those moments when we at least considered lying and/or deceit to get us out of a mess of our own making.  God knows not just what we do and speak.  He knows what’s in our hearts.  Acknowledging and confessing our sins is always the better way.  After all, I don’t think any of us want to be a star in a soap opera! ­­­­­­­­­­­

Genesis 1 – 30

Proverbs 14: 8, 9