Date: 29 September 2024, 9.30 am
Speaker: Ps Daniel Tan
Sermon Text: Genesis 38:1-30
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TRANSCRIPT
Introduction
Blessed Sunday to everyone.
I’ve been part of this 4-2-1 pastors fellowship for the past 10 years. It has been a tremendous blessing for me. I’ve got prayer partners who hold me accountable and also who are a great ministry resource.
I’ve been particularly impressed by the life of one of my accountability partners.
He has shared how he came from a very dysfunctional family, his early life, included gang activities and also substance addiction. Yet by the grace of God, he is now pastoring and impacting lives for the Gospel.
He has been a source of very amusing and interesting stories during our fellowship time too. About how inmates spend their time in prison.
Describing for us how they communicate through the toilet bowls, the fact that they even bet on when the airplane will fly over the prison from Changi Airport or which ants will climb the wall faster.
But most importantly, he is living proof that no one is too far from the love and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He is living proof that God can use the second half of your life to be a wonderful channel of His blessing to others.
He is living proof that God can redeem our painful past.
The blessings of his rough and colourful past is that unlike me, he is able to speak many dialects and his tattoos have even been used as a Gospel conversation starting point.
Now, for the rest of group, we are not too far behind. We struggle being liars, who have been selfish, and prideful men who have rejected God and His ways often.
Is anyone to far gone that God cannot save? That God cannot redeem?
If a Judah or a Tamar were to be part of your family, or their lives have similarities to your past or even present, is it a step too far for God’s grace to reach?
Genesis 38 is in the bible to remind you and I, that no one is too far from the gracious hand of God.
It is precisely because of who we are that we need to receive God’s grace. God’s undeserved favour.
Genesis 38 also shows us how deprave humans can be. And that in the light of the Gospel, God’s grace can help us to live otherwise.
Moreover, the contrast to Judah in Genesis 38 is Joseph in Genesis 39.
So, today’s sermon is to be the backdrop and the contrast when we journey through Genesis 39 about Jospeh and his interaction with Potiphar’s wife.
God’s judgement over Judah’s deliberate disobedience
Let’s begin with looking at Judah. I submit for our consideration that God’s grace in the brokenness of Judah was through His judgement and redemptive discipline.
Gen 38:1 It happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and turned aside to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. 2 There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua. He took her and went in to her.
Gen 38 begins on an ominous note. We see that Judah left the covenant community and deliberately and intentionally sought companionship of Hirah who is a native of a Canaanite city, Adullam.
And from that companionship, he is introduced to Canaanite women.
Gen 24:2 And Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he had, “Put your hand under my thigh, 3 that I may make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell,
Gen 28:1 Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, “You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women
Because we are familiar with Gen 24 and 28, alarm bells should be ringing. Judah is doing something that both Abraham and Jacob did not want for their sons. The sons who are in the line of God’s promise.
Just as recently as Genesis 36, 2 chapters ago, we see how terrible it was for the dynasty of Esau, when he married outside the covenant community.
Moses is recording that Judah was deliberately disobedient to the revealed will of God towards marriage.
This is the first compromise we see of Judah.
The next compromise from Judah was not allowing Tamar to have children to sustain the family of the first born Er.
This is the Levirate law that we see in Deut 25:5.
Deut 24:5 “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her.
If Judah had followed the law, then he would have married his third son Shelah to Tamar when Shelah had grown up.
Judah must have been fearful that Tamar was a poisoned women for his first two sons died when they were married to her.
So he disregarded his responsibilities as the head of the household. He did not follow up on the levirate arrangement:
Gen 38:14 For she (Tamar) saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him in marriage.
So, Judah’s marriage to a Canaanite resulted in him rejecting the practices of the faith.
But there is one final compromise that his marriage led him to.
This is to embrace the practices of the pagans. Now, not only was Judah not practicing the faith of his upbringing, now, he is actively participating in the faith of his wife.
We are told that after Judah lost his wife, it was the sheep-shearing time.
Now the sheep-shearing time was a festive time then. And for the Canaanites, there was ritual fornication with temple prostitutes.
This is because they believe that by doing so, you are invoking the blessings of the gods for your flocks and land to be fruitful.
So Judah was just doing what the Canaanites would do during this festive period of sheep-shearing.
He came upon what he thought was a temple prostitute and the most natural thing was for him to ask for sex.
The deliberate disobedience of humans towards the issue of marriage continues even in the line of Israel. The most famous would be Solomon:
1 Kings 11:1 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, 2 from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love. 3 He had 700 wives, who were princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. 4 For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.
Was Judah any better than his sons Er and Onan?
They were both found to be wicked in God’s sight and we see the judgement of God upon them. God struck them dead.
I submit, the death of his two sons was part of God’s disciplining process for Judah. It is to remind Judah, God does punish disobedience. Yet God spared Judah, why? It can only be because of His grace.
We subsequently see that it was God’s gracious plan to have the tribe of Judah in Israel and so there must be offspring from Tamar.
Judah is a warning for us today with regards to compromise with the world. God has given safe-guards but when we ignore them, there will be consequences. God judgements will be melted out.
If we have not experienced God’s disciplining hand, it’s not because we have not compromised, it’s purely due to His mercy and grace.
Judah’s decline also shows a pattern. It usually begins when we discard what we should do as believers and then it moves on to embracing what we should not.
Since we know values are more often caught than taught, might Judah serve as a negative example of parenting as well.
Could it be that the way Er and Onan lived, was in part, a result of the terrible modelling by Judah?
By way of application, let’s say that we are all already seeking not to compromise with the world.
So instead, let’s just consider, are we doing what we should do as believers?
And so, in keeping with the family theme, let’s see what the bible says about honouring parents. 2 examples are:
Matt 15:4 For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’
Prov 23:22 Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.
So, honouring our parents, regardless of how old they are, is a God-honouring thing to do.
Singapore is an aging society. By 2030, it is predicted that we will be super-aged society.
Dementia in the elderly is rising and that means that many of us who will be caring for our parents will have quite a high possibility of having to care for them with varying levels of dementia.
It is really tough being a care-giver of a dementia parent. It will stretch us in how we seek to honour them.
This does not apply only to those of us who are above 50 and have aged parents. It applies to us as teenagers and young adults too.
The elderly are your grandparents are they not? Taking care of them will impact your lives as well.
The positive support you give your parents towards the intrusion of care-giving in your lives, I submit, is part of God’s maturing process for your souls.
Church, we need to be that supportive community for one another. We need to be there to encourage one another, so that we can be role models of children who honour our parents, our grandparents.
When we are that supportive community for one another, I’m confident we will be able to persevere in observing God’s instructions for living as His children.
God’s merciful hand upon Tamar’s risky plan
Genesis 38 records that Judah deliberately refused to proceed with the levirate process. He withheld his third and only surviving son Shelah from Tamar.
This drove Tamar towards a very risky plan. That of trying to conceive through Judah by deception.
As Judah is a reminder of the ways of Cain and Esau, Tamar’s deception also reminds us of Leah’s deception of Jacob.
Maybe even Abraham and Isaac’s lie about who their wives were when they went to Egypt and Gerar respectively.
Genesis 38 informs us that Tamar disguised herself as a temple prostitute to lure Judah. And she was successful at her attempt.
If we are wondering if what Tamar did is condemned or condoned by Scriptures. We observe that Scripture is silent.
May I quote Derek Kidner in his commentary about Tamar - “She shows something of the indomitable spirit of an Esther, a Jael or a Rizpah; but the text, true to its practice, makes no comment on the morality of her act. Indirectly, however, its setting, within the story of Joseph, brings it into telling contrast with the faith that could be displayed, and vindicated, in far worse straits than hers.”
So, on one hand there is a comparison with Leah.
But because we are familiar with the levirate law, on the other hand, we can see a comparison to Ruth as well.
Ruth 4:3 Then he (Boaz) said to the redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. 4 So I thought I would tell you of it and say, ‘Buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people.’ If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not, tell me, that I may know, for there is no one besides you to redeem it, and I come after you.” And he said, “I will redeem it.” 5 Then Boaz said, “The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance.”
In the book of Ruth, we come to know it as the kinsman redeemer principle.
If you are familiar with Ruth, in chapter 3, Ruth creates the scene for Boaz to consider becoming her kinsman redeemer. She lies at his feet when he is asleep in the barn after the festivity of the harvest celebrations.
Though her actions at the barn, what Ruth did was to seek Boaz as her levirate husband but did not actually engage in sex with him.
When we zoom out and look at other portions of the bible, we see that God was so merciful to Tamar in this risky attempt to preserve the line of Judah.
In a sense, out of brokenness, God permitted His mercy to flow so that blessings will come out of it.
Ruth 4:18 Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron, 19 Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab, 20 Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon, 21 Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, 22 Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.
God graciously allowed it to happen so that we see that it will lead to the line of king David and eventually to Jesus.
Interesting right, that at the end of Ruth, in order to tie Ruth with king David, the author of Ruth begins – now these are the generations of Perez.
And from Genesis 38, we know that Perez is the son of Tamar.
Matt 1:1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, 4 and Ram the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of David the king.
And in the Gospel of Matthew, we see the extended link from Tamah, to Perez, to Boaz and Ruth to David and then to Jesus Christ.
God’s mercy abounds, His wisdom is unfathomable. His power is made perfect in our weaknesses.
And it has been said and should always be emphasized that in the genealogy of Jesus Christ in Matthew, 4 women are included – Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and the wife of Uriah.
Firstly, the norm of the genealogy is through the males, yet these 4 women are mentioned.
Secondly, Tamar, Rahab and Ruth were not Israelites. Yet, they were highlighted in the list.
Thirdly, Rahab was a prostitute and Tamar acted like one.
Finally, as we have seen earlier, Tamar and Ruth were determined to use the Levirate law to preserve the ancestry line.
Tamar and Ruth were childless widows. They would be the most defenceless and vulnerable people in their society.
We see this situation even today with our missions partners in Myanmar. Thank you all for giving so generously to the widows that FEC supports in Dorcas Home.
Scripture records for us that God mercifully cared for Tamar and Ruth. And over and above His care, enabled them to be part of His wonderful plan of salvation.
Do we see the Tamars and the Ruths in our society today?
Recently, there was an article about people in Singapore who were stateless. Those who do not have a pink IC and no passport. It means they do not have any access to education and also health subsidy.
There are slightly less than 1000 of them in Singapore. It’s heartening to know that the Ministry of Home Affairs is aware of them and a good number of them have access to social workers to look into their case.
I was not aware of such people till I read the article.
Tamar was a widow and a foreigner who became a prostitute for a day. Tamar represents those who are vulnerable, who are the outcast and the marginalized.
Judah did not care for Tamar, but God mercifully did.
Would we today, follow in God’s footsteps and seek to care for the vulnerable that we know of in our midst?
God’s sovereign grace towards Israel
Gen 38:27 When the time of her labor came, there were twins in her womb. 28 And when she was in labor, one put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.” 29 But as he drew back his hand, behold, his brother came out. And she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” Therefore his name was called Perez. 30 Afterward his brother came out with the scarlet thread on his hand, and his name was called Zerah.
God sentence to death two of Judah’s sons. Graciously, through Tamar, God gave two sons in return.
As I’ve said before, by Moses recounting the beginnings of the 12 tribes of Israel, I submit it is to show them how undeserving they are of God’s grace and favour.
The history of the nation of Israel is filled with disobedient and stiff-necked people.
Yet the fact that God keeps bringing them back to Himself, forgiving them when they repent and rescuing them from the very consequences of their sins, is proof of His ongoing mercy, love and grace.
I see Judah’s confession as God’s merciful and sovereign hand upon Israel.
Judah was being totally hypocritical about Tamar’s pregnancy and it was only when his signet, cord and staff were presented that he finally acknowledge that he was wrong.
He publicly admitted, Tamar was more righteous than he was. This confession is the first step in the process of repentance.
The history Moses was recording in Genesis was that God was forming the nation of Israel. Judah nearly killed his line, but in God’s sovereignty, He turned brokenness into a blessing for Israel.
From a man such as Judah, God graciously allowed that from this line will come king David, Solomon and ultimately Jesus.
God’s sovereignty and grace is what we see most vividly at the cross isn’t it?
It was God’s initiative to send Jesus to graciously die on the cross. Jesus did it not for Himself but for you and I. We who were enemies of God. We who like Judah, have rejected God and His ways.
Yet, at the cross, Satan thought he has won. But God was in sovereign control. God who is the giver of life is able by His own power to raise Jesus up.
The birth of the twins Perez and Zerah, display the sovereign and gracious hand of God upon the nation of Israel.
And since it is ultimately linked to Jesus, who is living and seated at the right hand of God the Father. Therefore, His sovereignty and grace continues to flow in and through His church today.
Is anyone too far from the grace of God? The history of Israel shows that no one is too far. Even disobedient Judah can be led to acknowledge his sin and be redeemed to be the father of Perez.
God’s sovereign grace is a wonderful truth. Not only is God gracious, giving us what we do not deserve, but because He is sovereign, He is powerfully able to do so.
This then, church is the confidence that regardless of our condition, we can approach the throne of God.
Conclusion
Today is the last Sunday of Missions month.
We have seen that God is a gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love. He is able to sovereignly turn all our brokenness into blessings.
This is great news for the fallen world that we live in.
Tamar was a Canaanite. Ruth was from Moab, Rahab was a prostitute. They were all women, deemed family property at that time. Second class in society.
Yet they were all included into the genealogy of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. That speaks of how highly God sees them.
Paul tells us:
2 Cor 5:18 God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.
As God was redemptive in His dealings with Judah, reconciling both Judah and Tamah to Himself, so too God continues to do that today.
In Christ, God is reconciling sinners to Himself and Scripture says, God has given us this ministry of reconciliation as well.
Therefore, at the end of missions month, let us re-dedicate ourselves to be His ambassadors.
Let us seek to live out the Gospel and to represent Jesus in ASEAN.
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