Genesis 38:1-30

January 29, 2017

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

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The sermon starts at 17:30 in the audio file.

Or, How Tamar Got Judah’s Goat After All

Genesis 38 is filled with interruptions and seems itself to be one big interruption. The “generations of Jacob” (Genesis 37:2) immediately focused on Joseph, a spoiled dreamer, hated by his older brothers. Joseph’s brothers had conspired to kill him, though his oldest brother, Reuben, tried to keep him alive in order to restore Joseph to their dad. Before Reuben could do that, though, Judah proposed to sell him as a slave to traveling traders on their way to Egypt.

Chapter 38 is all about Judah; there is no mention of Joseph. Chapter 39:1 will start, “Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt.” What is this unsavory story about Judah and his sons and Tamar doing in between chapter 37 and 39? Why did we need to know about this at all? It’s an important question, perhaps even more relevant in light of the unseemly details, but I’m going to save an answer for the end.

There are two main divisions in the chapter, visible in verse 1, “It happened at that time,” and in verse 12, “In the course of time.” The first eleven verses take place over a period of twenty years, and the final nineteen verses occur in less than a year. We’ll see Judah’s Canaanite offspring and his covenant offspring. The Interruption of Judah’s Heritage (verses 1-11) and the Interruption of Judah’s Hubris (verses 12-30).

The Interruption of Judah’s Heritage (verses 1-11)

To have a heritage Judah would need to start a family in the first place. Here we see two stages of development.

A Marriage and Three Sons (verses 1-5)

It happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and turned aside to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. What happens here overlaps with Joseph’s time in Egypt, which is part of the reason for its placement after chapter 37. Judah went down from Hebron to a place near Adullam, about a mile away, later famous for the cave where David’s disorderly band of discontents gathered. The area was thick with Canaanites, including a man named Hirah who became a friend, or at least a local contact for Judah.

There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite woman whose name was Shuah. Maybe Hirah introduced them. The daughter of Shua is never named, but Judah took her and went into her and she conceived. Saw, took, went in, conceived…these are more physical than romantic. It probably means that he married her, but there isn’t much of a relationship to report. This was not an exciting time for Israel, and he probably wasn’t invited to the wedding. The union went against the desires of Abraham for his son, Isaac for his son, and we assume Jacob for his sons.

She conceived and bore a song and he called his name Er. She conceived again and bore a son and called his name Onan. Yet again she bore a son and she called his name Shelah. Judah was in Chezib when she bore him Three sons are spawned in rapid succession. Judah named the firstborn (at least in most manuscripts), but perhaps wasn’t even there for the birth of the third.

Marriages for Three Sons (verses 6-11)

The sons were growing up when Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn and her name was Tamar. She was presumably a Canaanite as well, though we aren’t given any details about her background.

We are told that something dramatic happened. But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD put him to death. Moses knew the cause of death, Judah didn’t, or he didn’t want to know it. It’s the first time in Genesis that God is said to put an individual to death, though all deaths are according to His sovereign plan and power. What did Er do? What was so wicked? We don’t know.

Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.” This was not yet Jewis[...]