Learning To Listen to God

Judah: Disaster with a Daughter-in-law

A strange Scripture sandwich

•Genesis 37 – Joseph sold into slavery•Genesis 39 – Joseph in slavery in Egypt•Genesis 38 – Stand-alone story on Judah?

•Genesis 38 – Disaster from first to last

•A reminder that every decision we make will affect our life’s outcome.•A reminder that righteousness doesn’t change from culture to culture or place to place.•A reminder that God can turn even the most evil things into good.

Judah in Canaan – the first step toward disaster

•Genesis 38: 1-10 -- At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah. 2 There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and lay with her; 3 she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er. 4She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan. 5She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him.

•Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7 But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the LORD's sight; so the LORD put him to death. • 8 Then Judah said to Onan, "Lie with your brother's wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother." 9 But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother. 10 What he did was wicked in the LORD's sight; so he put him to death also.

Already Judah’s sin is catching up to him.

Have you ever heard anything good about Canaan?

His wife is never named.

•Judah’s two older sons grow up wicked.•God claims the life of both of them.

•Only one of the problems is the so-called “levirate marriage” practice.

•Deuteronomy 25: 5 -- If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband's brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her.

Judah’s multiple losses and ultimate disaster

Loses two sonsLoses his wife (vs. 12)Cheats his daughter-in-law (vs. 11)Resorts to prostitutionTricked by his daughter-in-law Tamar

When Judah discovers Tamar is pregnant…

Orders her burned to death

Discovers his own disaster

“She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.”

Tamar gives birth to twins

Perez and Zerah

Why was God so harsh with Er and Onan?

Answer in genealogy found in Ruth 4:16-22

Perez is in the lineage of Christ

If only Judah had listened:

Genesis 6:2 -- the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.

Lustful marriages contributed to the flood.

Genesis 34:2 -- When Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he took her and lay with her by force.

Genesis 38:2 -- Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua; and he took her and went in to her.

Is what Judah did much different than what Shechem did? Marriage based only upon lust – the beauty of the woman.

What did Judah know about Canaan?

Wickedness well documented

1 Corinthians 15:33 -- Do not be deceived: "Bad company corrupts good morals."

Lasting truths

We must be careful of the company that we keep.

We must remember that sin has dire consequences.

We must respect one another and do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

We may live in the world, but we are not “of the world”.