Gen 38:12-15 | KingComments | STEP | When Tamar sees that Judah is not keeping his promise, she resorts to a low trick: she will act as a harlot. She sees in the shearing of the sheep the opportunity to seduce Judah. Sheepshearing is always accompanied by celebration and frivolity. Tamar’s sin cannot be justified. She demands her right and sees no other way to do so than by way of fornication. However reprehensible the way is that Tamar goes, Judah is the one who, as the Scriptures call it, is the stumbling block to her, bringing her to this fall into sin. Tamar knows Judah. She knows that he will not refuse a woman who offers herself. It marks the low moral status of Judah. We can ask ourselves a personal question: How am I known? Judah is deceived by his daughter-in-law, dressed as a harlot, just as he had deceived his father with a tunic, Joseph’s tunic ( ). Judah’s sin begins with the eye, he sees her. He has a heart and eyes full of adultery ( ). When Judah wants to go in to her, she asks what he wants to pay for her ‘service’. His answer is that he will send her a young goat. She then asks him for a pledge, so that she can be sure that he will keep his promise. When asked what she wants as a pledge, she says she wants his seal and his cord, and his staff. These things represent symbolically what someone spiritually loses when he goes into sin. His seal is a picture of faithfulness and property (putting your seal on something): he throws it away. His cord (or: line) stands for an inheritance ( ): he loses the enjoyment of his inheritance. His staff is a picture of what supports him: he also surrenders it to an unknown woman. Judah relinquishes everything: his faithfulness, what is his own, his personality, his habitat, his world, and finally that which gives him strength to walk. Tamar knows not only Judah’s unfaithfulness, but also his insincerity. He cannot be trusted on his word. That’s why she asks for a pledge. Unfaithfulness in marriage and unfaithfulness in other relationships (e.g. business) go hand in hand.

‏ Genesis 38:12-15

Judah Commits Fornication with Tamar

When Tamar sees that Judah is not keeping his promise, she resorts to a low trick: she will act as a harlot. She sees in the shearing of the sheep the opportunity to seduce Judah. Sheepshearing is always accompanied by celebration and frivolity.

Tamar’s sin cannot be justified. She demands her right and sees no other way to do so than by way of fornication. However reprehensible the way is that Tamar goes, Judah is the one who, as the Scriptures call it, is the stumbling block to her, bringing her to this fall into sin. Tamar knows Judah. She knows that he will not refuse a woman who offers herself. It marks the low moral status of Judah. We can ask ourselves a personal question: How am I known? Judah is deceived by his daughter-in-law, dressed as a harlot, just as he had deceived his father with a tunic, Joseph’s tunic (Gen 37:31-32).

Judah’s sin begins with the eye, he sees her. He has a heart and eyes full of adultery (2Pet 2:14). When Judah wants to go in to her, she asks what he wants to pay for her ‘service’. His answer is that he will send her a young goat. She then asks him for a pledge, so that she can be sure that he will keep his promise. When asked what she wants as a pledge, she says she wants his seal and his cord, and his staff.

These things represent symbolically what someone spiritually loses when he goes into sin. His seal is a picture of faithfulness and property (putting your seal on something): he throws it away. His cord (or: line) stands for an inheritance (Psa 16:6): he loses the enjoyment of his inheritance. His staff is a picture of what supports him: he also surrenders it to an unknown woman. Judah relinquishes everything: his faithfulness, what is his own, his personality, his habitat, his world, and finally that which gives him strength to walk.

Tamar knows not only Judah’s unfaithfulness, but also his insincerity. He cannot be trusted on his word. That’s why she asks for a pledge. Unfaithfulness in marriage and unfaithfulness in other relationships (e.g. business) go hand in hand.