Gen 38:13-30 | 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 38:13-30

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.

The ‘Payment’ of Judah

The kind of friendship Judah has with the Adullamite is that of sinners among themselves. This friendship consists of supporting and covering of sin. A true friend points out the wrong to his friend and will try to prevent evil or, if evil has already happened, help his friend to confess his sin.

When his friend returns without being successful, Judah no longer cares about the loss of his belongings. To continue to solve the matter means that he is ridiculing himself. He does not want to suffer this loss of face. He has done his best to keep his appointment. Thus he speaks to keep his conscience clean, but he does not take into account God Who in His time will confront him with his sin.

The Sin of Judah Discovered

When Judah hears of his daughter-in-law’s pregnancy, he passes a harsh judgment on her. That judgment also suits him, because then he certainly doesn’t have to give her to his son Shelah anymore. People who commit a serious sin with ease and without regret, are often very strict in judging the sins of others. By so doing, however, they condemn themselves (Rom 2:1).

All the sins that are done in secret will be revealed one day. One day everything will come to light. That will be when the Lord Jesus will reign. Here Judah is confronted with his sin in a way that makes it impossible to deny it. He acknowledges his sin and states that Tamar is in her right. He also acknowledges that his sin came from another sin, namely withholding his son Shelah from Tamar. Persisting in one sin paves the way for still more sins. That Judah’s confession is real, he shows by having no relations with Tamar again.

Perez and Zera Born

The grace of God triumphs and rises above the sin of Judah and also above Tamar, who is descended from the cursed race of the Canaanites and is also guilty of harlotry. Judah becomes the ancestor of the Messiah. Tamar and the sons Perez and Zerah, who were born from the fornication between her and Judah, are mentioned in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus, whereby Perez is mentioned in the lineage of the Lord Jesus (Mt 1:3).