“And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord put him to death. 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.” But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went in to his brother’s wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother. And what he did was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death also. Then Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law, “Remain a widow in your father’s house, till Shelah my son grows up”—for he feared that he would die, like his brothers. So Tamar went and remained in her father’s house.”
Genesis 38:6-11 ESV
There’s nothing greater in all the world, not its many wonders, or those heart soothing valleys, or towering peaks, not even the vast, blue oceans, that compares to the magnificent word of God.
Who could write such a thing, the very words of eternal life, but God Himself? Amidst all of life’s fury, tumult, pain as well as the great joys and triumphs, it speaks to us. It guides us. Through the outstretched finger of the Holy Spirit upon the pens of men driven along like great and resplendent sails through this heartbreaking sea of sin and death, we have His word. Without it all would be lost. We would be lost. In every way a man or woman can be lost. We know of love and beauty and grace only because of Him. Sadly, we know of loss and pain and death because of sin.
This is pertinent to us in that Genesis 38 seems to be an odd plot diversion by the great Author. We were in Joseph’s story and he, the protagonist, we’re inclined to think, has just been sold off into slavery by his envious and cruel brothers. His grieving father believes him to be lost to the blood red tooth and claw of a wild beast. But there is no beast like man who breaks the hearts of the righteous! No bite from a predator, after all, reaches into man’s soul like the sinner’s lies and betrayals.
So, what is Genesis 38 if not to tell us this story? This is the story of Christ, my friends, not merely Joseph. It’s a story of the great One who pursues us with all that love that boggles the mind, for who could love so savage a people?
You see, Judah has gone off to another land but he learns that sin always runs faster and farther than man’s guilt-propelled feet can ever carry him. His boy, Er, is given in marriage to Tamar but he’s so evil that God cuts him down. We wonder what kind of tragedy that must have been both for Judah…and for the poor Tamar.
To lose a child.
To lose a husband.
So then Judah instructs his next son, Onan, to perform his duty and provide an offspring for his now dead brother. Onan complies with the rule…with the code. He takes Tamar as his wife. He sleeps with her. Let this sink in. The Bible tells the truth, unlike men and our false righteousness that considers worldly manners, and inside voices, the stuff of goodness. Surely, we’re ignorant of true righteousness and seek to establish our own, according to our own fashions and culture (Romans 10:3). He has sex with Tamar but habitually ejaculates outside of her so as to prevent her from getting pregnant. Surely, Onan had a right to be a wee bit disappointed that he was commanded by local custom to provide his brother with an heir. This meant that a portion of his (Onan’s) efforts and resources would always be divided. But his reaction wasn’t to avoid having sex with Tamar, which would have been one thing…stubborn, perhaps. On the contrary, he was exceedingly selfish and thereby, cruel.
Man would like sin to be after his own definitions rather than God’s. He erects his own blasphemy laws (think of the things you literally can’t say in modern culture) and rewrites the moral commandments from loving a neighbor as oneself (which is to owe no one anything – Romans 13:8) to never ending obligations according to superficial customs. Claiming to be free from religious commandments, modern America drowns under the great tide of humanistic law. Our corporations have teams of lawyers just for their particular operations, so vast is our sea of law. Socially, man thinks a faux pas is sin, but true sin, real sin, is cruel. It is hatred for God and neighbor that rises up from a putrid heart devoid of awe of God.
Onan’s level of treachery is staggering.
He used Tamar for sex and viciously humiliated her in the act.
Judah had sent a boy to fulfill the duty of a man. He hadn’t raised a man. In running from his sin rather than repenting of it, Judah raised a man-child who was, like himself, ruthlessly self-centered. Onan almost certainly knew of the promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He almost certainly considered himself royalty. No greater shame has the modern church than this one: to treat salvation as a badge of honor as though, even if I’m a sinner in the main, I’m still the moral superior to all those unwashed heathen. This arrogance is shown in how often we speak condemnation of all the sin in the “world” while, tellingly, never speaking of Jesus Christ and grace. It’s as though the Scripture has never warned us against the sin of pride and haughtiness. Christianity is not cheap moral scorecards but the cross of Christ.
Sure, it’s easy…so easy, like hitting a barn with a pitch, to condemn homosexuality and lust. But the same Bible calls us also avoid quarreling and jealousy – and in the same verse (Romans 13:13)! To raise morally haughty children devoid of love and humility is to raise the offspring of hell (Matthew 23:15). A lack of gospel-centeredness will allow sin’s weeds to grow up unabated.
Judah and his brothers had such hearts. Their envy against Joseph was surely disguised as disapproval of Joseph’s shortcoming or quirks, which they presumed to call sins. Such is how a man calls a weed a rose; he defines his neighbor according to his own standard rather than God’s. In the end, his envy is, in his own eyes, a righteous reaction to someone else’s blessing. Envy enslaved Joseph and then all that self-righteousness passed to Judah’s sons and saw Tamar as nothing.
Judah didn’t raise his boys to be men of worship. They didn’t know the fear of the Lord. They were practical men who made no time and had no heart for beauty or worship. A man who doesn’t worship has no tolerance for mystery and, therefore, no love of the God who is inscrutable and awesome (Romans 11:33-36).
A heart that makes no time for worship turns monstrous.
When Er was executed this should have caused Judah a great moment of pause, of introspection and prayer. But there’s no leadership for Judah. There’s no fatherly advice in the Lord. There’s no altar where he goes to inquire. There’s no family worship and, therefore, humility.
How much sin could be avoided if men of God would pause in prayer, and seek Godly counsel during a crisis as well as before all major junctions in life! Judah sends Onan and that middle son apparently takes counsel within his own twisted soul rather than among Godly men. Such a cruel thing he does to poor Tamar! She needed offspring so that she would have providers when she was old. To be a childless widow in that age was a veritable death sentence. Surely, Onan knew this and this makes his sexual exploitation all the more alarming.
At this same time we know that Joseph was now in slavery, which is exactly the point. Judah’s lifestyle of pride and sin infect everything he does. Sin travels. It impacts others.
We’re often confused about how God regards and deals with sin, aren’t we? It is, as so many things, a mystery. We know that God hates sin so much that He sent His only Son to be crucified for it (Romans 8:3). That’s certainly no small thing right there. But the judgment against evil deeds isn’t executed immediately (Ecclesiastes 8:13) and that’s the problem (for us, anyway). Our minds have trouble with the enormity of it all. It’s hard to see that God’s kindness and patience are meant to bring us to repentance (Romans 2:4). It’s hard to see how all things work together for good for those who love God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:28).
Was He watching all that terror as Joseph descended into slavery? Of course. Imagine the Savior’s tears as He beheld the treachery of the sons of Jacob. The anguish of Joseph was different than Tamar’s but how can one gauge the level of suffering another feels? Can we put sorrow into a cup of measurement and say that Joseph’s sorrow was major league and Tamar was in the minors? How and why does God allow all of this? What are we learning from all of this?
First, let’s remember that the Messianic line runs through this family. The later offspring of Tamar and Judah runs down through Boaz and Ruth to King David. God can and does work in our lives! Are you all broken apart right now, spiritually torn asunder by failures both near and far? Has the Enemy whispered, even shouted, in your ear that your broken past chains you to failure forever? We take heed that Christ makes all things new! Look here at what the Lord achieves. Who is like the Lord!
Second, we learn how dreadful a thing it is to be a Lone Ranger Christian. If we have no pastor, no elder, no Godly mentor who speaks the word of God to us, and counsels us, we’re soon to be wandering those wretched lands of Canaan in our soul. Sin looks to hide and many times it hides in a busy home where leaderless parents raise offspring to do whatever is right in their own eyes. They think Christianity runs in the blood, or in a political ideology, rather than through a broken and contrite heart.
Third, if we aren’t careful we can live as though the Lord is nothing more than a concept rather than the beautiful and righteous Person of Jesus Christ. The answer to a hard heart, a haughty spirit, and to all envy, is to personally find and worship Jesus Christ who died for our sin.
What things will we say about others if we truly regard them in Christ? What manner of men or women shall we be when we walk in a world of awe of God rather than in fear and anxiety? Onan was cruel because his heart was hard. And his heart was hard because he had no sense of the transcendent God who is beautiful. And in suppressing this truth about God, Onan also lost the fact of God’s righteousness and for this he was executed. He was cruel because there was no beauty or worship in his life; such is the deception of the practical man because there’s nothing more practical than prayer, reading the word, and fellowship. Lack of these things leads us to see the pinnacle of His creation, our neighbors, as things to be used rather than as people to be loved in Him.
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