“Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, “Go back to your parents’ home and remain a widow until my son Shelah is old enough to marry you.” (But Judah didn’t really intend to do this because he was afraid Shelah would also die, like his two brothers.) So Tamar went back to live in her father’s home. Some years later Judah’s wife died. After the time of mourning was over, Judah and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went up to Timnah to supervise the shearing of his sheep. Someone told Tamar, “Look, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.””
Genesis 38:11-13 NLT
Two unspeakable tragedies have befallen the house of Judah. Back-to-back. What unfolds provides three critical lessons for us in our daily life.
First, Judah continues a life of lies. Having deceived his father, Jacob, about the true fate of Joseph, whom they sold into slavery, he carries on with his life. He moves to a new location in Adullam and marries a Canaanite gal, the daughter of Shua. From there he starts his new family. But sin follows because it’s in our hearts, not our zip code. The Lord disciplines His children (Hebrews 12:6) and we must never forget that. Though we’re saved by faith alone, not by works, it’s the height of folly to consider that the Righteous One intends that the cross is cheap. No. We pick up our cross and follow Him, which means that we endeavor daily, through faith, and the power of the Holy Spirit, to put the deeds of the flesh to death.
Much depression and destruction is in the Christian heart, the home, and the church because His children intend to live like hell on the way to heaven. Unrepentant sin is a poison to the soul. True repentance brings restoration. Donald Grey Barnhouse told of a butcher long ago in a big city who was a rapacious man. He routinely cheated his customers by putting his thumb on the scale so that they were given less meat for their money than they thought. What happened? Well, there was no government law then or now that can tame the covetousness and sin in the heart of men and women. Only grace can do that. Men trying to regulate sin away with rules and regulations are like a child trying to drain the ocean with a bucket.
But, alas, the butcher was saved! God’s grace poured into his once cheating heart and the love of God washed over it and he saw how evil he’d been to his customers. He remembered them. He knew he’d cheated. But he didn’t move to a new city and start anew. Instead, when the formerly cheated customers came in he put his thumb on the scale…only in reverse this time! Before Christ he merrily stole through a sleight of hand. But with Christ and because of Him, no force was used to change the man, only sweet and beautiful grace. And without anyone knowing, he righted the wrong. Such is the true power of true repentance; it won’t let us sit back down in the pig sty of sin when there are broken relationships – broken by our pride and lies and cruelty – in our past.
Judah ignores this and reaps a whirlwind in his family.
The tragedy is that he still learns nothing even after his eldest sons are both executed for blatant sin. There’s no doubt about what’s happened and, therefore, Judah, flirts with judgment himself as he lies and conspires to cheat Tamar yet again. He does what sinners so often do: he hides behind custom and contemporary laws rather than deal rightfully. To be told that he fears that his youngest (Shelah) might also die is to be told that Judah knows that sin and rebellion are the cause of all this. But he doesn’t repent. How do we know we’re in a stubborn period? It’s a great question…and one we should all seriously consider.
Look at Judah. There’s no spiritual authority over him. No pastor or leader or father that he consults. No wise counsel. And there’s no evidence of prayer or contemplation either. Judah sends Tamar away to protect his appearance of goodness rather than search for the Lord’s will and true righteousness. Being conformed to this world is as easy as that all while claiming to be Christian. Judah must and will learn what repentance means. If we spend our days griping about the sins of others rather than repenting of our own, and then basking in all that love which is ours in Christ, we’re in such a period of obstinance like Judah.
This brings us to the second lesson.
Years pass.
God doesn’t forget His children and He doesn’t simply “let go” of sin. Sin is so bad that it cost the life of our Lord at the cross! How dare we assume that because the judgment against our evil deeds isn’t executed immediately, that God doesn’t care (Ecclesiastes 8:11). The Father will absolutely deal with us so that we’re conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29-30). The story of Joseph is a truly powerful and awe-inspiring tale that shows us one manner in which God brings “all things together for good” in the lives of His people. The passing years humble us when we look back at them. We can’t “wait out” the Lord, can we? He’s eternal. By the time Judah’s wife dies, Tamar has been put away…she’s with her father and Judah hopes to forget her, but God has His eternal plan. And that plan is full of both unapproachable wisdom and, wait for it…love.
He will make His servants right.
But here’s the thing, Judah has many years to learn and grow but he refuses to repent via prayer, worship and self-reflection. This means that God will bring him to repentance via circumstances. They turn out good, yes, but Judah is humiliated in the process. Thus, we learn to repent of sin. We learn to search our hearts and say with the Psalmist:
“Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me! Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:12–14 ESV
If you have egregious and unrepentant sin in your life…if you’re ignoring it, hoping it will go away – maybe a vicious lie, a terrible period in which you used and blamed and, therefore, hurt another of His children – you must repent. You simply must. Do you think He’s playing? Do you think it’s for nothing that after Peter denied Jesus three times that he stayed with the disciples but that Judas went to the Pharisees? Peter was personally and sweetly restored there on the beach by the Perfect Lord that he’d denied! This is the future of all who come to Him in faith and repent. Peter had wept bitterly over his failure (Luke 22:62) and repented of all that pride that had kept getting him in trouble. Judas didn’t repent. Judas didn’t go back to His people.
The implication is clear: repentance is the mark of the Christian. Pride and excuse-making and blame-shifting is the mark of Judas.
The third lesson is that it’s salvation through faith alone that God’s righteousness is revealed!
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”” Romans 1:16–17 ESV
God is so holy that the slightest sin deserves eternal judgment! Think on this. Look at the resplendent heavens, gaze upon the distant mountains in all their power, their majestic beauty, let all of it seep in.
Be quiet. Be still.
There’s too much distraction that we use to avoid the obvious. And the obvious is that God’s divine nature and eternal power are clearly perceived in nature (Romans 1:20)! The God who is the Creator of all that, and everything else, is the One who beckons us to come. But we must not think He’s a sentimental sap who can be manipulated. He’s holy and righteous and omniscient. We aren’t gonna pull a fast one on the Almighty. Thus, we can only come in humility and repentance. No man will approach God unless He’s perfectly righteous and the only way to do that is through the cross of Jesus Christ! Unrepentant sin will catch up to us one way or another.
The great Judge will not allow any evil in His Kingdom, so we practice now in our lives for that eternal residence. Our prayers and general attitude must be humble awe…it must be careful consideration of our faults rather than obsessing about those of others. Do we read Scripture and think, “do you know who needs to read this…?”
The answer: we do!
To truly see the righteousness of God is to begin to fathom the depth of our debt and, therefore, the sheer magnificence of His unmerited grace toward us. Such a heart, filled with thanksgiving to God in Jesus Christ, doesn’t live in fear anymore, and doesn’t keep a record of others’ wrongs because it’s felicitously aware of that inestimable ocean of grace in which it swims.
Recent Comments