Written by: Anne Coles – New Wine Ministries
Genesis 37 v 25-28
While Joseph was in the well, the brothers sat down to eat. When they looked
up, they saw a group of Ishmaelites travelling from Gilead to Egypt. Their camels
were carrying spices, balm and myrrh.
Then Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and
hide his death? Let’s sell him to these Ishmaelites. Then we will not be guilty
of killing our own brother. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh and
blood.” And the other brothers agreed. So when the Midianite traders came by,
the brothers took Joseph out of the well and sold him to the Ishmaelites for
20 pieces of silver. And the Ishmaelites took him to Egypt.
Notes
Joseph had been mercilessly thrown into a dried-up water pit by his own brothers,
because they were jealous of him and his popularity with their father. We know
that he pleaded with them for his life (Genesis 42 v 21) and that his distress
and horror were so memorable that the brothers were still referring to it years
later. It must have been heart-rending stuff - after all, Joseph faced a slow
and painful death by starvation or drowning, and he was doubtless sobbing and
crying out for mercy and rescue persistently. And yet we read that the brothers
sat down to eat, apparently completely untouched and unmoved by his cries and
pleas! Nothing in their consciences dulled their appetite it seems!
I have to ask myself how I can eat my dinner while listening to the day’s news, with the sound of the world’s poor and starving in the background? How hardened is my conscience to that?
Then we meet Judah, and what a “wheeler-dealer” he was! – always on the look-out for some money-making opportunity, which he of course dressed up in appealing sales talk. His self-righteous plea to save the life of their own brother looks pretty shallow in the light of the financial profit that they hoped to gain by it!
Again I am forced to ask myself, before I can condemn Judah, how much my comfortable living standard is gained at the expense of others less well-off than me?
Prayer
Lord, thank you for all your provision for me. Help me to know how to use the
resources you have given me to help those who are starving and hurting in your
world, whether they are on my doorstep or in a far country. Don’t let me get
hardened to their suffering. Amen
Genesis 37 v 29-33
When Reuben came back to the well and Joseph was not there, he tore his
clothes to show he was sad. Then he went back to his brothers and said, “The
boy is not there! What shall I do?” The brothers killed a goat and dipped Joseph’s
robe in its blood. Then they brought the long-sleeved robe to their father and
said, “We found this robe. Look it over carefully and see if it is your son’s
robe.”
Jacob looked it over and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some savage animal has
eaten him. My son Joseph has been torn to pieces!”
Notes
Reuben was the eldest of the twelve brothers and as such had the most responsibility
for the family. When the others plotted to kill Joseph as they spotted him coming
towards them in the distance, he was the one who tried to “tone down” their
murderous plans by suggesting that they just throw him into a well. It becomes
obvious that he had ultimately hoped to rescue Joseph (and perhaps just teach
him a nasty lesson in the well).
So is he the “good guy”? If “good” is simply a comparative state - namely, “better than most of the others around” - then he is the hero of the piece. But the trouble is that his slightly kinder option for Joseph’s fate backfired when, in his absence, the brothers sold their kid brother to some passing slave-traders. Reuben discovered an empty well and no possibility of Joseph’s safe return to his adoring father Jacob. Reuben would be held responsible! So instead of being able to rescue Joseph like a “knight in shining armour”, Reuben sank further into the crime and deceived Jacob into thinking that Joseph had been eaten by a lion. Hardly the case-story of a good and great hero!
If only he had spoken out right at the beginning and condemned the murderous intentions of his brothers, exposed them for what they were and championed his young brother correctly, things might have turned out very differently. It’s not good enough just to compare ourselves with those around us and try to be a bit better. We need to know what’s right and wrong, fair and unfair, and live accordingly. God calls us to holiness, not to comparative betterness.
Prayer
Lord, show me where my lifestyle is influenced by my culture. Give me your grace
and wisdom to live by your standards of truth and holiness. Amen
Genesis 37 v 34-36
Then Jacob tore his clothes and put on rough cloth to show that he was
sad, and he continued to be sad about his son for a long time. All of his sons
and daughters tried to comfort him, but he could not be comforted. He said,
“I will be sad about my son until the day I die.” So Jacob cried for his son
Joseph.
Meanwhile the Midianites who had bought Joseph had taken him to Egypt. There
they sold him to Potiphar, an officer to the king of Egypt, and captain of the
palace guard.
Notes
Jacob was convinced that his favourite son Joseph had been eaten by a wild animal,
because his brothers claimed to have found his blood-stained clothing. Jacob
probably felt personally responsible, since he was the one who had sent Joseph
on the apparently dangerous errand to find the brothers. Parents often blame
themselves when their children have accidents! The irony was that his long,
loud and bitter grief was based on a deception. Joseph was not dead but living
as a slave in Egypt. Jacob’s sons had sold him to slave merchants for money!
Now the brothers had to face the constant reminder of their misdeeds as their father grieved inconsolably in front of them. Living with the consequences must have been intensely uncomfortable for them. They wanted to leave the past and get on with living. No wonder they tried to persuade him to get over it!
We all have a past that needs to be rightly resolved before we can live happily in the present. The Bible tells us that Jesus is the only one who can forgive us and cleanse us from the past (1 John 1 v 9), but it involves us being honest about ourselves (1 John 1 v 7) and giving up other ways of massaging the pain of past reminders (1 John 1 v 8).
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you for coming to earth to die for me so that I can be forgiven.
Please set me free from anything that hinders me from knowing the freedom of
your forgiveness. Amen
Genesis 38 v 1-5
About that time, Judah left his brothers and went to stay with a man
named Hirah in the town of Adullam. There Judah met a Canaanite girl, the daughter
of a man named Shua, and married her. Judah had sexual relations with her, and
she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, whom Judah named Er. Later she
gave birth to another son and named him Onan. Still later she had another son
and named him Shelah. She was at Kezib when this third son was born.
Notes
This is the beginning of the sorry story of a major part of Judah’s life. Judah
was one of Jacob’s twelve sons. We shall see that he can have been neither happy
nor fulfilled. The rot appears to have set in when right at the beginning of
the account we read that Judah left his brothers, and by implication, his home,
his family traditions and the worship of the God of his father, Jacob.
As Christians we have spiritual brothers and sisters in the family of God, who is our Father. We need to keep in regular touch with them as we worship together, form relationships for fellowship and accountability, and learn together how to live out our Christian lives. If we think we can “go it alone” as Christians, if we think we don’t need our brothers and sisters in the church, we put ourselves in a similarly vulnerable position like Judah.
Judah’s second mistake was that in the company of these new friends he met and married a woman who did not share his spiritual heritage and values. She was a Canaanite, and although the Canaanites lived side by side as it were with Jacob and his family, they worshipped their own pagan gods. Judah and his wife had three sons: Er, Onan and Shelah. If Judah had ever hoped to bring up his children in the traditions of his fathers, with the values of justice and holiness of the God of Israel, he would have realised that it was now too late since he was firmly settled in the Canaanite culture and a Canaanite home. It would be these values that his sons would grow up with.
Today, the blessing of marrying a partner who is a Christian is also passed on to the children.
Prayer
Lord, thank you for my Christian brothers and sisters in your family. Help me
to love them and in turn to be a blessing to them too. Amen
Genesis 38 v 6-11
Judah chose a girl named Tamar to be the wife of his first son Er. But
Er, Judah’s oldest son, did what the LORD said was evil, so the LORD killed
him. Then Judah said to Er’s brother Onan, “Go and have sexual relations with
your dead brother’s wife. It is your duty to provide children for your brother
in this way.”
But Onan knew that the children would not belong to him, so when he was supposed
to have sexual relations with Tamar he did not complete the sex act. This made
it impossible for Tamar to become pregnant and for Er to have descendants. The
LORD was displeased by this wicked thing Onan had done, so the LORD killed Onan
also. Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Go back to live in your
father’s house, and don’t marry until my young son Shelah grows up.” Judah was
afraid that Shelah also would die like his brothers. So Tamar returned to her
father’s home.
Notes
Earlier we read that Judah’s children were being brought up in a pagan home
after his marriage to a Canaanite woman, and today we read the tragic consequences
of that. Judah’s oldest son, Er, died early because he was so wicked. He had
just married but had no children yet.
It was the custom of the time for the second son to marry the childless widow of his brother, and then the firstborn son of that marriage would take the name of the dead husband so that he would have an heir. This was how they tried to deal as fairly as possible with inheritance laws in ancient times. I have to say that, writing as a woman, it doesn’t seem to take into account the widow’s wishes or feelings, and I am very glad that things have moved on and we live in a time when men and women have a much more equal say in marriage and inheritance!
However, the tradition of the time was acknowledged by all as good and even set down eventually in the law (Deuteronomy 25 v 5). Onan obviously had little family loyalty, and although he made an outward show of doing the right thing he actually made it impossible for Er to have a son. Jacob lost this son to an early death too.
So now Jacob had lost two sons, Tamar was twice a widow and consigned to constant mourning, and there were still no grandchildren. You can’t help thinking that if Judah had married differently things might have turned out better for himself, his children and their wives.
Prayer
Lord, we pray for Christian marriages today. Help husbands and wives to love
each other and encourage each other to live for your glory, for the blessing
of their children and for a testimony to their community. Amen
Genesis 38 v 12-14
After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. After Judah
had gotten over his sorrow, he went to Timnah to his men who were cutting the
wool from his sheep. His friend Hirah from Adullam went with him. Tamar learned
that Judah, her father-in-law, was going to Timnah to cut the wool from his
sheep. So she took off the clothes that showed she was a widow and covered her
face with a veil to hide who she was. Then she sat down by the gate of Enaim
on the road to Timnah. She did this because Judah’s younger son Shelah had grown
up, but Judah had not made plans for her to marry him.
Notes
We can read earlier the story of Judah with the deaths of his two elder
sons and the widowing of his daughter-in-law, Tamar. The tale of grief and woe
continues with the death now of Judah’s wife.
Interestingly, Judah’s wife is never named except in her relationship to her husband and her father. It is as if she doesn’t really count as herself. And indeed the women in this story definitely are the underdogs. While Judah sent his daughter-in-law, Tamar, away to mourn and then promptly and conveniently forgot all about her and his promise to marry her to his third son, he made sure that he was comforted with friends and activity after the death of his wife. In a culture that treated women with such disdain and neglect, it’s not surprising that the women should resort to subtle means to make their way in life! We shall have to wait to discover what Tamar was up to at the roadside.
But until then we note that the Bible tells it as it was; there is no gloss on the lives of the characters who are supposed to be the “good guys”. Judah was living life thinking of himself first, with a careless disregard for his own daughter-in-law who was left in a vulnerable position (unmarried women had a bleak future). The God of the Bible always takes the side of the weak, the poor and the undefended – including the widow and the orphan (Psalm 68 v 4-6) - so Judah had better watch out!
Prayer
Lord, help me in my relationships with the people I meet today. Make me like
Jesus: kind and gentle with the vulnerable, fair and honest, and faithful to
my promises. Amen
Genesis 38 v 15-19
When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, because she had
covered her face with a veil. So Judah went to her and said, “Let me have sexual
relations with you.” He did not know that she was Tamar, his daughter-in-law.
She asked, “What will you give me if I let you have sexual relations with me?”
Judah answered, “I will send you a young goat from my flock.”
She answered, “First give me something to keep as a deposit until you send the
goat.”
Judah asked, “What do you want me to give you as a deposit?”
Tamar answered, “Give me your seal and its cord, and give me your walking stick.”
So Judah gave these things to her. Then Judah and Tamar had sexual relations,
and Tamar became pregnant. When Tamar went home, she took off the veil that
covered her face and put on the clothes that showed she was a widow.
Notes
Tamar, Judah’s daughter-in-law, had been languishing at home after the premature
deaths of two husbands, both sons of Judah. Now she had no husband and no sons
– a vulnerable and impossible situation for a woman of the time. A woman could
not earn a living for herself, so she needed the protection of a husband to
live respectably and she needed a son to secure her future financially. Judah
had promised Tamar his third son as a husband but had done nothing about it,
so she was helpless. He probably secretly held her responsible in some way for
the deaths of his sons, although it is made clear earlier that God held the
sons responsible for their death by their own wicked actions.
So Tamar was the victim in this situation. Her solution to the dilemma was to resort to trickery in the guise of prostitution. Although women could not earn a respectable living themselves, there was ironically a demand for sexual services. And so Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute and lured Judah into a conversation and a deposit that would eventually trap him. Her actions were suspect but her intentions were acceptable.
Judah had just got over the death of his wife. He too was in a vulnerable situation sexually because he was missing the union with his wife and he had been partying with his friends. Maybe too much drink had affected him. The fact that he gave in to temptation when he saw a prostitute offering her services was his downfall. His intention to satisfy himself sexually was contemptible. There is a lesson for us here: we need to take extra care of our sexual purity when we are lonely.
Prayer
Lord, help me when I feel lonely to find the right friends who will encourage
my walk with you. I pray that you will keep me from sexual temptation in whatever
form it comes. I want to keep my eyes on you. Amen
word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken
from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993
by Word Publishing Milton Keynes