He turned to her at the roadside and said, “Come, let me come in to you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?”
Judah is travelling to his sheepshearers after his wife's death. He stops for a veiled woman by the road and starts bargaining. He does not know her: she is Tamar, his son's widow. He had promised her to another son and then left her waiting.
Why this story sits here
This chapter cuts into the story of Joseph. One writer reads that placement as deliberate: Judah's fall stands next to Joseph's stand under a similar test.
F. B. HoleGenesis 38 cuts the story of Joseph off completely. Genesis 39 picks it up again and tells at once of the great temptation that faced him. The sad story of Judah seems to be placed here for a reason. It heightens our sense of how firmly Joseph stood under a temptation of the same kind. Judah seems to have been one of the better behaved sons of Jacob. Yet the practices that marked him and his family were evil, and clearly accepted as nothing very unusual.
The promise Judah never kept
Tamar is on that road because of a right Judah owed her and held back. One writer also names what blinded him.
Edwin N. CrossTamar had the right to be the mother of Judah's heir. He withheld this legitimate entitlement from her, effectively blaming her for the death of his sons. He did not blame his own sons for any wrong. Judah's prejudice in favour of his own family blinded him to the truth... Many today allow the ties of nature to sway their judgment in matters of importance.
A man not turned toward God
Judah had just buried his wife. Grief could have driven him to God. It drove him to a roadside bargain instead.
L. M. GrantJudah was not driven to the feet of the Lord by this, but turned to the company of one whom he thought was a prostitute. He had promised to give his youngest son Shelah to Tamar, but had not kept his promise. So she took matters into her own hands. She posed as a prostitute to deceive and seduce Judah. He promised to send her a young goat as payment for his immorality. She then demanded security, and he gave her three things that were clearly his own.
Two sinners, not one victim
Judah later calls Tamar more righteous than himself. But writers do not treat her trap as an act of faith.
An Outline of Sound WordsTamar lay in wait for Judah. She may have valued a place in the family that knew the true God. Even so, her action did not spring from faith in God. On a human level, her act was more righteous than Judah's, as he confessed. But morally the two were alike, partners in a serious sin. Behaviour like this might suit Canaanite families. But it was hateful to the holiness of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
The double standard that got exposed
Three months later the truth came out, and Judah ordered the pregnant woman burned.
Edwin N. CrossWhat a hypocrite! Judah acts as if he is completely right and without blame, but it is he who has the greater guilt. It was he who caused Tamar to stumble and now he wants her punished. If I cause another to sin because of my own wickedness, how great then is my responsibility... He has a double standard, which is not acceptable to a holy God... A frank confession will secure His mercy.
The sin that led into Christ's family line
The strangest turn is what God does with this roadside transaction. Tamar's name appears in the list of Jesus' ancestors. One writer presses the point that it was not her goodness that put it there.
The Christian's FriendIn Tamar's whole story, what strikes me is that there is nothing good in it at all... She comes before me in this picture as a sinner and nothing else. But the wonder above all this is that this very sin brings her name into the Lord's family line. It was this sin that made her the mother of Pharez, one of the direct ancestors of Christ!
The chapter ends with the head of the family admitting he was the guilty one. That admission is where the line to Christ runs on.
William KellyIt was not Reuben or any other of the tribal heads who proposed the sale of Joseph. It was Judah. And now his own house showed the evil that drew down curse on curse. In the end its head had to own the sad shame of Tamar — more righteous than himself — whom he had sentenced to die by fire. Yet by this guilty Judah, and by Tamar, came He who cleanses from all sin by His blood.
Summary
- Promise — Judah owed Tamar a husband and held him back to shield his own son. Her plan starts with his broken word.
- Blindness — grief did not turn him to God. He turned aside to a stranger and bargained over the price, not knowing who she was.
- Shared guilt — writers do not make Tamar innocent. She was more righteous than Judah, yet both shared one sin.
- Exposure — the security he handed over was clearly his own. His double standard ended in confession.
- Grace — the very sin that shames him is the link in the line to Christ, who cleanses from all sin by His blood.