Genesis 38:17

Judah 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 used deceit and posed as a prostitute to seduce Judah. He promised to send her a young goat as payment for his fornication. She demanded some security, and he gave her three things that were clearly his own property.

Tamar had the right to be the mother of Judah's heir. He held back this right that was hers, and in effect blamed 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 let family ties sway their judgment in important matters.

This passage gives us the first crisis of succession in Judah. We know that our Lord came from Judah. So we can see Satan pushing his way into these events. His design was always to hinder the coming and work of the Messiah. Note that this threatens more than Tamar's security. It threatens her right to become the mother of Judah's heir.

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 someone else to sin by my own wickedness, how great my responsibility is... Judah is ready to condemn Tamar to be burned, but she had secured a pledge from him. She now brought it forward as evidence, and everyone saw that Judah shared in the sin. This is the way God works. A frank confession will secure His mercy... Having established righteousness He is now free to show mercy.

She comes before me in this picture as a sinner and nothing else. She was the wife of two men, one after the other, and divine judgment cut off each of them for his wickedness. Yet she dares in her own person to provoke divine judgment by a crime equal to theirs. But the wonder above all this is that it is this very sin that brings her name into the Lord's genealogy — for it was this sin that made her the mother of Perez, one of the direct line in Christ's ancestry.

It was Judah, not Reuben or any other of the tribal heads, who proposed the sale of Joseph. Then he showed in his own house the evil that drew down curse on curse, until the head of that house had to admit the sad shame of Tamar, more righteous than himself, though he had sentenced her to die by fire. Yet through this guilty Judah, and through Tamar, came He who cleanses from all sin by His blood, and who will reign over the universe to God's glory.