Genesis 38:2

This chapter is seldom read in public, because it deals with deeds of the darkest kind. It shows human nature raw, in its sordid character away from God. It has a strange place, tucked into the unfolding story of Joseph... Joseph's high moral conduct shines like a bright light. It makes the corrupt, unprincipled behaviour of his brother Judah stand out even more. Joseph was a conscript into the world, like Daniel in later years. Sadly many are determined to go into the place where Christ has been rejected. They do not lose their first love — they leave it.

In the second verse we see the downward path bringing Judah into the closest association with a daughter of a Canaanite... Here he repeats the sin of Esau, whose marriages were a grief to his parents (Gen. 26:35). Judah had no regard for the landmark Abraham set up long before. Abraham said, "you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites" (Gen. 24:3). He had no scruple about marrying a pagan, "the daughter of a foreign god" (Mal. 2:11). For the Christian today the principle is clear. The instruction of 2 Corinthians 6:14-15 is, "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers." The phrase "Judah saw" suggests the standard he used in choosing a wife. It was much the same with Samson later: "Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines" (Judges 14:1). There was no thought of choosing according to the mind of God.

But Judah afterwards goes beyond even all this in a very frightening way. He represents the fourth generation of this chosen family. He does not guard against trouble beforehand, as Abraham did in ordering his family. He does not grieve over trouble once it has come in, as Isaac did. He is not even simply indifferent to it, as Jacob was. He brings it in himself!

Here at the very start Judah separates himself from his brothers. He joins himself to the Canaanite — the "merchant" — and marries the daughter of Shuah (or "riches"). Surely these names tell us plainly what has marked the nation through the centuries since the cross! Even so, his line still continues on the earth. God's anger falls on the first two sons, whose names speak of "enmity" in Er and "iniquity" in Onan. But the third son, Shelah ("sprout"), speaks of divine power in resurrection, bringing life out of death. In this way a remnant is preserved.

This passage gives us the first crisis of succession in Judah. We know that our Lord came from Judah (Matt. 1:3; Heb. 7:14), and so we can see Satan pushing his way into these events. His aim was always to hinder the coming and work of the Messiah.

Judah was to be the chief royal tribe, and the ancestor of the King of kings. Yet without reverence he takes a daughter of Canaan for himself. No wonder wickedness killed his firstborn... Such is man, and such is Judah; but such too is God. Where terrible sin abounded, grace much more abounded.

Here is one of those remarkable cases where divine grace triumphs in glory over man's sin... "Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar" (Matt. 1:3). This is very striking. God, in His great grace, rises above the sin and folly of man to carry out His own purposes of love and mercy... How clear it is that there is nothing of man in this! Man could never have devised such a genealogy.