And Judah replied, “Let her keep the things as her own, or we shall be laughed at. You see, I sent this young goat, and you did not find her.”
Judah has left three personal items as a pledge with a woman he took for a prostitute, and the friend sent to redeem them cannot find her. He drops the search rather than be laughed at, which raises the question of the verse: is Judah troubled by the sin, or only by the shame?
Shame Before Men, Not Sin Before God
Judah's worry is that people will laugh. What he does not say is that he has done wrong. Commentators separate these two reactions, and trace the difference back to the first people in the Bible who hid:
J. N. DarbyShame only drives Adam and Eve to hide from God and to make excuses to Him. It is the same with us. As long as the shame of sin lasts, we try to hide it and escape it. But it only drives us farther and farther from God. That is not a conscience taught by God, because we care more about the shame in front of people than about the sinfulness before God... our sense of the guilt of sin should always be deeper than our sense of its shame.
The Pledge He Cannot Buy Back
The young goat was meant to buy back the signet, the cord and the staff. Judah would rather lose them than be laughed at. But the pledge he abandons is the very thing that will convict him:
Edwin N. CrossJudah's pretended virtue is about to be exposed by the subsequent events... Judah is ready to condemn Tamar to be burnt, but she had secured a pledge from him. This she now brought forward in evidence (v. 25) and Judah's complicity in the sin is manifested before all. This is the way God works. A frank confession will secure His mercy.
Secrecy Is No Protection
Judah counts on the matter staying between himself, his friend, and a woman nobody can locate. Writers on secret sin note that those most sure of secrecy are the ones God exposes:
Hamilton SmithGod knows your most secret sin: "You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence" (Psalm 90:8)... You have an informer in your own heart — your conscience. It goes along with you and witnesses every plot you lay. What it sees, it writes down, for it is a court of record... Look into the word. You will find that God has usually shamed in this world the very people who counted most on secrecy in their sinning.
The Friend Who Runs the Errand
The man sent with the goat is Hirah of Adullam, the friend Judah made after leaving his brothers. Needing a friend to cover his tracks fits the road the chapter opened with:
Edwin N. CrossThe actual words of Scripture, "went down from," show the path of departure he had set out on. They warn the reader that sin will mark what follows... The heart astray from God is a ready prey to the deceit and incitements of men. Someone not walking in communion with God will soon walk in fellowship with unconverted people of the world.
Why Such a Story Is in the Bible
The chapter cuts away from the story of Joseph. Commentators see the placing as deliberate, and they point out where Tamar's name later appears:
F. B. HoleIt seems we have the sad story of Judah told here to heighten in our minds the way Joseph stood firm under a temptation of the same kind... the Tamar of this chapter is the first of the women mentioned in the genealogy of our Lord, recounted in Matthew 1. Of the four women mentioned, only Ruth had a clean record from the moral point of view, and she came from a nation under a curse. Such names would never have appeared in the record had it not been for the grace of God — the grace that triumphs over human sin.
Grace Larger Than the Disgrace
Judah is hushing up a sordid night. Through it God is carrying forward the line of the Messiah:
William KellyHow shocking that she claimed her right in such a shameless and incestuous way! How self-righteous Judah was, ready to burn the mother of babies who were his own without his knowing it! And one of those babies is carefully marked out in Messiah's direct line. Such is man, and such Judah; but such too is God. Where heinous sin abounded, grace much more exceeded.
Summary
- Departure. "Went down from" set the chapter's direction. A heart far from God soon keeps company that suits it.
- Concealment. Judah fears ridicule, not guilt. That is a conscience measuring itself by people, not by God.
- Exposure. The pledge he lets go becomes the evidence against him. Those who count most on secrecy are the ones God shames.
- Confession. The way out is the one Judah avoids here — an honest admission, which secures God's mercy.
- Grace. Into this very history God writes the family line of Christ. Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.