Genesis 38:27

Genesis 38 completely interrupts the story of Joseph. In Genesis 39 the story starts again... It seems that we have the shameful story of Judah told to sharpen our sense of how Joseph stood firm under a temptation of the same kind... The Tamar of this chapter is the first of the women named in the genealogy of our Lord in Matthew 1. Of those four women, only Ruth had a clean record morally, and she came from an accursed race. Such names would never have appeared in the record if it were not for the grace of God — the grace that triumphs over human sin.

Even here grace secures a pledge. Pharez is a second supplanter, one who takes another's place. The hope of Israel is in the womb, and a blessing is in the cluster. Yet it is the cluster of a wild vine, fit to be doomed to the sickle, if sovereign, abounding grace did not say, "Do not destroy it." Isa. 65:8; Matt. 1:3.

The colour "scarlet" stands for the rights of the Lord to rule. It is both remarkable and instructive to see how the thought of Christ's supremacy runs through Scripture like a "thread of scarlet." This beautiful thought first appears in what may be one of the darkest chapters in the Old Testament, Genesis 38. In dark, sordid circumstances something shows itself that has power to "break through" and to "rise up" — as the names of the twins suggest. This leads at last to the line from which David comes.

Pharez, the "breaker forth," breaks out into fruit beyond counting, which fills all the later history of Judah. From him come her kings, and her great King. His twin is Zerah, whose name means the sunrise, and from him come singers later on, such as Ethan, and warriors, such as Shammah, Sibbechai and Maharai, strong defenders of the throne.

Tamar gave birth to twins. One began to come first, but the other took his place (vv. 27-29). This is another lesson of the first being last and the last first, as with Esau and Jacob, and many others.

The closing verses (vv. 27-30) of this chapter show how mercy rejoices over judgment... The midwife had seen nothing like this before and exclaims, "What a breach you have made for yourself!" (v. 29 — older translations read, "How have you broken forth?"). But in this way the line to Christ moves forward. Pharez comes out, the second Jacob, one who takes another's place. From him would come the True Inheritor of every blessing. Christ is the righteous One who takes the place of every usurper. He will prevail, and His kingdom will stand for ever.

It is Tamar's sin that brings her in, and Rahab's faith that brings her in. For Ruth to come in, the law's sentence against the Moabites had to be set aside. And Bathsheba — named even as the wife of Uriah — shows us grace triumphing over even a believer's sin. Salvation for sinners, through faith, apart from law, and eternal: this is what the simple placing of these names declares.

Yet through this guilty Judah, and through Tamar, came the One who cleanses from all sin by His blood. He will reign over the whole universe to God's glory. That reign goes far beyond all that Joseph pictured, just as He Himself went far lower in humiliation and suffering.