Genesis 38:28

The colour "scarlet" stands for the rights of the Lord. It is both striking and instructive to see how the thought of Christ's supremacy runs through Scripture like a "thread of scarlet." This beautiful thought comes in at one of the darkest chapters in the Old Testament, Genesis 38. In dark, sordid circumstances something appears with power to "break through" and "rise up" (as the names of the twins suggest), and it reaches its high point in the family line that David comes from (Ruth 4:18-22).

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

God gave special rights to the firstborn son of each family (a double inheritance). Again and again we meet firstborn sons who fail, and their blessing goes to another who has no claim to it. Cain was the firstborn, but Seth took his place. So it was with Ishmael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob, Reuben and Joseph, and others. The underlying principle is clear: the firstborn speaks of man in his natural strength: 'for he is the firstfruits of his vigour' (Deut. 21:17). And this is the point: natural man acting in his own strength always leads to failure. For blessing to come at all, God has to provide the 'second'. Hebrews 10 states the principle plainly: 'He takes away the first that he may establish the second' (v. 9).

Shelah is fruitful, but Tamar's children far more so. From them Pharez, the "breaker forth," breaks out into a vast fruit that fills the whole later history of Judah. From him come her kings, and her great King. Twin with Pharez comes Zerah, whose name means the [sun] rise, and from him come singers later on, such as Ethan, and warriors such as Shammah, Sibbechai and Maharai, strong defenders of the throne.

The closing verses (vv. 27-30) of this chapter show how mercy triumphs over judgment. J. G. Bellett wrote of this, "The hope of Israel is in the womb, a blessing is in the cluster. Yet it is truly such a cluster of wild vine as might well be doomed to the sickle, if sovereign, abounding grace did not say, 'Destroy it not' (Isa. 65:8; Matt. 1:3)." The midwife had never seen anything like this, and she cries out, "How have you broken forth?" (v. 29). But in this way the line to Christ is carried on. Pharez comes out, the second Jacob, one who takes another's place. From him would come the True Inheritor of every blessing.

This chapter needs few words to prove how low Judah had sunk… And notice that it was not Reuben or any other head of a tribe, but Judah who proposed selling Joseph. He then showed in his own house the evil that drew down curse after curse, until he himself, the head of that house, had to admit the sad shame of Tamar. She was more righteous than he was, though he had sentenced her to die by fire. Yet through this guilty Judah, and through Tamar, came the One who cleanses from all sin by His blood and who will reign over the universe to God's glory.