Genesis 38:30

The colour "scarlet" stands for rights of lordship. 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 appears in what may be one of the darkest chapters in the Old Testament, Genesis 38. In dark and shameful circumstances, something with power to "break through" and to "rise up" (as the names of the twins suggest) is clearly at work. It leads on to a generation from which David springs.

In that beautiful passage, Isaiah 60:1-7, the same thought is in view. Sin, darkness and turning away from God have marked His people, and thick darkness covers them. But the Lord rises upon them, His glory shines out, and nations and kings come to acknowledge the "rising" (Zerah) that has broken through the darkness and shown His supremacy over all.

Scripture always puts Perez, the son of Judah and Tamar, ahead of his twin brother Zarah, or Zerah, so he held the right of the firstborn. In David's reign the family of Perez held the highest rank in the tribe of Judah, and it appears to have stood out for its many children and its strength.

Perez, the "breaker forth," breaks out into abundant fruit, which fills all the later history of Judah. From him come Judah's kings, and her great King. Twin with Perez comes Zerah, the sunrise. From him came singers, such as Ethan, and warriors, such as Shammah, Sibbechai and Maharai — strong defenders of the throne.

Of all the women who might have been named, these four were, in different ways, the apparent blots on the genealogy. Far from hiding what was shameful about them, the record brings in details one might have thought could be left out. It is as if it wants to draw our attention to what might otherwise have been less noticed. So it mentions Zerah's twin birth with Perez, though Zerah himself is not in the line of the genealogy, as if to recall the sin that brought them into being.

Genesis 38 shows one of those remarkable cases where divine grace triumphs gloriously over man's sin. "It is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah" (Hebrews 7:14). But how? "Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar" (Matthew 1:3). This is especially striking. God, in His great grace, rises above the sin and folly of man to bring about His own purposes of love and mercy.

Yet through this guilty Judah, and through Tamar, came the One who cleanses from all sin by His blood. He will reign over the universe to God's glory.