Read Genesis 38 - the story of Tamar. {see below}
I believe every family has someone that doesn't fit the mold, a black sheep. Perhaps it is even the one reading (or writing) this message. Normally we don't think much of the "black sheep" in the lineage of Jesus, but there are a few! There is so much written about the Son of God, just like our own families we focus on the achievers, the high profile successful members and those that society considers 'normal'. How many people really know the story of Tamar, the woman that we learn about in this passage, living in a patriarchal land and facing the shame of having no children? Most of us can't even identify with what that might have been like. Are her actions and decisions, particularly since they include her sexual behavior, accepted as one who is in the family tree of God's chosen son? Evidently God had a message for all of us. Though we may not agree with Tamar's method of securing her future, the real lesson I learn from her is that God can still move in powerful, life changing ways even when we feel desperate or without hope.
Have you ever felt so powerless that you have made seemingly foolish decisions? Or perhaps a loved one has gone down a path that you really don't understand, do you just give up hope? I know my heart has been stretched in different directions many times - battling between the right thing to do and the desire to try just one more thing to make a situation go my way. Because I take time to learn and study I am constantly reminded that God will give me direction if I will turn to Him first. Today I challenge you to think of the people in your life that don't fit the mold. Then remember that God loves each of them just as much as He loves you. Perhaps look below the surface of their behavior and dig a little deeper to see what may be their driving force, or even their desperation. Or perhaps it is a behavior or path of your own...... take some time today for totally quiet reflection, to consider the direction you are taking and if God may have another solution. Ask and then listen.
I would say we are all black sheep in one way or another. We each have things deep inside that drive us to make decisions and sometimes it will seem totally off track when others are looking at our behavior. So today when considering "why Jesus"? ponder possible reasons that God had the story of Tamar recorded for us. What can you learn from this determined woman in the lineage of Jesus?
Tamar's story is all about hope. What we see is never all that there is; God is here, in what we see and feel, and God is so much more than what we see.
This version of Genesis 38 is from The Message, a paraphrase.
1-5About that time, Judah separated from his brothers and hooked up with a man in Adullam named Hirah. While there, Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite named Shua. He married her, they went to bed, she became pregnant and had a son named Er. She got pregnant again and had a son named Onan. She had still another son; she named this one Shelah. They were living at Kezib when she had him.
6-7Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn. Her name was Tamar. But Judah’s firstborn, Er, grievously offended Godand God took his life.
8-10So Judah told Onan, “Go and sleep with your brother’s widow; it’s the duty of a brother-in-law to keep your brother’s line alive.” But Onan knew that the child wouldn’t be his, so whenever he slept with his brother’s widow he spilled his semen on the ground so he wouldn’t produce a child for his brother. God was much offended by what he did and also took his life.
11So Judah stepped in and told his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow at home with your father until my son Shelah grows up.” He was worried that Shelah would also end up dead, just like his brothers. So Tamar went to live with her father.
12Time passed. Judah’s wife, Shua’s daughter, died. When the time of mourning was over, Judah with his friend Hirah of Adullam went to Timnah for the sheep shearing.
13-14Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law has gone to Timnah to shear his sheep.” She took off her widow’s clothes, put on a veil to disguise herself, and sat at the entrance to Enaim which is on the road to Timnah. She realized by now that even though Shelah was grown up, she wasn’t going to be married to him.
15Judah saw her and assumed she was a prostitute since she had veiled her face. He left the road and went over to her. He said, “Let me sleep with you.” He had no idea that she was his daughter-in-law.
16She said, “What will you pay me?”
17“I’ll send you,” he said, “a kid goat from the flock.”
She said, “Not unless you give me a pledge until you send it.”
18“So what would you want in the way of a pledge?”
She said, “Your personal seal-and-cord and the staff you carry.”
He handed them over to her and slept with her. And she got pregnant.
19She then left and went home. She removed her veil and put her widow’s clothes back on.
20-21Judah sent the kid goat by his friend from Adullam to recover the pledge from the woman. But he couldn’t find her. He asked the men of that place, “Where’s the prostitute that used to sit by the road here near Enaim?”
They said, “There’s never been a prostitute here.”
22He went back to Judah and said, “I couldn’t find her. The men there said there never has been a prostitute there.”
23Judah said, “Let her have it then. If we keep looking, everyone will be poking fun at us. I kept my part of the bargain—I sent the kid goat but you couldn’t find her.”
24Three months or so later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law has been playing the whore—and now she’s a pregnant whore.”
Judah yelled, “Get her out here. Burn her up!”
25As they brought her out, she sent a message to her father-in-law, “I’m pregnant by the man who owns these things. Identify them, please. Who’s the owner of the seal-and-cord and the staff?”
26Judah saw they were his. He said, “She’s in the right; I’m in the wrong—I wouldn’t let her marry my son Shelah.” He never slept with her again.
27-30When her time came to give birth, it turned out that there were twins in her womb. As she was giving birth, one put his hand out; the midwife tied a red thread on his hand, saying, “This one came first.” But then he pulled it back and his brother came out. She said, “Oh! A breakout!” So she named him Perez (Breakout). Then his brother came out with the red thread on his hand. They named him Zerah (Bright).
