Read Selected Scriptures from Gen. 38-40

·       38:1: “and it came to pass.”  It just happened!  Think about this.  Twelve sons has not become 11 sons, at least as far as Jacob is concerned.  But Jacob is very aware of the covenant, the promise God made to him and to his fathers.  And what is it that “just happened?”  Judah took a wife from the Canaanites.  This demonstrates an attitude that was seen in Esau which was discouraging for Isaac and Rebekah.  We are in a period of time for Jacob that might have been similar to the 13 years of silence between God and Abraham after Abraham had tried to satisfy God’s promise through Hagar (Gen. 16:16; 17:1). 

o   Again, we might ask how this story advances the Christ-narrative.  It is enough to say that Judah’s Canaanite daughter-in-law, Tamar, is in the Messianic line (Matt. 1:3).  But we have mentioned also that the story of Joseph, which we are just beginning to discover, is also the story of Judah.  Both are powerful pictures of the Messiah: the one as Israel’s “savior” and the other as Israel’s “king.”  Judah and Ephraim will become the leading tribes of Israel.  Quite often, from the time of the Judges clear through the divided kingdom, there will be evidence of a struggle between these tribes for preeminence in Israel. 

·       38:10: You may wonder why this was an act that resulted in God taking the life of Judah’s son.  The answer is that the sperm itself contains the essential DNA of a living being.  This is what the Creator made, and salvation was tied to the giving of birth by the woman (Gen. 3:16; 1 Tim. 2:15).

·       Here is some geography.  Adullum (38:1) was in the lowlands or the “Shephelah” area between the Mediterranean and the Mountains of Judah.  Timnah (38:16) is a city name used of more than one location in the OT, but this one was also in the lowlands, not far from Bethlehem.

·       38:24-26: It is a short distance on the “road of facts” from righteous judge to “she is more righteous than I.”  Tamar was falsely charged (v19-20) and Judah could have her put to death.  But God has another plan that involves getting Joseph into the “King’s Prison” where he can become the number two ruler of Egypt.

·       39:21: Even in the King’s Prison God is at work.  Joseph experiences mercy (checed, lovingkindness) and favor (hen, grace) in the eyes of the warden.  In other words, the LORD was with him.

·       40:23: Again, Joseph is “forgotten” in prison, forgotten not by God but by man.  But, of course, it is because God needs him for the time of the famine, and that time has not arrived.  This would be a good time to read Ps. 105:16-22.  Everything about this story is the work of God!