He Makes the Foulest Clean

I haven’t blogged at all lately, mainly because I think I got bored with blogging about Genesis (they repeated the same mistakes over and over like I do), and I didn’t feel I had anything fresh to say. The gloriously sunny days of spring in Ireland have also contributed to a feeling of lassitude in regard to writing, I daresay. Strange to think of gloriously sunny days in Ireland, but I think we’ve had only one downpour in the entire month of April!

Time to be disciplined again, but I will not offer continuous commentary on the remainder of Genesis; rather I’ll mention some points that impressed me as I read to the end of the book. The story of Judah and Tamar is probably one of the uglier stories in the Bible. Part of what makes the Bible such a credible book, however, is that it presents people in all their flagrant sinfulness. This story (found in Genesis 38) is no exception.

Judah’s son, Er, married Tamar, a Canaanite woman. Er was apparently such a wicked man the Scriptures tell us that “the Lord put him to death”. (Genesis 38:7) In the cultural context of the time, the brothers of the deceased were to sleep with the widow in an effort to help her produce offspring, thus giving her a sort of financial insurance policy. Onan had no desire for additional heirs with whom to share the family wealth, so he did not cooperate. God’s view of the situation was stern: “What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so he put him to death also.”

Judah suggested that Tamar wait until his youngest son came of age, but he never fulfilled his promise to Tamar to take care of her through this son, Shua. Frustrated at the lack of concern for her well-being, Tamar took matters into her own hands, and disguised as a prostitute, enticed her father-in-law to sleep with her. This one night stand resulted in a pregnancy for Tamar, which was just what she needed. (I did say, didn’t I, that the Bible doesn’t hide unsavoury stories?)

Judah was confronted with the accusation that Tamar was a prostitute and pregnant, and in self-righteous rage insisted that she be put to death. His shame was great, however, when Tamar confronted him with the truth of her temporary prostitution, the fact that he had been her sole customer and consequently, the father of the baby she now carried.

Realizing how serious sin is to God (after all, he killed two of Judah’s sons on the basis of their wickedness), it is amazing to see how he deals with Tamar. Over and over again the Psalms tell us that God is concerned about widows and orphans, and works to achieve justice on their behalf. Even though Tamar took things into her own hands in a less than holy manner, God’s compassionate character hovers over the story and depicts just how he works on the behalf of the downtrodden. In the first place, Tamar was blessed with twin sons, ensuring her financial well-being in the future. Not only that, however, she is one of five women listed in Matthew’s genealogy (see Matthew 1:3). In looking at the five women listed in this geneaology, commentators note that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the only one without a “past”. And of course, to the people in her village, Mary was no doubt perceived to have had a “past”. So Tamar (the pagan and temporary prostitute), Rahab (the prostitute), Ruth (the former pagan), Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba (the adulteress) join the godly teenager, Mary, in Jesus’ family tree. What a picture of God’s grace and how He “makes the foulest clean”!

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