Devotion for Tuesday, August 25th
Kevin Peterson
Devotional Text: Genesis 38 (To read and even listen to this text for free, click here.)
Verse in Focus: “Then Judah said to Onan, ‘Go in to your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.’ But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went in to his brother's wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother. And what he did was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and he put him to death also. Then Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law, ‘Remain a widow in your father's house, till Shelah my son grows up’—for he feared that he would die, like his brothers. So Tamar went and remained in her father's house” (Genesis 38:8-11).
Related Verse: “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her” (Deuteronomy 25:5).
Devotional Thought:
We’re cruising along with the story of Jacob. He’s clearly his father’s favorite and even God has shown him tremendous favor with those two dreams. But his brothers are jealous and see him as a rival to be eliminated. So they set about to kill him. Wiser heads prevail, however, and Joseph is sold off to slavery with Jacob being led to believe his most beloved son has been torn apart by a wild animal. The parting bit of information that we are left with at the end of chapter 37 is that Joseph is sold to an Egyptian named Potiphar, who just so happens to be the Captain of the Guard for the Egyptian Pharaoh. Pretty exciting stuff! I wonder what happens next. “It happened at that time that Judah went down ...” (38:1a).
Wait a minute! I thought the story was about Joseph. What is all this about Judah? In truth, what we have here is an ancient version of “meanwhile, back at the ranch ...” For those unfamiliar with that phrase, it is “an expression that originated as a movie caption in the silent film era at the beginning of the [20th] century” (R. Hendrickson). Typically in cowboy movies, the horse chase would be on when, right in the middle of the action, the story would shift back to what was happening at that same time “back at the ranch.” But such storytelling techniques did not originate in Hollywood, as is very evident from our text. Here we have a pause in the main story, which builds up suspense, while at the same time giving the reader important additional information.
So, what important additional information are we being given in chapter 38? First, we are given a glimpse into the moral character of Judah, Joseph’s brother that has taken on the mantle of being the “first-born.” His flawed choices—marrying a Canaanite woman, lying, having sex with what he believes to be a prostitute, and crass hypocrisy—will soon stand in sharp contrast to the impeccable character of Joseph. This interlude in the story of Joseph will also provide important genealogical information as to the lineage of Judah, by way of a social custom never before mentioned—namely, levirate marriage.
“Levirate” comes from the Latin word, levir, which means “husband’s brother.” Thus, a levirate marriage is one where a childless widow is required to marry her husband’s brother, for the purpose of providing an heir for her dead husband. The fact that this is a well established tradition and custom is seen that one Hebrew word, yibbum, has to be translated into English as “perform the duty of a brother-in-law.” So why didn’t Onan not want to produce a child with Tamar? Well, with the death of his older brother, Tamar’s husband, Onan was now the first-born, entitled to a double portion of his father’s possessions. Should a son be born to Tamar, that boy would become the rightful inheritor of that double-portion.
To be sure, though Onan—by his treatment of Tamar—shows himself to be jerk, his behavior is understandable, at least from a worldly point of view. But what about God? What reason does He have to take such a great interest in the moral failure of Judah’s two sons, Er and Onan, that He should put them to death—while allowing equally immoral people to live? Because Judah has the birthright. From him will come kings and, especially, the long promised Messiah. Tamar—whom we will look at more closely tomorrow—will take her place in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:3) whereas her two husbands will not. This genealogical line is that important. Blessings on your day!
Vaya con Dios!
Pastor Peterson
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