Genesis 38 Life of Joseph, Part 2: Judah

The Lion of the Tribe of Judah and the End of History

Pastor Tim, a word of prayer?

Sure. Father God, thank you so much that we are here again, gathering and learning from Genesis. What a blessing these studies have been. We pray a blessing on those who are watching and hearing online, and for those of us in this room gathering as brothers and sisters.

We thank you for the characters in the Bible who were real people like Judah, who we can relate to, and how he's come to his senses through the book of Genesis, and you changed him into a new man. We thank you for everyone here that you've changed into a new creation in Christ Jesus, and we pray a blessing on Pastor Jeff as he teaches us.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

History is his story, God's story. History from beginning to end is authored by God. He has by his decree declared and determined whatsoever will come to pass, and yet we are real agents within that, with a real creaturely will.

All of these things fit together in the plan of God. Let's work backwards to the front this time. The last book of the Bible, turn with me to Revelation chapter 5, verse 5.

That's on one of our t-shirts, isn't it?

Oh yeah, the blue lion of the tribe of Judah. I love it. That's our baptism shirts. As you think about the Bible as a story that begins in Genesis and ends in Revelation, it is the whole sweep of history before creation, all the way when there was only God, all the way to the new heavens and the new earth.

One of the crucial verses in the book of Revelation is chapter 5, verse 5, and the context here is John having been caught up into heaven, he begins to weep because there's no one worthy to open the scroll.

And the scroll would be God's consummation of his plan that would bring seals of judgment and this tribulation, but ultimately bring in the new heaven and the new earth. And John weeps because there's nobody worthy to open the scroll.

And then in chapter 5, verse 5, one of the elders said to me, weep no more. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. And you know, the scene that unfolds from there, when the lion presenting like a lamb having been slain is presented, all of heaven explodes and erupts in praise and worship.

And the 24 elders are falling down and all this multitude that no one can count gives glory and honor and praise to the King of Kings, Jesus Christ. Now this expression, lion of the tribe of Judah, that's where I want it to begin today.

Because of the 12 tribes, one is selected and that tribe is Judah. Judah must've been a very special guy among the 12 that he would have been counted worthy to be the forefather of the Messiah. Turn back with me to Genesis 49.

Genesis 49 is a key chapter because there, before he dies, Jacob will bless each of the 12 sons. But the blessings in many cases don't sound much like a blessing. In fact, they're in a sense, they are a curse in some ways.

Meaning that Jacob speaks the truth, whether it be for blessing or something hard. And in Genesis 49, there is a problem with each of the first three sons, the first three sons that were born to Jacob, all from Leah, Reuben, Simeon, Levi.

What was the problem with Reuben? Genesis 49, verse four, yes, father's bed. He went up to his father's bed. Then you defiled it. He went up to my couch, exclamation mark in verse four. This is horrible.

Now Simeon and Levi, they also are problematic because what did they do? Verse six, they can't come into his council for in their anger, they killed men and they willfully hamstrung oxen. And the big idea about them is that they were cruel.

Verse seven, it is cruel. They're harsh cruelty. And then you get to Judah in verses eight to 10, from whom the lion will come. Judah, your brother shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies.

Your father's son shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion's cub. This is where you get the lion of the tribe of Judah. And from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down, he crouched as a lion.

And as a lioness, who dares rouse him? Verse 10, Messiah will come from Judah. The scepter shall not depart from Judah.

What is a scepter?

Of the king which power.

Yes, it's his ruling staff, indicating his power, his sovereignty, his authority. So nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until tribute comes to him. And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

Clearly, this is speaking not of Judah, the man, but of the Christ who comes from that tribe. The lion of the tribe of Judah will be none other than Jesus Christ. Turn back a few more pages. Remember, we're going backwards today to get to our chapter.

And look at chapter 44, verse 33. Chapter 44, verse 33. This is the context of Joseph testing the brothers, and he puts the golden cup in Benjamin's sack. And then he sends people after them, and turns out that the cup is discovered in Benjamin's sack.

And so it looks very damaging to Benjamin. He is going to be a slave, just like the other son had been. The other son of Rachel. And that was Joseph. He had been a slave to Pharaoh. It's looking very bad for Benjamin.

But in chapter 44, verse 33, we see Judah do something which is not only heroic, but is even Christ-like. He says, now therefore, please let your servant, meaning himself, remain instead of the boy as a servant to my Lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers.

What is Judah doing there?

Substitution.

Substitution, that's instead of, that key word. He's willing to substitute himself to be taken to let the boy go free. And he does this for love of the father, verse 34. For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me?

I fear to see the evil that would find my father. When he sold out his brother, Joseph, did he have love for his father? That was Reuben.

Oh, that was Reuben, all right.

But that actually is a perfect setup for today's lesson. Because from the looks of things here, this Judah is different from the brothers. The tribe will come from him, but you will be shocked to read Genesis 38.

Wait, hold on one second.

Turn back and then we'll get into it, yeah.

No, the first thing we're reading here. You said, verse 34, mind me, overtake my father, and you said something else.

Yeah, the grief that would overtake him, the evil, does it say?

Mine says, the lad is not with me, lest I see the evil that would overtake my father. You didn't say overtake.

Ours says find my father. It would find my father.

Find, overtake, he would just be overcome with grief.

So that's the idea, okay.

The idea is he would be devastated, yeah. I wasn't putting it together, thank you. But what Judah's doing there is he's guarding the heart of the father. He cares about the father's heart, whereas earlier he didn't.

So when we turn to Genesis 38, the big idea here is that Judah is to become a patriarch from whom Christ will descend. And that will be through a son of Judah whose name is Perez. But this is by no merit in Judah.

Rather, I love the term that Matthew Henry uses to describe Judah, a monument of pardoning mercy. Judah will be a monument of pardoning mercy. I stole that phrase in my notes there from Matthew Henry.

I'll put it in quotation marks.

Yeah, you can quote it. Yeah, English teacher, wait a minute.

Yeah.

But see, I'm citing my sources right now.

That's right.

Yeah, yeah, a monument of pardoning mercy. This chapter is remarkable. You can't understand the story of Joseph without seeing the story of Judah interwoven throughout, because as I just showed you, he later becomes the one to be willing to substitute on behalf of Benjamin.

And he then gets the blessing of kingship through his tribe among the twelve. So he is very significant.

And that's a prefigurement of Christ.

Prefigurement of Christ. But what's so remarkable about Judah is that there's no merit in him. In fact, he's just as wicked as Reuben, just as wicked as Simeon, just as wicked as Levi. There's no merit in him.

And let's begin to read about that. Tim, would you read Genesis 38, one to five?

Yep.

It happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and turned aside to a certain Adulamite whose name was Hira. There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua. He took her and went into her, and she conceived and bore a son, and he called his name Ur.

She conceived again and bore a son, and she called his name Onan. Yet again, she bore a son, and she called his name Shelah. Judah, sorry, one more line. Judah was in Shezid when she bore him.

Very good.

So here, Judah falls to what I call the twin destroyers. The twin destroyers that have ruined so many lives. And those twin destroyers are bad company and sexual temptation. Bad company. The first bad company is a buddy of his.

We know his name is Hira. He's an Adulamite. We know he's bad company because later he'll be doing Judah's bidding to cover his sin, to cover over the sin of prostitution and to try to save Judah's face.

Because hey, he's got loyalty as a friend, but he's not a friend that leads him in righteousness. He's a friend that helps him cover his sin. So how many times have people been corrupted by bad company?

First Corinthians 1533, do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals. Remember that expression?

Yeah.

This is, I'm sure, something, Tim, you've talked to the teenagers about more times than you could number, peer pressure, and how the friends that you make are the biggest influence in your life for a period of time.

When you're little, usually up through early middle school, the parents have the most influence. But as you go into high school, that kind of flips where who the kid hangs out with influences them more than the parents do.

Parents are still an important influence, but friendship is so important in those years. And the influence of peer pressure is so strong. Here, we don't know how old Judah is. He's not an old man. He's still a very young man.

And he'll be a very young grandfather, well, truly father, before long. But he is a very young man and influenced by this friendship with Hira. But the thing that really became his downfall, like for so many, is sexual immorality.

He is attracted to a Canaanite. Now what's wrong with marrying a Canaanite?

God said no.

God said no. And it will become in the law prohibited later. But even now, the Canaanites are an immoral people. They're not godly.

They don't follow Yahweh.

This was the whole point of Rachel and Jacob. They desired not Canaanite women for their sons. And even before that, Isaac and Rebecca, remember when they sent the servant to find a wife for their son, Jacob?

And it was God's providence to provide, well, it turned out to be Leah, and then Rachel as well. But in all of this, the Canaanite women were the problem. Esau, he was happy to settle with Canaanites.

And how did that work out for him? Chapter 36, we learned what a mess that was.

Yeah.

So here you have sexual immorality and the sons now are born. Ur and Onan and Shela, these three sons. Verses 6 to 11, Rick.

And Judah took a wife for Ur, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. Was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord put him to death. Then Judah said to Onan, go into 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 Shela, my son, grows up. For he feared that he would die like his brothers. So Tamar went and remained in her father's house.

Wow.

Thank you for reading that, Rick. And I apologize for you having to read a very graphic section of scripture there. It's hard when you're reading the Bible through with your kids and.

They're very little.

And they ask a lot of questions. Like, what is this? This is very, very interesting. Well, what's happening here is that Shela is afraid to marry this girl. Because what happened to his two brothers as soon as they married her?

Like, you don't wanna marry this girl. Bad things happen. But the problem was not this girl. The problem was their own wickedness. And the mom here, what's her name, Tamar? She would be, I think, perhaps the least likely woman in the history of the world to be in Messiah's family tree.

Her firstborn, Onan, was so wicked that God would not even allow him to live on this planet. How bad must have this young man be that God judged him like that? There are certain sins that the Bible calls sins with a high hand.

And even sins that deserve capital punishment in a civil society, where God does not allow the person to live. Some who are getting drunk on communion wine and not allowing the poor among them to even participate.

Some of them died in 1 Corinthians 11 because God was so offended by that. Murder is in the same category. If somebody, Genesis 9, if somebody kills innocent blood, then civil society should put that person to death.

That's capital punishment. Here, God himself executes capital punishment because Onan, I mean, because Er, Ers, so egregiously. We don't know what he did, and we're not, we don't need to know. The idea here is that he's wicked.

So Tamar has one wicked son, how about son number two? He, we, he's very wicked. What he does here is deny the right of leverite marriage. Have you heard that term? Leverite marriage? This was a concept in the Near East, but it later gets codified in the Torah, in Deuteronomy 25, 5 to 10.

If a brother dies and leaves the widow, the next youngest unmarried brother is supposed to marry her. And the first born son from that marriage would carry on the name of the dead brother so that that name of that dead brother is not extinguished in Israel.

Now, the second born who's taking this widow can refuse to marry her. Like Shayla is doing here, surely at Judah's advice. He can refuse, but it is so shameful that there's a demonstration that has to take place.

You want to know what it is?

It's very interesting. The demonstration is this. The woman who's being rejected and not married by leverite marriage will come to the elders at the city gate. That's in your notes. Yeah, in Deuteronomy 25, 9 to 10, let me just read it.

Then his brother's wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, and pull his sandal off his foot, and spit in his face. And she shall answer and say, so shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house.

And the name of his house shall be called in Israel, the house of him who had his sandal pulled off. Now, in our culture, if you were hit with that kind of criticism, would you be too offended? The one who had his sandal pulled off, well, I don't even barely wear sandals, right?

Doesn't sound like a big deal. But in that culture, it's an indication of shame. The one who was too shameful to hold to God's covenant arrangements, and he's the kind of man that breaks covenant. Untrustworthy, ungodly, somebody that no one should have anything to do with anymore.

It is one of the highest forms of shame. In fact, spitting in the face, as it is today, is one of the most shameful things that you can do to a person, right? Jesus, we're told, they spat in his face.

It's shaming. And ultimately, the one who is shamed that way is marked by it in the community. So this is a really big deal.

Now

I remember, I can't get the exact occasion, but one was some place in the Muslim world, and they took a shoe.

Yes.

But I don't

They threw the shoe at him. It was, I think, was it Obama they threw it at?

Or Bush? It was Bush.

Yeah, yeah.

They threw a shoe at Bush.

Yeah, but that's kind of part of the

Yeah, I think that would just be a shame. Yeah, threw a shoe at him. Now, what does Onan do? Onan does not want to bear the shame of denying leverite marriage, so he takes her as a wife. He even has relations with her, but he intentionally spills the semen on the ground so she can't get pregnant.

So he doesn't have to bear, so she wouldn't bear a son for his brother, to be inherited for his brother's name. How wicked was this in the sight of the Lord?

Put him to death.

The Lord considers this death worthy. This is a sin with a high hand. This is so egregious in the sight of the Lord that he must die for this. Because this dear woman, who's devastated already, having been a widow, has now been redeemed, but it's only in the appearance of redemption, and she's being denied children.

A woman who desires to have children in a marriage, the husband should fulfill his duty to her and preserve her through childbearing. Where do I get that expression? 1 Timothy 2 .15, the woman shall be, have you heard this translation?

Saved through childbearing? 1 Timothy 2 .15, that word saved, sozo there, doesn't mean that a woman can get saved by having kids. Not soteriologically, not sins forgiven. It just means part of what God has designed woman to be is childbearing.

Now, not every woman has the blessing to bear children, but for those who desire that and who are able to have children, for a husband to intentionally deny that of her is a breach of covenant, of marriage covenant.

Marriage would include this. Now again, the Lord doesn't always bless with children or even bless with marriage. But here the man wants the benefits of the appearance of marriage and even sexual relations, but he refuses her to have children.

That is a horrible sin in the sight of the Lord. He puts him to death. And then Shayla, he's like, I'm not even gonna marry this woman,.

Because I'm gonna be dead if I do.

And so this is their plot. Bob, would you like to read now 12 through 19?

Now after a considerable time, she was daughter, the wife of Judah died. And when the time of mourning was ended, Judah went up to his sheep, Timnah. He and his friend Hiram, the Dolomites, and it was told to Tamar, behold, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.

So she removed her widow's garments and covered herself with a veil and wrapped herself and sat in the gateway of Enam, which is on the road to Timnah, where she saw that Shayla had grown up, and she had not been given to him as a wife.

When Judah saw her, he thought she was a harlot, for she had covered her face. So he turned aside to her out by the road and said, here now, let me come to you, for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law.

And she said, what will you give me, and that you may come into me? How far am I going?

Third nineteen.

He said, therefore, I will send you a kid from the flock. And she said, moreover, will you give me a pledge until you send it? And he said, what pledge shall I give you? And she said, your seal and your cord and your staff that is in your hand.

And he gave them to her and went into her, and she conceived by him. Then she arose and parted and removed her veil and put on her widow's garments.

Okay, so is Tamar Judah's wife? No, his wife died, Shuah died, and she is the daughter-in-law. Can you conceive of a more sinful conception of a baby? It says in verse 18, she gave them to her and he went into her, and she conceived by him, she became pregnant.

Can you imagine a more shameful way? It involves prostitution by in-law incest, and it is generationally broken. It is just as upside down in ethics as you could possibly imagine. Can you imagine that this child conceived here will be an ancestor of Messiah?

And I think that's part of the point, that our Messiah came into a world of sinners to identify with sinners. No matter how egregious the sins of this earth are, he came to bear sin. Now he himself was conceived without sin to a virgin named Mary, the purest conception, the only pure conception.

David will say in Psalm 51 verse 5, in sin did my mother conceive me. And that doesn't mean that David's mom had had illicit relations. It means that there's original sin passed on in conception, okay?

And Jesus alone is conceived without sin to a virgin named Mary. But now turn this in the exact opposite. This conception is as sinful as you could imagine, and yet God will redeem these sinners. He's able to redeem even somebody like Judah.

Judah, now what did his friend do to contribute to this? Yeah, did you catch that? Yeah, he's going along with Hira, his good buddy. When they stumble across the prostitute, what would a good friend say?

As soon as he started to walk across the street in her direction, a good friend would have grabbed him by the elbow. It's like, dude, no, what? No, don't do that. That's the way of death. Proverbs chapter 8.

You're gonna get shot through with arrows if you go that way. Instead, he's like, go ahead, man, do whatever you want. Maybe cheered him on, maybe pointed her out. In any case, he goes to this prostitute who's now pretending to be a prostitute and therefore becoming one in the act.

And he himself is deceived by her and conceives a child in this way. I can't think of a more flagrantly sinful conception of a child. And yet this whole story is building up to where did Perez and Zerah come from?

And when you begin to read the New Testament, the first three verses of the book of Matthew, you get to Matthew 1, 3, and Judah, the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Matthew will point out that Tamar is in this lineage, just like Rahab had been a prostitute and Rahab is in that lineage as well.

How many of you are glad that our Savior can save from any sin? Even the sin of prostitution, even the sin of anything. That is how strong and how powerful his blood is. His, what can wash away our sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus. He came for sinners like Tamar, for sinners like Judah. They're just entangled in this horrible sin. Barbara, would you read 20 to 23?

Yeah, question on that one.

Yes.

What lineage did Tamar, is that Joseph's lineage or Mary's lineage?

So, the Matthew 1, Matthew and Luke I think trace separately, but I'm not sure which is which. I'd have to get back to you on that.

Just continue, we'll do that after.

Yeah, and could you read for me verses 20 to 23, Barbara?

Okay.

Meanwhile, Judah sent the young goat by his friend, the Adalite, in order to get this pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her. He asked the men who lived there, where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at En-En?

There hasn't been any shrine prostitute here, they said. So, he went back to Judah and said, I didn't find her besides the men who lived there said, there hasn't been any shrine prostitute here. Then Judah said, let her keep what she has or we will become a laughingstock.

After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn't find her.

What did Adam and Eve do in the garden when they realized that they were naked?

They hid.

They hid.

And when they heard the footsteps of the Lord walking in the coolness of the day, they hid from him. Here he conceals his sin. What's his concern? Is it fear of the Lord and offending the righteousness of God or fear of being embarrassed?

Becoming a laughingstock. You found it there. Yeah, it says, um, where's 23? 23. Read that for me.

And Judah said to her, keep them, lest we become a laughingstock. After all, I've sent the kid.

Yep.

He's like, he justifies it.

Hey, I did my part.

What was my deal? I'll send the, I'll send the little calf and, um, young goat and everything will be good. She didn't, she wasn't there. Couldn't find her.

All right.

My hands are clean.

I did my part. Nobody knows yet, yet. Be sure your sin will find you out. Proverbs 28, 13 says, whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.

Isn't that a beautiful verse? What's, what's he trying to do here? Judah is trying to conceal his sin. And Judy, would you finish this out with verses 24 to 30?

About three months later, Judah was told, Tamar, your daughter, she is with, and Judah said, as she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, by the man to whom these belong, I am his child.

And she said, Mark, I pray you, whose these are, the signet and the cord and staff. Then Judah acknowledged them and said, she is more righteous than I am, than I. Inasmuch as she did not give, as I did not give her my son, Sila, and he did not lie with her again.

When the time of her delivery came, there were twins in her womb, and when she was a neighbor, one pulled out a hand, and the midwife took and bound his hand with a scarlet thread, saying, this came out first.

But he drew back his hand, and behold, his brother came out. And she said, what breach have you made for yourself? Therefore, his name was called. Afterwards, his brother came out with a scarlet thread upon his hand, and his name was called Zer.

Okay, so Perez, or Perez, I don't know how to pronounce it, means breach. What a breach you have made. What happens here? He makes the breach, meaning it seems like his hand is the first out, and the midwife ties a scarlet thread around the hand, but he pulls the hand back out, and the other is born first.

Very interesting birthing of the twins. But it did mark, the first one actually was Zerah, who had the thread tied, and the breach was like, almost like, wait, get out of my way, pulled the other one out of the birth canal, and said, no, I'm going out first.

And obviously, we don't know what was happening in the minds of these children, but we know what was happening in the sovereignty of God, in the plan of God. Did God know that Perez, not Zerah, would be in the lineage of Christ?

Of course he did. Did he know the means by which this baby would be conceived in the first place? He sure did. And did it include the most horrible sin you could imagine, written on the pages of scripture?

It did.

All of this was within God's redemptive plan. It's all pointing forward to a Messiah. This breach that this child made positioned him to be in the lineage, that the lineage would come through Perez, not through Zerah.

Now, there's something important that happens in verse 26, and I call it the first flashes of grace that appear in Judah's life. Up until this moment, he's part of selling out his brother to the Egyptians with the traveling Ishmaelites.

He sold him for 20 pieces of silver. It's a wicked man. He goes and hangs out with the Canaanites. He has bad company, friends, and then he falls into sexual immorality and bears wicked sons who the Lord puts to death.

They're so wicked. Is he on a good course here? And then he goes to a prostitute who turns out to be his daughter-in-law, and then he tries to conceal the matter and wash his hands of it. But something interesting happens in verse 26.