Sunday Night, December 1, 2019 PM

Joseph, Judah, and the Problem of Favoritism

Seven years for her hand in marriage and after he had worked seven years Laban gave him Rachel's older sister Leah to marry. And they did not necessarily Work out very smoothly. But Jacob finally did get to marry Rachel as well.

My best reading of the text was a week after Leah he married Leah he married Rachel and then worked for seven more years to finish the deal and Then he worked another six years after that for Laban for his flocks.

They parted ways. Jacob Reinserted himself back into the promised land after negotiating and dealing not only with Esau for that Christ himself wrestling on the riverbank. Jacob has tried to do his best to to live well in the land though.

His sons are giving him fits. His sons keep on making trouble for him and He has singled out now Joseph after Rachel has died he has singled out Joseph as his favorite. He has done so by Putting a robe of many colors on him and this is a a tunic a garment that is not the same kind of garment is That everyone else would be wearing.

It's has long sleeves and a variety of colors. This was a be like wearing gold. It was a so valuable such a treasure not something you wear to go to work in and so Joseph would Joseph we have the story of Joseph going out wearing this coat and he is basically supervising his brothers and coming back with a bad report.

Tensions mount. Joseph has dreams about how he would be ruling and reigning over his brothers and not only over his brothers but also over his mother and father and the Brothers greatly resented Joseph and their father's favoritism of him and they plotted together to at first Kill him and then they settled on selling him to some Midianite Traitors and Joseph was taken away to Egypt.

The the whole of it is this. They did not know that Joseph reigning over them would mean their salvation. They did not know that there would be a famine they did not know that Joseph would be at the right hand of the most powerful man on the planet the right hand of Pharaoh and that by Joseph's wisdom and power he would save up the The grain of Egypt during the seven years of prosperity so that during the time of famine.

That Jacob and his sons would not starve to death. But indeed they would live. They had no idea that they would be bowing down before Joseph. Receiving grain from his hand this dream that they so greatly resented even as Joseph came towards them at Dothan.

They said here comes this dreamer. They used it as a as a vehement insult and they wanted to kill him or then sell him to slavery to disprove the dream. They resented they resisted they raged at Their own salvation.

Who does that remind you of? Well, it reminds us of some. Well, yeah. It remind it reminds me of. Reminds me of the Jews in Jesus's day who resented the obvious favor That the father had upon his son and how he anointed him with the Holy Spirit and clearly favored him above all the rest.

And how as Jesus came he was the walking fulfillment of everything that Israel was supposed to be and they resented his power. They resented his closeness with the father. They resented his authority.

They resented his critiques of their failing failings as they were not doing well and they raged against their salvation. And it's it's a reminder of the way that That God is doing things. We come to chapter 38 and it's a it's a bit of an odd chapter.

We're all kind of wondering about Joseph. What happens to Joseph? He's away in Egypt. He's enslaved in Egypt. What will become of him and yet we don't get to hear about Joseph in chapter 38. We instead hear about Judah.

Judah and a daughter-in-law by the name of Tamar. Why why would Moses writing to? The Israelites, why would the Holy Spirit inspire Moses to write now about Judah? Well, it's important to remember that we're thinking about the genealogy of Jacob that's who were traced.

This is this is all under the heading of now the generations of Jacob. It's all under that heading. So these these stories are about his generations and we have heard how Reuben has committed incest and so he is disqualified himself from being the heir.

Simeon and Levi have gone out and slaughtered in cold blood all the men of Shechem. And so Jacob has a real issue with them as well. He had shown his favoritism to Joseph the firstborn of his favorite wife.

Now Jacob believes that Joseph is dead as his brothers have brought back his Tunic covered and shredded in the blood of a wild animal. So he believes that Joseph is dead. So now Logically the next person in line To be the leader of the clan the leader of Jacob's family should Jacob die would be Judah because It goes like this in the birth order Reuben Simeon Levi Judah and now that Joseph's out of the way then Judah would be the logical next person to consider.

Now here comes a story about Judah. And it came about at that time that Judah departed from his brothers and visited a certain a Dulemite whose name was Hira. Judah saw there a certain a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua and he took her and went into her so she Conceived and bore a son and he named him er.

Then she conceived again and bore a son and named him. Oh non. She bore still another son and named him Sheila and it was at Hezeb that she bore him. Now Judah took a wife for her his firstborn and her name was Tamar.

But er Judah's firstborn was evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord took his life. Then Judah said to Anon go into your brother's wife and perform your duty as a brother-in-law to her and raise up offer Offspring for your brother.

Oh non knew that the offspring would not be his so when he went into his brother's wife He wasted his seat on the ground in order not to give offspring to his brother. But what he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord and he took his life also.

Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar remain a widow in your father's house until my son Sheila grows up for he thought I am Afraid that he do may die like his brothers. So Tamar went and lived in hers in her father's house.

The the subtext for this first 11 verses is that Judah is fairly cozy with the Canaanites. We remember such emphasis earlier on in Genesis that Abraham says to his to his servant Eliezer. My son will not have a wife from among the Canaanites.

And he sends his servant back to Haran back to his people to go find a wife for his son Isaac. He is so insistent that he not that Isaac not be married to some local girl where the local entanglements are where the local idols are he wants his son to be married to One of the family back from home and there's a very long chapter in Genesis all about that and several portions are repeated At length to emphasize how important it is to marry within the family.

Then we also have the story about Isaac and Rebecca how they had their sons and These twin sons. Esau brought great grief to his parents because he married local girls. He tried to make it up by after the second one that he married.

Is the second Canaanite girl that he married it caused such grief to his parents. He tried to make it up by marrying someone who was slightly more related to them, but it still brought great grief. So he had three wives all of them Soured the stomach of his parents and Rebecca used this as a convenient excuse.

For to Isaac to send Jacob away Back to her on back to find a wife from there. She said these these Canaanite wives are making me sick. She did that because Jacob had of course Tricked his brother Esau and deceived with his mother's help deceived his father and Esau was planning on killing Jacob as soon as he could.

So she wanted Jacob out of the way lest she lose both of her sons. She knew that if Esau murdered Jacob then Esau would have to be killed capital punishment Genesis 9. She would lose both her sons all at once and she did not want that to happen and so Emphasis have been placed in the story thus far that is important who you marry.

Important for Jacob to marry within the family important for Isaac to marry within the family. But now we come to Genesis 38 in Judah. Judah is cozy with the Canaanites. He's he's a Canaanite woman and he sees her and he takes her which means he marries her and he goes into her and she conceived.

This is a very it sounds very quick in the text, but remember that Moses is writing to the Israelites. And he's telling them about the story of Judah and how it is that Judah married a Canaanite wife.

Now, how would an Israelite hear that? They had been ordered they have been commanded all through the wilderness. They have been told when you get into the promised land when you enter the land of Canaan.

You are not allowed to intermarry with the Canaanites. Do not do this. They have been told that by Moses and Aaron. They have been told that by the Levites. They have been that commandment has been repeated to them.

They know this is the law. They know this is the plan. Do not intermarry with the Canaanites. And now comes a story that helps give some context as to What might happen or why or the complications that arise from?

Marrying intermarrying with the Canaanites. Canaanites. So Judah takes a wife. Also for her his firstborn. And she also is a Canaanite Tamar. So, you know what could go wrong. Well Judah's firstborn error was evil in the sight of the Lord.

So the Lord blessed the earth by removing him from it now again Israelites. Walking around the wilderness how okay. There was Just the men numbered in the book of Numbers the first generation is getting close to a million.

Just the men. And that was just the number of those. Of age 20 to 50 they numbered the army. They didn't number the the men below the age of 20 or above the age of 50. They didn't number the women and the children.

So we're we're well over a million probably two or three million people wandering through the wilderness and the entire first generation. Died everybody 20 years and older died except for Joshua and Caleb in the wilderness.

And when you finally do the math and that's 40 years of wandering, but if you do the math you have hundreds of people every week dying on average. You lived in a culture of death. You wandered around and you just littered the wilderness full of graves and Why were these people dying?

Because they were Evil they displeased the Lord they had gone against God and the penalty was death. This is what they lived in day in and day out reminders that to go against God and to reject God's word is to end in death and here's a reminder or was evil so the Lord took his life and.

Then what about the what about the what about the brother? Then Judah said to Anon go into your brother's wife and perform your duty as a brother-in-law to her and raise up offspring for Your brother.

This is the very first time we hear Something called the Levite marriage. And we hear about it later on in the instructions in Deuteronomy 25, so read a little bit about that. Here, this is Judah. You know 400 years prior to Moses prior to the codification of Israel in at Sinai and the way that they're supposed to live.

Way before any of that. Talking about this duty so Deuteronomy chapter 25 and verse 5. When brothers live together and one of them dies and has no son. This is the key he has no son. The wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a strange man her husband's brother shall go into her and take Her to himself as wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her.

It shall be that the firstborn whom she bears shall assume the name of his dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel so much depended on the The inheritance the land being passed down the allotment being passed down from generation to generation.

That what happens if a man is married and dies without having any children or having a son? What will happen? How will the family continue? So this? This Instruction is a mercy not only is a mercy to the family who had no heir.

This is and this is the duty. Now. This has of course this precedent in the story of Judah. We hear about this story in the book of Ruth much of the drama of Ruth. It focuses in on this instruction for Israel that Ruth her husband Melon died.

The the father was in the limeleck. He his two sons died. He had no one to carry on his name. So Naomi had no no heir and then Ruth's husband died so they come back to the land of Israel and What's to happen?

Well Boaz is a kinsman Redeemer. He's a close relative and so things begin to shape up for Boaz to Fulfill his duty as a kinsman Redeemer as to go through with this Levi right in marriage and the idea is that he's going to marry Ruth and in hopes that they would have a son who would take on the name son of Elimelech Naomi's husband so that Elimelech's line would continue but there was a closer relative than Boaz and Boaz went to this man and said you need to redeem the the property that has fallen out of the out of the family's hands because of their poverty and you need to marry Ruth the Moabitess and the man said Oh, I can't not do this thing because he knew and it says he knew that The heir would not be his and so he refused because he wanted a name for himself.

He wanted a name for himself. He didn't want to have a son in the name of somebody else. He was not willing to do that. And of course the irony is in the book of Ruth. This man's name is not known the man who was so Jealous for his name.

We don't have his name. And in the Geneva and genealogy at the end of Ruth it actually does say That Obed the son of Ruth and Boaz was the son of Boaz and so his name is maintained. So here Onan is unwilling Unwilling to do his duty.

He knew that the offspring would not be his because of that reason He sinned and the Lord took his life also and so now the the sense of Desperation is settling in Judah. He only has one son left and This son is not old enough to be married yet and so he says to Tamar to remain a widow until his son Sheila grows up and he's but he's what he's thinking is I Don't want to lose a third son to this woman.

He says this is this is not working out. This is not good. And So Judah is concerned for the same thing that Onan is concerned. Judah wants to make sure his name is preserved and this is the way he's going to do it he's going to lead Tamar on but he is not going to follow through with what he has promised and So Tamar went and lived in her father's house.

Tamar, Judah, and the Danger of Canaanite Compromise

So Judah has married into some Canaanites and It seems that he begins to to do some Canaanite things and it's uncertain whether or not Things will work out verse 12 now after a considerable time. She was daughter the wife of Judah died.

So Judah's wife dies and when the time of mourning was ended Judah went up to his sheep shearers at Timnah. He and his friend Hira the Edulamite. Now this doesn't mean a whole lot until you Hear Canaanite practices that sheep shearing time were were a hoot.

They got together and they partied and they had a great time. And it involved sacrifices to the fertility gods and so on and so Judah's hanging out with his buddy Hira. So they go out and they're gonna have a blast.

They're gonna go out have some fun. Verse 13. It was told to Tamar behold your father-in-law is going into Timnah to share to shear his sheep. Sure, so she removed her widow's garments and covered herself with a veil and wrapped herself and sat in the gateway of Aniim which is on the road to Timnah for she saw that Sheila had not 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. Tamar grew up in Canaan. She knew how to look like a harlot. She did not look like the harlots that we have today she looked like a Canaanite harlot, but she gave all the right signals, especially covering her face for anonymity and Judah saw her.

He's out to party. He's out to have fun. He's out for the sheep shearing festivities. And so he says ah, here's a cult prostitute after all he was going with his with his buddy to the to the idolatrous sacrifices so it all fit together in his mind and he sees her and He says He says verse 15 Judah saw her and he thought she was a harlot for she covered his face.

So she so he turned aside to her by the road and said here now let me come in to you for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law and She said what will you give me that you may come in to me?

He said therefore I will send you a young goat from the flock. She said moreover Will you give a pledge until you send it? He said what pledge shall I give you and she said you're sealing your cord and your staff that is in your hand.

So he gave them to her and went into her and she conceived by him then she arose and departed and removed her veil and put on her widow's garments and So Judah certainly he was Deceptive to Tamar. He had said that this was going to come about and it didn't he he did not want his third son to die so then she Responds through deception and she ensnares him and then traps him we know from Proverbs 5 and 7 the the warnings to the young man to avoid certain areas and Women who who look and sound a certain way to avoid these things and that's wisdom.

But Judah is not interested in avoiding those things. He's interested in going to have a good time with his buddy and so he is deceived and tricked into committing incest and She is no fool. She takes the pledge his seal his cord his staff that could only be his only Identifying him so she has some very solid life insurance and she's going to need it.

Verse 20 when Judah sent the young goat by his friend the edulamite to receive the pledge from the woman's hand. He did not find her. He asked the men of her place saying where is the temple prostitute who was by the road at an iam?

But they said there is a bit no temple prostitute here. So he returned to Judah and said I did not find her and furthermore the men of the place said there has been no temple Prostitute here. Then Judah said let her keep them.

Otherwise, we will become a laughingstock after all I sent this young goat, but you can find her. And as is always the case that when you engage in a plan of sin, it never goes just the way That you thought it would.

And there's something brewing here a theme that we're going to flush out here in a moment. But Judah is hanging out with the Canaanites. He is slowly becoming a little bit more a little bit more canonized.

This is exactly what happened to Israel in their history where they entered the land of Canaan. They were to follow the instructions to not intermarry. They were to follow the instructions to destroy all of the idols that were in there in their land.

But they did not follow through. Now God told them through Moses if you intermarry and if you don't wipe out the idols you will progressively become More like the people here and become wicked like them and you will begin to worship their gods rather than me.

He told them this what's going to happen and lo and behold when you read the book of Judges as exactly what happened. And the thing about it is that Judah he's hanging out with the Canaanites. But he's just not as good at it as the Canaanites are.

He just has no idea what's happening. He is getting deceived. He's getting the runaround. Tamar knows how to manipulate him and he has no idea what's going on. He tries to to pay the prostitute but can't because She's not there and and he doesn't know what's going on.

But the the men of the city do but he doesn't know what's going on and he's he's lost his way and he's entangled. Verse 24. Now it was about three months later that Judah it was informed your daughter-in-law Tamar has played the harlot behold.

She is also with child by harlotry. Then Judah said bring her out and let her be burned. This comes this comes later in some of the laws in Israel depending on the situation that was still. The punishment it was while she was being brought out that she sent to her father-in-law saying I'm with child by the man to whom these things belong and she said please examine and see whose Signet ring and cords and staff are these?

Hmm. Judah recognized them. It said she is more righteous than I and as much as I did not give her to my son Sheila. And he did not have relations with her again. What a statement she is more righteous than I.

Hmm. What's one of the lessons here? One of the lessons I think here for the Israelites is you get you get you get tangled up with the Canaanites you get mixed up with the Canaanites and. And you're gonna have your lunch handed to you.

You have no idea what you're getting involved with and and it's going to turn out that you're going to be worse than they ever were and. Isn't that exactly? The diagnosis that was given later on about Israel that they did more wickedness Than the Amorites that were before them that they did more wickedness Than the Canaanites who were before them that they did more wickedness in their days than those before.

Well, this this this is supposed to be a lesson. Of course we certainly have a lesson here about. You know hypocrisy and a Holy righteous anger that's not really righteous at all. We have many practical lessons here as well verse 27 and following I Came about at the time that she was giving birth that behold there were twins in her womb moreover.

It took place. While she was giving birth one put out a hand and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand saying this one Came out first, but it came about as he drew back his hand that behold his brother came out.

Then she said what a breach you have made for yourself. So his he was named Perez. Afterward his brother came out who had the scarlet thread on his hand and he was named Zarah. This Little notation about the The remarkable way in which his sons were born Is a reminder is actually thematically connected to the entire story because what you thought was happening actually wasn't.

What you thought the outcome was going to be actually wasn't something else happened instead. This is also a very nice Set up for the rest of the story of Joseph. We just heard about this awful thing that happened to Joseph.

Okay, but it's not going to turn out the way you think it is. And we even heard this this awful story about Judah. But it's not going to turn out the way you think it will. And then we read through the rest of the story of Joseph.

Joseph story and Judah's story become intertwined at the end at the end of Chapter 44. At the end of chapter 44. We have an intertwining of the story of Judah and the story of Joseph. Joseph had been sold as a slave.

He became the slave of Potiphar. He was. He was full of wisdom that God's favor was upon him. He was at the right hand of Potiphar. So he was falsely accused and He was put into the to the prison there because of his wisdom the jailer had him as In charge of the all the prisoners.

And there because of his wisdom because of God gave to him he interpreted the dreams and he was later on brought before Pharaoh as the one who could interpret dreams and he interpreted the dreams Pharaoh's dream and Pharaoh said well, what do we need to do?

Well Joseph says this is what you got to do. You have to save up all the grain for the seven years of prosperity and you'll have enough for the seven years of a Famine put someone in charge of all of that.

Potiphar said well, there's nobody who can do it better than you so you're now in charge right hand man and So Joseph is now in charge and what we thought was going to earn end up being horrible ended up being something surprisingly something Totally different.

The son that Jacob thought was dead was in fact alive. Jacobson was about to was facing absolute starvation. But wait Egypt has grain as it was a reversal and and why do they have grain because Joseph is down there by God's Ordained plan and providing that grain.

We have all these reversals but at the end of chapter 44 when Joseph is testing his brothers who have come to get grain these testing his brothers and He's seeing whether or not they've changed. And he has his and Joseph has his younger brother Benjamin.

He's gonna have him arrested and taken away and and he's gonna see what happens. What will they do? He knows He knows that Benjamin his little brother was the last son of Rachel. So he knows that Jacob his father has been favoring Benjamin favoring Benjamin.

He's wondering How do my brothers feel about that? Are they still the jealous type? Are they still envious? Are they still murderous? And so he does all these different things and he he favors Benjamin and gives him five times as much food and all this honor To Benjamin and he's watching the brothers to see if they're reacting and finally at the end of it he sets a trap and so he has Benjamin dead to rights and he's gonna be arrested and enslaved and he's watching to see what happens to his brothers and it's Judah.

It's Judah Who was about saving his own skin? It was Judah who was about tricking and deceiving and not doing what was right it was Judah who stepped forward and said take me instead and Explained the entire story about the way that the way that His father felt about Benjamin and how it would crush his father if if Benjamin were left behind and he said take me instead.

Take me instead. And so their stories converge there where. What God what his brothers meant for evil God meant for good for Joseph to keep all of them to keep them all alive and Then there's there's Judah.

Where once he was? Selfish and self-focused now he's sacrificial and saying take me Instead. And so what we thought was the case turns out to be something else and surprising of course the story Gives us a name not just the name of Judah, but also gives us a name Perez the name of Perez.

And When we go to the gospel of Matthew in chapter 1 We read a summary of what we've been studying in Genesis. The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac.

Isaac was the father of Jacob and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Perez was the father of his Ron. And we go on down and we hear that one of the descendants from Perez was Salman who was the father of Boaz by Rahab.

Rahab the the prostitute from Jericho. Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth Ruth the Moabitess. Obed the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David the king. David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba who had been the wife of Uriah.

And we're just reminded by all these names these names are just inserted there and a whole host of stories come to mind about the ways in which God Continually uses that which was meant for evil to bring about good and not just the good of keeping Jacob's family alive avoiding starvation.

Not just the good of giving Elimelech an heir. Not just the good of saving Rahab and her household from the destruction of Jericho. Not just the good of of bringing about the the birth of Solomon the wise king from David and Bathsheba, but the good.

The great good of bringing his son into the world. And all this messed up history reminds us that God's sovereignty is not one so small in which he must Activate everyone like robots and pre-programming, but his sovereignty is so large that he uses the wickedness and the evil that men perpetrate and and yet nonetheless Has ordained and brought all things together to bring about good.

To the glory of his own name being even bringing about his son Jesus Christ. And that is what the name Perez I think reminds us of well any questions or thoughts before we close. All right. Well, let's close by singing the doxology together.

Raise.