FBC Morning Light (1/18/2025)

Good Saturday morning, people of faith.

We're reading this weekend in Genesis chapters 35 through 38.

Last week I had mentioned the strife amongst families and that it is not an uncommon thing.

And here we're going to see much strife within family.

It starts in chapter 35, the continuation of it in chapter 35,

Jacob is returning and Jacob's name is changed to Israel and in a short aside,

Abraham, when he was originally Abram and when he gets his name changed to Abraham, I don't know of anywhere in scripture where he's called anything but Abraham again.

Same with Sarah, when her name is changed to Sarah, I don't know any place where her name is called anything but Sarah, but Jacob, his name is changed to Israel and not very long after it goes back to Jacob and then

Israel and back and forth. And if you have an explanation for it, please, please share that explanation with me because I'd love to know if you have a good idea of why that is.

Anyway, Jacob is returning and remember he was the usurper, the one who stole the birthright from his brother

Esau and Jacob and Esau do not get along and in chapters 35 and 36, it talks about how they end up living in totally separate regions.

Jacob in chapter 35, you find that he has many sons from different wives, different wife's servants.

It's kind of a mess. It's kind of a mess. It really is. And then in chapter 37, we see amongst

Jacob's sons, Joseph, who has a dream and that his brothers end up hating him for it and more family strife.

Then in chapter 38, we have one of the strangest stories in, to me, in much of the

Old Testament, if not the entire Bible, it says, Judah and Tamar, it came to pass, this is verse one of chapter 38, at that time that Judah departed from his brothers and visited a certain

Adulamite whose name was Hira. And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain

Canaanite whose name was Shua and he married her and went into her.

So first of all, he's marrying a Canaanite. He's not supposed to be doing that, but he does.

And so she conceives and bears him three sons,

Eir and Onan and then Shelah. And so the firstborn

Eir gets, Jacob finds a wife for Eir and it says that Eir was wicked in the sight of the

Lord in verse seven and the Lord killed him. And so it was supposed to be that Onan was supposed to give a son to the wife of Eir and raise that child as Eir's heir, as it is.

And so Onan knew this and so he would not be faithful in performing his duty with that.

And so the Lord killed him. And so Jacob's like, or Judah's like, well,

I don't want my youngest to die yet and he's not ready. So he sends his daughter -in -law off to her father's house to live as a widow.

So anyway, Judah, as he says, remain a widow in your father's house till my son

Shelah is grown. For he said, lest he also die like his brothers. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house.

So he had done this. And so it says, now in the process of time, the daughter of Shua, Judah's wife, died and Judah was comforted and went up to his sheep shearers at Timnah, he and his friend

Hira the Adulamite. And it was told Tamar saying, look, your father -in -law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.

So she took off her widow's garments, covered herself with a veil and wrapped herself and sat in an open place, which was on the way to Timnah.

For she saw that Shelah was grown and she was not given to him as a wife.

When Judah saw her, he thought she was a harlot because she had covered her face. Then he turned to her by the way and said, please let me come into you.

For he did not know that she was his daughter -in -law. All right.

And so he goes in, gives a proof of like who this is.

She conceives, conceives twins. All right. And the twins come out and it's reported back to Judah that his daughter -in -law is pregnant.

And Judah's upset saying, bring her in. I want to deal with her. And then she proves that Judah was the father.

So this is a messed up situation, right? And so you have the father -in -law giving birth or having an affair or however you want to call it with the daughter -in -law.

So then his grandchildren are also his children. Messed up.

But you know, in all of this, this is what the word of God says in chapter one of the book of Matthew says,

Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers.

Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar. These are the two twins that were the product of this illicit relationship.

And here they are in Matthew chapter one in the lineage of Christ.

All right. What is that? What's the takeaway here? The takeaway is that, but for the grace of God, he is the one who takes any one of us and brings us into a relationship with him.

There is nothing good in me that merits a relationship with God.

It is strictly and only what God has done. And that is what it will be for anyone who comes into relationship with Christ.

It is his work. It is for his glory that he could take even this crazy situation with Judah and his daughter -in -law and use it for his glory.

Let's pray. Lord, thank you that you are a God of grace and mercy.

For without that, none of us would have a relationship with you. Thank you that you chose to use this imperfect relationship with Judah and Tamar in order to bring forth eventually the

Christ child, your son, in whom in his name we do pray. Amen.