Genesis chapter 38

I  read Lineage of Grace by Francine Rivers and one of the stories in that is about Tamar.  Having read that story, it certainly explains, to me, the motives here and made this whole episode far more understandable.

Judah moves to Canaan, as Adullam was one of the royal cities of Canaan and was near Gath.  He married a Canaanite woman, just as Esau did, and she gave him three sons.  The first one was wicked and God took his life.  The second one refused to give his brother's widow a child, so God took his life too, and the third one was still a child at the start of this chapter.  In those times,  it was tradition that when a man died, his brother would marry the widow and that the first born child would be the heir of the deceased brother.  This is to ensure that the childless widow would have a son who would receive her late husband's inheritance.  By refusing to give Tamar a child, Onan was depriving her of her rights.  Then in not allowing her to marry his third son, Shelah, Judah was doing exactly the same thing.

So Tamar took things into her own hands and dressed as a prostitute and seduced Judah.  She became pregnant, and when accused of prostitution, confronted Judah with his act and he acknowledged that she had acted more rightly than he had in this situation.

Judah is clearly demonstrating double standards here by making use of a prostitute himself and then saying she had to be burned when accused of acting like a prostitute.  One rule for him, and another for a woman.  It was only when confronted with evidence that he was the father, that he realised what had happened. A lot of people show double standards and it is so easy to criticise someone for doing, for instance, as Tamar did, yet not criticising Judah for making use of a prostitute.  It is easy to find fault with someone for gossiping, when you actually tell another person the news of what someone has been up to, just passing on news, definitely not gossiping yourself, no way….What about when someone close to you acts very selfishly, demanding their own way all the time, and then you go and get cross when someone pushes in front of you in a traffic jam, or in a queue at a shop?  Isn't that the same thing?  It’s far easier to spot the sin in someone else's life than it is to see it in ourselves.

Interestingly, Jesus is descended from Judah through Tamar, so it shows God used this even though prostitution is condemned as a serious sin.  Judah did a turn around in later chapters, and became the son Jacob must surely have been proud of through his later behaviour.