Scrappy Characters and Soap Opera Stories Genesis 38
A friend of mine has an aging father. I
say he’s aging, actually he is 90 years old. This guy is
scrappy. His still sharp mind is filled
with colorful stories of the old days. People sit in rapt attention listening
to colorful adventures, and living vicariously as they hopped on freight trains
to watch baseball games, camped with hobos during the depression and lived
freely on the way to "anywhere" they wanted to see. He sweeps you
into another world as he looks off into the distance, seeing his past as if it
was right in front of him.
You don’t dare blink as you imagine a younger version of the bright eyed, but storyteller. One day recently our elderly friend was walking home; his 56 Chevy sitting covered in the garage, his driver’s license a thing of the past. A group of teenage punks decided they were going to teach this old man a lesson. How dare he walk peacefully on their street?
They gave him a shove intending to take his
money and remind him who owned the sidewalk.
Their plans were clear, and so were
his. His quick mind knew that he had one chance to make the needed impression.
He decided quickly what he needed to do. Surprise was his only
weapon. Flight was not an option. He would loss. He planted his feet,
resolved his action plan, and with a response that could only be born from
years on the street, he sinks a punch with all he had deep into the
stomach of the leader of the group, landing him on the ground in surprise.
The shock of that moment saved his life. No-one knows if the
others laughed at his audacity or just walked away out of respect, but
that was the end of the confrontation. Quick, scrappy experience won that day.
In Genesis 38 Tamar is put in a
position to defend the honor of her deceased husband. She is scrappy. Her
father in law Judah (Jacob’s oldest son) chose her for his son to marry, no
doubt, because she was an upright woman that would hopefully bear a son to
carry on the family name. When her husband dies while she is still childless,
tradition dictates that his brother is tasked to take on the fathering a
son with her. This child would bear the name of the first husband, not the
brother. The brother Onan is dishonorable and doesn’t do his brotherly duty
correctly. He dies as a judgement for of his lack of integrity. Judah the
displays the same character flaw. He dishonoring the family and disobeying the
Jewish law, given by God to Moses. He lies and does not give his
next son to Tamar to bear a child, afraid that like the first brother, he too
will die.
Tamar acts, in my opinion, in her husband’s
defense, since no-one else will.
In a story told in a "who
done it" style, she puts her own pride aside and does what she feels
must be done to honor his name. God sees her situation and the outcome has a
perfect heart stopping twist, putting Tamar with children and in
the direct line of the future Savior, Jesus.
TIDBITS
FROM GENESIS 38
- Judah has walked away from his father Jacob and his family and gone against his fathers instructions by marrying a Canaanite woman
- He has three sons; Er Onan and Shelah
- It seems from the story that Judah is still following Israelite customs
- Judah is the fourth son of Jacob
- Judah's son's Er and Onan are wicked in God's sight
- Tamar makes her decision to act after Judah's wife has passed away and she is sure that Judah is not going to do what is right and give her his last son as promised.
- Matthew 1:3 and Luke 3:33 both list Perez as in the ancestral line of Jesus
my motto has always been "be sure and know that your sins will always find you out". I know Paul refers to this in Acts 13 but whether this is an accurate verse i'm not sure but it has really helped me keep my own road straight.
ReplyDelete