GENESIS 38 THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS Jacob had met God at Luz and was given a new nature, so that his experience at Bethel was real and good. However, he had not changed all that much in his outward conduct and practices. Righteousness and separation from the world of idolatry and its open sin is a fundamental requirement of a child of God who intends to live for God. Sadly, most of Jacob’s sons went farther into sin than he had gone. Simeon and Levi had gone so far as to murder a whole community of helpless men in their quest for vengeance. Reuben had defiled himself and his father’s wife by his immorality.
Then there came the bright spot in the family dynamics as Joseph grew toward maturity with a consciousness of God giving him the power to live above the darkness of his brothers, the complacency of his father and the dysfunction of the family. But even then, the worldliness, the moral and spiritual darkness that permeated that family, made Joseph an object of their hatred. His purity of spirit and life, his dignity and frank honesty, exposed the deceit, hostility and jealousy of his siblings.
When God steps into the scene of a family, an assembly or a nation, we may not understand at first why He allows things to go so far astray and become so evil. Joseph was sent by God into Egypt to prepare for their survival and preservation as a chosen people. He said himself he was to go ahead of his family, “to preserve a posterity for [them] in the earth and to save their lives by a great deliverance. So, it was not [them] who sent [Joseph] to Egypt, but God.” People have choices to make and consequences to accept because they make those choices. The sons of Jacob were not fit to be a blessing to “all the nations of the world” as they were, because they became more wicked as the years passed.
It was in God’s sovereign plan to bring upon His chosen people whatever was necessary to bring His promises to fulfillment. He was willing to take all the time necessary to change them from selfish, evil people, to people who lived by His standards, no matter how long it took. It took four hundred years before God could even get them ready to obey Him, even though they had become idol-worshippers in Egypt. Free-will led Jacob’s sons to go farther and farther into the evil lifestyle of the Canaanites. They were being influenced to be like them, and then they adapted to the idolatrous practices.
God commands His people to “come out from among them, and be ye separate says the Lord.” Unfortunately, people today, even believers in our Lord Jesus, don’t take God seriously in this regard. They think they have a unique situation that makes mixing light with darkness, okay in their own personal case. The end result may not be seen right away, but evil dominates when what God commands and what is right, is compromised.
The story of Judah and Tamar seems like an intrusion in the story of Joseph, until we see that God intends us to see the contrast between the morals of Joseph and Judah. Joseph was sold by his brothers, but his slavery in Egypt was by divine design and God was with him and strengthened him in times of temptation. Through Joseph, God’s plan was to ultimately bless His chosen people. Judah deliberately left his family, the family of promise, to be with and like the Canaanite idolaters. The disintegration of Jacob’s family, if allowed to continue as Judah chose to go, would have made them lose their identity and be just another ungodly family in Canaan.
Sexual union is not intended to be merely the union of bodies, but of the whole person – body, soul and spirit of a man and woman for life. All physical unions outside of a monogamous relationship are sinful. Unsolvable complications in life follow a willing rejection of divine order and the commands of the word of God.
This sordid chapter that exposes the sinfulness that even privileged people allow in their lives, serves to give us both warnings and instructions. God knew what was happening to Jacob’s family and that it would continue to get worse if allowed to continue in the children of Israel. Israel as a people were in God’s plan for blessings in the ages ahead, but they were off to a very bad start.
In a sovereign act of divine purpose, God chose Joseph as the instrument to further His plans. The famine He allowed to happen was in the will of God. The state of Judah’s moral condition certainly shows how great the need of Jacob’s family was as long as they remained in Canaan and under the influence of the people of the world around them.
Moral dangers are all around God’s people today. The world, the flesh and the devil are all conspiring against those who live a righteous, godly and holy life. If a person goes out of their way to associate with and then join in with the ways of the ungodly, that person is in great danger of losing their soul if they are not saved. If a believer is inclined to walk in the counsel of the ungodly, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of the scornful – that person will not only go astray themselves, but like Judah, those coming after them will go farther, and be seriously and adversely affected.
THE SHAME OF IMMORALITY Judah’s first two sons died in their sins and wickedness and Judah lost all semblance of being in the line of the promises of God. What horror came on him as he finally realized how far into sin he had gone. Whether he really repented or not of what he had done is not clear. Yet, in the plans of God, grace was such that through Judah and Tamar, came the promised seed. Perez, may have suffered because of the sins of his parents, but God did not hold him responsible for their sin. God’s grace toward us can lift us above and beyond the darkness of an ungodly home, or a sinful past, to where God can again be a “father” to us and we can live in happy fellowship with Him as His “sons and daughters.”
The possibilities of human sin can lead a privileged person who has been surrounded by that which is good, to being brought down by temptation. Not only can the sinning person be shamed and brought down in the darkness of evil, but they can be the cause of others sinning. Sin can lead even those of our own family to go farther away from God when they excuse their evil conduct because of ours. Sin can take a person so far into the paths of wickedness, that it is extremely hard to turn around, let alone get back to the place of recovery. But for God’s grace, those who choose to do what they know is wrong, would never get back to where they find the joy of the Lord in their soul.
The authority of God’s providence makes it right to do whatever is necessary to turn wayward people around. The sale of Joseph as a slave seems to have no moral meaning in the narrative, and seems to be without a purpose behind it, until we realize God uses what may seem evil at first, to bring about lasting good. Israel had to be made to “come out from among them [Canaanites] and be separate,” and that command needs to be brought before us today. Separation from sin is still essential for Christian testimony.
The “rightness” of God’s punishment for sin is based on the justice of God. His standards of holiness are written on the tables of human hearts. What people do with that law, is up to them. They have the ability to do what God wants and to make right moral choices. God does not favor one person over another nor does He pit one against another. The fact is, that sin is sin in any person and willful sin has consequences that follow. God deals with the sins of His children as well as those of lost souls. For believers, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” “Whoso confesses and forsakes [sin] will find mercy.”
The marvelous grace of God can deal with the sins of the repentant sinner, and transform a person’s character so that they are changed within and without. It is a wonder that from the depths of the sins of Judah and Tamar, “our Lord sprang out of Judah.” Humans would have never done this because of our sense of propriety and righteousness, but God’s grace rises far above human opinions. Grace forgives, changes, uplifts and is willing to use forgiven sinners for God’s glory.
Of course, it is wrong to choose sin so that grace can be made evident, but grace doesn’t leave a sinning child of God who repents and forsakes sin, in the mire of defeat and despair. We can’t undo what has been done, but what is broken can be healed, and grace can give new power over sin in the life of one who was broken. Redemption power and life has pardon, peace and purity in it to the extent that the broken-hearted, the captives and all other people with problems can be transformed by the power of God, rather than being molded into the world’s form.
A warning to us lest we think ourselves impervious to the sins of Judah, is that none of us can boast of sinless perfection. “Let him that thinks he can stand, take heed lest he falls.” It is only by God’s grace that we have been preserved from blatant and open sin. That surely is a reason to be thankful to God who causes us to “triumph in Christ.” It is incumbent on us to not be lifted up in our own minds and say to ourselves, “I would never do that!” There are many snares, traps and stumbling blocks in our path that can quickly trip us up and cause us to fall. God requires us to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly before Him.
We will all likely have more than one reason for self-abasement and the need to come to God in contrition and repentance. He will forgive us and deliver us from our own sins, and even from copying the sins of others who have come before us. We can learn lessons and take warnings from our past mistakes and from the mistakes and failures of those who passed this way before us.