“After a long time Judah’s wife died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah…
“When Tamar was told, ‘Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,‘ she took off her widow’s clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and sat down at the entrance to Enaim on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.
“When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute… Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he… said, ‘Come now, let me sleep with you.’
“’What will you give me to sleep with you?’ she asked.
“’I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,’ he said.
“’Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?.. Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand?’ she [asked]. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow’s clothes again…
“About three months later Judah was told, ‘Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and… is now pregnant.’
“Judah said, ‘Bring her out and have her burned to death!’
“As she was being brought out, she sent a message to [Judah]. ‘I am pregnant by the man who owns these… See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.’
“Judah recognized them and said, ‘She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.'” Genesis 38:12-19,24-26
Judah, fourth son of Jacob, bore three sons by a Canaanite woman, and took Tamar as the firstborn’s wife. According to Jewish law, when the first two sons died as judgment for wickedness, she was to be ‘saved’ for son #3 to provide an heir. In fear of losing another son, Judah failed to fulfill that promise. Tamar, in faith, disguised herself as a prostitute and conceived by Judah to fulfill the law, and came into the line of Christ. What a mess of disobedience, fear, deceit, and immorality! Yet into this quagmire of nasty conniving broke God’s amazing grace, brash in its confounding, brilliant in its splendor. (Genesis 38:1-11,20-23; Matthew 1:1-3)
What a mess we can make of situations and lives. That first drift into the foreign territory of sin breeds distorted justification, fiery lusts, discombobulated reason. One act of neglect, one decision made in pride, anger, or fear, one deception bleeds to the next until only the Lord can return us to spiritual plumb and redeem. Remarkably, nothing is lost beyond restoration with God’s grace. It works most powerfully in the grime and shame of godless choices.
Where are we in a relationship, work dealing, attitude, resentment, or resignation, that we deem beyond repair? Have we settled into a sin pattern we’re excusing, or ignoring? What obedience have we set aside, what stewardship do we eschew, what hardness of heart are we coddling? The vast and mighty grace of God penetrates the deepest sins and brings the life of Christ to bear. Will we yield?
With every confounding by grace, life is renewed, and the Lord God is magnified.
Lord, keep me returning to Your grace-adorned throne, so Your will wins and Your glory shines.
As the rain and snow 