Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands...  1 Timothy 2:8

Prayer Challenges

Thoughts from Doug Knox.

November 2018

 

Judah’s Journey to Manhood: Part 1

Genesis 37

A Personal Note

Men: If you have been reading these columns for any length of time, you know that I love the Patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.  Last month I happened to be in Genesis for my devotional reading and read their stories again.  For the first time, I discovered Judah’s journey to manhood embedded in Joseph’s history.  His journey blew me away.  I want to share it with you, because it forms one of the most inspirational character arcs in the Bible.  Judah begins as kind of a bully figure with a tendency to blame others for his own neglect.  Yet he grows into a man of remarkable courage and responsibility.  By the time the book of Genesis closes, he stands at the head of his brothers and even surpasses Joseph.  My desire in beginning this series is to have you find as much hope in it as I have.  Let me say at the beginning that I do not intend to use this series to bludgeon anyone.  I will not say, “Here is what Judah did.  Now you must go and do likewise.”  I believe that is a wrong use of Scripture.  Instead, I want to hold this man up as an example of what God can do.  In other words, I want to use this series to give you a sense of hope in your own walk with Christ.

 

The Myth of the Squeaky-clean Bible Heroes

If you grew up in a Sunday school environment, like I did, you lived under the unstated but ever-present rule, “God uses good people,” which really means, “God only uses good people.  Abraham was a good person, and God used him.  Isaac was a good person, and God used him.  Jacob was a good person, and God used him.  Joseph was a better person than his brothers, and God used him to save the land and his family from starvation.  The children’s Sunday school message is unflinching.  God uses good boys and girls.  As we grow into adulthood, we continue to look for those good boys and girls who became good men and women, and we spend our lives trying to be something we cannot. Without realizing the fact, we stifle the message of grace.  Grace tells us, “God takes bad people and transforms them into redeemed people whom he uses for his good plan.”  Just how bad do they get?  The Patriarchs represent four generations of family dysfunction.  Here is a brief rundown. 

 

  • Abraham and Sarah:  Before Isaac was born, Abraham’s wife Sarah told him to sire a child by her Egyptian slave, Hagar.  He fathered Ishmael, but the birth had the opposite effect that Sarah had anticipated.  Hagar resented her.  Later, Isaac’s time came for weaning, Sarah told her husband, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac” (Genesis 21:10).  Hagar and Ishmael were out the door from that moment and survived only by miraculous intervention.
  • Isaac and Rebekah:When Isaac married, he and his wife bore twins.  The boys split the family down the middle.  Esau, the older twin, became an outdoorsman and captured his father’s heart.  Jacob found himself unable to compete on a level playing field with his brother and learned the art of cunning from his mother.  He finagled the birthright from Esau during their childhood and stole his father’s final blessing from his brother as an adult.  He had to flee for his life (Genesis 27:1-46).  
  • Jacob, Leah, Rachel, and the Baby Wars:When Jacob ran from his brother, he went to his family in Haran.  There he met Rachel and fell for her hard.  Rachel’s uncle, Laban, brokered a marriage deal with him, but substituted Rachel’s older and plainer sister Leah on their wedding night.  When Jacob protested, Laban brokered another marriage deal for Rachel.  The double marriage created a separate and unequal household, with Leah having to carry the weight of Jacob’s resentment.  The Bible’s assessment of the situation is blunt.  “When the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren” (Genesis 29:31).  Leah gave Jacob his first four sons—Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah.  Of course, Jacob continued to resent her.  The baby wars escalated when both Rachel and Leah gave their personal servants, Bilhah, and Zilpah, to Jacob to bear surrogate children.  Jacob sired ten boys through Leah and the two servants.  Finally, Rachel finally was able to become pregnant with Joseph, and Jacob had a son.  (Joseph’s “coat of many colors” signified his position as the heir.  In this case the coat meant that he was Jacob’s only recognized son.)  Just when the family appeared to be completely fractured, Rachel conceived again.  She gave birth to Benjamin, but died in childbirth.  The loss only made Jacob’s emotional hole bigger.  While he doted over his two sons, the ten older brothers’ tempers seethed in their own pressure cooker.
  • Joseph, Judah, and the Company of MenBy the time Joseph’s saga begins in Genesis 37, Jacob’s sons became divided into three tiers.  Joseph and Benjamin, born to Rachel, enjoyed full status as heirs.  Leah’s sons could never be more than junior varsity.  And those born to the servants Bilhah and Zilpah were barely important enough to count.  (Notice, for example, how Jacob arranges his family in Genesis 33:1-3, when he believes that Esau is coming to fulfill his vow for revenge). 

 

God’s Raw Materials

When Joseph’s saga begins in Genesis 37, the brothers’ pressure cooker blows.  Joseph is seventeen years old and claims to have had dreams of his superiority over his brothers.  He actually believes that they will bow down to him. Their resentment is as thick as wet snow.  When they are on their own away from home, their patience comes to an end and they conspire to murder him.  Reuben, the oldest, intervenes momentarily, but it is Judah who comes up with a final solution. 

Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt.  Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?  Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.”  And his brothers listened to him.

Genesis 37:25-27

Judah already holds a certain degree of moral authority over his brothers.  But his decision to sell his half-brother into slavery will come to haunt him. 

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Chasing Self-Destruction; Part 2

Genesis 37:26-35

Introduction

One of the most paralyzing fears that a man can face is that belief that something he have done in his past has damaged his future so deeply that it cannot be fixed.  I know because I have been there.  My own life contains a catalog of those whom I have wounded by poor decisions, evil actions, hasty words, and even cruelty towards others. But these things are exactly what show us why God’s grace is so great.  His sovereign care over us is not marked by the way he steers us away from mistakes, but by the healing work that he performs after we make them. 

 

Clash of the Egos

Judah is a prime example.  We first see him in operation in Genesis 37, when he is pitted against Joseph.  There, he is indeed a cruel man. At the same time, Joseph is more of a punk than a responsible brother.  The chapter that introduces Joseph shows us a seventeen-year-old kid with an out-of-control ego.  As if the years of his father’s doting over him were not enough for his brothers to endure, Joseph brags when he discovers his talent for interpreting prophetic dreams. The dream that opens his career shows him standing before his brothers while they bow down to him. Unfortunately, the dream puts him at an even greater distance from his brothers.  While Joseph relishes his coming notoriety, his brothers react with disdain.  According to the Scripture, “His brothers said to him, ‘Are you indeed to reign over us?  Or are you indeed to rule over us?’  So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words” (Genesis 37:8). Hatred is no exaggeration.  When they all are away from their father, the brothers conspire to murder Joseph.  At the last minute, Reuben, the oldest, tries to intervene by suggesting that they throw him into a dried-up cistern.  He secretly plans to return later to rescue him.

 

The Sweet Smell of Opportunity

Reuben never gets a chance to perform his rescue.  While he is away, a caravan from Midian shows up.  This is where we first see Judah as an adult. 

Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?  Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.”  And his brothers listened to him.

-- Genesis 37:26-27

 

Let those words sink in for a moment.  How can a man be so empathetic and treacherous at the same time?  On the positive side, Judah argues that Joseph is “our brother, our own flesh.”  His call to persuade his enraged brothers to view Joseph with pity is successful.  He saves the young man’s life.  For the fourth oldest to have this kind of natural sway is remarkable. On the negative side, he is treacherous.  How can a man plot so calmly abandon his family to slavery for profit?  Perhaps this was his only viable option in the heat of the moment, and he considered abandonment to slavery to be better than murder.  We do not have a definite answer to that question. 

 

The Cruelty of the Coverup

The chapter closes with Reuben’s return.  Joseph is gone, and Reuben is distraught (Genesis 37:29-30).  Now, however, they all are involved in Joseph’s disappearance so some degree, and they must act together. They conspire to manufacture a coverup.  The Bible shows the act’s cruelty in full color.  When they return to their father, they do not actually lie.  They launch a tale and let it fly on autopilot. 

Then they took Joseph’s robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.  And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, “This we have found; please identify whether it is your son’s robe or not.”  And he identified it and said, “It is my son’s robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.”  Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days.  All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.”  Thus his father wept for him.  

--Genesis 37:31-35

 

No Visible Way Out

To say that the brothers’ act carried unexpected consequences is an understatement.  If they thought Jacob was bad as the doting father, he is unbearable as the grieving one.  Did they really expect their problem to go away when they removed their brother from the picture? Genesis 37 closes on this dark note.  Joseph’s father wallows in grief, while his brothers become cemented in their lie.  Humanly speaking, they have buried themselves in a hole with no visible way out.  After what they have done, their collective future appears to be irreparable. 

 

Deep Woundedness

This drives us to a big question.  Why does God allow family woundedness to run this deeply?  Let me offer two observations from the larger narrative.  One comes by looking back.  Actions have consequences, and sometimes the consequences run for generations.  The brothers’ criminal act in Genesis 37 does not occur spontaneously.  It has been building for four generations.  The brothers’ resentment of Joseph is only a mirror image of their father Jacob’s open resentment of Leah. Jacob in turn still bleeds from the wounds of his father Isaac, who threw all his affection toward Jacob’s twin brother Esau.  And Isaac had to live with a heartbreaking family split when his mother Sarah banned his half-brother Ishmael from their father Abraham’s presence.  We are not looking at four separate wounds.  There are at most two.  Abraham lived with one, from the time that he had to let Ishmael go.  The family division that began with Isaac’s resentment of Jacob, however, has plagued the family for three generations. The other observation arises from looking forward.  God intends to perform a task that is impossible by human standards.  He wants to heal all four generations—the dead with the living. 

The restoration that he will forge through Judah over the next twenty-plus years not only will lay the foundation for a genuine relationship to grow between Jacob and his sons, but it also will reach back through the previous two generations to cauterize the wounds have bled since Abraham and Isaac’s time.  For the moment, the brothers can see only carnage.  Humanly, they are in a hopeless situation, “but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:26).  Where grace abounds, hope follows.

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CHASING SELF-DESTRUCTION

Genesis 37:26-35

Introduction

One of the most paralyzing fears that a man can face is that belief that something he have done in his past has damaged his future so deeply that it cannot be fixed.  I know because I have been there.  My own life contains a catalog of those whom I have wounded by poor decisions, evil actions, hasty words, and even cruelty towards others. But these things are exactly what show us why God’s grace is so great.  His sovereign care over us is not marked by the way he steers us away from mistakes, but by the healing work that he performs after we make them. 

 

Clash of the Egos

Judah is a prime example.  We first see him in operation in Genesis 37, when he is pitted against Joseph.  There, he is indeed a cruel man. At the same time, Joseph is more of a punk than a responsible brother.  The chapter that introduces Joseph shows us a seventeen-year-old kid with an out-of-control ego.  As if the years of his father’s doting over him were not enough for his brothers to endure, Joseph brags when he discovers his talent for interpreting prophetic dreams. The dream that opens his career shows him standing before his brothers while they bow down to him. Unfortunately, the dream puts him at an even greater distance from his brothers.  While Joseph relishes his coming notoriety, his brothers react with disdain.  According to the Scripture, “His brothers said to him, ‘Are you indeed to reign over us?  Or are you indeed to rule over us?’  So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words” (Genesis 37:8). Hatred is no exaggeration.  When they all are away from their father, the brothers conspire to murder Joseph.  At the last minute, Reuben, the oldest, tries to intervene by suggesting that they throw him into a dried-up cistern.  He secretly plans to return later to rescue him.

 

The Sweet Smell of Opportunity

Reuben never gets a chance to perform his rescue.  While he is away, a caravan from Midian shows up.  This is where we first see Judah as an adult. 

Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?  Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.”  And his brothers listened to him.

-- Genesis 37:26-27

 

Let those words sink in for a moment.  How can a man be so empathetic and treacherous at the same time?  On the positive side, Judah argues that Joseph is “our brother, our own flesh.”  His call to persuade his enraged brothers to view Joseph with pity is successful.  He saves the young man’s life.  For the fourth oldest to have this kind of natural sway is remarkable. On the negative side, he is treacherous.  How can a man plot so calmly abandon his family to slavery for profit?  Perhaps this was his only viable option in the heat of the moment, and he considered abandonment to slavery to be better than murder.  We do not have a definite answer to that question. 

 

The Cruelty of the Coverup

The chapter closes with Reuben’s return.  Joseph is gone, and Reuben is distraught (Genesis 37:29-30).  Now, however, they all are involved in Joseph’s disappearance so some degree, and they must act together. They conspire to manufacture a coverup.  The Bible shows the act’s cruelty in full color.  When they return to their father, they do not actually lie.  They launch a tale and let it fly on autopilot. 

Then they took Joseph’s robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.  And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, “This we have found; please identify whether it is your son’s robe or not.”  And he identified it and said, “It is my son’s robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.”  Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days.  All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.”  Thus his father wept for him.  

--Genesis 37:31-35

 

No Visible Way Out

To say that the brothers’ act carried unexpected consequences is an understatement.  If they thought Jacob was bad as the doting father, he is unbearable as the grieving one.  Did they really expect their problem to go away when they removed their brother from the picture? Genesis 37 closes on this dark note.  Joseph’s father wallows in grief, while his brothers become cemented in their lie.  Humanly speaking, they have buried themselves in a hole with no visible way out.  After what they have done, their collective future appears to be irreparable. 

 

Deep Woundedness

This drives us to a big question.  Why does God allow family woundedness to run this deeply?  Let me offer two observations from the larger narrative.  One comes by looking back.  Actions have consequences, and sometimes the consequences run for generations.  The brothers’ criminal act in Genesis 37 does not occur spontaneously.  It has been building for four generations.  The brothers’ resentment of Joseph is only a mirror image of their father Jacob’s open resentment of Leah. Jacob in turn still bleeds from the wounds of his father Isaac, who threw all his affection toward Jacob’s twin brother Esau.  And Isaac had to live with a heartbreaking family split when his mother Sarah banned his half-brother Ishmael from their father Abraham’s presence.  We are not looking at four separate wounds.  There are at most two.  Abraham lived with one, from the time that he had to let Ishmael go.  The family division that began with Isaac’s resentment of Jacob, however, has plagued the family for three generations. The other observation arises from looking forward.  God intends to perform a task that is impossible by human standards.  He wants to heal all four generations—the dead with the living. 

The restoration that he will forge through Judah over the next twenty-plus years not only will lay the foundation for a genuine relationship to grow between Jacob and his sons, but it also will reach back through the previous two generations to cauterize the wounds have bled since Abraham and Isaac’s time.  For the moment, the brothers can see only carnage.  Humanly, they are in a hopeless situation, “but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:26).  Where grace abounds, hope follows.

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Life of Judah; Part 3
Retreat into Inactivity

Genesis 38

Running from the Consequences

After Judah leads his brothers to sell Joseph into slavery, Judah runs from the fallout.  He looks like a man who realizes what he has done and cannot bear the sight. According to Genesis 38, “It happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and turned aside to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah (Genesis 38:1).  Both men are sheepshearers, and Judah ultimately marries Hirah’s daughter Shua (Genesis 38:2, with 38:12).   

He has settled in, and apparently has no desire to resume life with his brothers.

 

Judah’s Personal Terror

Judah and Shua bear three sons—Er, Onan, and Shelah.  Over the course of time, Judah finds a wife for Er, a woman named Tamar (Genesis 38:6).  Unfortunately, Er sins, and God strikes him dead before he produces a child (Genesis 38:7). At first, Judah acts on Tamar’s behalf and calls his second son to be joined to her in levirate marriage.  The substitute union would save Tamar from the shame of childlessness.  He told his son, “Go in to your brother’s wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her and raise up offspring for your brother” (Genesis 38:9). Onan has refused to give a child to Tamar, and God strikes him dead as well.  Now Judah has only one surviving son.  He makes a promise to Tamar to preserve him for her, but he fears for his son’s life.  Genesis reads, “Then Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law, ‘Remain a widow in your father’s house, till Shelah my son grows up’ ” (Genesis 38:11a).

 

Retreat into Lethargy

The unspoken part of Judah’s promise speaks louder than words.  He is terrified, “for he feared that [Shelah] would die, like his brothers” (Genesis 38:11b).  He allows Tamar to take him at his word, but he has no intention of keeping it. Judah’s deception ultimately becomes apparent.  “In the course of time the wife of Judah, Shua’s daughter died.  When Judah was comforted, he went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite” (Genesis 38:12). His plan is to retreat into lethargy.  If he can hide long enough, maybe the problem will go away. 

 

Tamar’s Bold Move

Tamar cannot dismiss the matter, because she has a much higher stake in it.  She has lost one husband and has been betrayed by another. Now her father-in-law, who has given her his word, is about to break his promise.  If she does not bear a son, she will be considered worthless as a woman and will be left to beg or die. Tamar dresses up as a cult prostitute and waits beside the road until Judah passes.  When Judah fails to recognize her, he propositions her, and they negotiate a price.  He will give her a young goat from the flock.  In the meantime, Tamar asks Judah for his signet, his cord, and his staff as a pledge. The Bible is matter-of-fact at this point.  “So he gave them to her and went in to her, and she conceived by him” (Genesis 38:18). To modern readers, Tamar’s actions appear to be despicable.  How dare she shame herself and her father-in-law? The truth is that she is fighting for her life.  Judah has abandoned her.  If Tamar does act, she will die.The text shows Tamar’s actions graphically.  Hebrew narrative often demonstrates determination by showing it in a series of short deliberate actions.  Here is the way it frames the encounter with Judah with her acts.

 

 “And when Tamar was told, ‘Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep’…

“…she took off her widow’s garments…

    …and she covered herself with a veil…

        …and she wrapped herself up…

            …and she sat at the entrance to Enaim…” (verses 13-14)

Tamar’s actions at the conclusion of the section mirror the opening:

            “Then she arose…

      …and she went away…

   …and she took off her veil…

…and she put on her widow’s garments” (verse 19). 

Tamar owns this part of the narrative.  She plans, she engages, and she negotiates.  Judah, meanwhile, follows whatever she asks. 

 

The Danger of Passivity

Judah remains ignorant of who Tamar is.  He sends a young goat back to the woman as he promised, but she is gone.  Notice how the text portrays his passivity in this matter. 

When Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite to take back the pledge from the woman’s hand, he did not find her…. And Judah replied, “Let her keep the things as her own or we shall be laughed at.  You see, I sent this young goat, but you did not find her.”

--Genesis 38:20, 23, emphasis added

In this moment in time, Judah is a very unsympathetic character.  He uses his friends, he believes that he can escape embarrassment by ignoring consequences, and he casts blame for his shortcomings on others. A crucial part of biblical manhood involves being men of our word.  It is part of our calling as men, and particularly as men of God.  Genesis 38 shows several characteristics that embody this aspect of biblical manhood:

 

  • The necessity to take on responsibility
  • The necessity to stand on our word
  • The necessity to embrace our actions
  • The necessity to finish a given task

 

A Man about to meet his Transition

At this point, Judah fails all four.  Further, his passivity in these areas is precisely the reason why Tamar can manipulate him so easily. This point in the chapter marks the low point in Judah’s life, but of course this fact remains hidden from him.  He is about to receive the jolt that will awaken him to his purpose, however.  Ironically, it will come from Tamar, the person whom he has wronged.

 

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Life of Judah; Part 4
Judah's Self-recognition

Genesis 38: 24-30

Judah’s Moral Crossroads

Shame can be a paralyzing emotion to a man.  Failure at one task makes us hesitate to begin another.  If we allow the cycle to continue, we begin to wonder whether we will succeed at anything.  I know.  I have been there. This is what appears to be going on in Judah’s mind in Genesis 38.  The realization that he has called his brothers to sell Joseph into slavery drives him to passivity.  He refuses to take on responsibility.  He is unable to embrace his actions.  He has lost the ability to stand on his word.  And he walks away before he finishes what he has promised to do. Early in Genesis 38, Judah gives Tamar to his oldest son Er.  When Er dies before providing Tamar with a child, Judah follows the levirate custom and has his second son Onan marry her.  Onan refuses to carry out his duty to his wife, and the LORD kills him.  Judah does the right thing and tells Tamar to wait until his youngest son Shelah is old enough to marry her.  Then, in the end, he becomes suspicious that Shelah will die as well, and walks out on his promise.  This is the point at which Tamar takes matters into her own hands and disguises herself as a cult prostitute before Judah.  When the two discuss her fee, they agree on a goat.  In the meantime, she asks for his signet, his cord, and his staff as a pledge.  The two engage in the act, but when Judah send his friend back with the goat, neither Tamar nor the pledge are anywhere to be found.  Judah, thinking embarrassment is the worst possible outcome, dismisses the incident.  Meanwhile, Tamar becomes pregnant. 

 

Judah’s Two Moral Worlds

Of course, Tamar’s pregnancy causes a stir in the family.  “About three months later Judah was told, ‘Tamar your daughter-in-law has been immoral.  Moreover, she is pregnant by immorality’” (Genesis 38:24a).  Judah responds with all the confidence of a man who thinks he is in the clear. “Bring her out and let her be burned” (Genesis 38:24b). Tamar of course is ready for him.  She tells her father-in-law, “By the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant.  Please identify whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff” (Genesis 38:25).  When Tamar presents the objects of Judah’s pledge him, she exposes his two moral worlds.  The act is not for blackmail, though.  It is for vindication.  Judah has withheld his promise to give her an heir, and to this point, the family line lies in jeopardy of extinction.

 

Judah’s Transformation

Judah recognizes this point. As brief as this statement is, it addresses all four areas that Judah failed at earlier. First, when Judah identifies the objects, he takes responsibility for his actions.  Beyond the tryst, he owns his larger responsibility for his fault in a specific way. Second, his words, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah,” show that he embraces his responsibility entirely.  One author suggests that the Comparative statement, “She is more righteous then I,” should be absolute.  “She is righteous, not I.”[1]  Judah’s words do more than just forgive.  They recognize her act as one of survival.  He accepts the entire blame and pronounces Tamar innocent. Third, he acknowledges that he has failed his word in withholding his son Shelah from her.  The fault for Tamar’s pregnancy, therefore, moves from Tamar act to Judah’s broken promise.  Judah admits that he has failed to complete his task propagate his biological line. Finally, Judah gives Tamar the respect that she has deserved throughout the chapter.  The verse concludes, “And he did not know [Tamar] again.”  This statement may sound unimportant to modern readers, but it is huge in this narrative.  His confession has taken away her guilt, but his recognition of her dignity restores her worth. When the truth emerges, something kick starts in Judah’s thinking.  He becomes a man of action, and he never turns back.

 

The Larger Story

One of the most unusual factors about this story is that both Judah and Tamar emerge as heroes. The chapter concludes with a brief account of the birth that follows.  Tamar bears twins—Perez and Zerah.  We know from the genealogies in 1 Chronicles that Judah accepted these two as his sons alongside the three sons by his first wife (1 Chronicles 2:3-4).  His acceptance of Tamar’s sons becomes “a recognition by Judah that Tamar carried out the divine purpose of propagating Judah’s family.”[2]  Ultimately, Judah’s son Perez stands in the genealogical line of Jesus (Matthew 1:3).  Generations after Tamar, another levirate marriage will occur when an Israelite man named Boaz marries a Moabite woman named Ruth during the time of the judges.  At the confirmation, the people and elders of the city bless Boaz with these words.  “May your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the LORD will give you by this young woman” (Ruth 4:12).  Far from being viewed negatively, Tamar becomes a source of blessing in Israel. Judah will reemerge among his brothers with great purpose.  Ultimately, he will become the one who heals the family rift that has bled for three generations. 

 

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Life of Judah; Part 5
Judah The Warrior

Genesis 42-43

A Series of Crises

After the account of Judah among the sheepshearers, Genesis returns to Joseph’s story.  Joseph finds himself assigned to a man named Potiphar, a captain of the guard in Pharaoh’s military.  You probably know the story.  The LORD is with Joseph and causes him to excel in his work.  Potiphar in turn places all his accounting responsibilities on Joseph.  He endures his first crisis.  Joseph’s situation looks good until Potiphar’s wife tries to seduce him.  When Joseph refuses her advances, she cries rape.  Joseph is sent to prison, another crisis. While he is in prison, the LORD is with him again.  During this time, his ability to interpret dreams comes to light.  When the Pharaoh experiences a troubling double nightmare, one of his staff members remembers Joseph’s gift.  The guards bring Joseph before the Pharaoh, and Joseph predicts seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine.  This third crisis is global. The Pharaoh elevates Joseph to the second highest position in the land and puts him in charge of the preparations for the famine. 

 

Wounds Reopened

With the narrative’s focus back on Joseph, the episode concerning Judah begins to fade from the text.  Is Judah’s aside in chapter 38 even necessary? 

It is.  Joseph may be front and center, but Judah’s intervention will become indispensable to the story. When Joseph’s brothers are about to come to Egypt to buy food—the first of two such trips—the threads between Judah, Joseph, and Jacob begin to intertwine in an inseparable braid.  In fact, if we read the narrative closely, God’s whole purpose for sending the periods of prosperity and famine is to reunite Jacob and his twelve sons. In recounting Israel’s history, Psalm 105:16-18 focuses on Joseph.  The psalm mentions the pain he had to endure when his feet and neck were bound in fetters.  Doubtless, these left scars. Genesis takes the time to examine the family’s emotional scars, which are invisible but run just as deeply.  For example, before the famine hits, Joseph is married and sires two sons.  He names his first Manasseh, “For God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father’s house” (Genesis 41:51).  The second is Ephraim, “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction” (Genesis 41:52).  Joseph thinks he is about to move on. Now, as his brothers stand before him, unaware of his identity, the wound between them reopens for all of them.  Genesis records, “Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them” (Genesis 42:9).  He stands vindicated, but that is only half the issue.  The unresolved conflict overshadows any satisfaction he may experience.The brothers feel the wound as well.  Unaware that Joseph can understand them, they tell each other, “In truth we are guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen.  That is why this distress has come upon us.” (Genesis 42:21).

 

The Path to Healing

Joseph begins the healing process by submitting his brothers to a moral test.  They can return to their father, but one of them must remain in Egypt under confinement.  Further, they must return with their youngest brother if they want to continue to buy food. The test performs a couple functions.  First, Joseph chooses Simeon, the second oldest to remain in custody.  Reuben, the oldest, had been absent during the betrayal, leaving Simeon as the responsible party in the act.  Now he will experience a little of Joseph’s agony firsthand. The second condition, Benjamin’s return, performs a dual function.  On the one hand, Joseph and Benjamin are Rachel’s sons, the only ones that Jacob counts (Genesis 42:38).  If Joseph can see that the brothers care for Benjamin, then he will know that they have buried their animosity toward him.  On the other, a reunion with his only full brother is a necessary step in his personal healing. 

 

Jacob at the Epicenter

The brothers return home with dire news.  Ten have gone down to Egypt, and only nine come back.  Further, they must tell their father that the man to whom they talked demands to see their younger brother. Of course, Jacob is distraught.  But even more importantly, the narrative allows us to see how pivotal he is in passing his pain unto his family.  The emotional wounds that he received by his father Isaac’s neglect have followed him into his marriage.  His relationship to Leah, Rachel, and their two slaves is a study in favoritism and resentment. Even more, he has passed his resentment to the next generation.  The whole reason why Joseph is in Egypt falls back on him.  Jacob lies at the epicenter of his family’s dysfunction, and he is unable to see what he has done. Jacob’s own interpretation of the situation shows us how self-centered he is in his understanding of what has happened.

And Jacob their father said to them, “You have bereaved me of my children: Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and now you would take Benjamin. All this has come against me.”

--Genesis 42:36

In Jacob’s mind, he is the victim who endures the abiding pain.  Joseph and Simeon, whom Jacob presumes to be dead, count only to accentuate his own victimhood.  Any loss is his sons’ collective fault.  He is a master of guilt manipulation. 

 

Judah’s Confrontation with his Father

Joseph’s hope to reunite with his family is noble, but the details are out of his control.  Until Jacob himself changes, the fractures will remain in the family. Anyone who has had to endure the kind of guilt manipulation that Jacob has mastered understands how difficult it is to address.  Reason cannot overcome it, because a new criticism always waits just around the corner. Reuben tries. He tells his father, “Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you” (Genesis 42:37). Jacob does not budge. “My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead and he is the only one left” (Genesis 42: 38). It is at this point that Judah arises as a man of strength.  His show of resolve is the only recorded instance in Genesis in which anyone confronts Jacob directly.

“The man solemnly warned us, saying, ‘You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.’  If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food.  But if you will not send him, we will not go down, for the man said to us, ‘You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.’”

--Genesis 43:3-5, emphasis added

Jacob attempts the blame game again (Genesis 43:6-10), but Judah refuses to budge.  Jacob finally caves.  None of the men can begin to guess the magnitude of Judah’s stand.  Yet.  In the end, it not only will bring healing to the family, but it will determine the history of the nation that is to come.

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Judah's Journey to Manhood, Part 6

Judah the Defender
Genesis 44

Benjamin in the Presence of his Brother Joseph

The brothers’ second trip to Egypt occupies Genesis 43:15-45:28, a very large portion of the text.  This time, they have brought their youngest brother Benjamin, as Joseph has demanded. In this section, Joseph puts his brothers through an even more severe test than in their first trip.  He sells them the grain they need but plants his personal cup in Benjamin’s sack.  None of the brothers is aware that Benjamin carries evidence that has the potential to crush Jacob and his family.  As soon as the brothers leave, Joseph calls them back in mock fury.  Someone has his cup, and he is determined to discover who carries it.  The brothers, confident that they are innocent, tell him, “Whichever of your servants is found with it shall die, and we also shall be my lord’s servants” (Genesis 44:9).  Joseph eases the gravity of what they have said.  “Let it be as you say: he who is found with it shall be my servant, and the rest of you shall be innocent” (Genesis 44:10). Joseph’s change of their self-imposed sentence carries both positive and negative consequences.  Positively, the change removes the death sentence that they unwittingly have placed on Benjamin.  Negatively, the inevitable outcome of the search that is about to occur will place them in a moral quandary.  The test, to which both sides have agreed, will require them to leave their brother in Egypt as the vice-pharaoh’s personal slave.  The brothers are doomed to fail. Obviously, Joseph wants to see solidarity among his brothers.  But realistically, they have demonstrated good faith in bringing Benjamin with them.  What greater level of solidarity can he expect than what they have shown already?  

In many ways, this is the riskiest part of Joseph’s testing of his brothers.  It eliminates rather than creates options.  The rules guarantee that they fail.  Humanly speaking, Joseph set up a situation that is impossible to pass. Still, he carries on with his test.  He searches each man sack and “finds” his cup with Benjamin.  Now what? 

 

Judah’s Intervention

Probably, Joseph is looking for some kind of plea deal.  If the brothers beg for leniency, at least Joseph will know that they care for Benjamin. What he cannot anticipate is Judah’s defense.  When the brothers return to face Joseph, Judah stands alone as Benjamin’s advocate.  His defense runs through three stages, and it is brilliant.  The opening statement (Genesis 44:16) acknowledges the facts. 

“What shall we say to my lord?  And what shall we speak?  Or how can we clear ourselves?  God has found out the guilt of your servants; behold, we are my lord’s servants, both we and he also in whose hand the cup is found."

--Genesis 44:16

From the beginning, Judah consents to the truth of the evidence.  He neither ignores nor minimizes the facts.  This is a lesson he learned from Tamar in Genesis 38:24-26, when she showed him the items from pledge. Joseph remains undeterred.  He reminds Judah of the agreement, that the one who had the cup would remain as his personal slave (Genesis 44:17). In answer to this, Judah presents the second section of his defense (Genesis 44:18-29).  Here he reminds Joseph of his demand that they bring the youngest brother with them.  “Then you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, why shall not see my face again’” (Genesis 44:23). This is a small advantage, but if Joseph is to be a fair judge, he must acknowledge this point just as Judah has acknowledged the evidence against them.  Judah then leverages it on what he hopes will be Joseph’s sense of empathy.  Justice costs Joseph nothing, but it costs Judah’s father—an innocent party—everything. 

“When we went back to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord…. Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons.  One left me, and I said, Surely he has been torn to pieces, and I have never seen him since.  If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring my gray hairs in evil to Sheol.’”

--Genesis 44:25, 27-29

The conclusion presents the appeal—not for grace or lenience, but for an alternative suitable to both.

“Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers.  For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me?  I fear to see the evil that would find my father.”

--Genesis 44:33-34

 

Heroic Compassion

Judah’s appeal is masterful.  He stands with his brothers throughout his presentation of his case. His appeal draws Joseph into the drama and calls him to compassion.  The call is not manipulative, however.  It never directs Joseph’s attention away from their guilt.  Rather, it calls Joseph to stand with the brothers and grant an alternative as one who understands family dynamics. Judah’s offer to take Benjamin’s place shows that he has become a man of heroic compassion.  Although he appeals on behalf of his brothers, Judah stands alone in this scene. 

 

The Reunion

Judah’s defense is a tsunami.  Joseph the ruler is swept away by the appeal.  He has nothing left to say.  And Joseph the brother now sees the full glory of his older brother’s kindness toward Benjamin. The change that God has wrought in Judah transforms Joseph’s relationship to his family.  Once he expected to go to the grave with bitter memories from his family.  We see this pain reflected years before, just after his elevation, in the names that he gave his two sons by his Egyptian wife Asenath. His firstborn was named Manasseh, a name derived from the Hebrew word for forget.  Joseph proclaimed, “God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father’s house” (Genesis 41:51) His second son was Ephraim, a name derived from the word fruitful, because “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction” (Genesis 41:52). Now, thanks to Judah, Joseph experiences healing, and the healing allows him to shed his defenses.  “And he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it.  And Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am Joseph!  Is my father still alive?’” (Genesis 45:2-3a).The words, “my father,” rather than “our father,” are more than a slip.  They reveal Joseph’s feeling in the moment.  Years of checked emotions now open to hope. For the first time in three generations, God’s covenant clan can work toward becoming a genuine family.

 

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Judah's Journey to Manhood, Part 7

Rising Lion
Genesis 49

A Family of God Finally United

Jacob lived most of his life as a wounded man.  He grew up under his father Isaac’s undisguised favoritism toward his twin brother Esau as well as his mother Rebekah’s over reactive protection. When the time came for him to build his own family, he transferred both these wounds to his wives and his twelve sons.  Joseph and Benjamin, born to Jacob’s favored wife Rachel, received all his affection.  The ten older brothers were left to fend for themselves. 

Jacob ‘s wounding continued into the third generation, leading to the familiar story of Joseph’s betrayal by his brothers. Yet thanks to his fourth son Judah, Jacob becomes a true patriarch to his children and grandchildren. We glimpse the degree of the transformation in Jacob’s thinking from two brief references.  The first occurs just before Judah takes his stand.  As the brothers prepare for their second food expedition into Egypt, Jacob tells his sons, “My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is the only one left” (Genesis 42:38, emphasis added).  It is a refrain that has been going on for far too many years. Thankfully, Judah stands up to his father, and all twelve brothers become united with their father.  Genesis 49 records the blessings that Jacob pronounces on his sons just before he died.  The second picture at the end of Jacob’s life shows a family finally united, both physically emotionally.

 

Then Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather yourselves together that I may tell you what will happen to you in the days to come. Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob, listen to your father.”

-Genesis 49:1-2

 

The patriarchal blessings in Genesis are not trifles.  They stand as prophetic utterances.  When Jacob pronounces them, he assembles all his sons together (in contrast to the underhanded way that his father Isaac planned a private blessing to Esau in Genesis 27) and makes his pronouncements from the oldest to the youngest.  Some are cryptic, while others are clear.  We will concentrate on what he says to Joseph and Judah. 

 

Judah and Joseph’s Blessings

If we think about Jacob’s life history for a moment, he has been a man obsessed with obtaining blessing.  As a young man, he stole the blessing that his father meant to give his twin brother Esau (Genesis27:1-28).  Twenty years later, on the eve of his meeting with his cheated brother, he wrestled with the angel of the LORD.  There, he betrayed his continuing obsession.  “I will not let you go unless you bless me” (Genesis 32:26). Now we come to the end of his life, and we see that thought still on his mind.  At the end of Jacob’s pronouncements, the summary verse states, “All these are the twelve tribes of Israel.  This is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him” (Genesis 49:28). 

Interestingly, Jacob uses the word blessing only with Joseph, and he lavishes him with it.  Here is the concluding statement for Joseph: 

 

"…by the God of your father who will help you,by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above,blessings of the deep that crouches beneath,blessings of the beast and off the womb. The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents, up to the bounties of the everlasting hills."

--Genesis 49:25-26, emphasis added

 

Joseph continues to occupy favored status, but I believe we can forgive Jacob for that. 

 

Judah’s Scepter

More importantly, Judah now stands on equal footing with his brother.  Together, Judah and Joseph’s pronouncements take up two thirds of the material in Jacob’s prophetic words to his sons. Jacob’s words show that he recognizes Judah’s role in the securing of the family.  As one commentator observes,

"Judah is singled out from the other brothers as the one through whom the rescue of the family of Jacob was accomplished.”[1]  

 

Here is an important excerpt from his pronouncement to Judah. 

"Judah is a lion’s cub;from the prey, my son, you have gone up.

He stooped down, he crouched as a lionand as a lioness; who dares rouse him?

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him;and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples."

--Genesis 49:9-10

 

The scepter is the symbol of a ruler’s authority.  Jacob’s comment about the scepter and the obedience of the peoples shows that he sees more than preeminence in Judah.  He foresees royal fulfillment. Eight hundred sixty years later, Jacob’s descendants would ask for a king to rule over them.  Their first king would be Saul, from the tribe of Benjamin.  He would fail at this task, however, leading the LORD to look for a man after his own heart, a man of passion. That passionate man would be David, a descendant of Judah.  Because of David’s faithfulness during years of testing, and because of his dignity in uniting a divided people (2 Samuel 1:1-3:39), the LORD cuts a covenant with him, with a promise of a lasting dynasty (2 Samuel 7:1-17).  The covenant with David is a fulfillment of Jacob’s pronouncement about Judah.  That is not the end, however. God’s covenant with David would find its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ, who would be born in the tribe of Judah (Matthew 1:1-14).  Jesus’ genealogical fulfillment lies at the heart of the gospel.  The Apostle Paul introduces the book of Romans as “the gospel of God…concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh, and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness…” (Romans 1:3b-4a).  Jesus is both human and divine.  We witness his divinity from New Testament revelation, but our knowledge about him is incomplete without the Old Testament witness.  The gospel is incomplete without both these elements.

 

The Great Uniting

The New Testament gospel, then, is not “new” in the sense that it replaces the Old.  It stands as the fulfillment of prophecy from Judah’s time.Even more, Jacob’s prophecy rests on the word that God gave to his grandfather Abraham, that “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3).  Therefore, when Jacob tells his son that the one who takes the censor will possess “the obedience of the peoples” (Genesis 49:10) the words refer to more than just Israel.  They encompass the New Testament believers who place their trust in “Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1). Finally, the great uniting reaches back to the beginning of creation, when God rescued our ultimate genealogical parents from their own rebellion.  The gospel begins in Eden, in judgment when the tree of life is lost to humanity (Genesis 2:9; 3:22-24).  It ends in the restored heavens and earth, when the curse will be removed and the tree of life restored (Revelation 22:1-5). 

 

[1] John H. Sailhamer, The Meaning of the Pentateuch:  Revelation, Composition and Interpretation, (Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP Academic, 2009), 327.

 

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Judah's Journey to Manhood, Part 8

Judah's Legacy

The Peacemaker

When we finish the book of Genesis, we stand on a mountaintop.  The air is sparkling, and the view is stunning.  The family of Jacob, broken since his conception, now stands united.  Thanks to Judah, three generations of family dysfunction are erased.  Judah’s twelve sons stand together as brothers.  God has been good. The Bible has given us a fitting testimony of God’s ability to create goodness out of chaos.  When circumstances tell us that failure is inevitable, God shows us that he is greater than circumstances. I want to dedicate this last installment on Judah to make a few observations on his story.  These repeat much of the material that we have covered, but I cannot leave the saga without savoring the view just a little longer. 

 

The God who authors History

The end of the Joseph saga hails Joseph’s graciousness toward his brothers.  When their father Jacob dies, the brothers fear that Joseph will bring the hammer down.  Of course, he assures them that his forgiveness is genuine. One of the most celebrated passages in Genesis is Joseph’s pronouncement to his brothers.  “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God?  As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Genesis 50:19-20). Joseph recognizes that God had planned his ordeal in Egypt to achieve a greater good during the crisis that was to come. Later in history, Psalm 105 would celebrate the history of the nation of Israel from the time of Abraham’s calling to their settlement in Canaan.  One of the stanzas in the psalm remembers Joseph’s saga.  The stanza begins with the famine that hit the land years after Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery.

 

"When he summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply of bread,

he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave.

His feet were hurt with fetters; his neck was put in a collar of iron; until what he had said came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him.

The king sent and released him; the ruler of the peoples set him free;

he made him lord of his house and ruler of all his possessions,

to bind his princes at his pleasure and to teach his elders wisdom."

--Psalm 105:16-22

 

Did you notice the opening statement?  The psalmist begins, “When he summoned a famine on the land…”  If we had only the Genesis account, we might misconceive Joseph’s journey to Egypt to be a contingency plan against the famine that was going to come.  Psalm 105 shows us that even the famine belonged to the LORD in order to do his will in history. 

 

Joseph and Judah’s Crucibles

This fact reflects on both Joseph and Judah, because each man’s courage played a part in the story.  Each man had to develop his faith in a crucible.  Let’s look at Joseph first. Jacob’s one-sided affection for Joseph drove him to smother his favorite son.  Had Joseph stayed with Jacob, he would have remained a coddled boy instead of growing into the man that he became.  Joseph needed to be isolated from his father in order to achieve the level of competence in leadership that he acquired.  Joseph’s slavery in Egypt, therefore, was part of God’s design from the beginning. Still, as great as Joseph’s mission was, he was only one person.  He acted faithfully in Egypt, but he remained geographically out of touch with his family.  When he made his brothers’ second trip for grain conditional on Benjamin’s return, his command amounted only to leverage.  He had no actual authority to summon his younger brother. Judah’s behind-the-scenes intervention persuaded Jacob to break his chokehold on his youngest son.  Without Judah’s intervention, Jacob would have hoarded Benjamin while he drove his family to starvation in Canaan. This sheds light on Judah’s preparation.  Where Joseph became hardened through physical difficulty, Judah had to endure psychological hardship from his father.  The years of rebuke drove him into passivity.  Ironically, his daughter-in-law Tamar forced him to face himself.  Her actions gave him the courage necessary to confront his father with the truth. While God trained Joseph in Egypt, he tempered Judah in Canaan.  He put each man in the place where he would become prepared for the exact work he needed to do. 

 

Bashing Tamar

It is probably safe to say that, on those rare occasions when they even mention Genesis 38, more Bible expositors prefer to bash Tamar than listen to her side of the story.  One older commentary, for example, declares that, “after the selling of Joseph…both [Judah] and his [family] rapidly became conformed to the abominations around.”[1]   Wow.  Besides Judah, the commentator’s single paragraph on this chapter mentions Abraham, Jacob, Judah, and Joseph by name, even though the last three characters do not even appear in that chapter.  Meanwhile, Tamar, the one person who keeps Judah’s feet to the fire, remains unnamed.  For the record, Tamar is not part of the “abominations around.”  She is the victim of a broken promise.  Let us allow Judah rather than our preconceived notions of propriety to interpret the incident.  “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah” (Genesis)   

Thankfully, the Old Testament is kinder to her.  The book of Ruth, for example, celebrates the levirate marriage when an Israelite man named Boaz performs one of the great acts of grace for Ruth, a widowed Moabite woman. Ruth was an implanted member of Israel, a Moabite woman who married an Israelite man.  Her first husband died before they could bear a child.  Boaz, a distant family member in the clan, loves Ruth enough to marry her and give her a child in her first husband’s name.  When the ceremony takes place, the elders of the town praise them with these words: 

May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem, and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring the LORD will give to you by this young woman.

--Ruth 4:11b-12

 

Where the Bible gives honor, let us do the same. One more thing.  Boaz is a fifth-generation grandson of Judah (Ruth 4:18-21).  Both Tamar and Ruth stand in the genealogical line David the King and of Jesus the Christ (Matthew 1:3-5).

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