Wednesday Bible study: Ladies night part 5

 

The hardest to get a grasp on of the women in Matthew's genealogy is Tamar, who bore the twins Phares and Zerah to Judah, son of Jacob.  In an odd way, the story parallels Jacob's own marriage to Leah, which reminds me that trying to establish the line God wanted was a lot like getting sheep to get in line for the shearer- pushing, poking, and a little trickery.  Satan   was determined to disrupt the line; but God had it under control.

So we start with Judah, fresh from selling brother Joseph into slavery, and moving out from the family to become neighbors and buddies with a Canaanite named Hirah.  Satan's first attack comes here; instead of relying on his father to arrange a marriage, he allows buddy Hirah to hook him up with the daughter of another buddy named Shuah.  This woman doesn't rate a name in the story, but bears him 3 sons- Er, Onan, and Shelah.  The first question you have here is, the Bible brings up that Judah had moved to another area when Shelah was born, Chezib; the simple explanation the commentators give is that only Shelah needed to pass on his heritage, because, well, you'll see.

So unlike his own marriage, Judah takes the right he denied his father in picking a wife for #1 son Er.  Her name was Tamar, and we don't rightly know her lineage.  The Jews gave us the extremely unlikely idea she was a daughter of Shem (which at best would have made her about 300); an Arabic source claims her to be a daughter of Levi, which while more likely, we just don't know.  Again, the Jews claim she had assured Judah she was no Gentile; but as Judah didn't seem to be concerned about the gentile thing, this doesn't matter.  What does matter is that the daughter of Shuah was the WRONG woman, and Tamar was the right one.

However, Er was the wrong man.

Gen 38:6  And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.
Gen 38:7  But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD put him to death.

What this wickedness was, we have no idea.  The Jewish encyclopedia sends you to a link that explains nothing.  Other sources, oddly enough, claimed Er refused to sleep with Tamar because HE detested Canaanites!  The matter of it is, though, that God wanted no part of this grandson of Shuah in Jesus' lineage, and killed him to prevent it.

Now here's the thing: the rule back then was Levirite marriage- if a brother leaves no heir, the next brother had to raise heirs to the dead son.  In other words, Onan was up.  But Onan was greedy, and wanted no part of his inheritance dropping from a possible 2/3s of Judah's estate to a quarter or less.

Gen 38:8  Then Judah said to Onan, "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."
Gen 38:9  But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went in to his brother's wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother.
Gen 38:10  And what he did was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and he put him to death also.

At this point, Judah refused to see God's hand in this; instead, he was afraid that Tamar was, basically, a Black Widow.  At this point, he had two HONORABLE choices:

1- He could be the Levir himself, giving her a child for his son Er, and then never touching her again (because THEN it would be incest), since son #3 wasn't of age; or-

2- He could have her live as a widow until Shelah was of age, and then it would be his turn.  Either of these would have kept her honor by cementing her into the family.

Instead, he chose to send her home as a widow, but with no intent to give her to Shelah.  But in the passage of time, 3 things happened near simultaneously:

First, Judah's wife died.

Second, Shelah came of age.

Third, Tamar noticed Judah wasn't willing to pass the next son on down.

Now here's the next thing:  As I found it explained, Tamar- who is both mentioned in Ruth and compared TO Ruth- was loyal to that family, the family of Judah.  She wanted to be part of that family.  She had apparently kept a line of informants about the family-

Gen 38:12  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.
Gen 38:13  And when Tamar was told, "Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,"
Gen 38:14  she took off her widow's garments and covered herself with a veil, wrapping herself up, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him in marriage. 

And here comes the parallel to Leah.  She dressed like a roadside harlot, with her face veiled- just like Leah. And Judah, without a wife, stumbles along, sees the chance to get some, and asks what the price is.  Without a credit card, he promises a kid from the herd, and she asks a pledge.  He gives her his "ID"- his staff, and signet and cord.  They have sex, he leaves, she conceives. To Judah's credit (what there is of it at this point), he sends payment back, but by this time Tamar is long gone.

Step ahead 3 months, and the same network of informants tell Judah his daughter-in-law- on pause is pregnant, and he is ready to go above and beyond the law to punish her.  Here, Tamar is prepared; instead of accusing him directly she merely names the father as "the man to whom these belong"- and whips out Judah's "ID".  Now, the ball is in Judah's court.  From the Jewish Women's Archive:

 She sends his identifying pledge to him, urging him to recognize that its owner is the father. Realizing what has happened, Judah publicly announces Tamar’s innocence. His cryptic phrase, zadekah mimmeni, is often translated “she is more in the right than I” (Gen 38:26), a recognition not only of her innocence, but also of his wrongdoing in not freeing her or performing the levirate. Another possible translation is “she is innocent—it [the child] is from me.” Judah has now performed the levirate (despite himself) and never cohabits with Tamar again. Once she is pregnant, future sex with a late son’s wife would be incestuous.

 

So Judah is brought to repentance, and accepts his role as Levir.  The line continues as God intended, minus the bloodline of Shuah.  God continues to choose sons OTHER than the firstborn in her twins-

Gen 38:27  When the time of her labor came, there were twins in her womb.
Gen 38:28  And when she was in labor, one put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, "This one came out first."
Gen 38:29  But as he drew back his hand, behold, his brother came out. And she said, "What a breach you have made for yourself!" Therefore his name was called Perez.
Gen 38:30  Afterward his brother came out with the scarlet thread on his hand, and his name was called Zerah. 

 

Which isn't really surprising, since the firstborn were supposed to be given to Him anyway- for God to choose, He had to choose OTHER than firstborn.  Without making more of a rat's nest than necessary here, these two lines would be reunited centuries later in Zerubabbel.  And Shelah? Well, I think we get a clue as to why he wasn't allowed in the line here...

1Ch 4:21  The sons of Shelah the son of Judah: Er the father of Lecah, Laadah the father of Mareshah, and the clans of the house of linen workers at Beth-ashbea;

He named his firstborn after wicked older brother Er- and was probably a carbon-copy of him.  But, there may have been a redemption for Shelah;

1Ch 4:22  And Jokim, and the men of Chozeba, and Joash, and Saraph, who had the dominion in Moab, and Jashubilehem. And these are ancient things. 

His descendants became rulers in Moab; and, it is suggested by some commentators, they would form the ancestry of Ruth herself, which brings the story full-circle.

So what do we learn from Tamar?  The Jewish Women's Archive suggests this:

Tamar was assertive of her rights and subversive of convention. She was also deeply loyal to Judah’s family. These qualities also show up in Ruth, who appears later in the lineage of Perez and preserves Boaz’s part of that line. The blessing at Ruth’s wedding underscores the similarity in its hope that Boaz’s house “be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah” (Ruth 4:12). Tamar’s (and Ruth’s) traits of assertiveness in action, willingness to be unconventional, and deep loyalty to family are the very qualities that distinguish their descendant, King David.