December 9, 2007 PM

Cornelius Plantinga in his book Not the Way It's Supposed to Be: a Breviary of Sin refers to a scene from the 1990's film The Grand Canyon.  In that scene an  attorney becomes tied up in traffic on a Los Angeles expressway.  So, he did what Brenda and I used to do in Chicago: he decides to take the city streets in an attempt to get around traffic jam.  He somehow gets off the main drag and ends up in the one of the more run down neighborhoods.  And right on one of those streets where no wants to be, his expensive car stalls.  He manages to call a tow truck and then sits and waits in his car.  Before the truck arrives some gang members surround his car and begin beating on it, threatening him, telling him to open the door.  But before they can do him any harm the tow truck arrives.  When the gang member protest and tell him to move on, the street smart driver named Simon calls the leader aside and says to him,

"Man," "the world isn't suppose to work like this.  Maybe you don't know that, but this ain't the way it's supposed to be.  I'm supposed to be able to do my job without asking you if I can.  And that dude is supposed to be able to wait with his car without you rippin' him off.  Every thing is supposed to be different than it is here."

Plantinga uses that scene as way describing what sin has done to God's world.  So much in this sin cursed world is not the way it's supposed to be. 

Certainly that is true for the story we read for this evening. What perversion of what God intended.  God intended for husband and wife to be one flesh.  A man should not be going to bed with a prostitute.  A daughter-in-law should not be dressing up as a prostitute and tricking her father-in-law into sleeping with her.   A brother should not fail to live up to his obligation.  Nor should a father-in-law, despite his promises, abandon his daughter-in-law.  That's not what God intended. But, this is what a world that has rebelled against its Creator looks like. 

And it's even worse than that.  Judah is Jacob's son.  His family is part of God's covenant people He is the father of the Jews.  Sure these things shouldn't happen at all.  But they certainly shouldn't happen among the people of God.  But they do happen.  We all know they do.  From clergy sex scandals, to terrible incidents of physical and sexual abuse, cursing, lying, and cheating.  It all goes on even among church people.

As we think about that, we might be tempted to believe that sin has made such inroads into our world that it is beyond hope.  We might be tempted to take situations like these and say that these are examples that show that God is absent from much of our world.   And we wonder, "where is God in midst of these terrible realities?"

But a closer look at this story shows us that God was not absent for a minute.  In fact he was the principle actor.  But, when we see what God did we are confused.  For, it seems that God's intervention led this family into making very poor sinful choices.

Listen to the words of verse 7. 

But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the LORD'S sight; so the LORD put him to death.

.Verse 6 tells us that Er was Tamar's husband.  Now, if God had not put Er to death couldn't this whole cycle of evil have been prevented?  To be sure, Er was a wicked man who deserved death.  But, there are many wicked men who deserve death and God doesn't personally see to it that they are killed.  But he did this time.  And Judah's second son did not live up to his responsibilities to Tamar, God decided to put him to death also. 

In case this is a bit confusing, perhaps I should explain that in those days, it was very necessary for women to have sons, because their son took care of them in their old age.  And so, if a man died, leaving his wife without a son, that man's father was supposed to allow her to have a son through his brother.  That son would then inherit the possessions of the man who died and take on the responsibility of caring for his widowed mother.  That was they way this society honored God's timeless command to care for widows.

Onan's refusal to carry out his responsibility was completely self-centered.  He knew that, according to the custom of that day, if Tamar bore a son, that this son would carry-on his older brother Er's line and would become Judah's heir.  He was not about to allow this.  He wanted a son from his line to be the heir.  He wanted his house to be prominent.  But God could not tolerate such sinful selfishness, so he put him to death.

Yet, the Lord's action struck Judah with fear. Two of his sons who were with Tamar died!   Yes, it was wrong for Judah not to allow Tamar to attempt to have a son through Shela.  But, in light of what God did in slaying his other sons it does seem that Judah's reluctance is understandable. 

So, why did God do such a thing?  Certainly, as the text points out these men deserved to die.  But, as we were saying, God does not choose to immediately put to death all the wicked.  To get an understanding of what God was doing we need to see this story in the light of one that proceeded it in chapter 37.

There we find the story of Joseph being sold into slavery.  Whose idea was it to sell Joseph?  In chapter 37: 26- 27 we read,

(Gen 37:26- 27 NIV)  Judah said to his brothers, "What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? ²⁷Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood." His brothers agreed.

It was Judah who came up with the idea of selling Joseph.  It was Judah who led his brothers to cause such grief for their father Jacob-- to rob him of his beloved son.  Our story for this evening takes place on the heels of what Judah had done to Joseph and to his own father.  And so now God deprives him of his sons.  And then in verse 12 we read that Judah's wife also dies.  So, he is prevented from having any more sons.

But, this is not just tit for tat.  To say that God brought grief to Judah merely in punishment for Judah's despicable act probably would be to misread what is taking place.

For the high point of the story is not Judah's grief over his son or over his wife.  Right before Tamar is about to be executed. she pulls-out  Judah's seal and cord and says,  "See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are."  The climax of the story comes in Judah's response to Tamar's accusation.

²⁶Judah recognized them and said, "She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn't give her to my son Selah."

By his words and actions Judah confessed his guilt before God and others.  Note he didn't say Tamar was not guilty of unrighteousness.  He and everyone there knew she was guilty of deceit and fornication.  Rather, he acknowledged his own sin toward her.  And as one who was even more guilty, he could not cast the first stone.  Judah could have lied.  He could have tried to weasel his way out.  But, instead he confessed his unrighteousness toward Tamar in deny her his son.

And Judah's repentance here was genuine.  Up to this point he had been willing to sacrifice the well-being of others for his own purposes.  Joseph, Jacob, Tamar.  But, finally he was brought to see himself as he was and he changed. 

The next time we read Judah's name, he is a different man.  In chapter 43 we find him pleading with father to send Benjamin to Egypt, promising him,

Then Judah said to Israel his father, "Send the boy along with me and we will go at once, so that we and you and our children may live and not die. ⁹I myself will guarantee his safety; you can hold me personally responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him here before you, I will bear the blame before you all my life

And when Benjamin gets in trouble because of having Joseph's silver cup in his bag, Judah makes good on the promise he made to his father.

He pleads for Benjamin's life saying,

³³"Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord's slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. ³⁴How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come upon my father."

Who brought Judah to this point of change his life?  Was it not the Lord?  Didn't the Lord's actions in slaying his sons, in taking his wife, and in setting up the stage for this terrible act result in Judah's conversion?

The big message of this story, which incidentally is one of the big messages of the book of Genesis, is that God did not abandon his sin cursed world.  And that he continues to work in spite of all the sins and bad choices people.  He even weaves these sinful acts in this his salvation plan.

.  In chapter 1: 3, Matthew points out, those two important characters among Jesus' ancestors: Judah and Tamar.  Even many years later God used this shameful act as part of his salvation plan.   Matthew reminds us that the God who was active in Judah's time remained active in spite of all the bad choices and sins of Jacob's and Judah's descendants.    Later he records some of the shameful acts and evil deeds of that some of Judah's descendents did to God's own Son: how they persecuted him, falsely accused him, tortured him, and crucified him.  Yet, God accomplished his will, using all of these terrible sins in his plan to bring salvation to the world.

The God who acted back then is still acting today.  True, there may times when wonder whether he has turned deaf ear. But, he hasn't.

The early 1970's was the time of Watergate and the resignation of President Richard Nixon.  To many conservative Christians who had endured the terrible 1960's, the Nixon presidency had stood for a return to traditional values.  Here was a president who was even endorsed by Billy Graham.  But then came Watergate.  And we heard the man, who had brought us so much hope by what he said behind the camera, bring us so much grief and disgust by what he said in the privacy of his own office.  We saw his aides who we thought were Christian being sentenced to prison.  We despaired

Yet, somehow out this great national display of sin and hypocrisy, Charles Colson, the hatchet man of the Nixon administration, came to receive Christ as his Savior.  And he went on to become a leader in the church, writing many inspiring books and founding a prison ministry called Prison Fellowship which was used by God to bring many behind bars to salvation in Christ.

As we approach a new year, we are beginning to hear frightening predictions of what is in store for us.  Sadly, many of these frightening predictions are coming from Christians, who citing the evils of our world today-- see nothing hopeful about our future. But, maybe that's not what troubles you.  Maybe there some things going on in your own family or extended family.   

Yet, before we listen to these frightened voices around us and within, let us hear another voice, the voice belonging to the one who came at Christmas.  He's coming again, you know.  But in the meantime let us heed his words

"Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one; I died, and behold I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades"

And let us respond not in fear, but in joy as we say. "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!"

AMEN!