Saturday, 1 September 2012

5 women who changed eternity - Tamar - Hope




Story number 1 is of Tamar in Genesis 38, and it's a story of hope. 

What's the basic story?

Judah (one of 12 sons of Jacob) gets married and has three sons: Er, Onan and Shelah. Judah chooses the son of Er to be married to Tamar. But Er does evil, and he dies. It's then Onan's responsibility to have children with Tamar for his brother. But Onan knew the children wouldn't be his, and doesn't have full sex with her, so Tamar doesn't get pregnant. God then kills Onan for the sin he commmited. Judah tells Tamar to live at home til Shelah grows up and she will be with him then. But Judah was afraid that Shelah would die too, so never got Tamar back. Judah's wife then dies. Tamar hears that Judah is going to Timnah, and she wears a veil that covers her face. Judah thinks she's a prostitute and doesn't know it's Tamar. She wants a goat as payment for her prostitution and as a deposit for the goat, she takes his seal, cord and walking stick which shows his personal identity. They have sex and she gets pregnant! When Judah tries to find this prostitute, he can't and he's like, we'll pretend it didn't happen. He finds out Tamar prostituted herself and she's pregnant and he says to burn Tamar to death. She sends the seal cord and stick back to him to show he made her pregnant. She doesn't die and he recognizes it was because he didn't give her to Shelah that this all happened. She has twins called Zerah and Perez, but Judah didn't have sex with her again. 

What's the significance?

Tamar doesn't exactly have the easiest life. As background information, we all know the story of Judah who is Tamar's father in law. He sold his brother Joseph in slavery and lied to Jacob and said he was killed by an animal. He also marries a Caaninite women, which was against God. So her father-in-law isn't exactly a basket of roses and her husband was evil which is why he dies. The family she's put into is kind of rubbish, and she has to live with these people. 

Her husband then dies. No matter how evil he was, that's pretty harsh for her as well. 
Deuteronomy 25 v 5 - 6 says:
If two brothers are living together, and one of them dies without having a son, his widow must not marry someone outside her husband's family. Her husband's brother must marry her, which is his duty to her as a brother-in-law. The first son she has counts as the son of the dead brother so that his name will not be forgotten in Israel.

So, Tamar has to marry Onan, and by law they are bound to have sex and have children to carry on the dead brother's name, and then his own name, but Onan won't have full sex with her, so she can't get pregnant. That's shameful on him and on her as well. He ends up dying!

She then is told to go home, and she will marry Shelah in time, but Judah doesn't keep his promise. The best part, she takes matters into her own hands. As we've seen, she's had a pretty tough time, but she's resilient and doesn't give up. She stuck with her faith to follow the law, and because of it, she did amazing things. She follows the law, unlike Judah, and went to take what was rightfully hers. "She's a virtuous woman who risks everything, her life and her reputation to get what was due to her, and her tribe".

In the Genelogy of Matthew 1, we see that the twins that Tamar and Judah have become direct links to . . .JESUS HIMSELF! If Tamar hadn't had hope, and resilience, then the genelogy would stop at Judah and we wouldn't have Christ. Mind blowing! She was determined to make an heir from that tribe, no matter the cost. 

How does this apply to me? 

We need to be like Tamar! We need to be strong in our faith and our character, being resilient, to do things for Christ and for what we believe in no matter what the cost is. It doesn't say she once doubted God or what she was doing, but she had faith and she trusted in God and his plans. Even when things seem tough, great things can happen! 

No comments:

Post a Comment