MORNING MESSAGE: John Cline
Text: Genesis 36,37,38
I’ll bet that Genesis 36 is a chapter you don’t spend much time thinking about for it is one of those chapters that makes you wonder why it’s in the Bible as it contains a bunch of names about people which mean little to us today. The individuals listed in it lived and died over 3000 years ago, linked together by the common thread of being Esau’s descendants. But there are 2 reasons why this chapter is in the Bible. First, Moses, the author, writing 400 years later, was explaining to the Israelites who the Edomites were. The Israelites were the original readers of Genesis, and they had recently asked the Edomites for safe passage through their land while on their way to the Promised Land – only to be refused by the Edomites. “Who are these people?”, they may have asked. Moses thus recorded a historical showing them that the Edomites were distant cousins. Moses told the Israelites they must not “despise the Edomites” for they “are related to you.” Ch. 36 is thus Moses’ writing of who the Edomites were – the family line of Esau.
This is the account of the family line of Esau (that is, Edom). (Genesis 36:1)
As we saw last week, Esau had moved away from Canaan and settled on the other side of the Dead Sea. We won’t read through all of Esau’s descendants, but Moses concludes his listing of names this way:
These were the kings who reigned in Edom before any Israelite king reigned. (Genesis 36:31)
Esau and his descendants were successful, powerful kings & leaders.
This is the family line of Esau, the father of the Edomites. (36:43)
Secondly, chapter 36 is in the Bible to contrast Esau’s seemingly-successful family with his brother Jacob’s seemingly-unsuccessful family, for the next chapter, chapter 37, is about Jacob’s family line. The contrast is intentional. Which family would God use? Jacob’s…
Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. This is the account of Jacob’s family line. (Gen 37:1,2a)
God had spoken with Esau, but Esau couldn’t have cared less. God also spoke with Jacob – whom God had renamed “Israel” – and eventually Jacob understood the wisdom and necessity of serving Him. Starting with chapter 37, the remainder of Genesis focuses on Jacob’s family, particularly Joseph, the 11th of Jacob’s 12 sons. Joseph’s was one of the most remarkable life stories in the Bible. He later became a great man, but the biblical recounting of his life starts when he was 17 and he was foolish at that age, just as I was and maybe some of you were.
Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. (Genesis 37:2b,3,4)
Joseph was tending flocks with his brothers Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher, the sons born to Bilhah and Zilpah and he brought a “bad report” about them to their father Jacob. They resented him! But, adding to their resentment then Jacob gave to Joseph a “coat of many colours”. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s hit musical about this event is entitled “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor DreamCoat”. As opposed to the short, plain tunic his brothers wore, Joseph’s multi-coloured tunic extended down to his wrists and ankles. It was the coat of a superior, a supervisor, an overlord of workers, in this case, the workers being Joseph’s 11 brothers. That was bad parenting by Jacob!
Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.” His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind. (Genesis 37:5-11)
God spoke to Joseph in those dreams, but he shouldn’t have bragged so. Even Jacob was insulted by his bragging, as were his brothers.
Now his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem, & Israel said to Joseph, “As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them.” “Very well,” he replied. So, he said to him, “Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. When Joseph arrived at Shechem, a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?” He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?” “They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” (Genesis 37:12-17a)
His brothers had moved their flocks to the area of Shechem but we need to remember that Shechem was the place their sister Diana was raped, for which her brothers subsequently murdered the men of Shechem & plundered their goods. Jacob was worried about their well-being in that place, so he sent Joseph to check on them. Consider the scene: Joseph’s brothers were doing the hard and uncomfortable work of tending their family’s flocks while Joseph, although at age 17 he was certainly old enough to have been sent out to work with them, had been allowed by Jacob to stay home and sleep in his own bed. So, when the brothers saw 17-year-old Joseph, acting like a supervisor, and wearing his “Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” while coming to check up on them – remember, he had already provided a “bad report” about them to their father Jacob – the brothers were less than thrilled!
Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.” When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said. “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father. (Genesis 37:17b-22)
Reuben, the oldest brother, would’ve been the one called to account by their father Jacob if anything happened to Joseph, so he convinced his brothers to, instead of murdering Joseph, merely throw him into a pit where he might ponder and take stock of his life and smarten up.
So, when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing— and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it. As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, 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. So, when the Midianite merchants came by his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. (Genesis 37:23-28)
With cruel pleasure, Joseph’s brothers bullied Joseph and ripped from him his “Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat”, that reminder of Jacob’s favoritism. While Reuben went elsewhere, the other brothers sat down to eat a meal. They still had murder on their minds when a large caravan of Midianite and Ishmaelite traders happened by. Remember that both the Midianites and Ishmaelites were the family of Jacob’s third cousins, so the brothers no doubt recognized them. The fourth oldest brother, Judah, then suggested selling Joseph. So, they pulled Joseph out of the pit and struck a bargain with the Ishmaelites and Midianites, who then hauled Joseph away in chains to Egypt, intending to sell him into slavery there. The brothers no doubt felt good about ridding themselves of that annoying brother and his dreams. Besides which, they had made themselves a bit of money in the process.
When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?” (Gen 37:29,30)
The brothers had not thought things through, it seems. Reuben knew he would be in big trouble with their father Jacob. A plan was needed!
Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. They took the ornate robe back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.” He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.” Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.” So, his father wept for him. (Genesis 37:31-35)
We can only imagine the pain of the father losing his most beloved son. A cruel lie it was but it was one the brothers decided to keep secret.
Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard. (Genesis 37:36)
Think about how God works. If Joseph had not bragged to his brothers about the dreams God gave him where he was ruling over them, the events which caused later Jacob’s family & descendants to move to Egypt would not have happened. And, it was in Egypt that Pharaoh separated Jacob’s family from the rest of the people in Egypt because they were farmers of smelly sheep and so Pharaoh gave them land in a remote area called Goshen, far away from regular Egyptians. In Goshen, YHWH God developed them into a nation, freed from the contamination that mixing with non-worshippers of YHWH would’ve caused them. God promised Jacob, “I will make you into a great nation there”. There, the family of Jacob exploded in population and the families of the 12 sons of Jacob became the “12 Tribes of Israel”. Later, Moses would lead them to freedom from Egyptian in the exodus through the Red Sea (“Let my people go!”, God told Pharaoh), which led to the giving of the Ten Commandments and the establishing of God’s law on Mount Sinai, which led to the 12 tribes of Israel returning to the “Promised Land” in which God had originally given His covenant, which led to the nation of Israel forming, which eventually led to the Messiah, Jesus, being born and the world being blessed and salvation offered. That all started because of 17-year-old Joseph being a foolish braggart! It is amazing how God works! We will return to the Joseph story next week in chapter 39, but in between the last verse of chapter 37 where we heard that Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt & the first verse of chapter 39 which we will hear next week about his slavery in Egypt, is found chapter 38, which contains a disturbing story about Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, the one who had first suggested selling Joseph into slavery. Chapter 38 shows that God would Judah’s sins to save the nation of Israel and later bring the Messiah, Jesus, to the world. Now, at the time, Judah wouldn’t have known that. Instead, facing the heat of Jacob’s anger and grief, he skipped town and moved.
At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah. (Genesis 38:1)
Judah married a Canaanite woman, and they had three sons, and the oldest, Er, also married a Canaanite woman, a woman named Tamar. Marriage to Canaanite women God had discouraged amongst the patriarchs and their families, not because of any discrimination against the Canaanite people, but because YHWH God knew that them marrying non-followers of His covenant and non-worshippers of Him would irretrievably corrupt the family of Jacob. God knew that if they married Canaanites, they would assimilate into the Canaanite culture and worship the Canaanite gods. In any case, Judah’s firstborn son Er died, and so the second son, Onan, was conscripted to marry Tamar, in the understanding that a first-born son born to him and Tamar would be considered Er’s son, thus preserving Er’s family line as well as somehow saving Tamar’s respectability. However, Onan, though he happily used Tamar as a sex playmate, refused to impregnate her. He didn’t want any son of his being considered the son of his brother Er. But then Onan died and in accordance with Canaanite custom, Judah and his wife then promised Tamar that their third son Shelah would also marry her. However, Shelah was still too young at that time to be married. So, Judah asked Tamar to live in the family home and wait for Shelah to come of age. What Tamar didn’t know, though, was that Judah feared she was actually a “black widow”, a husband-killer, who was responsible for the deaths of sons #1 and 2, Er and Onan, leaving Judah unwilling to have his third and last son, Shelah, also die by marrying Tamar. Now, Tamar had done no such thing but when Shelah came of age and no wedding bells were peeling in the air, she knew that she, if she was going to gain a son, would have to act on her own.
Thus, after Judah’s wife had died & while Judah was still in mourning, a plan formed in Tamar’s mind. She waited for the perfect time.
When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him. 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 then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is 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, for she had covered her face. Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.” “And 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?” she asked. He said, “What pledge should I give you?” “Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand,” she answered. 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. (Genesis 38:12-19)
Now, having sex with a prostitute at shrines dedicated to their gods was considered fine in Canaanite society. Judah had bought into that so he willingly had sex with a woman he supposed to be a “shrine prostitute”. Later, when Judah tried to make good on his promise to her and give a young goat to her as payment in exchange for his seal, cord, and staff, he sent his friend to do the deed. But the friend couldn’t find the woman and was informed there was no “shrine prostitute” matching her description. Confusion swirled in Judah’s mind, but this would turn out to be a spiritual turning point for him.
About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she 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 her father-in-law. “I am pregnant by the man who owns these,” she said. And she added, “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.” And he did not sleep with her again. (Genesis 38:24-26)
Judah had a mirror held up in front of his face – and he didn’t like what he saw. His declaration that Tamar was “more righteous than he” was an indictment of his own unrighteousness and a turning point in his life. As for Tamar, she remained living in Judah’s house.
When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so, the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, “This one came out first.” But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, “So this is how you have broken out!” And he was named Perez. Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out. And he was named Zerah. (Genesis 38:27-30).
Consider how YHWH God works: if Judah had no sons, the covenant promises given by Him to Jacob’s family could not have been fulfilled. That Tamar and Judah’s sons, Perez and Zerah, grew up is important in that they helped form the later nation of Israel. In Numbers 26, Moses, before they entered the Promised Land, took a census of Israel’s 12 tribes and found that Judah’s was the largest, and that Perez’s clan was Judah’s largest, with Zerah’s clan next. Going on to the New Testament, we also find their importance. It starts this way:
This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram. (Mt. 1:1-3)
The birth and life of specifically Perez would lead to the birth of…
Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife. (Matthew 1:5,6)
Going even further, the life of Perez would finally result in these births:
And Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah. (Matt. 1:16)
So, the story of Judah and Tamar was not just some sordid tale with no purpose attached to it but a story about real people in history whom God used to bless the world. Think about this: in her desperate actions, perhaps, God had been speaking to Tamar, inspiring her to do what she did! Certainly, we know the event changed Judah’s perspective. He became a servant of YHWH’s afterwards. God had spoken to him about his unrighteous living. Also, God had spoken to Esau and Jacob, and Joseph and his brothers. They didn’t all listen and obey but God did speak to them and used their lives to bring His story to the world, the story of the ultimate redemption of human beings that came and was made available through His son, Jesus Christ.
Does God still speak today? Yes! Despite human failings and societal norms, God’s purposes prevail. His voice still rings out and is heard. Are you hearing it? God’s promise of a Redeemer, Jesus, has been fulfilled, demonstrating that His plans are not thwarted by sinful or stupid human actions. God is faithful to His covenantal promises, and we are all blessed as a result! Amen.
