The Messianic Reason for the Interruption of Judah and Tamar in the Joseph Narrative
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| The Mocking of Christ the Messiah by Carl Heinrich Bloch |
It's All About the Messiah
"We Interrupt This Program For a Special Report"
The narrative of Joseph begins with the History of Jacob in Genesis 37.
Now Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. This is the history of Jacob.
Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers ...
— Genesis 37:1-2
It continues through Genesis 47.
And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years ...
— Genesis 47:28
Like the covers of a book, the "seventeens" bind everything in between them as a united story, including this seemingly disruptive scene.
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| Judah suggested the selling of Joseph to traders. Bible Primer, Old Testament (1919) |
Judah Sells Joseph
So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan.Now when they (Joseph's brothers) saw him afar off, even before he came near them, they conspired against him to kill him ...... So Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh.” And his brothers listened.— Genesis 37:26
On a Messianic note, the brothers' conspiracy to kill Joseph is messianically fulfilled in the New Testament by the scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees, who conspired to kill Jesus.
Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people assembled at the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill Him.
— Matthew 26:3-4
One might expect this saga to continue into chapter 38, but it doesn't. Instead, the story pauses for an entire chapter devoted to a partial history of Judah. Then, in chapter 39, the story of Joseph picks up where it left off, as if it didn't even notice the intrusion, and continues for another eight chapters.
Judah is Going Down
And it happened that at that time Judah went down from his brothers ...— Genesis 38:1 (Lexham)
The text does not directly explain why Judah went down from his brothers, but it is most likely connected to the entire Joseph incident. "Going down" in Scripture is most often linked to an adverse event. While Joseph is going down to Egypt into slavery, Judah is going down, most likely to escape his troubles. Confirming this thought, according to Hebrew word scholar Gesenius, the word "Adullam" contains a term meaning "to hide" or "to seek refuge." In the cave of Adullam, David, in his distress, seeks sanctuary from King Saul.
David ... departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam. So when his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him.
— 1 Samuel 22:1
Where Judah goes and what he does next matter.
... He (Judah) pitched his tent near (right up until or next to) a certain Adullamite (Canaanite), whose name was Hirah. And Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite there whose name was Shua. And he took her and went in to her.
— Genesis 38:2
The first observation about this part of the story concerns where Judah settles and with whom he becomes cozy. Adullam was a Canaanite. The literal rendering of "pitched his tent near" is more accurately read as "he pitched his tent right next to a certain Adullamite." Lot does the same in Sodom and uses the same phrasing.
... Lot settled in the cities of the plain. And he pitched his tent toward (right up next to) Sodom (Canaanites).
— Genesis 13:12
Both Judah and Lot settle right next to depraved and/or forbidden places, linking the two events. Perhaps this is to let the reader know that had God not intervened at this point in history, a type of Sodom and its destruction would be the forecast for his people, and a Messiah would never be realized.
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| Abraham sends his servant to find a wife for Isaac. Things have digressed by the time we get to Judah four generations
later. |
Judah and the Lineage of the Messiah
... your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed (Messianic language) all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
— Genesis 28:14
While Abraham lives among the Canaanites, he does not want his son Isaac to marry a Canaanite woman; instead, he commands his servant to find Isaac a wife from among his own people.
I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell:
But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.
— Genesis 24:3-4
There is a digression with Isaac concerning his son Jacob. Isaac seems unconcerned about whom his sons marry, as evidenced by Esau, Isaac's oldest, marrying a Canaanite wife, to their mother's regret.
And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, like these who are the daughters of the land (Canaanites), what good will my life be to me?"
— Genesis 27:46
Isaac is about to die but has made no arrangements for his son Jacob to marry anyone until a crisis arises. When Esau seeks to kill Jacob for tricking him out of his birthright and blessing, Isaac finally sends Jacob to Abraham's family of origin. Fearing for her younger son's life, Rebekah arranges this under the guise of finding a wife, hoping to spare Jacob from Esau's wrath.
And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, you shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father; and take you a wife from there of the daughters of Laban your mother's brother. And God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, that you may be a multitude of people; And give you the blessing of Abraham, to you, and to thy seed with you; that you may inherit the land where you art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham.
— Genesis 28:1-4
In the passage above, the "fruitful and multiply" statement takes us back to Genesis chapter one, the creation narrative. The connection is that God seeks to create a lineage of people through whom he can bring the Messiah. Shacking up with depraved Canaanites who worshiped everything but God Himself wasn't going to work.
The digression continues. Jacob has more than one wife and, subsequently, twelve sons. The text says little about who any of his sons marry until the event involving Judah. Typically, the firstborn was responsible for building the family and carrying on the name and the messianic seed to the next generation. We also see a digression here. With Abraham, Isaac was the firstborn of Abraham and Sarah. Esau was the firstborn of Jacob and Rachel and entitled to the firstborn right and responsibility, but Jacob outwitted him and took his birthright and blessing.
Jacob's family strays even further from the pattern. Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, was disqualified from carrying the family forward for sleeping with his father's concubine. Simeon and Levi, Jacob's second and third sons, were disqualified for murdering an entire village in retaliation for the rape of their sister Dinah. Judah, the fourth of Jacob's sons, is next in line, and it appears he, too, is about to crumble. He is supposed to be building a family to bring forth the Messiah. Instead, Judah marries a Canaanite wife and has three sons, two of whom are described as wicked.
Judah then selects a wife named Tamar for his oldest son to continue the family-building process. Judah's first son is wicked and dies before producing an heir. The next son is supposed to replace him, as was the custom in the ancient Near East, but he wickedly refuses to fulfill his duties and dies as a result. Judah fears for his third son and refuses to give him to Tamar.
The chronicle shifts when Judah goes up rather than down. After Judah's wife died, he "went up."
When Judah was consoled, he went up to his sheepshearers, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite, to Timnah.
— Genesis 38:12
His "going up" reveals "a resurrection" in the story. The episode occurs when it seems like it's all about to fall apart in terms of creating a messianic lineage.
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| The top image shows Judah's daughter-in-law presenting evidence of paternity regarding her pregnancy. The bottom image is Judah presenting fake evidence that Jacob's son was killed by a wild beast. |
God Makes a Way
And he said, "What is the pledge that I must give to you?" And she said,
- "Your seal,
- your cord, and
- your staff that is in your hand."
And he gave them to her and went in to her. And she conceived by him.
— Genesis 38:18
The signet, cord, and staff were all forms of identification in the ancient world. The signet was a ring or stamp worn around the neck and used to seal a scroll or document, thereby authenticating a specific person's signature. The cord was a knotted tassel that hung from a person's garments, with a unique knotting sequence used for family identification. The staff served as tribal identification. It was most likely engraved with some form of tribal history. It was as if he had given her his birth certificate, his driver's license, and his Social Security card.
Judah cannot find her to repay her and collect his belongings, each of which identifies him. Out of embarrassment, he lets the matter go.
When Judah discovers that Tamar is pregnant and in her "third" month, he has no idea she is carrying his child and orders her to be burned. Tamar does not immediately expose him but asks a question in response.
She was brought out, but she sent to her father-in-law saying, “By the man to whom these belong I have conceived.” And she said, “Now discern (recognize or acknowledge) to whom these belong: the seal and cord and the staff.”
— Genesis 38:25
The same phrase is used in Chapter 37 of the original Hebrew text, when Jacob's sons bring him Joseph's torn and bloodied coat and ask him to acknowledge it.
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 (recognize or acknowledge) it to see whether it is your son's robe."
— Genesis 37:32
We might infer from this link that it was Judah who presented the coat to his father. These two connected events reveal the complex underside of sinful humanity's tapestry and how God brought His plan into place despite the messy and uncooperative nature of the people He was working with. Judah pardons Tamar upon this discovery and realizes his neglect in failing to continue the lineage.
Judah acknowledged them and said, “She has been more righteous than I, because I did not give her to Shelah my son.
— Genesis 38:26
Tamar had twin sons by Judah, named Perez and Zerah. Judah, Tamar, Perez, and Zerah all appear in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Messiah.
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:
Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers. Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar ...
— Matthew 1:1-2
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| Joseph and his brothers reveal that they are shepherds. God's plan was to develop his people in a land where they couldn't
mess up the Messianic plan. James Tissot Brooklyn Museum |
The Bigger Picture
"... the story illustrates that the further disintegration of Jacob's family, the family of promise, would become like the people of Canaan ... the family was slowly falling apart. First, Simeon and Levi had taken revenge on Shechem (ch. 34). Second, Reuben, the firstborn, abused Bilhah (ch. 35:22. Third, the brothers sold Joseph into slavery (ch. 37). Now Judah, the fourth son of Leah, left the family circle and sought Canaanite friends ... Not only did Judah take a Canaanite as a friend, he took a Canaanite woman, the daughter of Shua, as his wife."
When Pharaoh calls you in and asks, ‘What is your occupation?’ you should answer, ‘Your servants have tended livestock from our boyhood on, just as our fathers did.’ Then you will be allowed to settle in the region of Goshen, for all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians.— Genesis 46:31-44
It is in the womb of Egypt for the next 400 years. His people will be fruitful and multiply into a great nation, as he promised and foretold to Abraham. Through this nation, Christ the Messiah will come. The prophet Isaiah speaks of this very idea of a Messiah-Savior who would come from the sons of Jacob.
Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles,
That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.
— Isaiah 49:6
With this backdrop in place, the story shifts back to Joseph, who serves as the type and shadow of Jesus the Messiah for the remainder of Genesis. Ultimately, Joseph reveals the broader context.
... as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.
— Genesis 50:20
It was for this very same purpose that Christ, the Messiah, suffered and died for us.
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.
1 Peter 3:18
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| Hasanthi |
God Rescues His Messianic Mission
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time ... Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japhet.— Genesis 6:5,9-10
Humanity was on its way to destroying itself, yet the time was not yet ripe for the Messiah to come.
Now the earth was corrupt (destroyed) in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt (destroyed) the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted (destroyed) their ways. And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
— Genesis 6:11-13
The Hebrew word "destroy" that God used to describe what He was about to do is the same word used to describe what humanity had already done. Humanity was already on its way to self-destruction. With only one family left, God had to act to preserve the Messianic seed line. God waited until there were barely a few left to save.
It was not without warning, mind you. Most scholars believe that the ark took approximately 75 years to build. The ark itself was a testimony of the coming flood of judgment. Additionally, 2 Peter tells us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness.
For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly
— 2 Peter 2:4-6
The narrative of Lot paints a similar picture. Noah's Messianic preservation story occurred on a global scale. Lot's event is confined to a particular region of city dwellers, where, once again, only eight people remain who have not entirely destroyed themselves or followed the godless culture of their time and place.
Immediately after the appearance of the three men who came to announce to Abraham and Sarah that they were going to have a son, the promised son (Messianic language), the immoral state of the neighboring cities was observed and they were slated for destruction. God contemplates including Abraham in the discussion.
And the Lord said, "Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know.”
— Genesis 18:20-21
As it was in the days of Noah, so it was with this city. The proximity of this city to the up-and-coming Messianic seed was too close. Abraham's family's development was in jeopardy because a neighboring culture posed a significant threat to the Messianic seed and was heading toward its own destruction.
As with the world culture in the days of Noah, when only eight people were left to save, so it was with the ancient metropolises of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot and his family of eight were the only ones left in the neighboring region who were considered salvageable.
A third example appears in the difficult story of King Saul's war with the Amalekites. Saul was instructed to eliminate these people, along with everything they owned, entirely.
Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.
— 1 Samuel 15:2-3
The biblical text suggests that the event was retaliatory, but a Messianic threat is also involved. When the prophet Samuel arrives afterward, he discovers that Saul did not follow the instructions he was given. Saul spared King Agag's life and livestock to save face with his troops.
Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.
— 1 Samuel 15:24
Much later in Israel's history, an anti-Messiah appears during the time of Esther and attempts to destroy all the Jews. Esther's lineage traces back to the tribe of Judah (the Messianic line) through Jesse. The perpetrator of this plot is Haman, who is descended from King Agag. The text identifies him as an Agagite five times throughout the short ten-chapter book of Esther, intentionally linking the story to Saul's failure to obey God's instructions.
Now Esther spoke again to the king, fell down at his feet, and implored him with tears to counteract the evil of Haman the Agagite, and the scheme which he had devised against the Jews ... “If it pleases the king, and if I have found favor in his sight and the thing seems right to the king and I am pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to revoke the letters devised by Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to annihilate the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces ... So the Jews accepted the custom (the observance of Purim) which they had begun, as Mordecai had written to them, because Haman, the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to annihilate them, and had cast Pur (that is, the lot), to consume them and destroy them
— Esther 8:3,5,23-24
The final example appears in 2 Chronicles 36, shortly before the Babylonian exile. God warned His people that their time was up for their evil doings.
And the Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy.
— 2 Chronicles 36:15-16
Both minor and major prophets record the scathing details of their crimes against God and humanity.
God's need to make significant moves again is tied to dangers facing the continuing Messianic seed line. In this case, Jehoiachin, who had done evil in the sight of the Lord, was the only surviving heir in the line of David (the Messianic seed line, 2 Samuel 7). He was now being taken to prison in Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar, where he would remain for 37 years. The Messianic program did not look hopeful. However, after 37 years, a new king came into power and released Jehoiachin from prison.
Now it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, that Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison. He spoke kindly to him, and gave him a more prominent seat than those of the kings who were with him in Babylon. So Jehoiachin changed from his prison garments, and he ate bread regularly before the king all the days of his life. And as for his provisions, there was a regular ration given him by the king, a portion for each day, all the days of his life.
— 2 Kings 25:27-30
Jehoiachin would go on to father Shealtiel, an ancestor of Zerubbabel, who led the first Jews back from exile to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem; all of them appear in the genealogy of Jesus.
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham: ... And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah (Jehoiachin) begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel ...
— Matthew 1:1, 12
Four hundred years after the Babylonian exile, Christ came. The human cycle was complete and ripe for the Savior's arrival. He allowed humanity to reach the end of itself. God's original plan for humankind, which progressed from family to tribe to nation to kingdom, had run its course and failed at every turn; yet God kept the Messianic plan alive through it all. Salvation has now come through Jesus Christ, His Son.
For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us ...
— 1 Thessalonians 5:9
© 2019 Tamarajo
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