Tamar and Judah - The Book of Genesis

In this Bible Story, Tamar is married into the family of Judah but is widowed twice. She then devises a plan to have a child with Judah. This story is inspired by Genesis 38. Go to BibleinaYear.com and learn the Bible in a Year.

Today's Bible verse is Genesis 38:25 from the King James Version.

Episode 26: The family of Judah is a complicated one. While Judah was faithful and blessed with a wife and children, their sons were not so faithful. When Er was old enough, he was given Tamar as a wife. However, he was wicked in God’s sight and died before having a child. The same happened to Er’s Brother Onan when he was meant to redeem his brother. With one child left, Judah was unwilling to lose a child a third time. But in his unwillingness, he would be tricked into becoming the father of Tamar’s children.

Hear the Bible come to life as Pastor Jack Graham leads you through the official BibleinaYear.com podcast. This Biblical Audio Experience will help you master wisdom from the world’s greatest book. In each episode, you will learn to apply Biblical principles to everyday life. Now understanding the Bible is easier than ever before; enjoy a cinematic audio experience full of inspirational storytelling, orchestral music, and profound commentary from world-renowned Pastor Jack Graham.

Also, you can download the Pray.com app for more Christian content, including, Daily Prayers, Inspirational Testimonies, and Bedtime Bible Stories.

Visit JackGraham.org for more resources on how to tap into God's power for successful Christian living.

Pray.com is the digital destination of faith. With over 5,000 daily prayers, meditations, bedtime stories, and cinematic stories inspired by the Bible, the Pray.com app has everything you need to keep your focus on the Lord. Make Prayer a priority and download the #1 App for Prayer and Sleep today in the Apple app store or Google Play store.

Executive Producers: Steve Gatena & Max Bard

Producer: Ben Gammon

Hosted by: Pastor Jack Graham

Music by: Andrew Morgan Smith

Bible Story narration by: Todd Haberkorn

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
When she was brought forth, she sent to her father
in law, saying, by the man whose these are am
I with child? And he said, discern, I pray thee
whose these are the signet and bracelets and staff Genesis
thirty eight twenty five. Heavenly Father, as I move closer

(00:22):
and closer to my destiny, I will not sign away
my integrity for moments of pleasure. I will stand strong
even when the temptations of monetary pleasure try to lure
me off my God given assignment. I will not make
the mistake ju to made and give away the gifts
in my life that validate my identity. For I know

(00:45):
that I can only walk in my power when I
am unapologetically me. So God, to day, I choose to
tap into your unlimited power that gives me the ability
to conquer the mistakes of my past, then step into
the glorious future you have for me. Thank you, Lord

(01:09):
for redeeming my life and giving me hope for brighter days.
In Jesus's name, Amen. Listening to these daily prayers strengthens
your relationship with God. Continue hearing from the Lord by
listening to Today's Bible. In a year brought to you

(01:31):
by Bible in a Year dot.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Com Tamorrow and Judah.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
Before this story, we learned how Joseph was Israel's favorite
son and was given a code of many colors by
his father. While Joseph was clothed with his father's favor,
the other brothers were clothed with jealousy and hatred towards Joseph. Contemptibly,
they sold Joseph into slavery and lied to their father

(02:07):
about his death. Now we will learn about the fourth brother, Judah,
and his father's descend into dysfunction and God's faithfulness in it.
Inspired by the Book of Genesis.

Speaker 4 (02:21):
Hello, I'm pastor Jack Graham with today's episode of the
Bible of a Year podcast. In our previous reading, we
saw how Joseph was the favorite son of Israel, his father,
and how this favoritism and Joseph's on ego and arrogance
had caused hatred to grow in the hearts of his brothers.
The brothers conspired against him, first intending to kill him,

(02:44):
but then selling him into slavery to a traveling band
that carried Joseph off to Egypt. But as to the brothers,
any thought of their troubles going away with Joseph was naive,
and in today's reading we'll hear the story of one
of those brothers, Judah. He was the ringleader in the
evil plan, and now he'll set off to make a

(03:04):
life for himself away from his family. What will unfold
is the story of impatience, deception, and impulsive indulgent actions
that will leave a trail of hurt and death. But
through it all God will continue to work. Despite the
sins of those involved, God will enact his beautiful plan

(03:25):
of redemption. In today's story, you will see God's justice
and judgment come upon those who displease him and disobey him.
It is a powerful reminder that while God is slow
to anger, there are times when he responds swiftly to
those who sin against him. We'll also see God extending
grace and mercy to Judas, so that through him God

(03:47):
can bring into the world the one who will absorb
God's righteous wrath and judgment once and for all. So
now let's listen to this reading from the Book of Genesis.

Speaker 3 (03:59):
Judah, the brother who had devised the plan to sell
Joseph into slavery, was determined to make a name for himself.
He turned from his brothers and looked towards the Canaanites.
There he had an Adulamite friend whose name was Hira.
While he dwelt there, he met a daughter of Shua,

(04:20):
a beautiful Canaanite woman. Judah took her for himself, and
the two bore three sons, earth Onan and Sheelah. When
Er was of age, Judah found a wife for him Tamar. However,
he was not a man worthy of a wife or
any sort of blessing, Almost like a disease. Er grew

(04:41):
up with a wickedness in his heart. It plagued him,
and an evil shadow was cast wherever he went. The
Lord had allowed her to experience in early death, leaving
Tamar a widow, Judah looked to his second born son, Onan,
go into your brother's wife, make love and have many offspring,

(05:03):
for such as your duty as a brother in law. However,
Onan knew in his heart that he would be having
children for his dead brother Earn. Yet the pleasure of
Tamar's bedroom was too enticing for him to pass up.
He had sex with her, but pulled out so they
would not have children. He used her, and it was
wicked in the sight of the Lord Onan two fell

(05:26):
to an early death allowed by the hand of God.
Tamar was now twice widowed and without children. She was
forced to remain in her father's house until Judah's third son, Sheella,
was old enough to marry her. However, Shella was fearful
to marry Tamar, for he had seen what happened to

(05:48):
his older brothers. Time had passed and Judah's family was
plagued with yet another death. As the tower of Babel
in ancient times, the hope he had to build his
own caseingdom was slowly crumbling. Judah's wife had passed away
and he was left alone with his son Cella. Judah

(06:08):
went to Tymna with his friend Hira to shear his sheep.
Taking a trip with his friend would comfort him in
his grief. Tamar, still childless, brooded and schemed alone. Sella
was grown up, yet would not marry her. Bitterness and
loneliness overcame her a dangerous pairing. She had heard Judah

(06:30):
was traveling to Tymna to shear his sheep, so she
took her widow's garments off and covered herself with a
veil and wrapped herself up to look like a prostitute.
She sat at the entrance of an aeum, attempting to
cross paths with Judah. He saw her from a distance,
having no idea who she really was. At the roadside,

(06:50):
Judah gestured towards her and said, come now, let me
come in to you. What will you give me if
I say yes? Tamar said, and her most seductive and
mysterious voice, I can send you a young goat from
my flock. Judah replied anxiously, I.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
See no goats with you.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
What will you give me as a deposit until it arrives.
Tamar negotiated, for she knew exactly what she wanted from him.
Give me your signatory, your cord, and your staff, things
that can only be identified as yours. So the two agreed,
and Judah unknowingly laid with his daughter in law for

(07:31):
momentary pleasure. Judah signed away his integrity. Tamar conceived that
day and left with Judah's possessions. Later that night, she
put her widow's clothes back on and awaited Judah's return.
Judah sent the young goat to where he had met Tamar.
Confused when he didn't find her, he asked the men

(07:54):
of the city where he could find her. Where can
I find the cult prostitute who stood at the gate
the name?

Speaker 2 (08:00):
He asked the men.

Speaker 3 (08:02):
There is no colt prostitute at the gate of a Nam,
they said with a slight grin, Knowing he had probably
been tricked. Judah returned empty handed, irked and embarrassed. Three
months had passed and Tamar began to show she was pregnant.
Words spread to Judah. People of the town had assumed

(08:23):
she had been unfaithful and became pregnant apart from his son's.
Judah's blood boiled at the news. Fuming, he sent men
to retrieve her. Let her be burned, he shouted. Judah
had lost nearly everything, and he would not allow his
name to be tarnished even more. As she was being

(08:43):
brought back out, she sent word back to Judah along
with his signet, ring, chord, and staff. She said, I
am pregnant by whoever these belonged to.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
Do you know who owns these?

Speaker 3 (08:58):
Judah saw that they were his and conceded that he
had been tricked. Truly, she is more righteous than I,
Judah said, with a sigh. I did not give scheller
to be her husband. And now I am paying for it.
Judah left Tamar alone after that and allowed her to

(09:18):
live her life in peace. When the time had come,
Tamar had twins, Perez and Zarah. Perez had a scarlet
cord in his hand. Little did Tamar or Judah know
that God would be active in redeeming their family's wickedness, trickery,
and dysfunction from Perez. The promise of Abraham would continue,

(09:41):
for he would be an ancestor of Christ himself.

Speaker 4 (09:47):
It was Judah who devised the plan to sell Joseph
into slavery, and as we begin today's story, we see
he has moved on, seemingly unaffected and unrepentant of his
treachery and cruelty towards his own brother, but also towards
his father, Jacob. Judah decides to leave his family and

(10:07):
go find a wife among the Canaanites, and he is
successful in doing so. He finds a wife who gives
him three sons. But just as Abraham and Sarah's struggle
to conceive to not indicate an absence of God's favor
toward them, the arrival of these three sons does not
signal God's acceptance of Judah's choice to leave his community

(10:28):
and marry a foreign woman. This is a very important lesson,
not only in the danger of straying from the place
where God wants you to be. It is also a
reminder that temporary success or achievements are not necessarily a
sign that we are in the will of God. Judah

(10:48):
is intent on growing his family and indeed his own kingdom,
So when his eldest son Er is of age, he
finds a wife for her, a woman named Tamar. We
are told that Err is evil in God's eyes, and
for this reason God takes his life. God's patience of
our sins, God's forbearance of our sins is not always guaranteed,

(11:12):
and as a holy and perfect God who created us,
our life can be taken by Him in his judgment
at any time. This is what happened to Er, if
we could think honestly about it. It is a fate
we all deserve. We all deserve judgment because of our sin.
How blessed and thankful we are for the grace and
mercy of God that he is slow to anger and

(11:33):
to punish. Judah is still intent on growing his family
and making a name for himself, and he tells his
second son Onan to take Tamar and make babies with her.
But Odan is not interested in starting a family with
this woman. He is interested only in the physical gratification
of sexual pleasure. Onon uses Tamar and deceives her so

(11:57):
that they cannot bear children from his seat, and for
this deception, God once again enacts swift and ultimate judgment,
sending Onan to an early great now. This passage is
a sorted passage in many ways, but it is not
a condemnation of sex for pleasure. This is one of
the beautiful purposes for which God created and gave the

(12:20):
gift of sex between a husband and a wife within
the covenant of marriage. Now Judah is left with only
one son, his youngest Sheilah. Afraid that his son too
will die, he sends Tamar to her father's home. He
promises to let his son Sheilah marry her when he
grows older, but he never does. He simply abandons this

(12:40):
widow in her sad state. When Judah's own wife dies,
Tamar sees an opportunity to secure a future for herself.
Showing poor judgment and even weaker character, Judah sleeps with Tamar,
who was deceptively posing as a prostitute. She goes away
with a baby, conceal her wound, but more importantly, with

(13:02):
exactly what she needs to trap Judah his symbols of authority,
and when her pregnancy is discovered, Judah, who does not
know it was her he slept with, wants to have
her burned for her transgression. But when Tamar produces his
personal items, he knows he's caught and he confesses. Judah

(13:24):
recognized that he did not act as a man of
his word, for he should have had his son Sheilah
Mary Tamar as he had promised. Tamar's life is spared
and she gives birth to twin boys. And out of
this terrible situation, this sordid situation, God would bring good
that nobody could imagine. For one of these sons, Perez,

(13:45):
will be one of our Lord's ancestors. Once again, we
see how God is working always for his good and
for his purposes. That he is faithful even when we
are unfaithful to him, says, cannot and will not be broken,
and Judas life is a powerful reminder of this unchanging,

(14:06):
eternal truth. Dear God, thank you for showing us the
danger of straying from the path of your will. Thank
you God that when we sin, when we do not obey,
when we do not act with integrity and sincerity, you
can even bring good out of our situation because you
can redeem and restore what is broken and lost. Thank

(14:30):
you for always being a good God, a faithful God,
a holy God. In Christ's name. Amen. Thank you for
listening to today's Bible in a Year podcast. I'm pastor
Jack Graham from Dallas, Texas. Download Theprey dot com app
and make prayer a priority in your life. If you
enjoyed this podcast, share it with someone you love. By

(14:53):
sharing this podcast, you can make a difference in someone's life.
And if you want more resources on how to tap
into God's path for successful Christian living, be sure to
visit Jack Graham dot org. God bless

Speaker 2 (15:11):
This episode is sponsored by Metashare, an innovative healthcare solution
for Christians to save money without sacrificing quality.