David and Bathsheba

David and Bathsheba

2 Samuel 11:1 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, "I am pregnant." … When Uriah's wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the LORD.

Jesus is the son of David, and this was central to Paul’s Gospel (Romans 1:3, 2 Timothy 2:8 etc). David was a prophet, priest and king, a shepherd who cared for the poor, a Psalmist who praised God, someone who loved gentiles, and a man after God’s own heart.

 So what a horror to learn that this same David committed such an appalling sin! A godly ruler, appointed by God, and here he is either seducing or raping Bathsheba, and then murdering her virtuous husband. This is terrible! What are we to make of this? How did a Godly man and ruler fall so far? God does not excuse or cover up sin in those he loves – David’s sin is recorded for all time in God’s word. Let us look at how David fell into sin, and how he was restored from it and why all this is recorded for our benefit.  

The episode begins; “In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army…. But David remained in Jerusalem.” David has been king for many years now, he has been fighting since he was a boy, the thought of army food and living in a tent again has no appeal. So David remains in Jerusalem. The whole unfolding disaster starts with David just slaking off. The rabbis said flee a small sin because it leads to bigger ones, run to obey a small commandment because it will lead to greater opportunities to serve God. Little sins and little acts of obedience to God are not just singular events. They are more like the bread crumbs in Hansel and Gretel, as you follow one set of crumbs or another, they actually lead somewhere. As we will see, small sins lead naturally to bigger ones, and Jesus said if you are faithful in little you will be faithful in much. David did not start out that year by writing in his “to do” list; 1. rape and 2. murder. He simply wanted to take things a bit easy, and shirked his God given responsibility. And it was that little sin which would lead to the bigger ones. Paul is well aware of this. He doesn’t say, you can play with sin, it wont hurt you, he says Flee idolatry, flee immorality. Don’t eat those bread crumbs, they will lead you to death.   

James 1:15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

So, rather than doing God’s will, David stays in the palace, and one evening he chances to see Bathsheba taking a shower. Like almost any other man on the planet would do in such a situation, David does not resist a second look. He does not flee from immorality. He is not like Job, who writes; Job 31:1 "I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl.”

So sin starts in the eyes, works on his mind, and then he makes inquiries about her, then sends for her. He is following the bread crumbs to his own destruction. Generally, sin takes time. A teli-evangelist does not wake up one morning with his secretary and wonder, how on earth did I get here? They had worked together for years, she admired him, he was impressed with her. Then he started some harmless fantasizing, it was no big deal, he told himself it was just a way to pass the time, but in fact, it was rehearsing sin, till after months or years, sin, when it was full grown, found him in her bed. So, stay away from the lures of sin, stay away from the little bread crumbs, they will kill you. Never say of deliberate sin, its only a little matter. 

What was David’s sin – well, we are simply told that “She came to him, and he slept with her.” Bathsheba was obeying an order from the king, which she had to do, and then, “he slept with her.” Was it seduction or rape? We will look more closely at Nathan in a minute, but in his God inspired retelling of the story, Bathsheba is a ewe lamb, slaughtered to satisfy another man’s hunger. It is an image of innocence subjected to violence. As such, it strongly suggests that David raped Bathsheba. This conclusion is greatly strengthened by the next verse in the original telling, which shows Bathsheba to be a Godly woman. In the NIV we read; “and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.)” In fact, the New American Standard has a much better translation; 2 Samuel 11:4 And David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him, he lay with her; and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house.

The second part of the verse is neither a parenthesis, nor a past tense, leading to unhelpful speculation in the commentaries. The word purifying is not in the past tense, it is a participle – “purifying”. It simply states within the natural flow of the narrative that after he had laid with her, that she, purifying herself, returned home. It contrasts David’s action with her response. David took her, but she, purifying herself, returned to her home. I believe it to be one of the most important verses in the entire passage. If focuses our attention on Bathsheba, and on her reaction to what had just happened. Leviticus 15:18 commands that after a man and a woman had been together, they should wash, and this is what she did, and this was seen as being significant enough to record in Holy Scripture.

So, what is Bathsheba’s story? She is summoned to the palace by the king, a powerful and Godly man. She is then taken advantage of. What then can she do? She cannot call the police, it is the king who has done this. She has no recourse to civil justice. She is simply a powerless young woman, she is simply a victim. Or is she? “and she purifying herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house.” Her first action, after being violated, was to obey God. The word purified here actually comes from the same root as the word holy. She purified herself, she holied herself, she separated herself. She washed herself with the commands of God.

Now, on one level, you say, big deal. She was raped and then she takes a shower? – so what? How does this answer to what has happened. On another level, you ask, where was God when she needed him? Why should she obey his commands now? Her life has just been ruined. Why not take the advice of Job’s wife, and curse God and die? And it is here that we start to see the significance of what she has done. We rightly sing “When the darkness closes in, still I will praise.” Well, the darkness has closed in, and Bathsheba obeys God. To the limit of her abilities, she has honored God. This is powerful. It is sometimes only when we run out of options that our true choices emerge. Two thieves on two crosses. All their options have run out. Maybe they had tried to bribe a guard, loosen that rusty bar, sneak out somehow, but all has come to nothing. They are naked, with nails through both hands and their legs. They are going to die. At this point, when they seemingly have no options left, one chooses to curse God, the other to justify him. One spends eternity in hell, the other is given eternity with Jesus.

We always have choices, and Bathsheba chooses to respond to this betrayal by a man known near and far as a Godly ruler, not with despair or self-pity, not with anger, not with a crisis of faith, but with an act of faith. By obeying God when all is darkness, she indeed purifies herself. She is not powerless, but proclaims to the world that her allegiance is to God. There will be times in your lives when everything seems to go wrong. Will you respond like Job’s wife, or like Bathsheba?

Before we move on to look at how God himself acts through his prophet Nathan, I need to make the point that, unlike Bathsheba, we do have recourse to civil justice. Should, God forbid, anyone reading ever be in Bathsheba’s situation, tell the police!!

Now, 2 Samuel 12:1 The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, "There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. "Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him." David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, "As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity." Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master's house to you, and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

God is not absent from our lives, and we read “the thing David had done displeased the LORD”. God then sends the prophet Nathan to David. This is his normal way of acting. God uses people, we are the body of Jesus. Just as he sends us in the power of his Holy Spirit to proclaim his salvation to others, so he sends us through his Spirit to convict others of their sin.  Leviticus 19:17 "'Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor

Matthew 18:15, "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. Galatians 6:1-2 Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. 2 Thesselonians 3:15 Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

In the reference in Leviticus, the word rebuke is repeated in an intensive construction. It is an imperative command, because generally, we hate to tell someone off, and would rather just avoid the whole thing. Rebuking here is seen as the opposite of hate, don’t hate your neighbour, rather rebuke him.  Proverbs 25:12 Like an earring of gold or an ornament of fine gold is a wise man's rebuke to a listening ear.

The Talmud actually has a cute little passage in it where one rabbi asks; “I wonder if there is anyone in this world who knows how to give a rebuke in love?”, to which another rabbi replies; “I wonder if there is anyone who knows how to receive a rebuke in love?”, where upon Rabbi Tarfon says “when Rabbi Akiva first joined us, I rebuked him every day, and the more I corrected him, the more he loved me.” 

We need to learn and practice how to both give and receive correction in love! When someone, be it a colleague or a friend, corrects you, do you get all defensive and self-righteous and angry, or do you thank them for helping you avoid real trouble? Again, we need to practice giving and receiving correction in love!

This brings us to the prophet Nathan. The first thing we note about him is that he has guts! It is no light matter to tell the king off, other prophets are killed for doing just that to other kings. As well as guts,, Nathan is also wise. As a king, David holds court where people come to him with their cases for judgment. As we see with Solomon, they tell their story, and the king judges. So David is judging his people, its his everyday job, its what he does, he has done it for years and he is feeling safe and comfortable. Along comes Nathan with just another case to be judged, something about two guys in some town, and David listens, and grows angry. The rich man has done a terrible thing! And David, still feeling safe, this isn’t about him, David makes his own judgment; “The man who did this deserves to die!” Instantly, Nathan turns on him “you are the man!” and David has nowhere to turn because he has judged himself. Nathan then continues relentlessly, details David’s sin to him and pronounces God’s judgment.

David now does something quite remarkable – he admits his sin. For most people, and I sadly include myself in this, if you rebuke them, point out a sin in their lives, you get self righteousness, anger, who are you?, how dare you? You get deflection “what about the senior highs...”, you get minimization “its no big deal”, you get dodging, “the woman you gave me caused me to do it, so it is sort of your fault, and definitely hers.” You get endless excuses. The one thing you don’t get is a simple, no frills added “You are right, I did wrong.” We just find that so darned hard!! David himself had tried this earlier, before Nathan convicted him. He tried to pass the child of as Uriah’s, but this lie was foiled by Uriah’s own righteousness.

OK, all stand up, look to the person next to you and say “I did wrong.” Nothing more, no excuses or sad story, just “I did wrong”.

This is what David did, and thank God for it. For this is the beginning of healing and restoration. The next step is understanding his offense. Nathan tells David; “Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes?”

David then realizes that he has not just done wrong to Bathsheba and Uriah, but in so doing, he has sinned against God! Psalm 51:2-4 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight

Our sin does not just hurt us and those around us, it hurts the God we love. In Ezekiel 6:9 we read; “because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me,” God is crushed by our sin, as we see most clearly on the Cross.

In committing adultery and killing Uriah, he has broken two of God’s commandments, commandments God gave because he cares about people. Jesus says that the second commandment is like the first, and it is God telling us to love our neighbor. We cannot quarantine the different parts of our lives, and say we love God, because he is nice, but find people harder to get on with. It doesn’t work that way.

1John 3:17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

1John 4:20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. 

Do we realize that when we are mean or spiteful to someone, when we say mean things about them, or think it is funny when they are in trouble, or laugh when they are embarrassed, then we are sinning against God himself! This is what David realized.

You cannot be out of sorts with people and in sorts with God, you cannot love God and hate your brother. We are not made that way.

After David is confronted with his sin, openly and utterly repents, and is restored to his walk with God, it is then that we read;

2 Samuel 12:24-25 Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and lay with her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The LORD loved him; and because the LORD loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah. (means loved by the Lord)

It is the David who is not following God, who is staying back who abused Bathsheba. It was the David who was restored to God who comforted her.

 

The child born of sin dies, for the wages of sin are death, but the child born of forgiveness and restoration lives, and is named Solomon, which means peace. More importantly, it is Solomon who builds the Temple, where the praises of God are sung. It is one of the glories of our faith that God’s praises are not sung by spotless saints, but by forgiven sinners.

David is restored by the actions of a Godly woman, the intervention of a faithful friend and because he truly does have a heart that desires God. When he realises what he has done, and that his relationship with God is forfeit, he is utterly shattered, and from his remorse and repentance comes the undeserved gift of God’s forgiveness.

Psalm 32:1 Of David. A maskil. Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

 ² Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.

 ³ When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

 ⁴ For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Selah

 ⁵ Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD"-- and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah

 ⁶ Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be found; surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach him.

 ⁷ You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah

Psalm 51:6-19 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you. Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. In your good pleasure make Zion prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then there will be righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings to delight you; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Looking again at Bathsheba, at the start of the story she seemed just a helpless young victim, but her act of obedience and faith showed her to be something quite different. She showed herself to be a woman of real worth. She goes on to become the mother of Solomon, and the last we read about her in the Old Testament is in 1Kings 2:19 “When Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah, the king stood up to meet her, bowed down to her and sat down on his throne. He had a throne brought for the king's mother, and she sat down at his right hand.”

 

She did not do wrong to trust in God when her life collapsed. She could never have imagined this outcome that night she was abused and sent home in her shame. But God cared for Bathsheba.

In Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus, four women are mentioned, Bathsheba is one of them.

Now, near the end of Psalm 51, David’s great prayer for forgiveness, he says something strange. “In your good pleasure make Zion prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem.” What is this about? Jerusalem’s walls have not been broken down, David has murdered Uriah and slept with Bathsheba, what has that to do with the walls of Jerusalem? What is this about??

Isaiah 26:1-3 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; God makes salvation its walls and ramparts. Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faith. You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.

Isaiah 60:18 “but you will call your walls Salvation and your gates Praise.”

Our sin hurts the whole community, our sin makes the whole community weaker. When we sin, we hurt those we sin against, we hurt God, and we hurt the whole community of believers. Our prayers for forgiveness must therefore include the plea that God would build up the walls we have torn down, and make prosper what we have impoverished.

So, in looking at David and Bathsheba, many useful insights are gained, many valuable lessons taught. That little sins lead somewhere, that it is right to obey God even when disaster strikes and we have no earthly hope, the importance of correcting each other, and of an honest confession, and that the fruit of forgiveness is peace and praises to God.

Yet still I am left with the basic question, how do I relate to this event? David is supposed to be this Godly man, this role model, and he does this?? How can I deal with that?? If a church leader did what David did, I would want him sacked and in jail. I can appreciate that it is in Scripture because it is true, but how is it part of God’s saving message to me? How is it part of the Gospel? As we saw, Paul summarises his gospel in his introduction to the Romans; “regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.” Does that include this passage or was it just the prophet, priest and king stuff? Clearly, that “stuff” is important and is affirmed in the New Testament, but in his letter to the Romans, Paul’s next mention of David (Romans 4:7) he quotes him saying "Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.”

You see, sometimes we grow familiar with forgiveness, we understand the logic behind it, Jesus dies, I am forgiven, done deal. It becomes reasonable and expected. Then we look at David and think, this guy is a disgrace. You know, I wouldn’t have forgiven him, let alone restored him. If a someone I knew committed adultery and rape, I would want them thrown in jail. They I read his confession, see his broken spirit, and read his Psalms of dancing and wonder that he has been forgiven, and I appreciate anew that forgiveness is a miracle, an undeserved, unbelievable miracle. I know I too need it, and in David I see the unimaginable extravagance of God’s mercy.  

Paul quotes David to affirm this wonder, this miracle of forgiven sin. To know that you are utterly guilty, to know you have no excuse, to know that it is the one you sinned against who is to judge you, this is to know despair and shame and utter hopelessness. You don’t have a chance, and there is no escape.

To then find that this same judge would both uphold the Law, and at the same time grant you his own righteousness, a righteousness that Paul has just written (Romans 3:21-24) comes from God through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. To find it’s not just you, but that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and that all can be justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. This indeed is the heart of the Gospel! If God can forgive David, God can forgive anyone, and that includes you. This is not cheap grace, it is a humble and broken spirit, a genuine confession and an utter turning away from evil. It is the cry of someone who knows their own guilt and has wept bitter tears over it. We read of this in Zechariah 12:10-13:1; “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be great,... The land will mourn, each clan by itself, … On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.”

This is the cry the Father will not turn away. This is the good news! “Descended from David” not only speaks of Jesus as prophet, priest and king, it also speaks of the blessedness of forgiven sin, the undeserved un-earnable miracle of God’s redeeming love. It is the very horror of David’s sin which forces us to look again at the wonder of God’s forgiveness. No wonder that David wrote Psalms of praise!!

As fellow sinners, who have likewise known God’s unbelievable grace, lets rise and praise him now.  

Joseph's Story part 2; Judah's story

Joseph's Story part 2; 

Judah's story

Judah’s story

Last time we looked at Joseph’s story. He was sold into slavery, suffered, was found faithful, rescued his entire family plus the Egyptians, and all his brothers bowed down to him just as in the dream God had sent. You would think that he would therefore be the ruler, and that the Messiah would descend from his line. Remember, it was Judah who had the idea to sell him into slavery. Which is why this is a very strange verse;

 “For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah,” (Hebrews 7:14)

How could the Messiah come through Judah? What has happened? These questions are why this week we will be looking at Judah’s story.

We are also going to use another story-telling technique popular in TV series. You know how when there is a TV series you like, the episodes usually fit into a predictable pattern, they find a crime, they solve it or whatever, but every so often, an episode starts completely differently – maybe they are in the boot of a car, we have no idea why, they are being shot at by people we have never met, and just as they are about to die, there is an add break, we are told to drink Coca Cola and drive a Subaru, and we get back to the show, it says “sometime earlier”, and we proceed with the back story, which then explains why we were in the car boot etc.

That is how we are going to do this today. There are two main parts where Judah’s story takes center stage in Genesis, and we are going to jump in at the second part of the story, at Genesis 42, and then go back to look at the back-story later. We are going to do it this way as the second part highlights the importance of the first.

So, Genesis 42 …

Quick re-cap; Judah and his brothers sold Joseph into slavery because they resented him being the favourite. (Genesis 37:4 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.) Joseph is now second in all Egypt, and the brothers have already once gone to him for grain, and left Simeon in captivity there, and told they must return with Benjamin if they wish to see him again.

But the drought continues to worsen. First Reuben tries to talk their dad into it; Genesis 42:37-38 Then Reuben said to his father, "You may put both of my sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him back." ³⁸ But Jacob said, "My son will not go down there with you; his brother is dead and he is the only one left. If harm comes to him on the journey you are taking, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in sorrow."

The famine gets still worse, and finally, Judah steps up; Genesis 43:8-11 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. ⁹ I 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. ¹⁰ As it is, if we had not delayed, we could have gone and returned twice." ¹¹ Then their father Israel said to them, "If it must be,

So, the brothers return to Egypt, and Benjamin is first spoilt, given 5x as much food as everyone else, then falsely accused of theft. The brothers are brought before Joseph;

Genesis 44:16-17 "What can we say? How can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants' guilt. We are now my lord's slaves--we ourselves and the one who was found to have the cup." ¹⁷ But Joseph said, "Far be it from me to do such a thing! Only the man who was found to have the cup will become my slave. The rest of you, go back to your father in peace."

And here we have reached the crisis point on which everything else depends. Will Judah behave like he did last time, and let a son of Rachel stay in Egypt as a slave to save his own freedom? Listen to what he says;

Genesis 44:18-34 my lord, let your servant speak a word to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, though you are equal to Pharaoh himself.

 ¹⁹ My lord asked his servants, 'Do you have a father or a brother?'

 ²⁰ And we answered, 'We have an aged father, and there is a young son born to him in his old age. His brother is dead, and he is the only one of his mother's sons left, and his father loves him.'

 ²¹ "Then you said to your servants, 'Bring him down to me so I can see him for myself.'

 ²² And we said to my lord, 'The boy cannot leave his father; if he leaves him, his father will die.'

 ²³ But you told your servants, 'Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again.'

 ²⁴ When we went back to your servant my father, we told him what my lord had said.

 ²⁵ "Then our father said, 'Go back and buy a little more food.'

 ²⁶ But we said, 'We cannot go down. Only if our youngest brother is with us will we go. We cannot see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us.'

 ²⁷ "Your servant my father said to us, 'You know that my wife bore me two sons.

 ²⁸ One of them went away from me, and I said, "He has surely been torn to pieces." And I have not seen him since.

 ²⁹ If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery.'

 ³⁰ "So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy's life,

 ³¹ sees that the boy isn't there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow.

 ³² Your servant guaranteed the boy's safety to my father. I said, 'If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!'

 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.

 ³⁴ How 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."

 

Here Judah volunteers to be Joseph’s slave, (not knowing that it is Joseph, only that he is, as Judah puts it, “equal to Pharaoh himself”) in order that his father Jacob would not die of grief over Benjamin; “let your servant remain here as my lord's slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. … So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy's life, sees that the boy isn't there, he will die.”

So finally, after years of bitterness and anger and self-reproach, Judah comes to terms with, acknowledges and accepts the fact that his father loves the sons of Rachel more than him; ("Your servant my father said to us, 'You know that my wife bore me two sons. One of them went away from me, and I said, "He has surely been torn to pieces." And I have not seen him since.’”) Judah, out of his own love for this same father, freely volunteers and offers his life to be a slave. It is this act of humility and love which breaks down the dividing wall between the brothers and Joseph. They are united at last by their love of their father.

"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. How 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." Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, "Have everyone leave my presence!" So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh's household heard about it. Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph! Is my father still living?"

Judah himself became their peace, and made the two one and destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. While Reuben was the older, it was Judah who stepped up and volunteered to give his life here.

Judah did in fact get one thing wrong – he thought that his father did not regard him, did not love him as much as his other son. We find out just how wrong he was in the next scene where the brothers play an important role, when they receive the blessings of their dying father. These blessings are themselves a wonderful example of the Bible being fully human and fully divine at the same time; Jacob’s feelings for his sons come through loud and clear, yet the Messiah himself is also prophesied through these blessings. They are Jacob’s words to his sons as inspired by their heavenly Father.  

In these blessings, Jacob looks Judah in the eyes and says; Genesis 49:8-10 "Judah, your brothers will praise you; … your father's sons will bow down to you. … ¹⁰ The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his.”

For Judah was always loved and regarded. Jacob had indeed seen what he had done, knew how hard it had been to finally confess and own up, and decreed that even Joseph should bow down to him.

All of which has a profoundly Philippians 2 feel to it –

“make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

 ³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

 ⁴ Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

 ⁵ Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

 ⁶ Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,”

Judah indeed had started out in selfish ambition and vain conceit, hating the idea that Joseph might be better than him, looked to his own interests and grasped for equality with his brother. But then, in this second part of his story, we find an utterly changed man. To misquote the next part of Philippians 2, “but Judah made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a slave [remember, Judah offered himself to be a slave for life] … Therefore his father exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Judah every knee should bow,”

Before you think that that is blasphemous, or a misuse of Scripture, look again at the passage; “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,”

Paul gives us this aspect of Jesus as an example of how we should behave, as a role model for us. He wants us to learn from and do the same as Jesus did here. As Jesus himself said; “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” And here is an example of someone doing just that. Of someone living in their own lives this Christ like pattern. This is what that looks like. Jesus himself also makes this connection between his behaviour and ours; Mark 10:43-45 whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴ and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. ⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Peter likewise encourages us in exactly the same way; 1Peter 5:5-6 “All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ ⁶ Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.”

Having forsaken his earlier ways, having tasted the bitterness of his sin, Judah then humbled himself, and, in his father’s blessing, was raised in due time.

Now, why is the Messiah from Judah, not Joseph? Why is Judah elevated above Joseph in this regard? Joseph is loved and honoured, and given a double blessing, and was made second only to Pharaoh, but why is the throne given to Judah?? Because of the principle Jesus enunciated; Luke 15:7 “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” This is why the Messiah is descended from Judah, why Jesus is Judah’s greater son. The Gospel is pre-figured in Judah’s act!

Judah represents the sinner who repented, Joseph the righteous man who never needed to.

1Timothy 1:15-16 “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst. ¹⁶ But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.”

In crowning a repentant sinner, God declares that his Gospel is for sinners.

Psalm 78:67-68 Then he rejected the tents of Joseph, he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim; ⁶⁸ but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loved.

Just as what Abraham was prepared to sacrifice, God did sacrifice, so what Judah was prepared to suffer (slavery till death), Jesus did suffer. While Judah volunteering for this made peace between the brothers and broke down the wall of hostility that had existed between them till then (and that was a lot of hostility!!), and restored Joseph to his father, Jesus actually completing it broke down the dividing wall between all peoples, and made our peace with God, the father of us all.

Equally, just as Judah, who did not know that Joseph was there, was motivated solely by his love for his father, so Jesus sacrifice was motivated by his love for his father. It is our love of our father that units us and makes peace.

“Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Sometime earlier…

So, at the beginning, in Genesis 37, Judah leads the brothers in selling Joseph into slavery. Then, as just seen, in chapter 44 he offers his own life to save another brother. Clearly, Judah has changed beyond recognition. What happened between 37 and 44 that made all the difference? Given that the Bible is all about redemption, what does it tell us about Judah’s redemption? What is the backstory to this amazing transformation? This brings us to the strange and disturbing chapter 38.

The first verse here is a tragic one. “At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah.”

Quick family status update; Jacob’s family is falling apart. The brothers have sold their own brother Joseph into slavery. They have lied to their father and seen his grief. Judah had been the one who had led the brothers into selling Joseph, and he is their natural leader. Now he leaves them. Whether because they cant stand the sight of him or if it is the other way round, we don’t know. Just as we will read that Joseph has been brought down into Egypt, so Judah goes down to the Negev. While Joseph is going down into physical captivity, Judah is going down morally and spiritually. Here he does what the patriarchs insisted on not doing: marrying into the local population. It is a tale of sad decline, and lasts for many years. Here he has three sons and watches them grow into adults.

God has promised that salvation will come from this family. That plan is now seemingly in utter meltdown. So, if you were God, what would you do? How would you reach Judah, remembering that all salvation history depends on this?? How can God turn it around, who would he use for such a vital task?

Genesis 38:6-11 Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.

 ⁷ But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the LORD's sight; so the LORD put him to death.

 ⁸ Then Judah said to Onan, "Lie with your brother's wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother."

 ⁹ But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother.

 ¹⁰ What he did was wicked in the LORD's sight; so he put him to death also.

 ¹¹ Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Live as a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up." For he thought, "He may die too, just like his brothers." So Tamar went to live in her father's house.

Note that Onan has no love for his dead brother, just as Judah etc. had no love for Joseph! Jealousy and bitterness are again seen, the rot is continuing, and spreading to the next generation. Things are not getting better. So again I ask, how will God turn this around?

The focus now switches to Tamar. Her first husband did something wicked enough for God to kill him, and then she was passed to Judah’s second eldest son, who, out of selfish spite to his dead elder brother also sins and is likewise killed. As is the custom, Tamar was then promised to Judah’s youngest son. Technically, she was a “living widow,” bound to marry her brother-in-law whom Judah was withholding, but unable to marry anyone else. A normal widow would be free to re-marry, but under the laws of leverite marriage, Tamar is not; Deuteronomy 25:5-6 If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband's brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her.

 ⁶ The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.

Now, the laws of levirate marriage, as seen, are found in Deuteronomy 25:6, and post-date this incident. It is possible that these obligations at this time included not just the brothers, but any male relative, but we simply don’t know. In any event, Judah thinks she is bad luck, or blames her for the deaths of his first two sons. She is sent back to her father’s house. Here, as the years go by, she realizes that Judah is not going to honour his promise to her, and that she is scorned and powerless.

Tamar now does two amazing things.

Firstly, as her father-in-law is not fulfilling his promise to get her a husband, and, hopefully children, she disguises herself as a prostitute and waylays him on the way home from the shearing party. She is acting to reclaim the chance to have children and perpetuate her husband’s name, that he has robbed her of. Gutsy, but not really a role model, or something we are all that comfortable with. We can see her desperation, admire her determination not to be just a victim, we can even affirm that Judah has wronged her and owes her, but it is still a dubious and morally opaque situation. In any event, she also asks Judah for his cord, seal and staff, as a guarantee he will pay her.

So, feeling a bit conflicted and not really sure how we feel about all of this, we move on to the second part of the story. 

Genesis 38:24-26 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!"

 ²⁵ 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."

 ²⁶ 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.

What is going on here? Actually, a great deal. For starters, Tamar’s deception of Judah is similar to Judah’s deception of Jacob. Both involve clothes: Joseph’s blood-stained coat, Tamar’s veil. Both reach their climax with the exact same words Haker na, “Please examine.” Judah forced Jacob to believe a lie. Tamar now forces Judah to recognise the truth. Equally, Tamar has fulfilled her obligations to her dead husband, and risked death to preserve the family line, the opposite of Judah who had sold Joseph and destroyed the family.

Most importantly, “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.’" Tamar does not wait till she is standing before Judah being publicly judged, but sends a messenger in private with the cord and staff. In doing so, she acts to spare Judah public shame and ridicule. Rather than being attacked in a public accusation, Tamar grants Judah the time and privacy to make his own response. It is a truly amazing and life changing act of grace.

Genesis 38:26 “Judah recognized them and said, ‘She is more righteous than I.’”

This is the first time in the Bible that anyone confesses, and up until this instant, you would have thought that Judah would be the very last person in the Bible to make such a confession.

We need to examine this whole event more closely.

It takes courage to confess, to admit fault. This is what is going to be crucial for Judah and the brothers re Joseph, but where does Judah learn to do this? So far, he has done nothing of worth, and shown no moral strength. How does God reach and recue Judah? Through one despised and rejected. Through the grace and honour of Tamar. She is wronged, powerless, trapped. In the final reckoning, however, she is anything but a victim. She shows amazing courage and takes incredible risks, firstly to claim back what is hers by right. This is but the preliminary stage, however.

It is her next act which will redeem Judah and enable him to go on and redeem the entire generations of Israel. As I said, it is hard to admit guilt, to own up and confess. We fear being publicly shamed, disgraced, losing everything. Judah has sold his own brother into slavery. He cannot confess to that; he cannot make it right. He has left the remaining brothers, and the secret is tearing them apart, has torn them apart. He is trapped, and he can’t make it right. How can God reach such a man, who would he send?

He does not send the powerful, (a wise man, a scholar or a philosopher of the age). He uses probably the most powerless and despised person in the entire community. The widow of two of his sons, who is not allowed to marry anyone else, but to whom he will not give his last son. He sends someone whom Judah has deeply wronged. Someone who has lived the rejection Judah fears, who knows the shame he is afraid of, who is blamed for not one but two brothers deaths. So Judah calls her forth, to publicly humiliate and shame her again, with charges which will prove to be false. She is going to be killed.

It is at this place that Tamar responds with something of breath-taking beauty and moral excellence. As seen, she discreetly sends a messenger to Judah, giving him the proofs of her innocence which is also proof of his guilt. She goes out of her way to avoid shaming him publicly. Having known and tasted shame all too well, she will not inflict it. She does not open her mouth to denounce him. She spares him the humiliation he has subjected her to, the very thing keeping him from confessing his own sin and healing the shattered brothers that he is the natural leader of. Beyond even that, she places her own life in his hands to spare him from ridicule. Only he and she know what had happened. In this way, she grants Judah the grace to be able to acknowledge his own error without loss of face, the space to be able to own up on his own, rather than having it thrown at him in a public meeting.

This blistering courage, this unexpected and undeserved grace from someone who is powerless and whom he himself has wronged, this breaks and reaches Judah in a way nothing else could. He had sold his own brother, but she was innocent of any violence towards his sons. For the first time in Scripture, a man freely confesses his own sin, and says of Tamar, "She is more righteous than I”. God chose Tamar to rescue Judah, lost in guilt and shame.

1Corinthians 1:27-29 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

 ²⁸ He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are,

 ²⁹ so that no one may boast before him.

We can see in her a foretaste of the words that will be written about her greatest grandchild – think of Tamar as we read them now;

Isaiah 53:3-4. 7, 9. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

 ⁴ He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

This is how God rescues us from our own sin.

It is this act which frees Judah and prepares him for his greater confession in Genesis 45, where it is now Judah’s humility and his grace which will restore him and his brothers to Joseph, and him and Joseph to their father. 

As always, the parallel is not complete. Tamar risked death, but was spared by Judah’s repentance. Jesus however was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. Though innocent, he was humiliated, condemned and put to death.

Interestingly, as with Ruth and Rahab, the Bible again goes out of its way to attribute this moral greatness and saving grace, not to one of the Patriarchs, but to a gentile woman who had joined herself to them. And along with them, in Matthew she is listed by name in the genealogy of Jesus.

How does God reach the lost and the broken in our world today? Does he send the wise and the powerful, or does he still send the broken, the despised and the dying? Never think that you are not wise or significant enough to help someone else. You haven’t been to Bible college, you don’t know enough theology, and why would anyone listen to you anyway, you aren’t important enough. If you ever feel this way, remember Tamar!

The real question is, are we prepared to complete in our own bodies the sufferings of Jesus? Are we prepared to risk shame and humiliation to help others find forgiveness? Are we prepared to let God use our lives and pain to sensitize us to the sufferings of others, so that we will avoid shaming them and rather redeem them?