Today’s scripture: Genesis 38 (NRSV) (The Message) (KJV) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (Robert Hicks-Ferguson):
I have to admit, reading Genesis 38 was like tuning into an episode of The Young and The Restless. It was my grandmother’s favorite soap and I spent many summer days at her knee watching. Remarkably, todays story of Judah and Tamar took me right back to those days. Literally, there is something here for everyone…deceit, disguise, tragedy, shame, jealousy, revenge and even a happy ending with the birth of twins. I laughed, I cried, and I wanted popcorn. As biblical storytelling goes, this has to be one of the juiciest stories ever told. But unlike the National Enquirer, nothing in Holy Scripture is recorded just for entertainment sake. So what does God have for us in the lurid telling of Judah and Tamar?
The trouble really starts when Judah arranges a marriage between his oldest son, Er, and Tamar. Er was wicked in God’s sight and put to death. So Judah instructs his second eldest son to sleep with Tamar and produce children in his older brother’s name sake. This plan goes awry when Onan, the second eldest, refused to do his part. God was displeased with Onan and the text tells us that he too was put to death. Judah is now convinced that Tamar is bad luck and sends her back to her parents under the guise that when his youngest son was of age he would send for her to marry him. A promise Judah had no intention of keeping. Spoiler alert: through some deception and trickery Judah ultimately sleeps with Tamar himself who ends up pregnant with twins! Wow!! I’d say that Judah has managed to make quite a sordid mess of his life!
Have you ever felt that you have made such a mess of your life that God couldn’t bless you? Have you ever felt unworthy or undeserving of God’s love? When I read the story of Judah I see someone who is trying to figure it all out on his own. Never mind what God’s plan was, Judah had his own. When Judah’s plans fail he just blames it on Tamar who is bad luck. He leans on his belief in superstition not his belief in God.
Judah did not know his role in God’s great plan. God had a plan for a lineage that would eventually produce the Christ child and Judah did not know that he would play a pivotal role in that formula. He was too busy looking at his circumstances and trying to manufacture his own blessing.
Judah resonates with me. There are times in our lives when we can’t or don’t see what God is up to. We may only see the trials in front of us and the failures of our past. But who we are is not a collection of our past mistakes. We are not our present circumstances.
God has made each of us in Gods image, perfectly designed with an identity ideally suited to accomplish all that we are called to do.
Jesus Christ came to give you a new identity. He died and rose again to give you His identity. It is only in Him that you will discover the identity God intended you to have from the beginning of time. You are a winner in every situation in life. In Him you are a champion, not because of anything you did, but because of what God freely did for you in Christ.
Thought for the day: You are not who people say you are. You are not who circumstances say you are. You are not who your past says you are, and you are not even who you think you are. You are who God says you are!
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the suggestions on the How to Pray page.