The Genealogy of JesusSample

My friend, Carol, always cautions her students not to read Scripture through the lens of our modern-day sensibilities. This will be helpful as we navigate today’s passage, because it was indeed a different time—a hard time, especially for women.

God never affirmed the ways women were marginalized and unseen throughout the ages. But, he saw (and still sees). Time and again, we see God put up measures to protect and affirm women. For example, women found protection through levirate marriage (detailed in our bonus reading today). In short, levirate marriage laws originated in the near east to ensure a family’s name and lineage continued. God extended this in Deuteronomy, giving women recourse if a brother-in-law did not cooperate.

Another important contextual understanding was the polytheistic, paganistic practice of cult prostitution. Temple prostitutes were flagrant, pagan worship of the worst kind. Judah knew better, yet he seemed familiar with this practice—so much so that Tamar counted on encountering him.

The predicament of Tamar was a lose-lose situation. She’d endured two marriages to men of the same house who were awful. So awful, God put them to death.

1. Have you or someone with whom you are close ever been in desperate need, physically or emotionally? Does this help you relate to Tamar?

Prayer: God, thank you for always affirming the value of women, even when culture does not.