Judah

Taking a break from Daniel.  Just a short one.  I was reading the story of Judah, son of Jacob, and was taken by the character development he experienced in his life.

 He starts out as the fourth of twelve sons.  In Genesis 37, he is an eager conspirator against his brother Joseph.  The text implies that he was in cahoots with the 10 brothers that wanted to deep six Joseph.  Only Reuben dissented, and it turns out that was enough.  Rueben planned on letting things blow over with Joseph, and was going to rescue him after the other brothers cooled off.  But in the interim, Judah convinces his brothers to sell their kin.  So here’s Judah, the broker of his own brother.

 Once Joseph is Potiphar’s property, we see a telling vignette about the character of Judah.  Seems he has moved off the family estate, gone to a place called Adullam, and taken a pagan Cannanite wife.  Of course, he knew this was high on the list of forbidden actions.  So this wife, Shua, produces three sons for Judah; Er, Onan, and Shelah.  These people could have used a good baby name book.  Er is a bad dude, and God causes his premature death.  There must have been some interesting Cannanite customs in play, because Judah’s second son, Onan, finds himself with the responsibility of impregnating Er’s widow, Tamar.  Evidently, the proposed children of Onan and Tamar would carry the family line of Er.  This makes some sense, as a woman needed sons for security, financial stability, and for securing her place in the extended family.  Now this Onan is a real character.  He doesn’t decline the opportunity to sleep with Tamar, but takes great care to make sure that his semen doesn’t actually end up inside of Tamar.  So this four-flusher Onan is some kind of selfish opportunist, like a cad who sneaks out of a diner without paying the check.  He’s taking advantage of his sister-in-law without actually delivering on his end of the bargain.  I find it very interesting that God honors this arrangement, as he gives Onan the same punishement as his late brother Er.  So Tamar is sent to live back at her father’s house until the third son, Shelah, is of marrying age.

 Judah is getting tired of losing sons in this whole deal, very ironic in that he was ok with Jacob losing a son earlier.  I bet this gives Judah some perspective on his earlier actions.  Judah’s wife Shua has died by this time.  So Shelah grows up, but Judah doesn’t keep his promise to Tamar.  So here is Tamar, a childless widow who is hanging around like an unpaid bill.  Tamar is resourceful, though.  She learns of a journey that Judah is taking to get the sheep sheared at Timnah.  Evidently, what happens in Timnah stays in Timnah, beacuase Tamar is able to entrap Judah fairly easily by masquerading as a prostitute.  Judah doesn’t recognize her, as by now it has been a few years, and she also has veiled her face.  They don’t really haggle over price, as Judah offers a young goat and she immediately accepts.  Of course, Judah is currently herding sheep, not goats, and doesn’t have the goat with him.  So he gets his action on credit.  Imagine what Dave Ramsey would say.  Judah leaves some identifying articles as collateral, a seal, a cord, and a staff.  Evidently, he wasn’t too concerned about leaving a trail, now that the wife was out of the picture.   But he left much more significant evidence, as Tamar finally gets her payment, becoming pregnant with twins.

 Judah has his good friend Hirah take the goat to Timnah to pay off the prostitute.   But Tamar has retired from the business, and is nowhere to be found.  Judah and Hirah discuss the situation and decide that it is best to let the matter drop, as it’s got to be pretty embarrasing to just go door to door with a goat, looking for a prostitute who let you run a tab.  But three months later, Tamar is visibly pregnant, and is evidently still under Judah’s authority. He takes the opportunity to rid himself of the Tamar problem once and for all by condemning her to death for her obvious immorality.  But before sentence can even be arranged for, Tamar pulls a great sneaky Pete move.  She announces that she has the seal, cord, and staff of the man who slept with her.  And Judah is shown for what he is, as she displays the very things he was earlier trying to redeem with a goat.  So Tamar gets her children (Perez and Zerah), Shelah doesn’t have to die like his brothers, and Judah gets a nice public comeuppance exposing his lack of character.  I bet he had to smile a bit, like when a chess master falls prey to a creative checkmate at the hands of a beginner.

 We see Judah again in the 42nd chapter of Genesis.  In the interim, Joseph has gone to prison, been released, and saved Egypt from famine.  Judah is back on the family ranch.  He probably wasn’t too keen on remaining in Adullam, where he was probably regarded somewhat humorously.  Or maybe he is just moving back home because of the famine, like a college dropout just crashing at his parent’s place until he can get on his feet.  Whatever the case, he’s back with his brothers again.  And they have still kept the secret about Joseph, probably believing him to be long dead. 

 But there’s food in Egypt, so they go to Egypt to buy food.  And they go back again to get more.  The mysterious Egyptian official insists that Benjamin come as well, in order to verify the brother’s earlier story.  Of course Jacob is gun shy about letting Benjamin go, he being Joseph’s full brother and all.  So Judah starts to turn it around here.  He steps up to the plate and gives Jacob his personal guarantee that Benjamin will return.  I can’t imagine that was very comforting for Jacob, given Judah’s recent history.  But times are desperate, and a hungy Jacob allows Benjamin to travel to Egypt in the custody of his brother Judah.

 The brothers buy the food, but Joseph had Benjamin framed for theft.  On the way out of town, Jacob’s sons are overtaken and brought back to Joseph where the false evidence is proof enough for Benjamin to be declared guilty.  Joseph declares that Benjamin will remain in Egypt, to be put into slavery for the offense.  But Judah steps forward again, insisting that he himself take the punishment.  Here Judah completes his journey from being a rule bending, selfish man to becoming a man who really does take responsibility for others.

 Of course, Judah and the brothers learn of Joseph’s true identity, and after some tenuous moments, everything ends well.  But in all this, Jacob’s fourth son rises to preeminence among his brothers.  And the son’s of Jacob, who were dead set against serving their younger brother Joseph, and up all falling in line behind son number four.  At the end of Jacob’s life, as he lay dying in Goshen, he delivers a commencement to his sons.  This is recorded in Genesis 49.  He starts with his oldest, Reuben.  The one who would have been the head of the clan but for an earlier dallience with one of Jacob’s concubines.  He then moves on to his next two sons, Simeon and Levi.  Addressing them as a pair, he explains that they also will not become the leaders of the family, due to their over-the-top retribution for the defilement of their sister Dinah.  So next up is Judah.  And Jacob declares that the scepter will not leave his hand.  This is like a wild card team winning the World Series.  As my sophomore theology professor liked to say, this is why they are called Jews instead of Roos.  Funny, but true.

 And Jacob is proved to be right.  The first chapter of Matthew records the lineage of Jesus.  This is the boring part, with all the begats, that we all zip over quickly as we read.  But right there we see that the line of the saviour goes back to Judah, right through Perez.  That’s right, the product of Judah’s tryst with his disguised daughter -in-law becomes an ancestor to the Messiah himself.  And God does with Judah what he does with all of us; he gives us on ocean of grace to overcome our trash barrel of sinfulness.   God ties all loose ends, not only making Judah grow up, but also uses that as part of how he gives us Jesus.