Genesis 38

The events in this chapter seem to interrupt the story, but actually they take place during the time of the “Joseph story.” Joseph was seventeen when he was sold and thirty years old when he was elevated to the throne, which gives us thirteen years. When you add the seven years of plenty and the two years of famine, you have twenty-two years before Joseph was reconciled to his brothers. That’s plenty of time for Judah to marry, beget three sons, bury two sons and a wife, and get involved with Tamar. If his marriage had occurred before Joseph’s exile, you have even more time available.

Why is this story here?

History. One of the major purposes of Genesis is to record the origin and development of the family of Jacob, the founder of the twelve tribes of Israel. The Israelites went down to Egypt a large family, and four centuries later they came out of Egypt a large nation. Since the tribe of Judah is the royal tribe from which the Messiah would come (49:10), anything related to Judah is vital to the story in Genesis. Without this chapter, you’d wonder at finding Tamar and Perez in our Lord’s genealogy (Matt. 1:3). Perez was an ancestor of King David (Ruth 4:18–22) and therefore an ancestor of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:1).

Morality. But this chapter has some practical values as well. For one thing, it shows how dangerous it was for God’s people to be in the land with the Canaanites. There was always the temptation to live like your neighbors instead of like the people of God.

There’s also a dramatic contrast between Judah and Joseph. Joseph refused to compromise himself with Potiphar’s wife (Gen. 39:7–20), but Judah casually slept with a strange woman he thought was a prostitute. We also see the continued “harvest” in the family because of deception. Jacob used a garment to deceive his father Isaac, and Judah and his brothers used a garment to deceive Jacob (37:32). Now Tamar used a garment to deceive Judah (Gen. 38:14)! We reap what we sow.

Covenant community. Judah got himself into trouble when he separated himself from his brothers and started to make friends with the Canaanites in the land. Like Samson, he saw a woman he liked and took her to be his wife (v. 2; Judg. 14). Both Abraham and Isaac had been careful to see to it that their sons didn’t marry women of the land lest the “chosen seed” of Israel be polluted with idolatry and immorality (Gen. 24:3–4; 28:1–4). Joseph’s brothers were doing things that their father disapproved of, but Joseph was still safer with them than with the people of the land. At least their presence reminded Joseph that he was a child of the covenant (see Rom. 12:1–2; 2 Cor. 6:14—7:1).

Grace. The story of the patriarchs in Genesis reminds us of the grace of God and His sovereignty in human life. The men and women who played a part in this important drama weren’t perfect, and some of them were deliberately disobedient, and yet the Lord used them to accomplish His purposes. This doesn’t mean that God approved of their sins, because their sins were ultimately revealed and judged. But it does mean that God can take the weak things of this world and accomplish His purposes (1 Cor. 1:26–31).

Now back to the story of Joseph.