SEX

Now that I have your attention...

As one is reading along in Genesis which is full of sex, betrayal,shenanigans, and skulduggery; the saga of Joseph and his 11 brothers comes into view. Joseph is thrown into a well, then dragged out and sold to a caravan and later sold into slavery in Egypt, put in prison and then fills out a civil service application I guess because he becomes second in power in Egypt only to Pharaoh.

The story is interrupted for a message from another author putting his two cents worth in. The story is about Judah and his daughter-in-law Tamar and how they had twins together. Sounds like a Jerry Spring episode. (Genesis chapter 38).

In the ancient times a woman had to have a male child for her husband. Not to do so was a big disgrace. You couldn't show your face in the market and you were often featured in grocery story tabloids as a big sinner whom God disliked. As it happened Tamar was a Canaanite woman, not a Hebrew, but married into the Judah family. Judah was one of the 12 sons of Jacob. This family became the 12 tribes of Israel; very important in the unfolding drama of the Bible.

The Bible says "Judah got a wife for his oldest son Er." Yes, that was his name. Er. No jokes about "Er what?" Er did evil in the eyes of the Lord so the Lord killed him. That's right, in those days if God became annoyed with you it was lights out. But, Judah, is head of the household and responsible so he hooked Tamar up with his next oldest son. They did not get married but Judah told the next oldest son Onan, saying, "Onan you can have the day off from your chores and go have sex with Tamar." "Oh dad," he responded, "do I have to?" "Yes, you know the law of the desert son, as a family we have to make sure Tamar has a boy so your brother Er has an heir."

That was the law but Onan spilled his seed, as the scripture says, on the ground instead of impregnating Tamar. Many Bible thumpers consider this a sin against masturbation because after spilling his seed on the ground God killed Onan. I suspect he pulled out rather than give Tamar a baby and masturbation had nothing to do with it. We run across something like this in The Book of Ruth which will be featured in a later post. Onan might not have wanted to share his inheritance with his dead brother's child. Had he given Tamar a son that son would have been considered Er's son but Onan would have to share his estate with his own son and Er's son which was really Onan's son but considered Er's son. Anyway, fat lot of good it did Onan because he was zapped by God.

Now Judah had another son, Shelah, a little boy. Judah told Tamar that she had run out of men for the time being so she had to live as a widow until Shelah grew up and he could give her a baby. Judah may be thinking that Tamar had a curse and did not want to lose Shelah too so that relationship never happened. This left Tamar childless and disgraced and the butt of many jokes around the village well. The village well was a gathering place and was the traditional site where people poked fun at those not in the in-crowd.

But she would not be denied. She dressed up as a prostitute and sat by the side of the road where Judah would be riding by on his ass. When he saw the prostitute on the side of the road he got off his ass, and what can a guy do, he had sex with her. In those times I guess, you see a prostitute and you have to have sex with her. I don't think it was a law of the desert or anything but Judah felt it was the right thing to do. As luck would have it Judah forgot his wallet so promised to send her a young goat. That's what every prostitute needs, another young goat hanging around. Tamar asked for an IOU regarding the goat. Judah gave her his staff as a promise. No, not that staff, a regular staff with some fancy decorations on it. So Tamar became pregnant and was happy as a clam.

Later Judah found out Tamar was pregnant and he was miffed because the widow of his son was not supposed to be fooling around. She was supposed to just live in disgrace and be happy about it. So Judah said we have to put her to death. The head of the family had that kind of power in those days. Then Tamar whipped out his staff. The decorated one. "Well dog my cats," exclaimed Judah (or something like that, it loses something in the translation). "That little scamp Tamar pulled the wool over my eyes. She is more righteous than I because by the law of the desert, I was to give my son Shelah to her and did not." Tamar had twins and they all lived happily ever after. Tamar was no longer in disgrace and the tabloids forgot all about her.

The Messiah is not mentioned in the first five books of the Bible, also known as the Torah or Pentateuch. So I am sure this story is a much later addition that was stuck in the story of Joseph. The story of Judah and Tamar covered about 20 years in their collective lives. It is important to the Old Testament narrative because one of the twins is named Perez. Through Perez comes Ruth's husband in The Book of Ruth. His name is Boaz. Ruth and Boaz have a baby and name him Obed. Obed was the father of Jessy and Jessy the father of David. Ah HA! The Messiah which shows up in the writings of the prophets like Isaiah and others would come from the line of David!

Which just goes to show: Tamar has been truer to her relationship with God than Judah has. Once again in the ancestral narrative, a person who stands outside of the community of promise (that is the God's promise to the Jews) proves to be faithful to what God intends for human community, indeed for the community of promise. In fact, she is a Canaanite! At least in part because of his evaluation of Tamar, Judah receives a praiseworthy place in the ancestral narrative (49:8), and his staff becomes a scepter that “shall not depart from Judah” (49:10).

In the Bible there are many instances of a reversal of fortune (Esther and Ruth for example and of course Tamar) It shows that in our faithfulness to God and God's agenda, we sometimes have to bend the rules.