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41 - Commentary on The Book of Genesis · Philosophy and Faith

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Speaker 1: Chapter thirty eight. This chapter gives us an account of
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Speaker 1: Judah and his family, and such an account it is
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Speaker 1: that one would wonder that, of all Jacob's sons, our
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Speaker 1: Lord should spring out of Judah Hebrews chapter seven, verse fourteen.
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Speaker 1: If we were to form a character of him by
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Speaker 1: this story, we should not say Judah, thou art he
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Speaker 1: whom thy brethren shall praise Chapter forty nine, verse eight.
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Speaker 1: But God will show that his choice is of grace
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Speaker 1: and not of merit, and that Christ came into the
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Speaker 1: world to save sinners, even the chief, and is not
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Speaker 1: ashamed upon their repentance to be allied to them. Also
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Speaker 1: that the worth and worthiness of Jesus Christ are personal
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Speaker 1: of himself and not derived from his ancestors. Humbling himself
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Speaker 1: to be made in the likeness of sinful flesh, he
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Speaker 1: was pleased to descend from some that were infamous. How
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Speaker 1: little reason had the Jews who were so called from
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Speaker 1: this Judah to boast as they did, that they were
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Speaker 1: not born of fornication. John chapter eight, verse forty one.
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Speaker 1: We have in this chapter one Judah's marriage and issue
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Speaker 1: and the untimely death of his two eldest sons Verses
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Speaker 1: one to eleven. Two. Judah's incest with his daughter in
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Speaker 1: law Tamar without his knowing it Verses twelve to twenty three. Three,
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Speaker 1: his confusion when it was discovered Verses twenty four to
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Speaker 1: twenty six. Four, the birth of his twin sons, in
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Speaker 1: whom his family was built up Verse twenty seven, et cetera.
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Speaker 1: Judah's profligacy b. C. Seventeen seventeen, Verses one to eleven.
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Speaker 1: And it came to pass at that time that Judah
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Speaker 1: went down from his brethren and turned in to a
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Speaker 1: certain Adolomite whose name was Hira. And Judah saw there
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Speaker 1: a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua,
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Speaker 1: And he took her and went in with her, and
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Speaker 1: she conceived and bear a son, and he called his
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Speaker 1: name Er. And she conceived again and bear a son,
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Speaker 1: and she called his name Onan. And she yet again
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Speaker 1: conceived and bear a son, and called his name Sheilah.
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Speaker 1: And he was at Chazib when she bare him. And
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Speaker 1: Judah took a wife for Er his first born, whose
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Speaker 1: name was Tamar. And Er Judah's first born was wicked
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Speaker 1: in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord slew
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Speaker 1: him and Judah said, unto Onan, go in unto thy
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Speaker 1: brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to
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Speaker 1: thy brother. And Onan knew that the seed should not
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Speaker 1: be his. And it came to pass when he went
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Speaker 1: in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on
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Speaker 1: the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.
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Speaker 1: And the thing which he did displease the Lord, wherefore
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Speaker 1: he slew him. Also, then said Judah to Tamar, his
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Speaker 1: daughter in law, remain a widow at thy father's house
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Speaker 1: till Sheylah, my son be grown. For he said, lest
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Speaker 1: for adventure. He died also as his brethren did, and
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Speaker 1: Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house. Here is
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Speaker 1: one Judah's foolish friendship with a Canaanite man. He went
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Speaker 1: down from his brethren and withdrew for a time from
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Speaker 1: their society and his father's family, and got to be
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Speaker 1: intimately acquainted with one Hira and a Dolomite Verse one.
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Speaker 1: It is computed that he was now not much above
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Speaker 1: fifteen or sixteen years of age, an easy prey to
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Speaker 1: the tempter. Note when young people that have been well
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Speaker 1: educated begin to change their company, they will soon change
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Speaker 1: their manners and lose their good education. Those that go
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Speaker 1: down from their brethren, that despise and forsake the society
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Speaker 1: of the seat of Israel and pick up Canaanites for
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Speaker 1: their companions, are going down the hill apace. It is
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Speaker 1: of great consequence to young people to choose proper associates.
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Speaker 1: For these they will imitate study, to recommend themselves too,
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Speaker 1: and by their opinion of them, value themselves. An error
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Speaker 1: in this choice is often fatal. Two. His foolish marriage
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Speaker 1: with a Canaanite woman, a match made not by his father, who,
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Speaker 1: it should seem, was not consulted, but by his new
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Speaker 1: friend Hira verse two. Many have been drawn into marriages
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Speaker 1: scandalous and pernicious to themselves and their families by keeping
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Speaker 1: bad company and growing familiar with bad people. One wicked
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Speaker 1: league entangles men in another. Let young people be admonished
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Speaker 1: by this to take their good parents for their best friends,
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Speaker 1: and to be advised by them, and not by flatterers
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Speaker 1: who wheedle them to make a prey of them. Three
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Speaker 1: his children by this Canaanite, and his disposal of them,
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Speaker 1: three sons he had by her, er Onan and Sheila.
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Speaker 1: It is probable that she embraced the worship of the
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Speaker 1: God of Israel, at least in profession. But for aught
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Speaker 1: that appears there was little of the fear of God
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Speaker 1: in the family. Judah married too young and very He
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Speaker 1: also married his sons too young, when they had neither
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Speaker 1: wit nor grace to govern themselves, and the consequences were
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Speaker 1: very bad. One his first born er was notoriously wicked.
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Speaker 1: He was so in the sight of the Lord, that is,
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Speaker 1: in defiance of God and his law. Or if perhaps
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Speaker 1: he was not wicked in the sight of the world,
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Speaker 1: he was so in the sight of God, to whom
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Speaker 1: all men's wickedness is open. And what came of it?
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Speaker 1: Why God cut him off presently verse seven, The Lord
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Speaker 1: slew him. Note sometimes God makes quick work with sinners
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Speaker 1: and takes them away in his wrath when they are
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Speaker 1: but just setting out in a wicked course of life. Two.
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Speaker 1: The next son, Onan was, according to the ancient usage,
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Speaker 1: married to the widow to preserve the name of his
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Speaker 1: deceased brother that died childless. Though God had taken away
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Speaker 1: his life for his wickedness, yet they were solicitous to
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Speaker 1: preserve his memory, and their disappointment therein through Onan's sin
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Speaker 1: was a further punishment of his wickedness. The custom of
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Speaker 1: marrying the brother's widow was afterwards made one of the
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Speaker 1: laws of Modus Deuteronomy, chapter twenty five, verse five. Onan,
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Speaker 1: though he consented to marry the widow, yet to the
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Speaker 1: great abuse of his own body, of the wife that
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Speaker 1: he had married, and the memory of his brother that
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Speaker 1: was gone, he refused to raise up sat unto his brother,
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Speaker 1: as he was in duty bound. This was so much
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Speaker 1: worse because the Messiah was to descend from Judah, and
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Speaker 1: had he not been guilty of this wickedness, he might
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Speaker 1: have had the honor of being one of his ancestors.
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Speaker 1: Note those sins that dishonor the body and defile it
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Speaker 1: are very displeasing to God, and evidences of vile affections.
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Speaker 1: Three Sheyla, the third son, was reserved for the widow
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Speaker 1: verse eleven, yet with the design that he should not
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Speaker 1: marry so young as his brothers had done, lest he die. Also,
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Speaker 1: some think that Judah never intended to marry Sheila to Tamar,
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Speaker 1: but unjustly suspected her to have been the death of
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Speaker 1: her two former husbands, where As it was their own
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Speaker 1: wickedness that slew them, and then sent her to her
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Speaker 1: father's house with a charge to remain a widow. If so,
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Speaker 1: it was an inexcusable piece of prevarication that he was
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Speaker 1: guilty of. However, Tamar acquiesced for the present and waited
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Speaker 1: the issue Verses twelve to twenty three. And in process
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Speaker 1: of time, the daughter of Shuah, Judah's wife died, and
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Speaker 1: Judah was comforted and went up into his sheep shears
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Speaker 1: to Timnath he and his friend Hira the Adolamite. And
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Speaker 1: it was told Tamar, saying, behold, thy father in law,
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Speaker 1: goeth up to Tymnath to shear his sheep. And she
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Speaker 1: put her widow's garments off from her and covered her
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Speaker 1: with a veil, and wrapped herself and sat in an
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Speaker 1: open place, which is by the way to Tymnath. For
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Speaker 1: she saw that Sheila was grown, and she was not
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Speaker 1: given unto him to wife. When Judah saw her, he
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Speaker 1: thought her to be a harlot, because she covered her face.
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Speaker 1: And he turned under her by the and said, go
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Speaker 1: I pray THEE, let me come unto thee. For he
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Speaker 1: knew not that she was his daughter. In law. And
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Speaker 1: she said, what wilt thou give me that thou mayst
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Speaker 1: come in unto me? And he said, I will send
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Speaker 1: thee a kid from the flock. And she said, wilt
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Speaker 1: thou give me a pledge till thou sends it? And
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Speaker 1: he said, what pledge shall I give thee? And she said,
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Speaker 1: thy signet, and thy bracelets, and thy staff that is
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Speaker 1: in thine hand. And he gave it her and came
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Speaker 1: in under her, and she conceived by him, and she
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Speaker 1: arose and went away and laid by her veil from
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Speaker 1: her and put on the garments of her widowhood. And
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Speaker 1: Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend,
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Speaker 1: the Adolamite, to receive his pledge from the woman's hand,
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Speaker 1: but he found her not. Then he asked the men
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Speaker 1: of that place, saying, where is the harlot that was
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Speaker 1: openly by the wayside, And they said there was no
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Speaker 1: harlot in this place. And he returned to Judah and said,
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Speaker 1: I cannot find her. And also the men of the
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Speaker 1: place said that there is no heartarllett in this place.
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Speaker 1: And Judah said, let her take it to her lest
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Speaker 1: we be shamed. Behold, I sent this kid and thou
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Speaker 1: hast not found her. It is a very ill favored
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Speaker 1: story that is here told concerning Judah. One would not
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Speaker 1: have expected such folly in Israel. Judah had buried his wife,
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Speaker 1: and widowers have need to stand upon their guard with
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Speaker 1: the utmost caution and resolution against all fleshly lusts. He
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Speaker 1: was unjust to his daughter in law, either through negligence
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Speaker 1: or design, in not giving her his surviving son, and
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Speaker 1: this exposed her to temptation. One Tamar wickedly prostituted herself
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Speaker 1: as a harlot to Judah, that if the son might not,
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Speaker 1: the father might raise up seed to the deceased. Some
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Speaker 1: excuse this by suggesting that though she was a Canaanite,
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Speaker 1: yet she had embraced the true religion and believed the
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Speaker 1: promise made to Abraham and his seed, particularly that of
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Speaker 1: the Messiah, who was to descend from the loins of Judah,
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Speaker 1: and that she was therefore thus earnestly desirous to have
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Speaker 1: a child by one of that family, that she might
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Speaker 1: have the honor or at least stand fair for the
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Speaker 1: honor of being the mother of the Messiah. And if
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Speaker 1: this was indeed her desire, it had its success She
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Speaker 1: is one of the four women particularly named in the
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Speaker 1: Genealogy of Christ Matthew Chapter one, verse three. Her sinful
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Speaker 1: practice was pardoned and her good intention was accepted, which
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Speaker 1: magnifies the grace of God, but can by no means
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Speaker 1: be admitted to justify or encourage the like. Bishop Patrick
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Speaker 1: thinks it probable that she hoped Sheilah, who was by
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Speaker 1: right her husband, might have come along with his father,
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Speaker 1: and that he might have been a lurd to her embraces.
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Speaker 1: There was a great deal of plot and contrivance in
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Speaker 1: Tamar's sin. One. She took an opportunity for it when
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Speaker 1: Judah had a time of mirth and feasting with his sheep.
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Speaker 1: Shearers note time of jollity often proved times of temptation,
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Speaker 1: particularly to the sin of uncleanness. When men are fed
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Speaker 1: to the full, the reins are apt to be let loose. Two.
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Speaker 1: She exposed herself as a harlot in an open place
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Speaker 1: verse fourteen. Those that are and would be chaste must
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Speaker 1: be keepers at home. Titus chapter two, verse five. It
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Speaker 1: should seem it was the custom of harlot's in those
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Speaker 1: times to cover their faces, that though they were not ashamed,
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Speaker 1: yet they might seem to be so, the sin of
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Speaker 1: uncleanness did not then go so bare faced as it
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Speaker 1: does now. Two Judah was taken in the snare, and
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Speaker 1: though it was ignorantly that he was guilty of incest
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Speaker 1: with his daughter in law, not knowing who she was,
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Speaker 1: yet he was wilfully guilty of fornication. Whoever she was,
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Speaker 1: he knew she was not his wife, and therefore not
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Speaker 1: to be touched. Nor was his sin capable in the
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Speaker 1: least of such a charitable excuse as some make for Tamar,
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Speaker 1: that though the action was bad, the intention possibly might
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Speaker 1: be good. Observe one judas sin began in the eye,
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Speaker 1: verse fifteen, he saw her. Note those have eyes and
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Speaker 1: hearts too full of adultery, as it is Second Peter,
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Speaker 1: Chapter two, verse fourteen, that catch at every bait that
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Speaker 1: presents itself to them, and are as tinder to every spark.
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Speaker 1: We have need to make a covenant with our eyes,
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Speaker 1: and to turn them from beholding vanity, lest the eye
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Speaker 1: infect the heart. Two It added to the scandal that
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Speaker 1: the higher of a harlot than which nothing is more infamous,
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Speaker 1: was demanded, offered, and accepted a kid from the flock,
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Speaker 1: a goodly price at which her chastity and honor were valued. Nay,
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Speaker 1: had the consideration been thousands of rams and ten thousand
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Speaker 1: rivers of oil, it had not been a valuable consideration.
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Speaker 1: The favor of God, the purity of the soul, the
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Speaker 1: peace of conscience, and the hope of heaven are too
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Speaker 1: precious to be exposed to sail at any such rates.
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Speaker 1: The topaz of Ethiopia could not equal them. What are
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Speaker 1: those profited that leu use their souls to gain the world.
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Speaker 1: Three It turned to the reproach of Judah that he
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Speaker 1: left his jewels in pawn for a kid. Note, fleshly
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Speaker 1: lust are not only brutish, but sottish and ruining to
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Speaker 1: men's secular interests. It is plain that wortum, as well
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Speaker 1: as wine and new wine, takes away the heart first,
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Speaker 1: else it would never take away the signet and the bracelets. Three.
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Speaker 1: He lost his jewels by the bargain he sent the
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Speaker 1: kid according to this promise to redeem his pawn, But
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Speaker 1: the supposed harlot could not be found. He sent it
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Speaker 1: by his friend, who was indeed his back friend, because
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Speaker 1: he was aiding and abetting in his evil deeds. Theodolomite,
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Speaker 1: who came back without the pledge. It is a good account,
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Speaker 1: if it be, but true of any place which they
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Speaker 1: here gave. There was no harlot in this place, For
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Speaker 1: such sinners are the scandals and plagues of any place.
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Speaker 1: Judah sits down, content to lose the signet and his bracelets,
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Speaker 1: and forbids his friend to make any further inquiry after them,
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Speaker 1: giving this reason lest we be shamed Verse twenty three,
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Speaker 1: either one lest his sin should come to be known
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Speaker 1: publicly and be talked of. Fornication and uncleanness have ever
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Speaker 1: been looked upon as scandalous things, and the reproach and
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Speaker 1: shame of those that are convicted of them. Nothing will
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Speaker 1: make those blush that are not ashamed of these two.
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Speaker 1: Lest he should be laughed at as a fool for
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Speaker 1: trusting a strumpet with his signet and his bracelets. He
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Speaker 1: expresses no concern about the sin to get that pardoned,
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Speaker 1: only about the shame to prevent that. Note there are
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Speaker 1: many who are more solicitous to preserve their reputation with
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Speaker 1: men than to secure the favor of God, and a
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Speaker 1: good conscience lest we be shamed, goes further with them
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Speaker 1: than lest we be damned. Birth of Ferris and Zara BC.
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Speaker 1: Seventeen fourteen, verses twenty four to thirty. It came to
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Speaker 1: pass about three months after that. It was told Judah saying, Tamar,
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Speaker 1: thy daughter in law, hath played the harlot, and also, behold,
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Speaker 1: she is with child Byhortam. And Judah said, bring her
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Speaker 1: forth and let her be burnt. When she was brought forth,
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Speaker 1: she sent to her father in law, saying, by the
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Speaker 1: man whose these are, I am I with child? And
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Speaker 1: she said, discern, I pray thee who these are the
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Speaker 1: signet bracelets and staff. And Judah acknowledged them, and said,
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Speaker 1: she hath been more righteous than I, because that I
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Speaker 1: gave her not to Sheelah my son. And he knew
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Speaker 1: her again no more. And it came to pass in
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Speaker 1: time of her travail that behold, twins were in her womb.
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Speaker 1: And it came to pass when she travailed that the
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Speaker 1: one put out his hand, and the midwife took and
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Speaker 1: bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying this came
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Speaker 1: out first. And it came to pass as he drew
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Speaker 1: back his hand, that behold, his brother came out. And
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Speaker 1: she said, how hast thou broken forth, this breach be
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Speaker 1: upon thee. Therefore his name was called Pheres. And afterward
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Speaker 1: came out his brother that had the scarlet thread upon
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Speaker 1: his hand, and his name was called Sarah. Here is
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Speaker 1: one Judah's rigor against Tamar. When he heard she was
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Speaker 1: an adulteress. She was in the eye of a law
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Speaker 1: Sheila's wife, and therefore her being with child by another
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Speaker 1: was looked upon as an injury and reproach to Judah's family.
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Speaker 1: Bring her forth, therefore, says Judah, the master of the family,
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Speaker 1: and let her be burnt, not burnt to death, but
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Speaker 1: burnt in the cheek or forehead stigmatized. For a harlot,
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Speaker 1: this seems probable Verse twenty four. Note it is a
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Speaker 1: common thing for men to be severe against those very
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Speaker 1: sins in others in which yet they allowed themselves, and
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Speaker 1: so in judging others they condemned themselves Romans, Chapter two,
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Speaker 1: verse one, Chapter fourteen, verse twenty two. If he designed
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Speaker 1: that she should be burnt to death, perhaps under pretense
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Speaker 1: of zeal against the sin, he was contriving how to
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Speaker 1: get rid of his daughter in law, being loath to
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Speaker 1: marry Sheila to her. Note it is a common thing,
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Speaker 1: but a very bad thing to cover malice against men's
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Speaker 1: persons with a show of zeal against their vices. Two
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Speaker 1: Judah's shame when it was made to appear that he
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Speaker 1: was the adulterer. She produced the ring and the bracelets
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Speaker 1: in court, which justified the fathering of the child upon
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Speaker 1: Judah Verses twenty five and twenty six. Note the wickedness
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Speaker 1: that has been most secretly committed and most industriously concealed,
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Speaker 1: yet sometimes is strangely brought to light, to the shame
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Speaker 1: and confusion of those who have said, no, I sees
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Speaker 1: a bird of the air may carry the voice. However,
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Speaker 1: there is a destroying day coming, when all will be
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Speaker 1: laid open. Some of the Jewish writers observe that, as
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Speaker 1: Judah had said to his father, see is this thy
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Speaker 1: son's coat? Chapter thirty seven, verse thirty two, so it
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Speaker 1: was now said to him, see are these thy signet
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Speaker 1: and islets Judah, being convicted by his own conscience, one
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Speaker 1: confesses his sin. She has been more righteous than I.
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Speaker 1: He owns that a perpetual mark of infamy should be
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Speaker 1: fastened rather upon him who have been so much accessory
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Speaker 1: to it. Note those offenders ought to be treated with
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Speaker 1: the greatest tenderness to whom we have in any way
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Speaker 1: given occasion of offending. If servants purloin, and their masters,
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Speaker 1: by withholding from them what is due, tempt them to
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Speaker 1: it they ought to forgive them. Two he never returned
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Speaker 1: to it again. He knew her again no more. Note
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Speaker 1: those do not truly repent their sins, that do not
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Speaker 1: forsake them. Three the building up of Judah's family hereby notwithstanding,
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Speaker 1: in the birth of Pharas and Zara, from whom descended
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Speaker 1: the most considerable families of the illustrious tribe of Judah,
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Speaker 1: it should seem the birth was hard to the mother,
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Speaker 1: by which she was corrected for her sin. The children, also,
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Speaker 1: like Jacob and Esaus, struggled for the birthright, and Ferris
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Speaker 1: obtained it. Who is ever named first, and from him
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Speaker 1: Christ descended. He had his name from his breaking forth
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Speaker 1: before his brother. This breach be upon thee which is
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Speaker 1: applicable to those that so discord and create distance between brethren.
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Speaker 1: The Jews, as Zarah, bade fair for the birthright, and
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Speaker 1: were marked with a scarlet thread, as those that came
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Speaker 1: out first. But the Gentiles, like Farahs, as a son
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Speaker 1: of violence, got the start of them by that violence
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Speaker 1: which the Kingdom of Heaven suffers, and attained to the
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Speaker 1: righteousness of which the Jews came short. Yet when the
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Speaker 1: fullness of time is come, all Israel shall be saved.
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Speaker 1: Both these sons are named in the Genealogy of Our
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Speaker 1: Savior Matthew, Chapter one, verse three. To perpetuate the story
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Speaker 1: as an instance of the humiliation of our Lord Jesus.
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Speaker 1: Some observed that the four eldest sons of Jacob fell
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Speaker 1: under very foul guilt, Reuben and Judah under the guilt
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Speaker 1: of incest, Simeon and Levi under that of murder. Yet
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Speaker 1: they were patriarchs, and from Levi descended the priests. From
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Speaker 1: Judah the kings and Messiah. Thus they became examples of
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Speaker 1: repentance and monuments of pardoning mercy. End of Chapter thirty eight.