Mistakes Made

Genesis 38

Sometimes politicians will make a public address over an issue and they will say, “Mistakes were made.” They make mention of it because something happened that should not have. The Bible mentions humans mistake but they were allowed to happen for a reason. God uses these mistakes for a reason. As we will continue with the story of Joseph the next chapter but now we focus on Judah. Judah is the heir of the messiah. This story is interesting because Judah is not at home living or in the area with his family. It might have been because he was guilty and disturbed about what they did with their little brother Joseph. It is easy to want to run away when you did something wrong. He moved to far away but married a Canaanite women named Shua. She had three sons. Er, the oldest, was born and then Onan and Shelah. 

In the culture it was common that the oldest needs to be married. That is why Jacob was to be married to Leah first even though Laban neglected to tell him that. Judah decided to find Er, the oldest son, a wife and as he took his time he finally found Tamar. The parents would try to arrange the marriages for their children because they wanted the best for them. Remember Abraham had the servant find Isaac a wife.  But somehow and the Bible does not say how Er died but he died because he was rebellious against the Lord. It says he was wicked against the Lord. The culture rules were if the oldest son died and was married the next son in line, if not married, was to marry the wife of the dead son. So Onan was to marry Tamar and they were to have children together. Another rule of the culture was if the son who married the wife and they had a child, the child was considered the heir of the dead son. Onan did not want to have a son that would not be considered his. This was considered wicked in the eyes of the Lord and he died. The next son in line was going to be Shelah to marry Tamar. 

There was a mistake that was made by Judah the father in law of Tamar. He saw a women in the distance that was attractive. He did not know it was his daughter in law for her face was covered. He had relations with her and became pregnant. It was told to Judah that Tamar has been immoral and was pregnant and he was furious and was ready for her to be put to death. She then brought certain things to his attention and he realized that he was in the wrong. She bore Judah two sons who were twins Perez and Zerah. When we read this we can not only be disgusted with how these people lived and treated each other but we also need to realize God uses people and through the line of Judah Christ will be. You could read this and say Judah did not know and was ignorant or you could say how come Tamar did not say anything. These questions may come up but the Bible is silent in these details but what we do know is that God is going to use this bad situation for his glory. We are going to see how God is going to use the bad situation of Joseph for his glory. God can use unfortunate bad situations for good. He did in the history of the Bible as well as the history of the church and will do so even now. Throughout any bad situation always ask God what he is going to do in it.