Grains of Sand

She forced him to do what was right. Some might condemn her methods. But perhaps Tamar is one of those examples that prove the adage: desperate times require desperate means. Tamar’s story is found in Genesis 38. Judah’s daughter-in-law appears only briefly on the pages of history but that appearance is significant. Several years ago the Book Club that I hosted read Carolyn Custis James’ book, Lost Women of the Bible . It was a revelation, and I’d recommend it to anyone who wants a different perspective on some of the people that history often overlooks. Here’s the background to the story. The custom of the time (later to become part of Levirate Law as noted in Deuteronomy 25:5-10) was that if a man died without an heir his brother was required to marry the widow and produce a child who would inherit the dead man’s estate. It is recorded in Genesis 38 that Judah had three sons. The eldest married and died without issue. The widow, Tamar, was then married to the second son, who also d...

Google Images In the genealogy given to us in Matthew 1, there are four women mentioned. That Matthew includes references to these is probably unexpected. Jesus’ blood lines are being traced through Joseph as Matthew’s way of proving that Jesus was the promised Messiah, descended from David and the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham to bless the nations through his seed. Mind you, Matthew might have saved the ink in his pen since Jesus did not have one drop of his earthly father’s blood in His veins. He was the true Son of God and only the adopted son of Joseph, conceived in Mary by the Holy Spirit. And Matthew might have saved the ink in his pen by not referring to three of the four women mentioned in his list—at least under normal circumstances. But then again, the birth of the Messiah was anything but normal! The name of the first woman mentioned comes in Matthew 1:3 where we read: “ Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. ” If we look back at Genesis 38 ...