Pray Thru the Bible

God Speaks

 38 About this time, Judah left home and moved to Adullam, where he stayed with a man named Hirah. ² There he saw a Canaanite woman, the daughter of Shua, and he married her. When he slept with her, ³ she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, and he named the boy Er. ⁴ Then she became pregnant again and gave birth to another son, and she named him Onan. ⁵ And when she gave birth to a third son, she named him Shelah. At the time of Shelah’s birth, they were living at Kezib.

⁶ In the course of time, Judah arranged for his firstborn son, Er, to marry a young woman named Tamar. ⁷ But Er was a wicked man in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord took his life. ⁸ Then Judah said to Er’s brother Onan, “Go and marry Tamar, as our law requires of the brother of a man who has died. You must produce an heir for your brother.”

⁹ But Onan was not willing to have a child who would not be his own heir. So whenever he had intercourse with his brother’s wife, he spilled the semen on the ground. This prevented her from having a child who would belong to his brother. ¹⁰ But the Lord considered it evil for Onan to deny a child to his dead brother. So the Lord took Onan’s life, too.

¹¹ Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, “Go back to your parents’ home and remain a widow until my son Shelah is old enough to marry you.” (But Judah didn’t really intend to do this because he was afraid Shelah would also die, like his two brothers.) So Tamar went back to live in her father’s home.

¹² Some years later Judah’s wife died. After the time of mourning was over, Judah and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went up to Timnah to supervise the shearing of his sheep. ¹³ Someone told Tamar, “Look, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep.”

¹⁴ Tamar was aware that Shelah had grown up, but no arrangements had been made for her to come and marry him. So she changed out of her widow’s clothing and covered herself with a veil to disguise herself. Then she sat beside the road at the entrance to the village of Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. ¹⁵ Judah noticed her and thought she was a prostitute, since she had covered her face. ¹⁶ So he stopped and propositioned her. “Let me have sex with you,” he said, not realizing that she was his own daughter-in-law.

“How much will you pay to have sex with me?” Tamar asked.

¹⁷ “I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,” Judah promised.

“But what will you give me to guarantee that you will send the goat?” she asked.

¹⁸ “What kind of guarantee do you want?” he replied.

She answered, “Leave me your identification seal and its cord and the walking stick you are carrying.” So Judah gave them to her. Then he had intercourse with her, and she became pregnant. ¹⁹ Afterward she went back home, took off her veil, and put on her widow’s clothing as usual.

²⁰ Later Judah asked his friend Hirah the Adullamite to take the young goat to the woman and to pick up the things he had given her as his guarantee. But Hirah couldn’t find her. ²¹ So he asked the men who lived there, “Where can I find the shrine prostitute who was sitting beside the road at the entrance to Enaim?”

“We’ve never had a shrine prostitute here,” they replied.

²² So Hirah returned to Judah and told him, “I couldn’t find her anywhere, and the men of the village claim they’ve never had a shrine prostitute there.”

²³ “Then let her keep the things I gave her,” Judah said. “I sent the young goat as we agreed, but you couldn’t find her. We’d be the laughingstock of the village if we went back again to look for her.”

²⁴ About three months later, Judah was told, “Tamar, your daughter-in-law, has acted like a prostitute. And now, because of this, she’s pregnant.”

“Bring her out, and let her be burned!” Judah demanded.

²⁵ But as they were taking her out to kill her, she sent this message to her father-in-law: “The man who owns these things made me pregnant. Look closely. Whose seal and cord and walking stick are these?”

²⁶ Judah recognized them immediately and said, “She is more righteous than I am, because I didn’t arrange for her to marry my son Shelah.” And Judah never slept with Tamar again.

²⁷ When the time came for Tamar to give birth, it was discovered that she was carrying twins. ²⁸ While she was in labor, one of the babies reached out his hand. The midwife grabbed it and tied a scarlet string around the child’s wrist, announcing, “This one came out first.” ²⁹ But then he pulled back his hand, and out came his brother! “What!” the midwife exclaimed. “How did you break out first?” So he was named Perez. ³⁰ Then the baby with the scarlet string on his wrist was born, and he was named Zerah.

39 When Joseph was taken to Egypt by the Ishmaelite traders, he was purchased by Potiphar, an Egyptian officer. Potiphar was captain of the guard for Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.

² The Lord was with Joseph, so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master. ³ Potiphar noticed this and realized that the Lord was with Joseph, giving him success in everything he did. ⁴ This pleased Potiphar, so he soon made Joseph his personal attendant. He put him in charge of his entire household and everything he owned. ⁵ From the day Joseph was put in charge of his master’s household and property, the Lord began to bless Potiphar’s household for Joseph’s sake. All his household affairs ran smoothly, and his crops and livestock flourished. ⁶ So Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he didn’t worry about a thing—except what kind of food to eat!

Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man, ⁷ and Potiphar’s wife soon began to look at him lustfully. “Come and sleep with me,” she demanded.

⁸ But Joseph refused. “Look,” he told her, “my master trusts me with everything in his entire household. ⁹ No one here has more authority than I do. He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God.”

¹⁰ She kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day, but he refused to sleep with her, and he kept out of her way as much as possible. ¹¹ One day, however, no one else was around when he went in to do his work. ¹² She came and grabbed him by his cloak, demanding, “Come on, sleep with me!” Joseph tore himself away, but he left his cloak in her hand as he ran from the house.

¹³ When she saw that she was holding his cloak and he had fled, ¹⁴ she called out to her servants. Soon all the men came running. “Look!” she said. “My husband has brought this Hebrew slave here to make fools of us! He came into my room to rape me, but I screamed. ¹⁵ When he heard me scream, he ran outside and got away, but he left his cloak behind with me.”

¹⁶ She kept the cloak with her until her husband came home. ¹⁷ Then she told him her story. “That Hebrew slave you’ve brought into our house tried to come in and fool around with me,” she said. ¹⁸ “But when I screamed, he ran outside, leaving his cloak with me!”

¹⁹ Potiphar was furious when he heard his wife’s story about how Joseph had treated her. ²⁰ So he took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king’s prisoners were held, and there he remained. ²¹ But the Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love. And the Lord made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden. ²² Before long, the warden put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in the prison. ²³ The warden had no more worries, because Joseph took care of everything. The Lord was with him and caused everything he did to succeed.

Source: New Living Translation: BibleGateway.com

We Respond

Reflection: Genesis 38 and 39 taken together might be called “A Tale of Two Brothers.” Judah and Joseph offer differing approaches regarding sexual matters and their relationship to the LORD God. In summary, Judah separated from his family, married a Canaanite woman, and fathered three sons by her: Er, Onan, and Shelah. When he grew to adulthood, Er married a woman named Tamar. He was so wicked that the LORD took his life. They were childless. It was the custom of that time and culture for a brother of a dead man to marry the widow and produce children in order to carry on the family line and provide for her (especially if the couple had been childless). Onan did marry Tamar but refused to give her children. He did this by expelling his semen before he went into her (masturbation). Because of this wickedness, God took his life also. Dennis Prager* points out that it was not masturbation that was the sin for which God punished him, but for refusing to create offspring for his brother. Since Shelah was not yet marriageable age and fearing that God might kill his only remaining son also, Judah sent Tamar back to her family. Some years later knowing that Judah’s wife had died and Shelah, who was now of marriageable age, had not been given to her, Tamar disguised herself and had sex with Judah at his invitation. Judah was irate when he learned that Tamar was pregnant; however, once he was informed of all the facts of the situation, Judah said, “She is more righteous than I am, because I didn’t arrange for her to marry my son Shelah.” (Genesis 38:26 NLT). Perez, one of the twins born of that union is listed as an ancestor of Jesus in both Matthew (1:3) and Luke (3:33). Tamar’s name is also mentioned in Matthew (1:3). The name of the LORD appears only in reference to His judgment of the sins of Judah’s sons in chapter 38. People seem to be operating purely out of human “wisdom” and natural urges. In contrast, the words LORD or God appear frequently (7-9 times depending on the translation) in chapter 39 and always in a positive or reverent manner. The LORD was with Joseph and blessed him. In response Joseph diligently performed his duties and brought prosperity and order to his masters. This was in the midst of slavery, sexual harassment, false accusation, and imprisonment. Joseph even resisted sexual harassment and entrapment by saying he did not want to dishonor his master’s trust or sin against God. With the LORD’s blessing on Joseph, even the warden of the prison relaxed as he put him in charge of everything.

*The Rational Bible: Genesis by Dennis Prager (audio disc 13: tracks 4 and 5)

Prayer: Dear Father God who watches over and blesses His chosen ones, thank You for enabling me to succeed when I stay close to You and remember You are always with me. Please keep me from operating purely out of human “wisdom” and natural urges. Out of love and gratitude, may I seek to honor You in all I think, say, and do. May I also honor You by standing up to temptation and resisting or fleeing from evil, then You will shine Your glory out through me to others and bring glory to Your name. AMEN

Action: (Ask God, the Holy Spirit, if He wants you to work on the suggestions below or something else more personal that He points out.)

• I will honor God even in my sexuality.
• I will seek to diligently do the next thing I am assigned to do unless it goes against God’s laws or principles.
• I will not rely on my own understanding but ask God for His perspective the next time I have a decision to make.
• I will work at being reliable and remember that dishonoring someone’s trust is sinning against God. 

Share: I plan to share what I’ve learned with __________.