Genesis 38: “There was no harlot in this place.”
““The harvest is past, The summer is ended, And we are not saved!” Jeremiah 8:20 NKJV
One can only but imagine the anguish of soul and the desperate thoughts going on in Tamar’s head as she sat by a widow in her father’s house – realising the empty promise Judah had made to her. Judah’s third son Shelah had now come of age and she had not been given to him to fulfil the duty of kinsman redeemer. She had heard of the death of Judah’s wife and the days of mourning for her were now past, Judah was comforted.
It’s harvest time! New Covenant time! The fields are ripe and ready, and it’s time to preach the Gospel so those that believe it can enter into the Kingdom of God. The true gospel is being preached and sinners are coming to repentance. Tamar hears that Judah and his friend Hirah are on the way to Timnath to shear Judah’s sheep. Tamar decides to play the game Judah’s way. Judah’s language goes this way:
“…….., “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” Luke 5:31-32 NKJV
Now, Tamar knows her father-in-law very well. If Judah sees her in her widow’s clothes, he will definitely recognise her and by custom, he could never be intimate with his own daughter in law. Judah only eats with sinners and tax collectors so she better not try to be self righteous. He even allows sinful women to weep at his feet and wipe the feet with their own hair. Tamar decides to veil her face, dress like a shrine prostitute and sit on the open path in the way to Timnath. It was common pagan practice in Canaan for the men to sleep with shrine prostitutes at harvest time. In her sinner’s disguise, Tamar gets her heart’s desire.
Knowing that her ‘sinful’ act would one day bring judgement upon her, Tamar shrewdly asks from Judah a payment for the act of intimacy. Judah promises to send her a goat. Judging by Judah’s action in the matter of Shelah, Tamar will not take Judah’s word for it this time around. What value would the goat be to her? The blood of all the bulls and goats in the entire universe could never take away this huge ‘sin’ she was about to commit. She decides to ask for a sure guarantee of payment from Judah at the time of the transaction. Judah obliges, he agrees to give Tamar three of his very personal items as surety until he sends the goat. Judah gives his signet (seal), his cord and his staff. All three items symbols of Judah’s authority and a guarantee of his promise.
Judah then sends a goat by his faithful friend Hirah for the payment of his services to the ‘harlot’ but the woman is nowhere to be found. Even all the men around that place, who naturally would have used the services of a shrine prostitute at harvest time gave their word that “There was no harlot in this place.”
Judgement day arrives for Tamar when her pregnancy is discovered. Judah commands that she be brought out to be burned for her sinful act. Tamar has her ace up her sleeve, she pulls out her trump card, Judah’s personal items, in the presence of all the people. Judah, realising what he had done in ignorance, he has no choice but to take responsibility for his actions and declare Tamar righteous. Tamar is saved from certain death and goes on to bear the twins Perez and Zerah for Judah. A double portion, the reward for her shame and for the reproach of her widowhood. Tamar is back in Judah’s house where she belongs and Perez, the heir, carries on the promise of the Seed.
That there, is radical faith. When the seed of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ is sown into the heart of a sinner, it generates faith and true repentance. Christ gives us the seal of His Holy Spirit which is the guarantee of our inheritance of eternal life. The new believer is adopted into God’s holy family and Christ imputes his righteousness on every one of his sheep. He also takes upon himself the responsibility of paying for the sins of his children, our sin is imputed upon Christ.
“She has been more righteous than I, because I did not give her to Shelah my son.” Genesis 38:26
Judah’s friend Hirah had to take the goat of payment away when he failed to find the ‘harlot’. The better sacrifice was Judah/Christ himself. By declaring Tamar as “more righteous than I” Judah himself became the scapegoat for Tamar’s sin. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV
Just as Judah declared Tamar righteous before the people, so does Jesus declare us who have believed in Him, righteous before the father.
Like the men of the place confessed to Hirah
“There was no harlot in this place.” Tamar had been washed of her sin and regenerated by the Holy Spirit, she was a new man – it was as if she never sinned at all. When Christ has justified a sinner and sanctified them by his Holy Spirit they have a new identity, the old has passed away and all things have become new. Before God they are blameless.
And this, my dear friends , is “The Gospel According to Tamar.” Amen.
Reflection:
What promise or word of prophecy do you think Tamar was holding onto in her journey of faith?
……..now open your Bible and read Isaiah 54. You’re a child of the New Covenant. May it be to you according this word.