Page 36 - Pentateuch - Student Textbook

short verses a generation is born, and the eldest is old enough to marry. Moses has obviously left out a
lot of events. He is targeting something important.

As the history continues, Er is killed by God for general wickedness. Tamar is promised to the second son
following the practice of levitate marriage. Then Onan does not want to “raise up offspring” for his
brother and practices a form of birth control. YHWH kills him too, leaving the youngest son as the next
man responsible for a new generation. Tamar understands her situation and decides to take measures
into her own hands. Posing as a prostitute she gets Judah, her father-in-law, to have sex with her
without knowing who she is. She is pregnant and avoids execution at the command of Jacob by
producing proof of his fatherhood. Twins are born at the end of this happy family story, Perez and Zerah.

We scratch our heads over this lengthy chapter of lust. Why in the world did Moses include such stuff?
We can’t use this in Sunday school. No preacher is ever going to work through this chapter on a Sunday
morning. How does this fit into the ongoing account of God’s work in Genesis? We can work through the
concept of “levirate marriage,” strange as it is to modern minds. A man is to marry the widow of his
deceased brother to father a child who would “carry on the name of his deceased father and eventually
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inherit the family estate.” We remember a later instance of the practice as Boaz married Ruth (Ruth
3:2; 4:2, etc.). We might also understand some of the implications of the practice. “The brother-in-law
can apparently decline this obligation, but not without having to endure public humiliation and
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disgrace.” But why would Onan receive the death penalty from God for faking an attempt to continue
the line?

Perhaps the answer can be found in the little word “offspring” (v. 8). Since Genesis 3:15 an offspring has
played a major part in the book. Adam and Eve were promised one special descendent who would
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destroy Satan. Abraham was promised an offspring who would be a blessing to all nations (12:3). The
same was promised to Jacob (28:14). If word of a promised Messiah was passed on from one generation
to the next, that Messiah’s birth might be at the core of our chapter. Onan is then not killed for
practicing birth control of a sort but for refusing to be part of the Messiah’s coming. Much later in the
Old Testament we find out that Perez is an ancestor of David (Ruth 4:18-22) and later still in the New
Testament that Tamar is one of the maternal ancestors of Jesus (Matt. 1:3).

Here is Moses in a very blunt way showing God’s sovereign protection of his plan to bring his Messiah
into the world despite the wickedness of people. Nothing can stop him. God does not force people to do
evil or good. Yet he accomplishes his plans. He can take the worst of circumstances and bring about
good. This is the theme of the life of Joseph, displayed even in this side-track on the life of Judah, Tamar,
and others. Returning to Joseph, we find him in one difficult situation after another. As a servant to
Potiphar, he is obviously blessed by YHWH (39:2). Then Potiphar’s wife wants Joseph for some
adulterous fun. Joseph refuses, citing his place of responsibility and his relationship with God. For
refusing he is accused of rape and thrown into prison. In prison YHWH is with him (39:21), and he is put
in charge of the other prisoners. He does such a good job that the warden “paid no attention to
anything under Joseph’s care” (39:23). We wonder about Joseph’s “luck.” It doesn’t seem that God’s

41 Hamilton, Genesis 2:435.
42 Ibid, 435.
43 The Hebrew word for offspring occurs in Genesis more than any other book of the OT: 1:11, 12, 20;
3;15; 4:25; 7:3; 8:22; 9:9; 12:7; 13:15, 16; 15:3, 5, 13, 18; 16:10; 17:7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 19; 19:32, 34; 21:12,
13; 22:17, 18; 24:7, 60; 26:3, 4, 24; 28:4, 13, 14; 32;12; 35;12; 38:8, 9; 46:6, 7; 47:19, 23, 24; 48:4, 11, 19.

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