Reading for March 23rd

Read Genesis 38.1-15
38.1-30 Tamar and Judah
This story interrupts the Joseph narrative which runs from ch. 37 to ch. 50.
However, some of its themes and images are related to images and themes of the larger Joseph narrative.
Examples include the function of the goat (37.31 and 38.17,20), recognizing and deceiving with clothes (37.31-33 and 38.13-17, 26), and irregular sexual activity ( 38.14-18 and 39.7-18)..
The climax of the Tamar-Judah story is the birth of Perez and Zerah.
Perez becomes an ancestor of Israel's great king David (Ruth 4.18-22).
The long road of the divine promise to David included this irregular detour through Tamar and Judah.
This irregular ties in with the larger theme of the Joseph story as a whole: God manages to bless Joseph and his brothers in spite of and through the many detours of sibling rivalry, deception, slavery, imprisonment, and famine.
In verse 7: The story does not explain the way in which Er was wicked nor precisely how the Lord put him to death.
The details of the plot are not necessary.
In verse 8: The duty of a brother-in-law involves the custom of a levirate marriage.
The levirate obligation requires the brother of the married man who has died childless to have sexual intercourse with the dead man's wife.
The brother must do so until she becomes pregnant and has a child who will carry on the dead man's name (Deut 25.5-10).
In verses 9-10: Onan spilled his semen on the ground... What he did was displeasing.
This is not meant as a generalized judgment against masturbation or birth control.
It involves only a specialized case of failure to fulfill the levirate obligation.
In verse 11: Judah has no intention of allowing Shelah to perform the levirate duty of a brother-in-law with Tamar.
He apparently assumes association with Tamar somehow caused the death of his other sons.
He does not want the same to happen to his on remaining son, Shelah (v.14).
In verse 14: In light of Tamar's deception and Judah's blindness to what is actually going on, the meanings of the place names are significant.
Entrance to Enaim means opening of the eyes.
Timnah means conceal.
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