Sermon Tone Analysis

Matthew begins his gospel message about Jesus by laying out a genealogy of the family tree.

There are certainly some noteworthy features to this list of names.

This year for Advent I want to pick on five of those names.

It is the names of the five women that make it into the list.

Let me say that while there may be strides towards female equality in our time, two thousand years ago was a different story.

It is remarkable in that ancient society that writers of any kind would include women.

It was standard practice in those days for family records to only name the firstborn son.

So, it might appear that Matthew’s inclusion of five women in the genealogy is out of place.

But that gives us all the more reason to pause and consider why these five women are on the list.

It is unexpected.

Yet there must be something important here.

We shall see in the coming weeks that the theme of unexpected is shared by all five of these women.

And it is the unexpected features of their stories that help Matthew begin the story of an unexpected Messiah.

Today we begin with the first woman on the list: Tamar, the mother of Perez.

For this story we turn all the way back to Genesis 38.

The Family Tree of Jesus

This is a strange story for us to begin our advent season.

In fact, I imagine that many of us here may not even know who Tamar is.

And we probably have no idea what is going on in this story from Genesis 38.

Let’s begin by filling in some gaps to understand—first of all—how this story fits into Genesis, let alone fits into the story about Jesus.

Genesis 38 seems like a digression.

At first glance it looks like it does not fit with the narrative of Genesis.

It falls right smack in the middle of the Joseph story.

Let me back up a little bit and catch up with the bigger story happening in Genesis.

Jacob - tricks his father Isaac and gains the birthright blessing

two wives - Leah (ten sons, Judah is oldest), Rachael (two sons, Joseph & Benjamin)

Jacob is the son of Isaac, the grandson of Abraham.

It was Jacob who tricked his father Isaac and stole the birthright blessing from his older brother Esau.

Jacob ran away from home in fear that Esau would take revenge.

In his time away, Jacob marries two wives, Leah and Rachael.

Leah has ten sons and Rachael has two sons.

These sons would go on the become the tribes of Israel.

Many of us know about Joseph, one of the two sons born to Rachael.

Genesis 37 - Joseph sold into slavery by ten older brothers

It is Joseph who can see and interpret dreams, which gets him into a bit of trouble with his envious brothers.

And it is Joseph who is given a colorful coat by his father Jacob, which really ticks off his envious brothers.

So, the older brothers attack him one day.

They take his coat and stain it with the blood of an animal.

And they take Joseph and sell him as a slave to traveling merchants to be taken away to Egypt.

That story happens in Genesis 37.

Genesis 39 - Joseph sold to Potiphar in Egypt

In Genesis 39 we read about Joseph being sold in Egypt to work as a domestic servant in the house of Potiphar, one of the Pharaoh’s chief officials.

It is the wife of Potiphar who tries to entice Joseph to be her lover, but Joseph will have nothing to do with it.

And eventually it is the wife of Potiphar who unjustly accuses Joseph and has him thrown into prison in Egypt.

That’s all Genesis 39.

Genesis 38 - break in the story, Judah and Tamar

Right between those two stories about Joseph comes Genesis 38—the story of Judah and Tamar.

It may look like the Tamar story is completely unrelated.

In fact, there is something here pulling us into the theme that is developing in the Joseph story and pointing us ahead to Jesus.

Let’s consider how these all fit.

Jacob, Judah, Joseph…and Jesus

Judah is included in the family tree of Mathew’s genealogy because he is the oldest son of Jacob.

This is why the lineage of Jesus traces back through the tribe of Judah.

But even though Jesus comes through the descendants of Judah, there is a reference to the importance of Joseph which becomes highlighted in Judah’s family through Tamar.

Now then, who is Tamar and how does she make her way into the family?

Tamar - Canaanite woman, arranged marriage to Judah’s oldest son

The first ten verses of Genesis 38 tell us that Judah leaves his brothers for a while and goes to live somewhere else.

No explanation is given for this, so we won’t speculate.

While living away, Judah gets married and starts to have a family of his own—three sons.

He then arranges for the marriage of his oldest son to a Canaanite woman named Tamar.

She is not an Israelite.

The oldest son dies and leaves Tamar as a widow.

kinsman redeemer - husband’s extended family required to provide family, children

after death of two sons, Judah fails to do this

Now here is where we need to understand a little bit about marriage culture in that time and place.

Leviticus law directed that when a man dies and leaves behind a widow with no children—no sons, to be exact—then the closest brother is supposed to marry the woman and give her a family in the brother’s name for the sake of the widow.

This is what Judah does.

Tamar becomes the wife of Judah’s second son.

But this son refuses to do his duty to the Levitical law and he does not consummate the marriage.

Again, Tamar is left with no children.

This angers God, and the LORD strikes down this second son of Judah.

Now Tamar is a widow again and still does not have any children.

Judah’s youngest son is not yet old enough to become married.

So, Judah tells Tamar to go back to her own father’s household and live as a widow.

The presumption is that Tamar will become the wife of the third son once he is old enough.

But that never happens.

And there is another wrinkle in the story which might help explain Tamar’s actions.

There is a provision in the law which keeps expanding the duty of the family to provide a family for widows in the event that there are no more brothers.

It is called the kinsman redeemer.

We are going to see this again in a few weeks when we look at the story of Ruth.

By this law, Judah himself should have been the next in line to take Tamar as his own wife so that she could remain in the family and have children.

Judah completely ignores this.

Quick side note.

These kinsman redeemer laws that Old Testament Israelites followed were common among the other cultures at the time.

This would not have seemed odd or unusual to Tamar or the other Canaanite people—they would have held the same expectation.

What we read in Genesis 38 is a story about the way in which Tamar takes matters into her own hands when Judah fails to do what is required of him.

In a way which is very obviously reminiscent of Jacob, Tamar puts on something of a disguise to deceive Judah into passing along the blessing of the family birthright.

Just like Jacob disguised himself to fool Isaac and gain the family blessing, Tamar does something here which mirrors that deception.

She essentially tricks Judah into giving her the family blessing.

Tamar deceives Judah to receive the family blessing

Here’s the part of the story that I love.

In a moment of pure girl power, Tamar even thinks ahead enough to take possession of Judah’s seal and staff.

The seal was common in those days.

Each head of family would have some kind of uniquely carved stamp which would be used as a signature by making an imprint with dye or pressed into wax.

It is the equivalent of a driver’s license or passport as a form of identification.

The staff was also likely a symbol among the local clan of a person’s individual prominence.

Tamar can see what’s coming as a result of her actions, and she prepares to take the upper hand.

So then, Tamar becomes pregnant by Judah without Judah even knowing it was her.

And when word gets back to Judah that Tamar is pregnant, he calls for her execution.

Try to put yourself in Judah’s place for a moment.