Q10. Why Did God Kill Onan and Yet Spare Tamar?

TODAY'S HEADLINES

Source: http://rarebible.files.wordpress.com

<---  MAN DIES MYSTERIOUSLY AFTER ALLOWING HIS SEMEN TO SPILL TO THE GROUND

Source: http://biblestudyoutlines.org

WIDOW TRICKS DAD-IN-LAW INTO SLEEPING WITH HER AND GETS PREGNANT WITH TWINS --->

The above headlines are befitting for a tabloid like The New Paper.

So it would be shockingly scandalous if one were told that the above really happened and is actually recorded in the holy Scriptures, in Genesis 38 to be precise.

Genesis 38

The Message (MSG)

38 ^1-5 About that time, Judah separated from his brothers and hooked up with a man in Adullam named Hirah. While there, Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite named Shua. He married her, they went to bed, she became pregnant and had a son named Er. She got pregnant again and had a son named Onan. She had still another son; she named this one Shelah. They were living at Kezib when she had him.

^6-7 Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn. Her name was Tamar. But Judah’s firstborn, Er, grievously offended God and God took his life.
^8-10 So Judah told Onan, “Go and sleep with your brother’s widow; it’s the duty of a brother-in-law to keep your brother’s line alive.” But Onan knew that the child wouldn’t be his, so whenever he slept with his brother’s widow he spilled his semen on the ground so he wouldn’t produce a child for his brother. God was much offended by what he did and also took his life.
¹¹ So Judah stepped in and told his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow at home with your father until my son Shelah grows up.” He was worried that Shelah would also end up dead, just like his brothers. So Tamar went to live with her father.
¹² Time passed. Judah’s wife, Shua’s daughter, died. When the time of mourning was over, Judah with his friend Hirah of Adullam went to Timnah for the sheep shearing.
^13-14 Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law has gone to Timnah to shear his sheep.” She took off her widow’s clothes, put on a veil to disguise herself, and sat at the entrance to Enaim which is on the road to Timnah. She realized by now that even though Shelah was grown up, she wasn’t going to be married to him.
¹⁵ Judah saw her and assumed she was a prostitute since she had veiled her face. He left the road and went over to her. He said, “Let me sleep with you.” He had no idea that she was his daughter-in-law.
¹⁶ She said, “What will you pay me?”
¹⁷ “I’ll send you,” he said, “a kid goat from the flock.”
She said, “Not unless you give me a pledge until you send it.”
¹⁸ “So what would you want in the way of a pledge?”
She said, “Your personal seal-and-cord and the staff you carry.”
He handed them over to her and slept with her. And she got pregnant.
¹⁹ She then left and went home. She removed her veil and put her widow’s clothes back on.
^20-21 Judah sent the kid goat by his friend from Adullam to recover the pledge from the woman. But he couldn’t find her. He asked the men of that place, “Where’s the prostitute that used to sit by the road here near Enaim?”
They said, “There’s never been a prostitute here.”
²² He went back to Judah and said, “I couldn’t find her. The men there said there never has been a prostitute there.”
²³ Judah said, “Let her have it then. If we keep looking, everyone will be poking fun at us. I kept my part of the bargain—I sent the kid goat but you couldn’t find her.”
²⁴ Three months or so later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law has been playing the whore—and now she’s a pregnant whore.”
Judah yelled, “Get her out here. Burn her up!”
²⁵ As they brought her out, she sent a message to her father-in-law, “I’m pregnant by the man who owns these things. Identify them, please. Who’s the owner of the seal-and-cord and the staff?”
²⁶ Judah saw they were his. He said, “She’s in the right; I’m in the wrong—I wouldn’t let her marry my son Shelah.” He never slept with her again.
^27-30 When her time came to give birth, it turned out that there were twins in her womb. As she was giving birth, one put his hand out; the midwife tied a red thread on his hand, saying, “This one came first.” But then he pulled it back and his brother came out. She said, “Oh! A breakout!” So she named him Perez (Breakout). Then his brother came out with the red thread on his hand. They named him Zerah (Bright).

As a kid growing up in Sunday school, I do not recall any of the teachers daring to make reference to the above chapter in the Bible.  I was made aware of it as a result of reading through the Bible for myself and truth be told, I was extremely stumbled.

Several years later as a teen (with raging hormones), I did recall coming across a book that declared that masturbation was a serious sin, quoting Gen 38:9.  I was terrified, confessed and asked the Lord for forgiveness. and stopped doing so for quite a while, for fear that God would kill me too :p

Yet, that book's explanation did not really gel because while God killed Onan, He spared Judah and Tamar!  Deep inside, I was asking myself why was masturbation considered a serious sin punishable by death, yet sleeping with one's own daughter-in-law (while she was disguised as a prostitute) and getter her pregnant as a result, was not considered serious enough to deserve even the lightest form of punishment?

It was only recently that passages like this began to make sense.  In order to do so, one has to (yup, you guessed it!) use that "scarlet thread" to "connect the dots".  (See the blog entry entitled "Connecting the Dots Via the Scarlet Thread")

When we see events in the light of that first prophecy in the garden of Eden, about the promised seed of Eve, we can understand why God spared some and yet not others.  We note that inevitably, those in Jesus' genealogy were given His full protection and undeserved, unmerited favour.  Examples include:

• Noah, even though he was a drunkard
• Abraham, even though he was a liar
• Jacob, even though he was a swindler
• Judah and Tamar, even though they slept together as father-in-law and daughter-in-law

while those that Satan used to prevent the seed from coming forth were punished:

• the mixed-breeds who perished in the flood
• the heathen kings who tried to get fresh with Sarah
• the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah
• Onan, who spilt his semen on the floor

We are not told specifically why God killed Er (Judah's first-born).  But he was described in Gen 38:7 as "wicked in the sight of the Lord".  Given the great battle between good and evil, whereby God was arranging for the seed to come forth, one can probably conclude that Er, just like his younger brother, Onan, was inspired by the devil to prevent the seed from coming forth.

Not only were Judah and Tamar spared, Tamar was even given the honour of being specifically singled out and mentioned in Matthew's account of Jesus' genealogy!  [By the way, genealogies are supposed to only mention the patriarchs, yet the Holy Spirit saw it fit to record the names of 5 women, namely Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba and Mary.  I will blog about this amazing phenomenon of grace in a future post, so look out for that].

Oh by the way, Judah was actually Jacob's fourth-born, and chosen by God to be the tribe that not only led the Israelites into battle, but also produce a worthy line of kings, which included David, Solomon, Josiah, and of course, Jesus, the King of Kings.

Reuben, as Jacob's firstborn, was supposed to receive the kingdom, the priesthood and the double-portion inheritance. But because of his misdeed as recorded in Gen 35:22, whereby he slept with his dad's concubine, he forfeited his birthright, viz:

"The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel (he was the firstborn, but when he defiled his father's marriage bed, his rights as firstborn were given to the sons of Joseph son of Israel; so he could not be listed in the genealogical record in accordance with his birthright" (1 Chron 5:1).

As a result, the kingdom ended up going to Judah, the priesthood to Levi and the double-portion inheritance to Joseph (via grandsons Ephraim and Manasseh).

While this was divided under Jacob, all 3 have now been re-united under Jesus. Jesus is the King of Kings, our great High Priest and we are now co-heirs of the inheritance with Him.  Hallelujah!