Here is a very interesting commentary on the story of Judah and how God saved his line (and possibly Judah himself) through Tamar. In this context, it is ridiculous to think that God killed Onan simply for practicing coitus interruptus, considering how beautifully orchestrated Judah’s union with Tamar was for ALL of our sakes:
As one of the sons of Israel, Judah is part of the covenant line-the Kingdom of God as it existed at this point in time. In this present age, we come to Christ through a church that is catholic-not tied to any one ethnicity or nation-and that is apostolic-founded by Christ’s apostles. But at the time of this story the covenant was centered on a special family that was eventually to become a Kingdom of Priests to all the nations. If you wanted God’s blessing, you needed to bless that family. If you were a Canaanite you especially needed to join yourself with them because God had revealed that the Canaanites were going to be exterminated in a couple of centuries by the Israelites.
The stakes involved in what happens between Judah and Tamar are nothing less than salvation and damnation. How one treats the chosen line of Abraham, demonstrates how one treats Christ and His covenant. Judah and Tamar, despite our different situation, teach us that we must desire Christ above all else.
Remaining in Christ is what all professing Christians are instructed to do, as the Apostle John recorded in chapter 15 of His Gospel. We must not abandon Christ for the world, yet that is what Judah does. In fact, the very language of v. 1 indicates this. Judah literally descended or went down from his brothers and turned aside to visit an Adullamite, just as he later, in v. 16, turned aside to engage the services of a prostitute. He has abandoned the covenant people.
Why did he do that? From our text, it seems for the same sorts of reasons which entice us to abandon our Lord.
First we face the temptation of evil company (vv. 1, 12 & 20). Judah becomes friends with a man who is quite willing to help him hire an harlot…Secondly, we see Judah involved in being unequally yoked through marriage (vv. 2, 15 & 16). Even this early in Scripture, the problem of intermarriage has already become a Biblical theme. In Genesis 6 we read of how the God-fearing sons of Seth were seduced by the pagan daughters of Cain so that no one was left but Noah and God destroyed the whole world with a flood. Abraham considered it extremely important for Isaac to not marry any local Canaanite women. Jacob followed the same course. Yet Judah doesn’t seem to care. When we read this rather terse description of Judah’s marriage, we’re supposed gasp in horror. All the concern voiced by Abraham regarding intermarrying with Canaanites doesn’t seem to matter to Judah.
And what happens when we abandon Christ? We get death. From Judah’s example we see what we’re told throughout the Scriptures: There is no life outside of Christ; only death. Having removed himself from the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Judah is removed from God’s blessing. Judah’s first two sons are wicked and are killed by God (vv. 7-10, 12). His posterity is dying out.
But even worse than death, is that without Christ our own hearts tend to love death. We see this in Judah’s downward spiral into depravity.** The man who simply sinned by intermarrying, umpteen years later has become a man who has a reputation for frequenting prostitutes (Tamar’s entire plan makes no sense unless she could predict Judah’s behavior). Furthermore, notice in v. 21, we’re suddenly informed that Judah thought he was engaging a temple prostitute. So not only is fornication at issue, but outright idolatry. Judah is obviously in a downward spiral.**
Judah found death outside God’s covenant, and he also came to love death more and more, but that’s not all that went wrong because of Judah’s drift away from Christ’s Kingdom. Judah also tended to spread death to others. Let’s remember that Abraham wasn’t simply called in Genesis 12 to be blessed so that the rest of the world could be cursed. No, he was set apart to be a blessing to the nations. By abandoning the Abrahamic promise, Judah ceased to be a blessing to those around him. The most obvious way this takes place is in Judah’s horrible example. Nothing short of a miracle would make anyone desire to be part of the Covenant because of Judah’s testimony.
But Judah presents more than just a bad witness, he puts up self-serving barriers. He not only refuses to enter the Kingdom himself, but he prevents others from entering it as well. Tamar, after having a husband so wicked that God killed him, and then another who abused her in order to rob her of his brother’s inheritance, for some reason still wants to become part of Judah’s family. But Judah lies to her in the hope that she will seek another husband, so he can marry off his last son to someone else.
But more than self-serving barriers, sin leads Judah into self-righteous, hypocritical condemnation. This begins when Judah regards Tamar as somehow responsible for the death of his sons, as if marrying his youngest to someone else will take care of the problem. Finally, in v. 24,** Judah jumps at the chance to kill Tamar. This way he was going to be able to gain freedom for his youngest son to remarry some supposedly non-lethal woman.** ***Here we see a man known for visiting prostitutes is quite unabashedly willing to condemn someone else to death for the same sin he himself is guilty of.
Judah’s sins should and would have led him and his posterity to death. And that would have affected not only him, and those around him, but also us worshipping here today. For Christ was supposed to come from the line of Judah. If it wasn’t for the way God drew Tamar, this would be a very sad story. But by God’s grace, while Judah abandons the Kingdom, Tamar forces her way in. ***
Classic.