Here we read that Judah, fourth son by Leah, leaves his family community to marry a Canaanite woman. They had three sons together; Er, Onan, and Shelah (vs. 1-5). Judah married outside of his family circle, and married into paganism. Canaanite people were infamous for worshipping Baal alongside of other gods. God allows freewill, and also the consequences of that freewill generally. Sin has to play itself out, so we can see for ourselves how ugly it really is; and it is through the consequences of our freewill that it is played out. At times, God does step in as we see with the three Hebrew boys and the fiery furnace, Daniel and the lions’ den, as a couple of examples.
We are introduced to the wife that Judah selected for his eldest son Er, her name was Tamar (vs. 6, 7). Er was ‘wicked in the sight of the LORD’, meaning a disregard for justice, righteousness, truth, honor, virtue, depravity, evil in thought and life – so it is grave apostacy. It reminds of the condition of the people who lived in Sodom and Gomorrah, or those in the days of Noah.
Judah then instructed Onan to take Er’s wife, Tamar, and marry her. Since Er died without leaving children, the custom was to have children with her to ensure that his departed brother’s line would continue and giving Tamar children to take care of her in her old age. This was a practice at that time, which was recorded later in Deuteronomy 25:5-6.
Onan would have received his deceased brother’s property by taking Tamar as his wife. However, if he impregnated her and gave her a child, especially if it were a male child, he would lose both the primogeniture and the double portion of the inheritance from their father Judah.
A bit of simple math shows that assuming Judah fathered no more children, this would cut Onan’s inheritance from two-thirds to one-fourth of his father’s total wealth when his father died. And of course, it would deprive Onan of the primogeniture, or leadership of the family, that would otherwise pass to him because his elder brother would have had no heir.
The sin of Onan, then, for which the Lord punished him with death, was that of going through the motions of obeying the law of levirate marriage in order to obtain his deceased brother’s property, but not actually performing his duty under that law—that of providing an heir for his brother—in order keep for himself both the primogeniture and the inheritance of a double portion of the wealth of their father Judah.
Onan made a pretense of following the levirate law, but in fact shirked his obligations to his family under the law, all from motives of greed and desire for power. In addition, Onan takes advantage of Tamar by having sex with her, but interrupts the act to prevent conception. This displeased God, so he slew Onan (vs. 8-10).
Tamar is now twice widowed by no fault of her own. Her father-in-law (Judah) was reluctant to giver her his third son, so he sends Tamar back to her family. Judah told her, Shelah was not old enough yet. Judah also charged her to remain a widow. Being sent back to her family would have created a stigma for Tamar. By law she was considered Shelah’s wife but she was a wife with no husband. Her future at this point did not look positive (v. 11).
Judah’s wife died and in time he was comforted. Judah and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went to Timnath where his sheepshearers were located. Tamar was told that her father-in-law was going to Timnath to shear his sheep. Desperate was desperate to have her status reinstated and was willing to do what she did. She removed her widow’s garments, covered her face with a vail, and wrapped herself. She then sat in an open place on the road to Timnath. Tamar saw that Shelah was grown, but she was not given to him as a wife. Judah passes by and sees her, thinking she was a harlot, he came to her and asked to ‘come in unto her’ – not knowing that she was his daughter-in-law. Tamar asked him what would he give her in exchange for sex basically. Judah told her he would send her a kid from the flock. Then, she asked for a pledge until the kid from the flock was received. Judah asked her what did she want and she told him his signet, bracelets, and staff. Judah gave it to her. They had sex and Tamar got pregnant by him (vs. 12-18). If Judah had been faithful in allowing Tamar to have his son Shlah perhaps this could have been avoided.
After the encounter, Tamar left her vail and went back home put one the garments of her widowhood. Judah did as he promised and sent the kid by the hand of his friend. Hirah was to get the pledge that he left with Tamar, but he could not find her. Remember, no one knew that it was Tamar who played the harlot. He inquired of the men there and asked them where the harlot went and they told him that there was no harlot there. Hirah returned to Judah and told him that he could not find her and that he was told by the men that there was no harlot (vs. 19-23).
About three months later, Judah was told that Tamar played the harlot and is with child. Judah instructed them to bring out and let her be burnt. It is interesting that Judah was so quick to judge and condemn Tamar, yet he himself was not leading a life that was fitting for a spiritual leader. Judah was next in line for the birthright from his father Jacob. When they brought her forth to be burnt, she sent Judah a message along with his signet, bracelets, and staff; saying it is by this man that I am with child. Now, in that time both parties would be stoned for adultery…though Judah was a widower – Tamar technically was not for she was espoused to Shelah. Judah acknowledge the items and said, ‘She hath been more righteous that I; because that I gave her not to Shelah’ and he knew her again no more.
Tamar gave birth to twins. One of the children put out his hand and the midwife tied a scarlet thread on his hand to identify that he came out first. But, the child drew back his hand and instead his brother came out first. The midwife did not understand how this breach happened. The first born was named was called Pharez. Afterwards came out his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his hand, and his name was called Zarah (vs. 20-30).
Tamar is an amazing study of God’s grace as Tamar’s status in the family was eventually secured and restored through the birth of her twin boys which came through rather unconventional means. But through all of this her son Perez became part of the genealogy of Jesus Christ.