Messed Up Complicated Family and the Gospel

Sermon: Messed Up Complicated Family and the Gospel
Bible Passage: Matt 1:3

I. Character traits of Judah, one of the sons of Israel (Jacob)

1. Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood, His brothers agreed (Gen 37:26-27)

a. Judah hatches a business plan in which his brother, Joseph, will be sold to Ishmaelites who would take him to Egypt
b. Jealousy blinded his eyes in which he does not care about the wellbeing of his brother
c. Judah’s action amounts to human trafficking—i.e., he sought to gain from another person’s suffering
d. Along with other brothers, Judah deceitfully lied to their dad that joseph was dead and apathetically pushed his father into perpetual sadness
e. Judah was a man with no empathy

2. Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah where Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and made love to her; she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er. She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan. She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah.  (Gen 38:1-5)

a. Instead of correcting his mistake, he left his dad and brothers and went down to Adullam
b. The word “went down” is symbolic, i.e., from one level to a lower level
c. At Adullam, Judah married a Canaanite woman—another deviation from Gen 24:3-4 “You must not acquire a wife for my son [Isaac] from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living. 24:4 You must go instead to my country and to my relatives to find a wife for my son Isaac”

3. Judah got a wife for Er, his first born, and her name was Tamar (Gen 38:6)
4. But Er, Judah’s first born, was wicked in the LORD’s sight, so the LORD put him to death (Gen 38:7; cf. Gen 6:5)

a. Like father like son
b. Er has a perpetual epitaph “Judah was wicked in the LORD’s sight, so the LORD put him to death”
c. Tamar started off her family life with a bad person who God put to death

5. Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother (Gen 38:8)

a. Tamar had to sleep with another person who was not her husband
b. He happened to be a jerk who didn’t want to fulfill his levirate duty
c. “What he did was evil in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord killed him too” (Gen 38:10)
d. Judah’s sons had their dad’s traits of deceit and evil

6. Judah asked Tamar to live in her father’s house as a widow with a promise that Judah would let his third son, Shelah, to be her levirate (Gen 38:11)
7. Judah deceived Tamar with a false promise “I don’t want him to die like his brothers”
8. Judah—a deceiver!
9. Tamar changed her widow’s outfit to a prostitute’s and waited for Judah to pass by to trap him to have physical relationship with her

a. He did evil to others; now, it’s his time to receive from Tamar
b. For Tamar, Judah became the levirate
c. It’s an unusual ugly situation (incest!)

10. After three months Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has turned to prostitution, and as a result she has become pregnant.” Judah said, “Bring her out and let her be burned!” (Gen 38:24)

a. Self-righteous Judah whose reveals his hypocrisy
b. He ignores his character flaw, but acts righteous
c. When he came to know about Tamar’s pregnancy, he commends: She is more upright than I am, because I wouldn’t give her to Shelah my son”
d. He should have further confessed his visit to a prostitute as well, but he confessed only his mistake of not giving his son to Tamar

II. Summary of Judah

1. Judah had nothing attractive about his life
2. He harmed his brother, Joseph; lied to his father; married a Canaanite woman; deceived his daughter-in-law; guilty of the sin of prostitution, and hypocritically self-righteous
3. The Gospel:

a. Matt 1:3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah (by Tamar), Perez the father of Hezron
b. Rev 5:5 Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered; thus he can open the scroll and its seven seals” (Rev 22:16)
c. Isa 11:1 a shoot will come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from its roots will bear fruit (cf. Rom 15:12)
d. Gen 49:10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; the nations will obey him
e. 1 Sam 16:1 King David was born in the tribe of Judah

III. Summary of Tamar

1. Forced to live with three evil men
2. Accused of adultery
3. Lived much of her life was ugly and broken (an abused woman)
4. The Gospel: Tamar appears in the genealogy of the Messiah (Matt 1:3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah (by Tamar), Perez the father of Hezron
5. What is going to determine her identity?

a. Her pain and abuse?
b. Or her appearance in the family tree of the Messiah?
c. One’s past does not need to determine his/her present or future
d. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation (2 Cor 5:17)

6. Many people among us have messed up complicated life

a. Perez and Zerah, are they Judah’s sons or grandsons!
b. Tamar, daughter-in-law or wife!

7. Skeletons in many of our life; we live in guilt and self-isolation

a. Blended families, stepbrother and stepsister
b. Live with stigma

8. What is the Gospel or Good News? How does this Christmas affect our life?
9. Judah’s character traits or Tamar’s ugly background have not affected the way God chose for them
10. God uses damaged people to demonstrate the beauty of His love
11. God uses whomever he chooses, not because of who they are and what they can do, but because of his grace
12. Either we have caused damages to our life or others have caused damages to our life
13. Sin wreaks havoc in every area of our life
14. The Good News (the Gospel) is that God brings beauty out of your messed up life

Takeaway:

Let God chart a new course for your life through Jesus like Judah and Tamar rather than your past continue to isolate and haunt you