Jesus had to come to save us from God
The first woman mentioned in Jesus' genealogy is Tamar. The story that leads to the birth of her son Perez is far from a righteous and perfect one. Tamar's story certainly shows the wrath of God toward human wickedness and sin.In Genesis 38 we see that Tamar is the wife of Er, who is then struck dead by the Lord for his wickedness. We aren't told what Er did, but apparently it was bad enough to have God strike him dead. Er's death leads to some cultural norms from this time that I don't understand -- apparently it was a customary duty for the brother(s) of a deceased brother to impregnate the childless widow so that the deceased brother's lineage would be carried out. Er's brother, Onan, didn't mind sleeping with Tamar but he didn't want to have a child with her because he knew that the child wouldn't be his. Scripture seems to note that Onan slept with Tamar repeatedly with no intent of impregnating her - God stuck him dead for this. That's 2 brothers struck dead by God for their wickedness. Rightfully, according to the culture, Judah should have insisted that his 3rd son continue with his duty to his brother's childless widow - but instead Judah tricked Tamar and sent her back to her father's house until Shelah (the 3rd son) grew up...but Judah had no intention of allowing that to happen since God had already struck his other two sons dead during their relationship with Tamar.Long story short: Tamar ends up posing as a prostitute and Judah (Tamar's father-in-law) sleeps with her not knowing who it was and she gets pregnant with twins -- One of which, Perez, ends up being in Jesus' lineage.I have always known that Jesus needed to come to save us from our sin but I think that the story of Tamar shows us that Jesus had to come to save us from God. God's wrath is something that we couldn't survive without Christ. The grace extended to us through Jesus Christ is so amazing!
Created over 2 years ago
