Joseph’s story begins in these chapters, and we see from the very beginning that he will lead a God blessed life, even during hard moments. However, I want to just mention briefly that the story of Judah and Tamar tells us a very important concept present in the story of Israel. And that is that the lineage, the bearing of children, the continuation of a blood line supersedes almost everything else in the life of the tribe. In an act that we would think immoral, in fact one in which Judah considers it immoral, we see that Tamar’s actions are the higher importance, more right, thing to do.
26 Then Judah acknowledged them and said, “She is more in the right than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not lie with her again.
Genesis 38:26 NRSVUE
This won’t be the only time we observe the importance of lineage. Isn’t it interesting that both Matthew and Luke have Jesus’ lineage in their account of him.
Psalm note: Have not most of us cried out at one time or another, “How long, O Lord?”?
