This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to week 8, day 3 of our look together through the book of
Genesis and daily drive time devotions. Chapter 38 today, it is a chapter that I
wish was not in the Bible, because like the chapter that we read last week of
what happened with Dinah and the rape and then the anger that grew out of that,
and the chapter that we read of Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah, it's a chapter that
reveals the evil of mankind. It's a chapter about what happens in a family.

Let me read to you verses 6 and 7. Judah, one of the sons of Israel, Judah got a
wife for Ur, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar, but Ur, Judah's firstborn,
was wicked in the Lord's sight, so the Lord put him to death. So those are the
first couple of verses we're going to read, and in those verses you see that
Judah has a son who does wicked things in the Lord's sight, and because of that
he is killed, and Tamar is left without a husband.

Now according to the law of that day, the brother, one of Judah's other sons,
was to marry Tamar, or she'd be left destitute. A woman without a husband in
that day had no means of support, so it was the responsibility of one of Judah's
other sons to marry. And Onan does marry, but he's also wicked in the Lord's
sight, and he also dies.

So Tamar comes back and says, "Is there another son? " Because that was the law,
that was what was right in the sight of the Lord, but listen to what happens in
verse 11. Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, "Live as a widow in your
father's house until my son Shalaa grows up, for he thought he may die too like
his brothers.

" So Tamar went to live in her father's house. Because Judah is afraid, and that
fear grows out of the fact that his two sons had been so wicked, they died.
Because he's afraid, he does what is wrong in the sight of God.

Tamar comes up with a plan. Let me read for you what happens, the horrible thing
that happens in verses 12 to 18. "After a long time, Judah's wife, the daughter
of Shuah, died.

When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah to the men who
were shearing his sheep, and his friend Herah the Adulamite went with him. When
Tamar was told, 'Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear the sheep,'
she took off her widow's clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise
herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Anayim, which is on the road to
Timnah. For she saw that, though Shalaa had now grown up, she had not been given
to him as his wife.

When Judah saw her, saw Tamar sitting there at the city gate, he thought she was
a prostitute, for she had covered her face. Not realizing that she was his
daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, 'Come now. Let me
sleep with you.

' 'What will you give me to sleep with you? ' she asked. 'I'll send you a young
goat from my flock,' he said.

'Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it? ' she asked. He said,
'What pledge shall I give you?

Your seal with its cord and the staff that's in your hand,' she answered. So he
gave them to her, and he slept with her. And she became pregnant by him.

" Down in verse 24, here's what happens. About three months later, Judah was
told, "Your daughter-in-law, Tamar, is guilty of prostitution, and as a result
she is now pregnant. " Judah said, "Bring her out and have her burned to death.

" As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law, "I am
pregnant by the man who owns these," she said. And she added, "See if you
recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are. " Judah recognized them and
said, "She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn't give her to my son,
Shailah, and he did not sleep with her again.

" This chapter, it reads more like a soap opera than a chapter of the Bible.
It's like the story of Lot, it's like the story of Simeon and Levi, it's the
ugliness of sin, tearing families apart. As you and I read this chapter, there
is something, there is one thing that is striking.

The evil, it's just the way mankind acts when we're apart from God. But to me,
the striking thing is the response. There is a difference in the response in
these three chapters that really stand out of the ugliness of sin.

When we read about Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah, when he was confronted with his
sin, he tried to run away from his sin. His family got caught up in it and he
was not able to run away from his sin. He was still caught up in sin even when
he ran away.

You can't run away from your sin. Simeon and Levi, they, last week we saw,
excused their sin. We had to do this.

Look what they did to our sister. They didn't ask God, they didn't trust God,
they just felt like there was an excuse for their sin. So instead of running
away from their sin, they excused their sin.

But Judah, as evil as he had done, as wrong as he was, there is a difference in
his life. Judah admitted his sin and he forsook his sin. The Bible says in verse
26, Judah recognized these things.

Instead of ignoring it, pretending it hadn't happened, he said, "She is more
righteous than I. " Instead of saying, "Why did she trick me? " Instead of
saying what she did was evil and it was and it was wrong, instead of looking at
the other person, he looked at himself and he said, "I've been wrong.

She is actually more righteous than I because I would not give her my son. " And
he did not sleep with her again. He admitted his sin and he forsook his sin.

You and I, these chapters we've talked about, the story of Lot, the story of
Simeon and Levi, the story of Judah and Tamar, there is the ugliness of sin in
our lives. Maybe you've been protected from the kinds of sin in your life that
are expressed here in the book of Genesis, or maybe you're right in the middle
of those kinds of sins, homosexuality and incest and sexual immorality. Maybe
you feel like, "Oh, I haven't done anything that wrong, that bad," but the truth
of the matter is it's the heart of sin that God looks towards.

So whether this is your exact story or your story is different, we're all
sinners. We're all sinners in need of God's grace, in need of God's forgiveness.
And I can try to run away from my sin, but my sin goes with me.

I can try to excuse my sin, but I'll just remain an angry person and be cursed
by that excuse for the rest of my life, or I can do what Judah did. I can admit
my sin, I can forsake my sin, I can ask for God's strength to live in a new way.
Now, here's the interesting thing about Judah.

Judah, the tribe of Judah, is going to be the tribe out of which Jesus comes.
Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah. And Judah, for all the wrong that he
does in his life, for selling his brother into slavery, that wrong there, for
the wrong that you see here, there are choices that he makes of faith, even in
the midst of that wrong.

He chooses to admit and forsake his sin. We're going to see later in Genesis
that he chooses to sacrifice for his family. Judah, for all the wrong that he
did, admits his wrong, asks for forgiveness, but not only asks for forgiveness,
then forsakes his sin, begins to live in a new way.

In many ways, the story of Judah in the Old Testament is like the story of the
woman who was caught in adultery in the New Testament. This woman who was caught
in adultery, when she comes before Jesus, Jesus does not condemn her. Instead,
he forgives her.

Then he says to her, "Now go and sin no more. Admit your sin and then forsake
your sin. " As we talk to Jesus Christ today, if you've never said to Jesus
Christ, "Forgive me for the wrong things I've done in my life," if you're trying
to make up for those wrong things, if you're trying to run away from those wrong
things, if you're trying to just excuse those wrong things, in this moment, come
to him and say, "Jesus, forgive.

Forgive me. Forgive me for my sin. Can Jesus strengthen me, empower me to
forsake my sin, to begin to live in a new way?

I can't live in a new way on my own strength. I need you, Jesus Christ. So I ask
you to come into my life, to make me the person you want me to be.

Thank you for your forgiveness and thank you also for your promise of new life.
In your name, I pray, Jesus, amen. " Tomorrow, we're going to look at Genesis
chapter 39.

It's going to be Joseph living the dream as a slave in Egypt.