November 26, 2023

BEAUTY IN THE BROKEN: THE TEARS OF TAMAR

November 26, 2023

Charles Billingsley

 

Are you broken? As we go through seasons of our lives, we encounter times when physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually we feel we can’t make it another step. Today, as we begin a new series looking toward Christmas day, we will be studying the lives of five women in the genealogy of Jesus Christ whom no one would think should be there: a rejected daughter-in-law, a prostitute, a heathen Moabite woman, a wife who sun-bathed in plain sight of the king’s palace (inciting lust), and a young girl, engaged, who became pregnant. Any one of these situations would be a reason to desire to run away, but God used them to bring the Christ-child into the world. The Son of God, Redeemer of the world, was born of these broken women.

Focal Passage: Genesis 37-38.

Choose your friends wisely!

  • Can someone recap the years of Jacob, when he was having children, how the children got along, and what happened when they grew to adulthood? This was a summary of Gen. 37. What was Judah’s motive in selling Joseph, rather than letting him die in the pit? Does anyone recall the Hebrew words for Jacob being asked to “identify” Joseph’s coat of many colors, after the brothers had sold him?
  • Read Gen.38:1. Does the story of Judah remind anyone of another young man who wanted to leave the family clan and strike out on his own? Is it remotely possible that Judah could not stand the grief Jacob was enduring at the hands of his sons, in regard to the supposed death of Joseph?
  • Hirah was supposedly a man of nobility; even today, why is it so often that sons of wealthy or “noble” families tend to often get in trouble? Why would it be easy for Judah to pick Hirah to pal around with, after he had moved away from his family?
  • Read Pro. 12:26. Why does God warn us that our wicked companions will lead us astray, rather than that believers will impact the lives of the wayward friends?

Do not be unequally yoked with an unbeliever:

  • In Gen. 28, why did Isaac instruct Jacob not to marry a Canaanite woman? What happened to Judah after he left his family? What was the Levirate Law? Can someone tell the story of Tamar and her husbands? About how old may she have been?
  • How many sons did Judah have? What was he now afraid of? Had he himself shunned God’s law when he had married his Canaanite wife? Was Tamar also a Canaanite?
  • Read Gen. 38:12-16. Will someone summarize what happens here?

Guard your heart!!

  • Read Prov. 4:23. Tamar did the only thing she could think of in her circumstance, knowing she had no control. Do you agree? Did she have options? What happened over the next few months?
  • Read verse 24. Why did Judah get so angry when told of Tamar’s pregnancy? Read Lev. 20:10. What was missing here when carrying out this verse? Why does our sin always look so much worse when someone else commits it?

Judah

  • Read Gen. 38:25. Was Tamar in the right when she presented the signs from the man who had gotten her pregnant? How do you think Judah felt when he saw the objects? Do you think he recognized the hand of God when he was told, “Identify whose these are?” just as he and his brothers had said many years before to Jacob, about Joseph’s coat? Were the Hebrew words for “identify” the same in both cases?
  • Do you think this was a turning point for Judah? Later, in Gen. 43 Judah has returned to the family as the leader. In chapter 44, who steps forward to save Joseph’s brother Benjamin from (supposed) slavery? In Gen. 49, what is his blessing from his father?

Tamar:

  • If you had been the daughter-in-law in this story, what would you have done?
  • Tamar did not know God, but would you have thrown up your hands, said “If this is God’s way, I want nothing to do with Him,” or would you have acted in faith?
  • What can you take away from this story that could change your life?

 

TAKE AWAYS:                                                                                                                                                       

 1) Choose your friends wisely                                                                                                                      

2) Don’t be unequally yoked                                                                                                                                    

3) Stay faithful to God
4) Guard your heart                                                                                                                                     

5) Your sins will always find you out                                                                                                        

6) If your life is in sin, repent now!                                                                                                          

7) If you are abused or abandoned, you don’t have to let it defeat you: seek help, seek counsel—we’re here for you                                                                                                                               

8) The gospel is inclusive of every race, tribe and tongue                                                                                   

9) God will never leave or forsake you.

 

Close:  Are you truly broken? Keep in mind, you have a book written about you in heaven. It was authored by God (Heb.12:2), who, upon your salvation, has taken every thought, every action, every sin, and made them end so that good comes of the situation (Rom. 8:28). Think of Tamar: pushed to the brink of hopelessness, she plays the only card she can think of. What if she had not gotten pregnant? But she did! Even though she lived in the house of her father-in-law, she had two beautiful boys who gave her such joy. And though we don’t understand it, she raised them so that she and the son, Perez, were in the line of Jesus Christ. And if we can take Ruth and Rahab as examples, Tamar became a follower of Israel’s God. So can you.

 

By Sandy Day

November 26, 2023

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