Tamar - The Setup

Genesis 38:1 At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah.

This if the beginning verse of the chapter that is going to introduce us to Tamar. It is important to understand a little of what has happened up to this point.

Judah is one of the sons of Jacob. Jacob is the one who's brother was Esau and their father was Isaac. Isaac was the son of Abraham and Sarah - remember the old couple and how Abraham was told to sacrifice Isaac? Now that we have the history, we can note that Judah is the great-grandson of Abraham.

A good portion of what is meant to be grasped here in this chapter would be lost without knowing the history. The story of Jacob (Judah's father) and his family is quite the soap opera - and I may go into that in a later blog, but for now - we'll talk about Judah - his son.

Obviously this man comes from a line of Godly men - I mean, he's the great-grandson of a man God promised would be the father of nations! Genesis 17:5-8 However, as human as we often are - so was Judah. When the verse states "At this time" - It's referring to the time when Judah helped sell his little brother Joseph into slavery - don't forget about ripping his colorful coat. Not only that - but he's associating himself with an Adullamite - remember what we said about hanging out with the wrong people.

We all make bad decisions - even as God's children- the question is, when will we realize it - and how many people will we hurt until we do realize it? Thus begins the story of Tamar...