Our Savior’s Ancestress: Tamar

Minister:
Date: PM
Text: Matthew 1:3a; Genesis 38
Psalters: 267, 382, 123, 230
  1. Great sin.
    1. Judah (the fourth son of Jacob) was the promised line of Christ (Gen. 49:8-12).
    2. But Judah was not morally better, for Scripture records also his sins.
      1. Judah left his father’s house (38:1), lived with the Canaanties and married one of them (38:2) having three sons (38:3-5).
      2. After his wife dies (12) he satisfies his fleshly desires with an harlot (16) and becomes an illegitimate father (24).
    3. It was God’s grace that Abraham’s descendants were taken from Canaan and went into Egypt.
    4. For the sake of accuracy and honesty God has this history carefully recorded.
  2. God’s purpose was and is to show the greatness and glory of His grace.
    1. The Savior’s presence is a wonder of grace – a life out of the dead.
      1. Abraham begat Isaac after he and Sarah were “dead” (Rom. 4:19).
      2. It is all of grace for man only sins and does nothing which merits with God; grace alone explains the coming of Christ.
      3. Further this history demonstrates the need which also God’s people have for atonement.
      4. Matthew records this (to Jews) to rebuke Jewish ancestral and national pride.
    2. This passage emphasizes the urgency that we do all we can to have our children marry in the Lord.
    3. This record of Judah’s sins is a proof that the Bible is of divine authorship, not human.
      1. The world glorifies its heros, but the Bible shows them for what they are.
      2. The Bible treats sin as sin: something abhorrent to God and to the sanctified conscience of God’s children.
      3. Sin is the back drop for the glorious and great grace of God.