Theological Commentary: Click Here
We just got
started with the story of Joseph, and immediately we take a small hiatus. Today we stop and talk about Judah. Our theme remains the same, though. We continue to talk about the human penchant
for sin and the brilliance of God’s oversight through it.
Let’s talk
about human sinfulness. This whole story
hinges upon the desire for Judah to fulfill his own desires rather than live in
obedience to God. We start this story by
hearing that Judah took a wife from among the Canaanites. Judah took a wife from a people who would
lead him away from God and his ways. Why
did he do this? He did this because his
assessment of her outward beauty was more important to him than his assessment
of her inner character. His own desires
are more important to him than God’s desires for him.
In due time,
Judah’s wife dies. In his mourning, he
goes looking for consolation. where does
he find consolation? He tries to find
consolation in a prostitute and is tricked into having sex with his own
daughter-in-law! Again, we see the
underlying rule of Judah’s sinfulness.
His passion rules his heart. He
isn’t a thinking man, he’s a man of passion.
Rather than decide between sin and righteousness, he pursues sin. He wants consolation and he decides that the
best consolation is with a woman who can give him a sexual release.
Unfortunately,
this general tendency is a tendency within us all. Some of us are able to control our passions
more than others, but all of us have certain passions that do rule over. We might not struggle with the same sexual
passions as Judah, but we all do have passion that rules over us. We all have our buttons that can be pushed
that causes passion to flare up and we choose sin instinctively. It is good for us to study stories like this
so that we can recognize where these tendencies exist and combat against them.
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