Leen Ritmeyer - Class 1: Women in the Line of Christ - Tamar

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   Well, good evening, brethren and sisters, and welcome to our Bible class for this evening. Another valuable opportunity to have our minds refreshed and elevated by consideration of God's Word. Particularly tonight, we're going to start a series to the title, Women in the Life of Christ. And tonight we'll be considering that subject under the leadership of Brother Lane Rittmire.

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   We'll begin by singing together hymn number three, which asks for our guidance from our Lord and God. Lead me, Lord, lead me in thy righteousness. Make thy way plain before my face. Hymn number three. To begin our study tonight, we'll read together Genesis chapter 38, and Brother Royce Nichols will lead us in that reading.

3. 1:03

   Thanks, Brother Royce. Reading with you from Genesis chapter 38. And it came to pass at that time that Judah went down from his brethren and turned into a certain Adolamite, whose name was Hira. And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shewa. And he took her and went in unto her.

4. 1:35

   And she conceived and bare a son, and he called his name Ur. And she conceived again and bare a son, and she called his name Onan. And she yet again conceived and bare a son, and called his name Shelah. And he was at Chezib when she bare him. And Judah took a wife for Ur, his firstborn, whose name was Tamar.

5. 1:56

   And Ur, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord slew him. And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. And Onan knew that the seed should not be his. And it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.

6. 2:21

   And the thing which he did displeased the Lord, wherefore he slew him also. Then said Judah to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, Remain a widow at thy father's house, till Shelah, my son, be grown. For he said, Lest peradventure he die also, as his brethren did. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house.

7. 2:45

   And in process of time, the daughter of Shuar, Judah's wife, died. And Judah was comforted, and went up unto his sheep-shearers to Timnath, he and his friend Hirar, the Adolamite. And it was told Tamar, saying, Behold, thy father-in-law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep. And she put her widow's garments off from her, and covered her with a veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place, which is by the way to Timnath.

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   For she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not given unto him to wife. When Judah saw her, he thought her to be a harlot, because she had covered her face. And he turned unto her by the way, and said, Go to, I pray thee, let me come in unto thee. For he knew not that she was his daughter-in-law.

9. 3:37

   And she said, What wilt thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me? And he said, I will send thee a kid from the flock. And she said, Wilt thou give me a pledge, till thou send it? And he said, What pledge shall I give thee? And she said, Thy signet, and thy bracelets, and thy staff that is in thine hand.

10. 3:59

    And he gave it to her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him. And she arose, and went away, and laid by her veil from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood. And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend, the Adolamite, to receive his pledge from the woman's hand.

11. 4:17

    But he found her not. Then he asked the men of that place, saying, Where is the harlot that was openly by the wayside? And they said, There was no harlot in this place. And he returned to Judah, and said, I cannot find her. And also the men of the place said that there was no harlot in this place.

12. 4:37

    And Judah said, Let her take it to her, lest we be shamed. Behold, I send this kid, and thou hast not found her. And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter-in-law hath played the harlot, and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom.

13. 4:58

    And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt. When she was brought forth, she sent to her father-in-law, saying, By the man whose these are, am I with child? And she said, Discern, I pray thee, whose are these? The signet, and bracelets, and staff. And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I, because that I gave her not to Shelah, my son.

14. 5:28

    And he knew her again, no more. And it came to pass, in the time of her travail, that, behold, twins were in her womb. And it came to pass, when she travailed, that the one put out his hand. And the midwife took, and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first.

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    And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out. And she said, How hast thou broken forth? This breach be upon thee. Therefore his name was called Pharez. And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon his hand. And his name was called Zara.

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    We're now asking, I'll call Elaine to come forward and begin our series on women in the life of Christ. Thank you, Brother Peter. Dear brothers and sisters and young people. In our studies, we're going to look at the reason why four women, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba, are mentioned in the line of Jesus.

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    Now, Brother Peter corrected himself in his prayer. It's in the line of Jesus, not the life of Jesus. You would have had a very long life if you would have seen all those women. But those four women are mentioned in Matthew chapter 1. If you go to Matthew chapter 1, we can read about the book of the generation of Jesus Christ.

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    So that's what the generation is all about. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren, and Judas begat Pharis and Zara of Tamar, and Pharis begat Eshram, and Eshram begat Aram, and Aram begat Abinadab, and Abinadab begat Nachshon, and Nachshon begat Salmon, and Salmon begat Boaz of Rahab, and Boaz begat Obed of Ruth, and Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David the king.

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    And David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Euryatia. So here are those four women. These four women, brethren and sisters, either risked their lives, they suffered the deepest humiliation, or they left their closest friends and family behind to show their faith in the promise of God that a seed of the woman would come to bring salvation to mankind.

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    In other words, they were saved in the bearing of that child that was promised to Eve. Many women must have had that hope in Israel, not just to have babies, which most women do in any case, but to become the mother of that child that was to overcome the seed of the serpent.

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    These women were living examples of that wise woman of Proverbs chapter 14. Well, Heritage College is nothing bad with that, is there? I may mention Heritage College in my talk in any case.

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    So anyway, Joel, there's something not quite right here. I'll just switch it off. Right. So where were we? I said they were the examples of that wise woman that builders her house and not like a foolish one who pluggers it down with her hands. But why were these four women especially mentioned in the line of Jesus?

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    Why not Sarah and Rachel and before that Rebecca? They were the great mothers of Israel. How would we cope with those four sisters? In Genesis 38, which we just read, we are told how Tamar got that promised seed from Judah. Not an easy chapter to read. And some families actually skipped a chapter in their daily readings because it's so difficult.

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    But Rehob's profession is also not one we would like to elaborate on. We wouldn't like to have sisters like that in our ecclesia, would we? And if our ecclesia was a Jewish ecclesia, we wouldn't like to have Rehob or Ruth in it either. Now David, he was the beloved king of Israel. But his actions with Bathsheba cannot be condoned.

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    Yet God forgave him when he acknowledged his sin. And we would have thought naturally that Abigail would have been the seed bearer of the promised seed. But no God chose Bathsheba. Would we then, in those women, see the beautiful qualities which God saw? Or would we look down our noses at those women as the disciples did at the woman of Samaria?

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    And they saw Jesus conversing her at a well. They marveled that he spoke with her. They wouldn't have done that. Spoken to a Samaritan woman and an immoral one at that. So the lesson we're going to learn tonight is that Yahweh sees not as men see us. For men see us at the outward appearance.

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    Or he sees with his eyes. But Yahweh looks upon the heart. With Samar, for example, we like to focus not on what she did, but why she did it. Indeed, if God elected these women to be the ancestors of Christ, we need to take into consideration what it says in Romans chapter 8 and verse 33 and 34.

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    It says that who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies us. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again. Who is even at the right hand of God. Which also makes intercession for us. It's good advice when we study any kind of the Bible.

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    Or when we talk about other members of the Ecclesia. Would Christ have condemned his great-great-grandmothers whom God had justified? These women are commended in Scripture for their faith. For how otherwise could it be mentioned in the line of Jesus? Rahab is mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11. It says, By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.

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    In James chapter 2, we get two examples of people that were justified by works. First of all, Abraham. And secondly, Rahab. She was justified by works when she hid her spies. So why is it then that God chose those women to be the forebears of Christ? I believe there are two reasons. First of all, is that no flesh should glory in his presence.

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    So that God may be glorified. If you look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1. And verse 23. It says, It says, Let him glory in the Lord. We also, brothers and sisters, are despised by the world, at least when we live a life in the truth. And Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter 4.

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    We are made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things unto this day. The word offscouring means the scum or the scrapings that which is thrown away with distaste. This is what these women would appear to be through the eye of the flesh. But Yahweh sees not as men sees.

33. 14:34

    Shall not the judge of the whole world do right? The second thing is that there is one thing which all these women had in common, all four of them. Apart from their faith and hope, none of them received that promised seed by their first husband. Because Tamar's first husband, called Ur, he was killed by God because he was evil.

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    Rahab was a harlot yet living with her family, which is quite unusual. However, Canaanite's women, when their husbands died, often went back to their families, like Tamar did, for example. It's not impossible to imagine that Rahab, her husband, may have died. And this was the only way to supplement her income from agriculture, because she was growing flax, wasn't she?

35. 15:20

    To make linen from. And to support her family as well. It was possibly a Canaanite's custom, which was well accepted among those nations that didn't have God's will to guide a society. She may actually have run an inn. Where the two spies would naturally go to. And what she did may have been a custom, part of the services of the hostel.

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    And then Ruth, her first husband, Mahlon, he died in Moab. And Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, he was killed by David. So why should this be the thing that all those women have in common? Possibly because in this way, God could select their husbands. When you look at it the other way around, it's to see that the woman we are talking about, the one who is in the line of the promised seed.

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    And because the first husband of these women had died, they were free to marry another. A wonderful example. Because like when we are made free from sin, then we are free to become the bride of Christ. We look forward to the marriage of the lamb. And without having their first and unnatural husbands, the seed was really the seed of the woman.

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    And not of that the original husband. But all of us are descendants from Eve. She was disobedient to God's commandment. And we all suffer the consequences of her sin in that we all die. But by God's grace, a seed was promised to the woman who was to overcome the seed of the serpent.

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    And that was ultimately fulfilled in another woman without a natural husband, Mary, whose seed was Christ. So then with this introduction, let us look then at those four women. And today we are going to deal with Tamar, these women of whom the world was not worthy, but who through faith obtained the promises, have obtained a good report through faith.

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    They became the mothers of the promised seed of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. And they build up the house of God. So let's start then by looking at Tamar in Genesis chapter 38. To be introduced to Judah. And some people have said, why is this chapter about Tamar and Judah right in the middle of the story of Joseph?

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    Because the story of Joseph started with Genesis 38 and continues all the way to the end of the book. But the underlying theme is how God is working to bring Judah back to him. Verse 1 in chapter 8 says, It came to pass at that time that Judah went down from his brethren and turned in to a certain Adolamite, whose name was Hiram.

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    Why did he go there? It was a going down indeed for him, wasn't it? But knowing Judah's character, which was later revealed through much suffering, is possible to suggest that he went down because he couldn't see the sorrow of his father. See, in the previous chapter, in verse 34, we read that, After he heard that Joseph had been killed, he rent his clothes and put sackcloth upon his loins and mourned for his son many days.

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    And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. And he said, I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning, that his father wept for him. And later on, if you go to chapter 43, when he stands before Joseph,

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    and he told him not to come back unless their younger brother is with him. And in verse 8 of chapter 43, And he's a turning point in Judah's character. Because later on in chapter 44, he says in verse 31, It shall come to pass when he sees that the lad is not with us, that he will die, and thy servant shall bring down the gray hairs of thy servant, our father, with sorrow to the grave.

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    And so, he couldn't bear to see the evil that came upon his father. And therefore, he went away. Now, after having done something evil, brothers and sisters, there are two ways of dealing with the situation. The first and the best one would be to confess your sins, like David did, and they are forgiven.

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    The other one is to run away, to escape, and to hope that the bad situation will go away. But that never happens. Certainly not when God is involved. Something as selling Joseph would never be forgotten. It's always on the conscience of their brethren. Look at chapter 42, and verse 21. Ruben is speaking here.

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    He speaks here for his brethren. In chapter 42, and 21, they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear. Therefore, is this distress come upon us. To see the anguish on the face of Joseph is something they could never forget.

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    But Judah chose to run away, and not cope with the situation, which he couldn't bear to see. That's the first thing he did wrong, and the second thing is, in verse 2, he saw there the daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shua, and Shua means shouting, and he took her, and went in unto her.

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    That's the most unhelpful thing to do, brothers and sisters, running away from your father's grief, and to marry a Canaanite woman. It's condemned by God through Malachi. If you go to Malachi, and keep your hands in Genesis 38, in Malachi chapter 2, we have God's judgment on the act of Judah marrying this Canaanite woman.

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    In verse 10 and 11, where God is speaking to them as his children, verse 10 says, And that's the evil which he did, apart from that first one he did. He profaned the covenant of God, which he had made with Abraham, with Isaac, and of Jacob. How does it get profaned? The children, brothers and sisters, they were half Jewish, and half Canaanite.

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    What good can come of people of such mixed backgrounds? What kind of education would these children have of their parents? I just will show this picture of Heritage College after all, because there we are as parents, and teachers working together, single-mindedness, to bring up new children into the truth. But if the parents are divided, one pulls one way, another pulls the other way, what good can come from that?

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    That's why God brought a flood on the first world, because the sons of God, the believers, saw the daughters of men, the unbelievers, that they were fair, and they took them wives of all that they chose. So the problem of the mixed marriages is really starkly outlined in the family life of Judah.

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    He was, by the way, first of all, he gave birth to a son in verse 3. She conceived and bare a son and called his name Ur. He was a half Canaanite, his half Jewish boy. She conceived again and bare a son and called his name Onan. And she yet again conceived and bare a son and called his name Shelah.

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    Then we thought he was at Kisip when he bare him. And Kisip means a lie. He was living a life of a lie, not a life of the truth. And these three sons, they were born to the Canaanite woman. Well, you get one pulling one way, another pulling the other way, the stronger of the parent will win.

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    In this case, the Canaanite woman, she won. She succeeded because, in verse 7, we read that Ur, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of Yahweh and Yahweh slew him. We read in verse 6 that he had taken a wife for Ur, his firstborn, whose name was Tamar. And again, Tamar means a palm tree, a wonderful symbol for Heritage College because it's an upright tree and we want our children to be upright like palm trees.

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    We don't know who she was or where she comes from, whether she was Jewish or Canaanite, but her name is a Hebrew name. And perhaps there's some kind of an indication later on in the chapter from which tribes he came. So Ur was killed by God because he was evil. And then, when he died, in verse 8, we read that Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife and marry her and raise up seed to thy brother.

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    That was a feeble attempt of Judah to impose the Leverite law on his family. That law was later incorporated in the law of Moses. In Deuteronomy chapter 25, a brother is required to take the wife of his deceased older brother and raise up seed in his brother's name. So that boy that would be born, the firstborn, would actually take on the name of his older brother and get the inheritance.

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    But in such a mixed family, with the mother not agreeing, and the father feebling imposing some order of the family, can you expect the cooperation of the sons? Of course you can't.

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    But it's the first hint, perhaps, that Judah felt that there was something wrong in his family. Usually young families, when the children get born, they get some pangs of conscience. Well, we must give some guidance to our children.

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    He left his father's house. He must have remembered all the wonderful laws which Jacob had imposed on his family. But after Onan was also killed by God because he wouldn't raise up seed for his older brother, then in verse 11, we're told that Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, remain a widow at thy father's house till Sheila, my son, be grown.

61. 26:22

    For she had less peradventure, he die also, as his brethren did. And so she went and dwelt in her father's house. But that means sending her into isolation. Well, what good can that do? Sending her away from a household where the law of God should have been ruling. But Judah did not act according to what he knew to be right is to give Sheila to Tamar.

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    Why didn't he do it? We just read it. Lest he die also. Now Judah was getting afraid. Perhaps he knew that God was working in his life after all. And in the next verse, in verse 12, we read, in process of time, the daughter of Shua, Judah's wife, died also. And so everything was taken away from him.

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    It was very much like Naomi. She left Bethlehem, the house of bread. Eliezer did it, actually. Brought his family away from the country, the promised land. And what happened? The husband died and two sons died. The same happened to Judah. And it's marvelous to see how God was working with Judah, by the way he says.

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    He made him suffer to bring him back to him. Just like God worked with us and also with the Jewish people. The word Jew is Judah. Judah means a Jew. Yehudim is the plural of the word. And it's a parable of how God is bringing the Jewish people back to him and he's still doing it.

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    The reason for suffering is that it brings out our real character. Jesus also had to learn obedience by the things which he suffered. What's going to happen next? Well, from verse 13 onwards, we get a part of scripture which we like to ignore and we condemn when Tamar played the harlot. But we need to look beyond the act.

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    We can openly condemn it. We can also ask the question what motivated her to act in the way she did. Tamar knew her father-in-law's character well enough. And where did she go to? In verse 14, we are told, she put her widow's garments off from her and covered her with a veil. I first thought, looking at the back of the hall, there was Tamar there as kind of a pup staring with a veil over her face.

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    She covered her with a veil and wrapped herself and sat in an open place. On the margin, it says, the door of eyes. It's petach en naim. It means the opening of the eyes. And indeed, what happened there was an eye-opening in both the character of Tamar and the character of Judah and also an eye-opener for us.

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    How do we judge Tamar? We often brought into situations which are real eye-openers into our character. How do we react to them? Remember that after Adam and Eve sinned, their eyes were opened. The same phrase as an eye-opening. But what they saw was not what they expected. They expected that when your eyes shall be opened, said the serpent, you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

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    But what they really saw was the eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, made themselves aprons, and they heard the voice of Yahweh walking in the garden by the wind of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh among the trees of the garden.

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    And by looking wrongly at scripture, brothers and sisters, we can also hide ourselves from God so that we cannot see the lessons which God is teaching us. So Tamar plays the harlot. It's not a normal word for a prostitute. The word is a kedoshah, it's a holy one. And among the Canaanites they had temple services and women were around the temple and they offered their services as part of a festival that was happening.

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    It was shearing time and after the shearing they brought offerings to the temple and some women were around that place. So we need to do some lateral thinking. The ease which Judah showed which he acted upon showed his character which was well known to Tamar otherwise she would not have dared do what she did.

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    She knew Judah well enough to know that he would make use of a harlot shows of course that he must be a desperately unhappy man. But the reason for Tamar was very different. Why did she do it? Because in verse 14 we are told at the end of verse 14 she saw that Sheila was grown and she was not given unto him to wife.

73. 31:13

    Was she so mad keen on Sheila? No, I don't think so. Perhaps she was. I don't know. But she wanted to be the mother of the promised seed. That's what was her task in the first place. That was the promise by being the wife of the first born son of Judah and she was not going to let go of it.

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    By the way how did she know that Judah was going to be the bearer of the promised seed? We are told in chapter 49. We go to chapter 49 at the end of Jacob's life and that is many years after this event we read there in verse 8 Judah thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies thy father's children shall bow down before thee Judah is a lion's welp from the prey my son thou art gone up he stood down he couched as a lion as an old lion who shall rouse him up the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh to him it belongs come and unto him shall be the gathering of the people bind the foal unto the vine and the asses cold unto the choice vine he wash his garments in wine and his clothes in blood of grapes yet the scepter shall not depart from Judah but how did Tamar know that?

75. 32:45

    Long before Jacob gave the blessing to his sons thus you must have listened to the family stories which Judah undoubtedly had told him if you go back to the beginning of this chapter he must have told you about Reuben in verse 3 Reuben thou art my firstborn my might and the beginning of my strength the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power unstable as water thou shalt not excel because thou wentest up to thy father's bed then thou defilest it he went up to my couch and Tamar must have reasoned a man like that can never get the promises there were two other boys in line for the promised seed in verse 5 you got Simeon and Levi their brethren instruments of cruelty are in their habitations O my soul come not thou into their secret unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united for in their anger they slew a man and in their self-will they dig down a wall curse me their anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruel are dividing in Jacob and scattered them in Israel so she must have listened to those family stories Judah talking about his brethren and she must have realised that those three would never get the blessing the next one in line was Judah she was an extremely perceptive woman knowing this long before Jacob actually said so the reward for her service to Judah was going to be a kid from the flock see in verse 17 of Genesis 38 when he asked to come in to her she said at the end of verse 16 what will thou

76. 34:25

    give me that thou mayest come in unto me he said I'll send thee a kid from the flock as a kid of the goats why would he suggest a kid of the goats which you know is a typical sin offering well perhaps Judah knew that what he did wasn't right and he paid a sin offering why did Tamar accept it she also knew that what she did wasn't right and she also needed a sin offering but we all brothers and sisters need a sin offering because we've all committed sins Tamar must have remembered the garden of Eden when God closed Adam and Eve with the skins of the lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world and Eve must have waited desperately for that seed of that woman to be born when Cain was born if you go to chapter 4 in Genesis it says there in verse 1 in Genesis 4 and verse 1 Adam knew his wife and she conceived and there Cain and said I've gotten a man from the Lord but that is not what the Hebrew says and he says I've gotten a man that Yahweh because she didn't get a man from the Lord she got a man from Adam because Adam knew his wife Eve and therefore they got a baby boy but she believed that that first boy was that Yahweh the one who shall be the one who should overcome the seed of the serpent but then she saw him growing up she must have been disappointed when he saw his character developing because he didn't have the right attributes he must have been

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    like Reuben and Simeon and Levi he has not the right attributes of character to overcome the seed of the serpent and therefore she called her next son in verse 2 she again bare her brother Abel and Abel was a keeper of sheep now let's speak volumes into the perception of Eve she thought as Cain I've gotten a man that Yahweh but she must have realized that he wouldn't be able to be the one to overcome the seed of the serpent and she called her second son Abel vanity she must have realized that none of her sons would qualify to become that one that Yahweh to overcome the seed of the serpent and women all three ages which have been waiting for that seed to be born was to overcome the seed of the serpent tabar tabar knew that seed would come through Judah and she wanted to be saved by burying that child she must have believed it very strongly that God would be with her what would have happened if she would not have conceived that she would have been just a harlot and she would have been self condemned but God gave her conception so instead of focusing on the natural deeds as men she is with his eyes why can't we look at her through God's eyes because he looks at her heart she risked her life to get that seed from Judah the promised seed knowing that if she would be found out or rather when she will be found out she's going to die it was an act of faith and as Judah said in verse 24 of Genesis 38

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    when he learned that Tamar was with child by Horden what did he say bring her forth and let her be burnt and that's so easy to say isn't it brothers and sisters very quick in condemning others but what about himself and why did he not first found out who was the man involved there's always a second party involved isn't there see the punishment was later adopted in the law of Moses if you go to Leviticus chapter 21 and verse 9 it says the daughter of any priest if she profanes herself by playing the whore if she profanes her father she shall be burned with fire now there's a punishment only reserved for a daughter of a priest normally when a harlot was found out she was stoned to death remember that woman taken in adultery when those Pharisees and the scribes came to Jesus and he says Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned but what sayest thou again they were very quick to condemn righteously so because it's forbidden the law of Moses but what does Jesus say he that is without sin among you let him first cast a stone at her so he mustn't be like Judah let him be burned without finding out all the facts and if those scribes and Pharisees we go to John chapter 8 would have only looked at Jesus and would have taken notice of what he was doing they would have stopped dead in their tracks in verse 7 or rather verse 5 we just read now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned but what sayest

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    thou this they said tempting him that they might have to accuse him but Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground and the rest is in italics it's not in the original text as though he heard him not Jesus is not like that he doesn't pretend not to hear anybody so when they continued asking him he looked up himself and said to them he did without sin among you let him first cast a stone at her and again he stooped down and wrote on the ground what was he !

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    it only would have looked over their shoulder and would have remembered Jeremiah chapter 17 look at Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 13 it says Yahweh the hope of Israel all that forsake thee shall be ashamed and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth because they have forsaken Yahweh the fountain of living waters and I feel sure that Jesus was writing down the names of those Pharisees and those Sadducees and those scribes that said she was taken in adultery they didn't do it out of good motives they wanted

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    in the earth but our names are written in heaven as we do all our best to keep our name written in the book of life and not have our name wiped out but Tamar was going to be burned with fire a punishment reserved for daughters of a priest and although there were no Jewish priests around was she perhaps related to the tribe of Levi who later became the priest because the punishment is not a usual punishment for harlots and also in that next chapter in Leviticus chapter 22 if you go back to Leviticus 22 the following chapter after 21 it says 13 but if the priest daughter be a widow or divorced and have no child and is returned into her father's house as in her youth she shall eat of her father's meat but it shall no stranger eat thereof when Moses wrote those laws he didn't just invent those laws they were already put into practice like Abram he kept all God's laws and his statutes and his commandment Moses wrote them down so there are two indications perhaps that she may have been the daughter of a tribe who later became priests and if that would be the case which we can't prove Tamar would have set in motion a tradition of intermarriage between the tribes of Levi and Judah remember Aaron !

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    well that can't be right it's probably Exodus chapter 3 yeah Exodus chapter 4 sorry I made a mistake in here in Exodus chapter 4 we read in verse 23 that Aaron took him Elisheba the daughter of Aminadab sister of Nachshon two wives because read those two names in Matthew chapter 1 they belong to the tribe of Judah and she beared Nadab in the bayou Eliezer and Ithamar so he became a strong link between the tribe of Levi and the tribe of Judah and later on also you get Joshebia the daughter of King Jehoram was married to the high priest and she saved her cousin's life who was Joash the king of Judah and Mary the mother of Jesus but her

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    so there are a few links and possibly more in the scripture where the line of Judah and the line of Levi intermarry and perhaps I only say perhaps this is the first instance of it so that Christ could claim to be both king and priest from both lines of his family but Tamar wanted the seed of Judah so that the promises could continue and therefore she risked her life what did Jesus say about people that risked their life he says in John 15 and 13 greater love has no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends so what a great woman she was however she knew that she needed something to save her life because she was going to be burned with fire and what is it in verse 17 of Genesis 38 he said I've sent thee a kid from the flock and she said will thou give me a pledge till thou send it now a pledge in Hebrew is the word for arabon the most interesting word it means actually to mix with another person it's still used in modern Hebrew when I first went to Israel in 1967 where's Joel can you get this machine going please I wanted to rent a car from an Arab and he told me how much it will cost and I agreed he said well tenly arabon he wanted to have an arabon a deposit he said I want some money to make sure that you bring that car back an arabon and that word actually is carried over into the New Testament into the Greek what was it what was

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    the pledge that she asked for in verse 18 we read what pledge shall I give thee which arabon will I give you and she said thy signet and thy bracelets and thy staff that is in thy hands and he gave it her and came into her and she conceived by him so they're not three individual items the signet and the bracelet and the staff they are all connected remember when I gave those talk in that wine museum place I showed you these bulles from the city of David those were those clay seals these were clay seals when they used to write a letter they used to tie it as a string and remember put a blob of clay on and these are stamp seals because as I showed you then they found a seal this is a proper seal a stamp seal which is on a ring it's a precious or semi precious stone and in reverse it has the name of Hanan the son of Hilkiah the high priest written on so if you would write the letter and then he put a string around the letter and put a blob of clay on and impress his seal into the clay so you can actually read who is the sender that is the character which means an imprint of the sender of the writer and so we found some other seals like this one of Baruch the scribe the son of Neriah and again not the seal was found but the impression in the clay from that stamp seal and you can read perfectly if you know ancient Hebrew who the sender is it's

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    like his signature now these seals only came into being later on in history in the time of Judah and Jacob they were called cylinder seals as you can see here a cylinder seal is a little cylinder about three four centimeters high and it got a hole drilled through the center so as you can see from the drawing on the right you can put a string around it and either hang it around your neck or attach it to your staff as Judah had done now in the seal certain things are graven in and if you take a piece of clay and you take your seal you put a stick through it you can roll it into the clay you get the same effect as the stamp seal which comes from a ring from a seal and so here you see the impression of the seal on the clay a battle bar goes through the hole and you roll it through the clay and it transfers the impressions onto the clay tablet they're carved from stone sometimes precious stone and they carve all sort of animals or birds plants things abstract patterns in and often writing and says in the bottom they were used to identify the person carrying it in fact it represented a signature of that person when he rolled it over a clay tablet and they would sometimes have something specific to their person or to their function Gudea he was a man an architect who lived in about 1800 BC the same time of we are reading about and he presents here a bottle with water flowing out of it two streams the

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    Euphrates and the Tigris and the tree of life growing out into the guard so he can continue with his work and in the left hand side you can see there is writing and they would write their name on that cylinder seal so when he would write a letter on a clay tablet then he rolls it on it and it was his signature he was an architect and he presented himself to the guard and he must be a qualified person and on the

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    his prescription he rolled his cylinder over a clay tablet and you can see him standing there on the left some of the instruments they used and again writing on the right hand side so that was the seal that was attached by a string to the neck of the person with you or onto the staff and the bottom one you see another Sumerian seal and you must forget that's where Abram came from so we would have continued those traditions there's a temple there on the left here a temple building is too open and writing in between and you have four birds flying and you have gazelles jumping around whatever they represent we don't know exactly but there's the kind of seal which Judah would have had attached to his staff now what's the significance of it if you go to Exodus chapter 28 we see where the word seal is used we read about the garments of the high priest in verse 36 that thou shalt make a plate of pure gold and grave upon it like the engravings of a seal of a signet it's the same word as the seal of Genesis 38 holy to Yahweh so it was engraved like you saw the engravings on that cylinder seal and if you roll it out if you impressed it then it was holy to Yahweh and that's how the thoughts because they're located in our forehead should be holy to Yahweh and the high priest's thoughts should certainly be holy to Yahweh and in verse 37 we read and thou shalt put it on a blue lace that it may be upon the miter

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    upon the forefront of the miter it shall be and that's what Tamar also wanted she wanted to have not only the seal but also thy bracelet the same word for the bracelet here that lace upon which that golden plate was fixed to the headdress of the high priest and so the spiritual meaning is not lost when we read in Revelation chapter 9 that was commanded that certain people should not be hurt they should not hurt the grass of the earth not any green thing nor any tree but only those men who have the seal of God in their foreheads and that's how we should be sealed brothers and sisters so when somebody reads our thought they can recognize the seal of God in our foreheads the bracelets those blue laces were very important if you go to Numbers chapter 15 we can read about the significance of those laces if we're 37 we read and Yahweh spake unto Moses saying speak unto the children of Israel and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribbon of blue a lace or a bracelet of blue same word peteel in Hebrew and it shall be unto you for a fringe why that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of Yahweh and do them that's what the bracelets represent and that you seek not after your own heart and your own eyes after which you used to go a whoring but that you may remember and do all my commandments and be holy unto your

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    Elohim I am Yahweh your Elohim which brought you out from the land of Egypt to be your Elohim I am Yahweh your Elohim you see in the seal it was attached by those ribbon of blue to the staff and was a staff in Psalm 23 we know it so well I will fear no evil when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me a shepherd uses a staff to guide his sheep it's like an extension of your body in Exodus chapter 4 we know the story so well that Moses when he was given a sign by God to take his rod or his staff same word throw it on the ground and became a serpent he took it up again and with that staff with that rod he could do all those wonderful signs it represents the extension of the only which is God and that staff was Jesus who first had our serpent nature but the second time like that leper's hand it was healed and all those wonderful signs they were done they were done by the staff so that's why she asked those very personal belongings of Judah his seal and his bracelet to tie the seal unto the staff and that saved her life because when you go back to Genesis 38 when after he had said bring her forth and let her be burnt in verse 25 read when she was brought forth she sent to her father-in-law saying by the men whose these are am I with child and she discern I pray thee

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    whose are these the signet and the bracelets and the staff and confronted with them Judah acknowledged them and said she has been more righteous than I because I gave her not to Sheila my son and in you again no more so these three things the seal and the bracelets and the staff saved her life we also are guilty of death we also got to be burned by fire unless we can produce this seal when we have the seal of God's name in our foreheads through the keeping of the commandments tied to the staff which represent Jesus who guides our life then our life will be saved at the judgment seat because Judah pronounced judgment on Tamar also judgment is going to be pronounced on us and we read out the wonderful thing that happened in verse 27 it came to pass in a time of travel that behold twins were in her womb it came to pass when she traveled that one put out his hand and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread saying this came out first it came to pass as he drew back his hand that behold his brother came out and she said how hast thou broken forth this bridge be upon thee therefore his name was called fire and afterward came out his brother that had a scarlet thread upon his hand and his name was called Sarah Sarah so it's a wonderful thing the scarlet thread the color of red the color of blood the blood of the was first given to Zerah God first gave his promises and his covenant to Israel but

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    they withdrew and then Paris broke through just like the Gentiles because you count yourself unworth of everlasting life said Paul lo we turn to the Gentiles we will come back to that scarlet thread in our next study God willing we will see how that scarlet thread can save lives now Judah's children by Tamar Sarah and Paris must have

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    and Judah had no more sons after that he must have been a broken man in view of that strange relationship with Tamar because he didn't marry her and afterwards after he stood before Joseph and everything had been put right with Joseph he must have told his father all the things they had done to him then he knew that God was with him again and there may be an indication in 1 that he put things right for Tamar also the member onan should have raised up seed unto his brother so that that first born boy would have the inheritance of his father now in 1 chronicles chapter 2 we get the families of Judah it starts in verse 3 the sons of Judah are Ur and Onan and Shelah then you get the sons of Pharaoh and Hazron and so on but I want you to go to let's start with three the sons of Judah were Ur and Onan and Shelah which three were born unto him of the daughter of Shua the Canaanite is and Ur the firstborn of Judah was even the side of Yahweh and he slew him and Tamar his daughter in law bare him Pharaoh and Zerah all the sons of Judah were five but now if you go to the next page in chapter four where we get more information about the sons of Judah first of all dealing with Pharaoh and Hazron and Carmi and so on but I want to go to see what happened to Shelah there's a third son of Judah and we read about him in verse 21 it's just a little undesigned scriptural

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    incidences the sons of Shelah the son of Judah so Shelah must have married we are told here who his wife was but we are told what was the name of his firstborn son and he called his firstborn son Er why would he call his firstborn son Er that was the name of his older brother for whom I believe he raised up seed so that Er may get the natural inheritance of Er who was the firstborn of Judah so it may be that Judah later changed his mind and his attitude towards Tamar after being reconciled to Joseph and put his family right so he may be married to Shelah and a wonderful thing when the whole circle is in a sense complete what can we learn ourselves personally from this moving and significant period in scripture at the judgment seat we also need something like a pledge to save our lives so what is our seal and our pledge or how do we get the pledge you remember this arabon in Hebrew and it's being carried on carried over into

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    that word is well known in Middle Eastern country is used as a down payment or a deposit let's go to Ephesians chapter one it's always difficult with Ephesians chapter one if you want to start somewhere in the middle because you want to have a verse for connection you could go all the way back to verse one but we don't have time to do that now it says in verse 12 that we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ so we're talking about trusting in Christ in whom ye also hoped or trusted after that ye heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation in whom also after that ye believed you were sealed with that holy spirit of promise so we also are sealed with that seal which Tamar wanted to have from Judah which is the earnest that's the word for pledge so the seal which is the holy spirit of promise is the pledge for what of our inheritance then we'll get our inheritance at the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of his glory so we also need a pledge in chapter 4 of Ephesians that word is used again it says in verse 29 showing how we must lead our lives let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good for the use of edifying that it may minister grace unto the hearers and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption so that all savors in that day of redemption if you go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5

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    again we see this word used in a wonderful context it speaks in chapter 4 about God who commanded the light to shine out of the darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ but we have this treasure in earth and vessels and in the next chapter 5 he speaks about that and he says in verse 4 for we that are in this tabernacle do ground being burdened because that light cannot shine out until the spot is broken like in Gideon's time so we are burdened not for that he will be unclothed but clothed upon that mortality might be sold out by life now he that has wrought us

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    and therefore we are always confident knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord for we walk by faith we are confident and willing rather be absent from the body and be present with the Lord because Tamer was absolutely sure that that pledge would save her life and as sure as she was and she knew that she needed it so we also have been given this pledge of the spirit we go a few pages back in chapter 1 Corinthians chapter 1 talking about the promises in verse 20 2 Corinthians chapter 1 just the previous page it speaks about the firmness of God's promises that he will certainly do as he has promised in verse 20 for all the promises of God in him are yea and in him are amen unto the glory of God by us how otherwise would Tamer have dared to do what she did she was absolutely sure about the promises of God now he which establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God who also sealed us the spirit in our hearts remember God doesn't look as man does he doesn't look at the outward appearance but he looks at the heart and that's where we need to have that promise remember in Revelation chapter 7 let's go to Revelation chapter 7 it's wonderful because the scriptures span right from Genesis to Revelation giving the same message all the way through and after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth holding the four corners of the wind that the wind should not

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    blow on the earth nor on the sea nor on any tree and I saw another angel ascending from the east having the seal of the living God and he cried as a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to heard the earth and the sea saying heard not the earth neither the sea nor the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads and I heard the number of them which were sealed there were sealed 144 thousands of all the tribes of spiritual Israel and so we get all those numbers what a wonderful thing brothers and !

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    sisters Now let's go to Romans chapter 8 and see the importance spirit of God it doesn't mean to say that we get little flames on our heads as the spirit was first poured out we only have the spirit of God in as much as we read the word of God and put it to memory and act upon it we read in verse 9 of Romans chapter 8 but ye are not in the flesh

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    he is none of his and if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness with the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that pledge !

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     you shall die but if you through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the body you shall live and Tamar lived because he had a pledge for as many as are led by the spirit of God they are the sons of God and so if you have this wonderful story of Tamar and Judah in the place of opening of the eyes how do we judge them as the Pharisees did or do we look upon the heart of this great woman of faith we have been given a chance to become the children the sons of God if we have that pledge in our foreheads a final quote is that beautiful quote in 1 John chapter 3 so remembering that that spirit word is the pledge that God will recognize and save our lives at the judgment seat of Christ and then he will give us our inheritance behold what manner of love the father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God therefore the world knows us not because it knew him not beloved now if he had a pledge are the sons of God it does not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and every man that has this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure there's now some opportunity