Please fill Pastor Anderson with your Holy Spirit. Bless him, Lord, and let his
sermon edify us all, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
Men, tonight I'm going to be preaching out of Genesis 38, but Genesis 37 provides
the necessary background to help understand what we're going to be
looking at in Genesis 38. Of course, Genesis 37 contained the familiar story
about Joseph being sold into slavery by his brother, and Joseph is the son of his
father's old age, and so he's sort of the favorite of his father. So his father
gives him a coat of many colors, and because he has this coat of many colors,
he's envied by his brother and even more. He has dreams that offend them and so
forth, but they end up throwing him into a pit, roughing him up, ultimately selling
him into slavery, and that specifically was Judah's idea to sell him into
slavery. So in that sense, he's the instigator of Joseph's wrongful
imprisonment and being sold down into Egypt and all of that. So that all
happens in chapter 37, and then in chapter 39, we pick up the Joseph story
again. In chapter 39, verse 1, Joseph was brought down to Egypt, and then the
Joseph saga continues uninterrupted pretty much all the way until the end of
the book in Genesis chapter 50. So from chapters 37 through 50, we've got this
big Joseph story, and then stuck in there, interposed, is chapter 38. Now some people
have said, oh well, you know, chapter 38 doesn't really belong there. You know, some
unbelieving scholar somewhere says, oh somebody stuck that in later, it doesn't
really fit or whatever. And I remember Pastor Jimenez telling the story about
how before he was a pastor, when he was a church member, he's sitting in an
independent fundamental Baptist Church, and the church was going through the
entire book of Genesis, verse by verse, and preaching through each chapter in
Genesis, and when they got to chapter 38, they just skipped the whole chapter. They
preached everything else in the book of Genesis, and then they just skipped it,
and they say, you know, we're gonna come back to this later, but, you know, we just
don't want to interrupt the Joseph story. We'll come back to it later, and of
course, they never came back to it later. They just preached about Joseph all the
way to chapter 50, and this is a chapter that most churches will just never even
touch. They'll never even talk about it. Even in a Genesis series, you know, Pastor
Jimenez testified that it got skipped. Now this is very wrong because we know
that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for
doctrine. We shouldn't be skipping anything when we're studying God's Word,
and if Genesis 38 interrupts the Joseph story, well then guess what that means?
The Joseph story is supposed to get interrupted because God interrupted the
Joseph story, so let's go ahead and interrupt it. That's why it makes no
sense to skip this, and in fact it is connected to the Joseph story. It's not
just some random commercial break thrown in that doesn't have anything to add, but
actually it adds a lot to the story, and I'm gonna show you lots and lots of
tie-ins with the Joseph story and show you how brilliant it is to put this
chapter in this exact place and how it functions in the greater story. Now the
first thing that I'm gonna throw out there even before we get into the
content of Genesis chapter 38 is that Genesis 38 being interposed here allows
time to go by. Basically it creates a little bit of suspense because you're
reading along and Joseph is sold to these Ishmaelites, he's sold to these
Midianites, and we don't really know what happened to him, right? And then it's like
we just go back to the family. It kind of creates this feeling of he's going into
Egypt, what's gonna happen? And for a little bit of time to go by while we cut
over to another story that's going on with Judah, then we come back, it allows
there to be a sense of time passing. But look what it says in Genesis 38 verse 1.
It says, "...and it came to pass at that time that Judah went down from his
brethren and turned into a certain Adolomite whose name was Hira." Now the
first similarity I want to point out between Judah and Joseph is the fact
that both of them are separated from their brethren and they're both going
down because the caravan that Joseph is sold to was said to be going down into
Egypt. So Joseph unwillingly goes down into Egypt separate from his brethren
and then Judah is willingly leaving his brethren and going down to dwell with
the Adolomite. So there's already a huge connection here that we can see what God
is doing in this story, what God's showing us, where you have these two
brothers going down in two different directions separated from their
brethren. One of them against his will, one of them by choice. It says in verse 2,
"...and Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shewa
and he took her and went in under her 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 conceived yet she yet again conceived and bare a son and
called his name Sheila and he was at Kizib when she bare him and Judah took a
wife for Ur his firstborn whose name was Tamar..." Now watch verse 7, this is key, "...and
Ur Judah's firstborn was wicked in the sight of the Lord and the Lord slew him."
Now stop and think for a moment, at the end of Genesis 38 when we leave off with
Joseph being sold down into Egypt, Joseph's father Jacob and even his
brother Reuben think that he's dead and we see that Jacob is rending his clothes
and he's mourning and he's so upset saying that he's bereaved of his child
and they try to comfort him. A little bit of time goes by, they figure he's gonna
get over it, he refuses to be comforted and says he's gonna go down to the grave
mourning for his son so he's bereaved of a child whose fault is it? It's Judah's
fault among the other brethren, obviously it wasn't just Judah, but Judah did this
to his dad causing him to experience the bereavement of his beloved son Joseph.
Well guess what, now isn't that kind of coming back around to Judah because now
Judah is bereaved of his firstborn son. Just as Jacob has to go through the
sadness of losing a child because he thinks Joseph's dead, well Judah now goes
through the sadness of his firstborn son being actually dead. But then the Bible
says in verse number eight, and by the way at the end of verse seven it says
the Lord slew his son, so this is definitely payback. Now obviously it does
say, you know, that Ur himself was wicked in the sight of the Lord and the Lord
slew him, but God could still have more than one reason for killing someone. And
by the way, having a wicked son is a punishment in and of itself. It says in
verse 8, 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 he should give seed to his brother and the thing which
he did displeased the Lord, wherefore he slew him also. So now Judah has been
punished by losing a second child. Two of his children have died. How can this be a
coincidence? Judah just caused his father to have to go through the loss of a
child, now he loses two children. Obviously not a coincidence, obviously
this is important to the story. Now obviously this story is a little bit
sordid, this part here in verse 9 is a little rough, but guess what? It's the
Bible. And this is why a lot of churches will stay away from this chapter, a lot
of pastors won't preach on this passage, but you know, shouldn't we let God decide
what is suitable for a general audience? Because we're supposed to read the
entire Bible and it's supposed to be read in church, supposed to be read out
loud. When it was first delivered to Moses it was read out loud to the entire
nation of Israel, men, women, and children. So apparently God thinks that men, women,
and children can handle this passage. Now maybe left-wing libtards want to put a
parental advisory label on it and say that it's wicked, or even maybe some
independent fundamental Baptists have gotten so prudish and they're just so
clean-cut that they actually have a cleaner mouth than the Bible, you know,
and this is too offensive for them. Well, you know, if you're too
offended by the Bible, well what does that make you? You know, like, isn't God
the one who decides what is acceptable, what is appropriate, what is right? So
it's the Word of God, my friend, and it needs to be all preached, it needs to be
all dealt with, it's all profitable, and it's all acceptable for a general
audience. There's no scripture in the Bible that I wouldn't read in front of
my family at any age because the Bible says every word of God is pure,
God's Word is clean, and God's Word is right. That's what the Bible says, oh you
don't agree? Okay, well, sorry, but you're not God so I don't really care whether
you're thinking that the Bible is okay or not, okay? But of course the God-hating
atheists of this world, of course they will get up and say, oh this isn't
acceptable for children, you know, meanwhile they will show their children
all kinds of things that we would be horrified and offended by, okay? It's
hypocrisy. At the end of the day, I'm gonna let God decide what's acceptable, and you
know, here's the thing, even when God deals with rough subjects like this, and
even when God talks about sordid things like this, he never goes into any kind of
graphic detail that would be something that would be, you know, inappropriate or
too much information, so therefore it's fine. I like it. So God's two first, excuse
me, God slew Judah's two firstborn children, and then it says in verse
number 11, then said Judah to Tamar his daughter-in-law, remain a widow at my, at
thy father's house till Sheila 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. Now
another thing I want to point out is the contrast between the fact that at the
end of Genesis 37 when Jacob's son dies he's really upset about it. I mean he's
just mourning and he's really upset, people are trying to comfort him, he's
refusing to be comforted. Isn't it interesting how in Genesis 38 we don't
see any of that from Judah? There's a contrast here where Judah is just very
matter-of-fact about the whole thing, you know, his two sons died, whatever, maybe
the third one's gonna die, whatever, you know, we don't see the same level of
mourning from Judah as we saw from Jacob. Let's keep going with the story here and
look for more similarities. It says in verse number 12, and in process of time
the daughter of Shewa, Judah's wife, died and Judah was comforted and went up
unto his sheep shearers to Timnath, he and his friend Hira the Adolomite. 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, for she saw that Sheila was grown and she was not given unto him to
wife. So here's the situation, Judah's firstborn son Ur is married to
Tamar but God slays him, God kills him before he has a child with her. So then
he says to Onan, Ur's younger brother, hey you need to marry Tamar and raise up seed
unto your brother. He refuses to do that, he dies, and so now Judah says to his
daughter and law Tamar, hey just hang out a little bit because Sheila my
thirdborn son is a little too young for you but let's let him grow up just a
little bit, he's a little too young to get married but we're gonna let him grow up
and get to a marriageable age then you can marry him but let's not marry you to
him yet let's see if he dies first. You know okay so let's hold off but then
happens is Sheila grows up and she realizes like I'm not getting married to
Sheila like basically Judah is stringing her along making her wait because Sheila
gets to a marriageable age and yet they're not getting married so she's
getting impatient she's kind of like what's the deal here what's going on is
Judah just stringing me along I need to figure something out here you know I'm a
widow I'm just hanging out I'm trying to move forward with my life here what's
going on so she hatches this bizarre scheme and it is obviously a very wicked
scheme also Tamar is gonna do this bizarre wicked thing of impersonating a
prostitute or dressing up like a prostitute okay pretending to be a
prostitute but she has a veil over her face like she's ashamed of being a
prostitute it's really to conceal the fact that she's someone that he knows
that she's actually his daughter-in-law Tamar and so she goes there she wraps
her face she covers herself with a veil and she is sitting there and it says in
verse 15 when Judah saw her he thought her to be a harlot because she had
covered her face okay now let's just stop right there for one second this
goes to show that in Bible days every woman isn't walking around with her face
covered like a Muslim because if they were then it wouldn't say oh your face
is covered you must be a prostitute okay otherwise you'd go to some Islamic
country and just be like prostitute prostitute prostitute I'm surrounded by
prostitutes okay Islam is a wicked false religion that's not based on the Word of
God and I don't want to see a bunch of Sunday school materials with a bunch of
women walking around looking like Muslims with stuff wrapped around their
face because that wasn't a thing because if that had been a thing where every
woman's walking around with their face covered he wouldn't just be like hey
prostitute he just think another day at the office I'm surrounded by women with
their face covered because I'm in the Middle East and all women have their
face covered in the Middle East no he sees her he's like whoa your face is
covered you must be a prostitute so basically what I'm saying so what we
know about the culture of this time period should come from the Bible not
some scholar somewhere making things up and telling us what things were like
back then without any real evidence okay so no in biblical days women didn't walk
around with their faces covered because if they had this wouldn't make any sense
and so he thought she was a harlot because she had covered her face which
proves that around 2000 BC when this happened that wasn't a thing and it also
proves that when the book of Genesis was written that also wasn't a thing and so
it says in verse 16 and he turned unto her by the way and said go to by pray
thee let me come in unto thee for he knew not that she was his daughter-in-law
and she said what wilt thou give me that thou mayest come in on me so they're
negotiating on the price of this transaction and here's what's
interesting about this first of all I want to show you the hypocrisy of Judah
here because Judah if you remember his wife died and so he's feeling a little
lonely and that's why he's even interested in this prostitute by the
wayside okay but on the other hand Tamar is pretty lonely too so his attitude
toward Tamar is well you can just wait and keep waiting and wait indefinitely
but as for me I'm not willing to wait so some chick by the side of the road
all right let's go you see the hypocrisy there do you see the double standard
there he wants to make Tamar wait indefinitely but he just can't wait for
a legitimate union to gratify this lust because what he ought to be doing is
marrying someone else and going through the proper process of getting married
and having a wife because obviously it is wicked to use a prostitute but
another connection here between Genesis 38 and Genesis 37 is that if you
remember Joseph when he goes down into Egypt he's confronted with a temptation
as well of an illicit encounter with Potiphar's wife because we got Potiphar's
wife trying to get with Joseph and he as a godly man resists that temptation
whereas Judah when confronted with temptation of an illicit manner he goes
headlong into the temptation and he's going to face the consequences of
falling into that trap and you know what the Bible says a whore is a deep ditch
and he who serve as a hoard of the Lord will fall there in and so every
prostitute well he didn't know this prostitute was a trap every prostitutes
a trap all right and so it's wicked stay away from that sin stay away from that
filth and wickedness it's always gonna be a trap and the adulterous woman she
is a trap too and so Joseph successfully avoids the trap of Potiphar's wife while
Judah falls into the trap of Tamar pretending to be a prostitute so you can
see how these chapters are connected it's not like Genesis 38 is just stuck
in there interruption apropos of nothing no because there's a contrast you got
two men going down separated from their brethren they're both faced with
temptation one of them goes to Egypt unwillingly Judah goes willingly away
from his brethren one of them resists temptation and is godly one of them is
ungodly and falls into the trap of visiting this prostitute and so you can
see the connection here between these two stories not only that one of them
has two children and they die and of course he has the third son but is
interesting Joseph goes down to Egypt and he has two children that live right
Joseph has Ephraim and Manasseh they live Judah has Ur-an-onan that die okay
let's keep going here in the story it says in verse number 17 and he said I
will send thee a kid from the flock so the price of this encounter is going to
be a kid from the flock a kid is a baby goat right or a young goat so this is
not a human child but a kid in the sense of a baby goat and so he says I
will pay with a young goat that's another connection with the Joseph story
because if you remember Joseph's father was deceived by the blood of a goat
because if you remember the way that they tricked Jacob into thinking that
Joseph's dead is that they kill a goat they take the blood from the goat they
rip up the coat of many colors dip it in the blood of the goat and then take it
to dad and they say hey is this your son's coat and then that's when he
assumes oh man he's dead so Jacob's deceived by the blood from a goat and
now basically Judah is deceived by this prostitute and there's a goat involved
right because he's offering to pay with a goat and so this woman says well okay
but how do I know I'm actually gonna get the goat I want to get the kid right
so it says in verse number 17 there she said wilt thou give me a pledge till
thou send it so she's basically saying I need I'm gonna have to hang on to some
kind of a deposit to make sure that I actually get this kid because otherwise
you're just gonna take off without paying the bill and I'm just never gonna
see you again so I need to hang on to something right and so basically she
says what will thou give me a pledge like can I hang on to something of yours
verse 18 he said what pledge shall I give thee and she said thy signet and thy
bracelets and thy staff that is in thy hand and he gave it her and came in under
her and she conceived by him so the signet ring is sort of like an ID it's
sort of like hey leave with me your driver's license and a major credit card
you know until you can come back with the cash or whatever that would be like
kind of a modern-day equivalent give me your give me your passport and give me
you know your necklace or the ring that you're wearing or that kind of thing
these kind of tokens that are really specific and unique to him okay so she
takes the tokens the pledge from him and he lies with her and she conceived by
him and she rose and went away and laid by her veil from her goes back to
looking like a normal person not like a Muslim and put on the garments of her
widowhood and Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend the Adulamite to
receive his pledge from the woman's hand but he found it out so he sends his
buddy with the kid so that he can get the ring and the signet or the signet
ring and the bracelets and the staff back in exchange for the payment but
his buddy can't find the prostate prostitute then he asked the men of the
place saying where is the harlot harlot is another word for prostitute where is
the harlot that was openly by the wayside and they said what kind of a
town do you think this is buddy there was no harlot in this place I added
that first part 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 and Judah said let
her take it to her lest we be shamed behold I sent this kid and now it's not
funny he's like look whatever I tried to pay let's just drop it lest we be
ashamed because it's embarrassing to just keep hey have you seen a prostitute
around here hey it was a prostitute you know this is like what get out of here
you couple of weirdos you know they don't want to just be constantly
searching for this shady woman doesn't make them look any better you know so it
says in verse number 24 and it came to pass about three months after that it
was told Judah is saying Tamar thy daughter-in-law have played the harlot
and they were just using that as a figure of speech they don't mean that
literally but she literally did play the harlot and also behold she is with child
by whoredom and they don't even know how true that statement is 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 my with child and she
said desert and I pray thee whose are these the signet and bracelets and staff
and Judah acknowledged them and said she had been more righteous than I because I
gave her not to Sheila my son and he knew her again no more now here's
another interesting similarity here go back if you would to Genesis chapter 37
and we just read this before the sermon I want to refresh your memory on this
one part but it says in verse number 31 of chapter 37 and they took Joseph's
coat and killed a kid of the goats and dipped the coat in the blood and they
sent the coat of many colors and they brought it to their father and said this
have we found no now whether it be thy son's coat or no now stop and think for
a minute okay we've got the sons bringing this item bringing this token
to Jacob and saying you tell us know whether this be thy son's coat or not
you tell it recognize it is it do you know it these you know and then now
compare that with Genesis 38 where she says at the end of verse 25 discern I
pray thee whose are these the signet and bracelets and staff do you see the
similarity there between them bringing an item to their dad saying take a look
at this whose is this and then notice how you know Timar brings the stuff to
Judas is hey take a look at this stuff whose is this stuff now do you think
that's a coincidence of course not God's showing us a contrast here with these
two different stories and one of the main ideas here is that if you deceive
you shall be deceived right Judah deceived his father and now in return
he's getting deceived and there's such a similarity in the way it plays out to
emphasize the connection so again we can see why Genesis 38 is there Genesis 38
isn't just some extra throwaway chapter let's skip it in a Bible study we don't
need it it's not about Joseph let's get back to the regular regularly scheduled
programming with Joseph no this is part of the story and ultimately Judah is
going to get right with God and Judah is gonna be a very different Judah when we
see him in Egypt offering to sacrifice himself for Benjamin and for his dad's
sake and so forth and so Judah is a key player when it comes to selling Joseph
in Egypt Judah is also a key player when it comes to Joseph revealing himself to
his brethren and Judah having come around and gotten right with God and
being a different type of person and so these stories are very much connected as
you can see from these examples that I'm showing you these connections that I'm
showing you so these things are shown and also not only that if you think
about it just as there's this same wording of like hey look at this stuff
whose is this if you think about it the actual thing that was used to deceive
Jacob was a piece of clothing am I right it was a piece of clothing because it
was the it was the coat that was shredded and dipped in blood everything
the piece the thing that was used to deceive Judah was a piece of clothing
the face mask right the the the the scarf wrapped around the face a piece of
clothing was used to deceive him so you can see how this is all very poetic the
way everything comes back around to bite Judah in the story and so once Judah
sees the tokens and realizes that he is the one who has committed this act with
Tamar now he can't exactly say burner at the stake since he's involved and he's
implicated this is very embarrassing and humiliating for him now so he's
publicly embarrassed publicly humiliated and Judah acknowledged them I mean at
this point Judah is busted and so he says yep that's my stuff that's my ID
that's my ring that's my bracelets okay and he says she had been more righteous
than I because that I gave her not to Sheila my son and he knew her again no
more now what she did was very unrighteous this is just what Judah is
saying and just because Judah says she's been more righteous than I doesn't mean
she's been righteous it just means that Judah has been even worse than her okay
that's all that means verse 27 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 now another interesting thing here is that
when Judah sinned against his brother and caused his dad to go through that
bereavement of losing a child if you remember he had two sons die right but
then now that he's been busted and punished and humiliated and he sort of
owns up to his mistake and admits that he was wrong at least about this
situation and he at least has some repentance about this situation and
admits his wrongdoing now he receives two children is that it's like he lost
two sons now he's getting two sons because she's actually pregnant with
twins and so one of them starts to come out and the midwife puts a little
scarlet thread on it just kind of mark it as the firstborn even though it
didn't come all the way out basically just the hand pops out of the mother and
she marks it like hey this guy should get credit for being born first just in
case he doesn't pop out first you know let's just let's just he called shotgun
because he got his hand out there and so she ties a scarlet thread just to mark
hey this is the one who stuck his hand out that's an interesting midwife verse
29 and it came to pass as he drew back his hand so then the hand goes back
inside of mom they as he drew back his hand that behold his brother came out so
the other kid that didn't get the scarlet thread on the finger ends up
being born first and she said how has thou broken forth this breach be upon
thee therefore his name was called Perez and afterward came out his brother that
had the scarlet thread upon his hand and his name was called Sarah okay so again
that goes with the whole theme of the book of Genesis where you constantly
have this swapping of the firstborn and the younger son swapping roles literally
every single time throughout the book of Genesis every single time those roles
are reversed and I did a whole sermon on that a while back demonstrating that
that was the thing with virtually every case in the book of Genesis okay so then
once we're done with that then we get back into the Joseph story and we
continue on with that now look ultimately Jacob is gonna find out that
Joseph's alive and they're all gonna go down into Egypt and as I said a little
bit before Judah actually becomes a righteous selfless person that ends up
standing before Joseph when he doesn't know it's Joseph and offering to
sacrifice his life for Benjamin offering this you know at first he wanted to
sell his own brother into slavery and and maybe even death who knows where
he's gonna go being human trafficked like that why did Judah want to sell
Joseph into slavery in the first place why didn't his brother unlike him what
was the main big reason because because envy because he's the favorite right
okay well after Joseph's gone who's the favorite now who's the favorite who's
the one where he says hey you guys can all go to Egypt but don't take Benjamin
because Benjamin you know I just couldn't live if anything happened to
Benjamin you know I mean hey it's too bad about Simeon but we're not sending
Benjamin he'd rather have Simeon rotting in prison than to send Benjamin because
Benjamin's the new favorite there's no question when you're reading the book of
Genesis that Benjamin is now the favorite Benjamin's the most important
why because those are the two sons of Rachel right Joseph and Benjamin and so
Judah has really changed as a person because at first Judah is willing to put
his father through misery and sell Joseph into slavery moved with envy as
the New Testament says but now when we have a new favorite Benjamin Judah is
saying all sacrifice myself for Benjamin take me instead of Benjamin I don't want
to see my dad go through sorrow I don't want to put my parents through that kind
of pain so just go ahead and take me instead that's a that's a 180 reversal
from how he was earlier okay and so another great thing we can learn from
the story is that you've got two young men taking very different paths you've
got Joseph who the Lord's with him he is resisting temptation he's remaining
pure he's doing things right he's serving God even in the worst type of
situation even among the heathen he stays close to God he stays right with
God and then you have Judah who just leaves his family he's kind of a black
sheep he's marrying a heathen his kids are so wicked they end up getting killed
he's going to a prostitute he's got all this weird complicated family drama with
his daughter-in-law and all these people and going through all this but in the
end though Judah does get right with God Judah does come around and become a
godly righteous person so you know this could be encouraging for someone who
does go down a dark path because Judah went down a very dark path but yet he's
able to be redeemed and in fact when you hear the word Judah typically if
you're a Christian if you hear the word Judah you're typically gonna have a
positive association I mean if I were just and part of it's because nobody
ever preaches on this chapter that's you know so that helps dude out a little bit
you know he's like yes skip Judah's in heaven like looking at pastor he meant
as his pastor like yeah good yeah good call don't interrupt the story keep
moving but anyway the point I'm kidding of course but the point is that if we
were to just go around asking Christians just take a survey of Christians if we
just listed a bunch of biblical names and just said hey you have a positive
negative or neutral association with this name you know if we said you know
Judas Iscariot bad Peter good right David's good right and just kind of had
a little test like that and then we just kind of put Judah on the list all the
other ones are just a decoy for scientific purposes I guarantee you that
overwhelmingly Judah would end up in the good category even with all this seedy
stuff going on in Genesis 38 and the reason why is because he ended good now
I have a suspicion that that if we put Saul on the list Saul would get a lot of
negative ticks even though Saul did a lot of great things even though the
Bible says that the Spirit of the Lord came upon Saul it says that about him
more than anyone else in the Bible Saul and Samson I believe are tied for the
most times the Spirit of the Lord came upon him so Saul was a good king at
first he did good things but the reason that Saul ends up in the bad column is
because he ended badly really your legacy is more determined by how you
finish even if you do very wrong things if you finish well that can make up for
a lot that can atone for a lot okay obviously not with regard to salvation
but with regard to your reputation yes and so if you have gone astray if you've
gone down a dark path come back to Christ come back to serving God come
back to church come back to the fold get right with God because if Judah can get
right with God after all the the stuff that he pulled all the wickedness that
he did so can you and God forbid if anybody here today decides to go down a
dark path in the future and ends up rebelling against their parents and
going out and being the black sheep of the family and doing stupid things and
and committing these type of sins fornication adultery etc you know
hopefully you'll remember this Bible story and you'll remember this sermon
and think to yourself hey you know what I like the prodigal son can also come
home again I can get right with God I can make things right even if it's been
20 years or whatever because we're talking about a long period of time
going by here okay between the time that Joseph is sold into slavery and the time
that all this happens I mean we're talking a couple decades going by and so
you can get right with God you can get back on the horse you can make things
right and so it's actually an encouraging story that somebody as bad
as Judah could still get right but at the same time you don't want to be a
Judah though you'd rather be a Joseph because Judah even though he eventually
comes around and gets right with God and he ends up getting a really good
blessing from his father in Genesis 49 because he ended his life well he gets
a good blessing God ends up blessing the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Judah
ends up being the tribe that gives us King David and more importantly Jesus is
of the tribe of Judah but that doesn't mean that he didn't go through a lot of
pain and suffering along the way as a result of of going down a dark path so
if you decide to rebel against your parents if you decide to go out commit
fornication and go out and live a sinful wicked life and get away from the things
of God you're gonna have consequences okay and some of those consequences
could be permanent you know I mean Judah had two of his children die and his wife
die and he's publicly humiliated and you say well how many people heard about it
well I mean we're talking about it right now and it's been like 4,000 years so
you do the math okay people heard about it it was well known I wouldn't want to
be embarrassed or humiliated in that way would you of course not and so when
you go down that dark path that's what you're signing up for public
humiliation sorrow pain grief loss you don't want to go down that road it's
better to stay right with God be blessed by God stay in the fold but if you do
leave the fold come back and that's what we can learn from the life of Judah is
that sure you're gonna go through pain and suffering but you can still come
back and you can still be used by God you can still have a good legacy in the
end let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for
this great chapter Lord and and Lord thank you for a no skip Bible where
every chapter is worth reading every chapter is worth listening to Lord thank
you for giving us this particular chapter Lord I pray that preachers all
over America and all over the world would preach the entire Bible including
this chapter and and that all of us as Christians would learn what we need to
learn from your word as we read chapters like this and Lord I pray that that
people would be reading Genesis right now Lord because I pray that they would
be on some kind of a Bible reading plan to get through the Bible in 2023 cover
to cover and Lord if they're not already on a plan like that I pray that they
would jump in and start reading and jump in and read the book of Genesis in
January and that they would read the book of Genesis every January or
whatever schedule they want to be on in Jesus name we pray amen