Tamar - Women in Jesus genealogy

Shalom (meaning the wholeness, peace, righteousness, goodness, and wellbeing, of God) is often seen in the most unexpected places. This week I’m taking a fresh look at the story of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38, and while the story is “messy”, it’s part of Jesus ancestry, and a real sense of Shalom shines through. This reminds me that God works within our messy lives and uses the most unlikely people for his purposes. God shows himself faithful, even in the lives of unfaithful people, and He can draw good out from bad and unjust situations.

In Tamar’s story, God comes to the agency and redeems a woman who lived in a culture where men dominated over women, often resulting in abuse or neglect. Even though Tamar poses as a prostitute and lays with her father-in-law to conceive a child, she is later declared to be more righteous than Judah who withheld his youngest son from her, leaving her destitute without a future.

In today’s culture, we might view Tamar’s resourcefulness as “morally wrong”. But in her day, the Hebrew concept of righteousness wasn’t divided morally into simple categories of right/wrong or good/bad. Rather, “righteousness” referred to what draws communities and people toward shalom. Tamar had acted to restore the rightful order and move Judah’s family lineage towards shalom. On realising this, Judah then recognized his own sin, and began to treat her rightly, declaring she is more righteous than he. After God humbled Judah through Tamar, he was transformed. We see evidence of this later, when Judah would confess his other sins before his long-lost brother “Joseph” in Egypt.

Through this story we catch a glimpse of God restoring the rightful order of things and bringing redemption to his people. Through this family line, God would bring about his ultimate plan of redemption through Jesus Christ, questionably born of a virgin, another messy story for another day.
This week, be reminded that God is with you in whatever mess you find yourself in.
 
I pray you will see and experience Shalom even in the most unexpected places.