Judah and Sons

     This time through Genesis, I finally understood why the ugly account of Judah and Tamar, which seems so out of place as the story of Joseph unfolds, fits there. Not only does it fit chronologically, but it explains Judah's change of heart when Benjamin is summoned to Egypt. Because it is not just the story of Judah and Tamar, it is also the story of Judah and his sons. Not only did Judah lose two sons, he lost them because they were so wicked God, Himself, put them to death. By the time the famine drives Jacob's sons to Egypt to buy food, twenty years had passed since selling Joseph into slavery. That means for twenty years Judah watched his father grieve for Joseph. Perhaps that is why he left his family and went to Shechem where the trouble with his sons started in the first place. Sometime during those twenty years Judah shared his father's cup of mourning, doubly so. God softened Judah's heart, but it was a painful process.

     Joseph tested his brothers hearts by offering the perfect opportunity to rid the family of Daddy's new favorite son, Benjamin, in a way that put no blame on them. They could pass it off to the demands of a powerful Egyptian ruler. Instead Judah, who now seemed to be the spokesman for all the brothers, offered to take Benjamin's place in slavery, if necessary. He could not bear to see his father's grieve another lost son because he had walked that road of grief himself. And I would not have understood why without the story of Judah and his sons. Tamar's role in Israel's future and the line of the Messiah is significant, but those details could have been inserted before or after the story of Joseph. Much of the Bible is not in chronological order. I think God placed that chapter where it is because it ties into how much Judah had changed by the time he went to Egypt.

     With beautiful symmetry, Joseph not only offered his brothers a chance to pass his heart monitor test, he gave them a "do over", an opportunity to make amends for Joseph through a similar situation with Benjamin. To get right what they got so wrong the first time. To begin to lay down the burden of guilt they had carried for twenty years. And for Judah, it was an opportunity for a heart broken by sorrow to be healed by submission to sacrifice.