Genesis 38 -- God's Sovereignty & Grace Despite Our Sin

This does seem like an unsavory chapter plopped in the middle of the story of Joseph, and my commentary did a super job of explaining why it was included.

First, the royal line of the Messiah starts with Judah, so anything affecting it is important.  One of the babies produced by this episode (Perez) was an ancestor of King David and therefore of Christ.

Secondly, “it shows how dangerous it was for God’s people to be in the land of the Canaanites.  There was always the temptation to live like your neighbors instead of like the people of God.

Also, the first thing catching my attention was that Judah left his brothers, and became friends with a Canaanite man.  He’d stepped outside the covenant community, and he also chose his own wife, not from among that community, but outside of it.  There is a level of accountability that we feel inside that community, and outside of it, we feel a constant temptation to sin.

More than anything, we see God’s grace and sovereignty.  Many times my commentary has reminded me that God will not allow His children to sin successfully.  And here, despite Judah marrying a Canaanite, having three sons, losing one because of sin and a second because he willfully refused his duty, then losing his wife and casually sleeping with a woman he thought was a prostitute, God used them to accomplish His purposes.  “This doesn’t mean that God approved of their sins, because the sins were ultimately revealed and judged.  But it does mean that God can take the weak things of this world and accomplish His purposes,” my commentary said.

Father, I likely won’t know this side of heaven how many times You’ve intervened in my own life with Your sovereignty and Your grace to overrule my own sin to accomplish Your purposes through me, but I’m so glad You have, for You know better than me, period.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford