A Purpose

DEVOTION

GENESIS

A PURPOSE

Gen 38:12-19

12 After a long time Judah's wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him. 13 When Tamar was told, "Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep," 14 she took off her widow's clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife. 15 When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. 16 Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, "Come now, let me sleep with you." "And what will you give me to sleep with you?" she asked. 17 "I'll send you a young goat from my flock," he said. "Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?" she asked. 18 He said, "What pledge should I give you?" "Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand," she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. 19 After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow's clothes again.

NIV

It does seem strange, considering what is to follow in this narrative that a daughter-in-law should deceive in such a way. Judah ends up saying she was more righteous then himself. It is difficult to understand her actions were righteous at all. Although it is true that Judah did not hold true to his word of her regarding his third son. He was too young at the time to be given to her as a husband as well as to provide her with a son who would be considered his brothers firstborn. This is all about the inheritance and blessing of the firstborn. Because this son who Tamar would have would be the son of Judah’s firstborn son, Er, he would be the heir of Judah. But Tamar was without such a son. She could not say she was the mother of the heir of Judah, but rather was living as a widow in her father’s house. So she devised a plan to rescue herself from her situation. Again we have someone plotting without the counsel of the Lord. It would be logical that if both the men she knew intimately were so evil in the sight of the Lord that he would put them to death, she was not familiar with God’s ways. Her husband did not teach her about the Lord.  We know Judah is the one who plots against his brother Joseph and so far his sons have displeased the Lord, and now this Tamar is acting as someone who does not look to God either. How all these people were part of what we call, God’s people, is so strange. Jesus comes from the line of Judah. He is referred to as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, yet we have so much sin that is prevalent among them. This could be our lesson. We could see that although they had sin, God still was working among them. It would be good for us to consider we are not so different. True, we are living in the age of grace. God does not put us to death because of our sin. But we are certainly not free of sin either. We cannot say that we do not have any sin. Although in a certain sense, because of Christ, we do not have any sin, at least in the eyes of God. But that is not to say we are without sin. When we visit with these Old Testament people we are not told of how they lived having daily prayer time, or going to church every time the doors were open, or getting involved in small groups or bible studies, or going to college to get a degree in biblical studies. What we are told is about their sinful lives and every so often they have an encounter with God, build an altar and move on living the same sinful lives. Yet they have such a special place in the plan of God, he saw fit to record their lives for us to learn something about him. Of course this is pretty much how we live as well. We have encounters with God and move on living with a certain level of acceptable sin in our lives. It seems some believers have developed a level of sins, listing what is believed as the most grievous ones first and then the lessor sins below them. What is forgotten is that if we are guilty of but one point of the law, we are guilty of the whole of the law. If we are guilty of just one small sin, we are guilty of sin, all sin and there is no levels of sin. But we do not want to consider ourselves as that bad of a sinner, yet we are what we are, sinners saved by grace. Now Jesus did say that someone who is forgiven of much loves much and who is forgiven of little loves little.

Luke 7:47

47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven — for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little." 

NIV

Could we say then that those of us believers who think we have little to no sin in our lives, have little love for Jesus? So then could we say that those of us who have been the chief of sinners and have been forgiven of all our sin, love the lord with all our heart, all our mind, all our spirit and all our strength? We do not know just how much these people of the Old Testament loved God. We are only shown snippets of their lives. What we know is they were indeed sinners, yet God used them for his purpose. So then even though we are but sinners saved by grace, God can use us for his purpose. It is not about how righteous we are, but about how much we have faith in God. Abraham’s faith was counted unto him as righteousness. Our faith in Christ is our only righteousness for he is our righteousness. True, we should not go on sinning so that his grace may abound. The fact remains we will never be completely free of sin until we are changed, until we exchange this corruptible for the incorruptible. Nevertheless, God still has a plan for each of us and can use us for his purpose. Let us live in the light of that purpose. It is not about showing each other how holy we are, how much we know about the Word of God and how many good deeds we do. It is about being in step with the Spirit so that God can accomplish his plan, his purpose for and in our lives.