Our word

DEVOTION

GENESIS

OUR WORD

Gen 38:20-30

20 Meanwhile Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her. 21 He asked the men who lived there, "Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?" "There hasn't been any shrine prostitute here," they said. 22 So he went back to Judah and said, "I didn't find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, 'There hasn't been any shrine prostitute here.'" 23 Then Judah said, "Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn't find her." 24 About three months later Judah was told, "Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant." Judah said, "Bring her out and have her burned to death!" 25 As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. "I am pregnant by the man who owns these," she said. And she added, "See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are." 26 Judah recognized them and said, "She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn't give her to my son Shelah." And he did not sleep with her again. 27 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. 28 As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, "This one came out first." 29 But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, "So this is how you have broken out!" And he was named Perez.   30 Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out and he was given the name Zerah.  

NIV

We are still with this story between Judah and Tamar, although we have moved on to the next phase of this narrative. Judah attempts to pay the agreed price for having sex with who he thinks is a shrine prostitute. That in itself is the strangest of strange. Judah was raised by a Father who wrestled with God and had his name changed from Jacob to Israel as a result. He was raised in a household of faith. So which shrine was Tamar supposed to be a prostitute for? The Hebrew word used to describe her as a temple prostitute actually means a holy consecrated servant. But the historians indicate the Canaanites had two goddess’s Astarte and Asteroth, who occupied similar places as Venus did in the Greek culture. They had temples where impure rites were performed in their presence, for a price, of course, an offering to that goddess. It follows from this portion of the narrative Judah knew he was giving an offering to their goddess to have sex with her consecrated prostitute. How offensive is that? Still having given her this pledge, his seal and cord and staff he attempts to pay the agreed price and get his stuff back. This seal and cord were very important as it would be what he signed any agreements, business deals with. It was his identity. Yet now after doing this offering to a false goddess for sex, and not being able to find her to pay as agreed, finds she did not exist, at least as a temple prostitute. Now he is concerned about being a laughingstock. Yet our lesson today is about the final encounter between Judah and Tamar. When he finds out she has been charged as a prostitute because she is pregnant, he wants her burned to death. She was supposed to be living as a widow in her father’s house but how could she be a widow and be pregnant? Prostitution was the only answer. But when she arrived, she presented Judah with his seal and cord and staff. He was the man who caused her to be pregnant. We alluded to this lesson earlier. His word should have been his bond. He told her after his first two sons were put to death that when his third son became old enough, he would sleep with her to provide her a son to be the firstborn of her first husband, Er, his firstborn. This son would be his Er’s heir as Er was Judah’s heir. This was very important. But Judah did not keep his word and as a result Tamar acted in this manner. Now the truth is told and he has been revealed as the man who did not keep his word. This is the reason he said she was more righteous then he. Our word is our bond. Words are important and when we say we are going to do something it is essential we do it. How often we fail at that, especially with those we love. It is easy to say we will do this or that, but it is not so easy to get it done, at least on the expected timetable. Even at our work, we agree to do a certain job. We accept the given responsibilities of our employment. But do we do everything, all the time, we agreed we would? We see people showing up late, or taking longer breaks or lunches then they agreed to. We gave our word. Isn’t our word important? We tell our spouse we will do this chore, and we fail to get it done. We failed at keeping our word. Our spouse does similar and do we call them out for not keeping their word? We make a commitment to a friend to either meet with them or get together for fellowship or just game night. They call and cancel or we call and cancel perhaps because we just don’t want to do it anymore, or something better has come up. We simply are not keeping our word. There are numerous examples we could give for not keeping our word, but that is the point. We need to keep our word. If we do not want to do something, don’t agree to it in the first place. Judah never had to promise Tamar his third son.

33 "Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' 34 But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. 

NIV

 Let our yes be yes and our no be no, but stand by what we say. Keep our word with our spouse, our friends and our employer, but most of all with God.