Genesis 38:15,  “When Judah saw her, he thought her [to be] an harlot; because she had covered her face.”

Genesis 38:18,  “And he said, What pledge shall I give thee? And she said, Thy signet, and thy bracelets, and thy staff that [is] in thine hand. And he gave [it] her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him.”

Genesis 38:24,  “Tamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she [is] with child by whoredom.”

I was reading in the Midrash Rabbah which is a collection of Jewish literature and the rabbis take on the story of Judah and Tamar.  He indicated that the Messiah descends from dubious unions. You have Boaz and Ruth where Ruth is a Moabites’ and not of Jewish descendent yet she is an ancestor of the Messiah and then you have David and Bathsheba where Bathsheba who is a Hittite has an affair with David and yet she is also a great grandmother of the Messiah.  Now you have Tamar who plays a harlot to bear her father in laws child and becomes a descendent of the Messiah.

The Midrash Rabbah indicates that the pledge Tamar demanded from Judah consisted of the signet which in the  Hebrew is a chatam which is a seal ring. It comes from a Semitic root meaning to end. The last thing a king or a leader who writes a message will do on the document is to seal the document with a couple drops of wax and then imprint it with the symbol on the signet ring. This signet ring was handed down through the generations and passed on to David who used it as a king. The Midrash Rabbah indicates that this would one day represent the royal house of David from which the Messiah would descend.  When Tamar confronted Judah with the child and produced this signet ring, well that bit of evidence would hold up in any court of law for it was one of a kind. It was also a symbol of the Messiah who is the King of Kings.  She also asked for his cord.  In Hebrew the word used for cord is patal which literally means to twist, hence a cord which is made up many strands of fabric and twisted together to form a cord. This eventually became a symbol worn by members of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish court of law. It was worn by Judah, who as the eldest was given the duty of mediating disputes.  In fact if you trace this word patal to its Semitic roots it has the idea showing oneself false or truthful.  The many strands of fabric symbolized the body of evidence to determine the truth in a manner.  Tamar wanted his cord so when she was accused of adultery, she would appeal to the very judge himself who was the perpetrator of the act.  Again it is a picture of the Messiah who would come to judge the world.  Finally she asked for  his staff or natah which in its Semitic roots literally means to stretch out or extend.  It is the word that is used for a scepter.  The sceptre was the symbol of the king’s power to either grant or decline a request, to pass judgment or to free someone. The Midrash Rabbah said that this sceptre of Judah was the symbol of the Messiah. Tamar wanted that as well as she knew it was what Judah would use to pass judgment on her for the sin she was about to enter into.  Yet, possessing the sceptre would grant her the right to pass judgment on Judah, tit for tat. You know, “We both blew so let’s just call it a day.”

But back to this dubious origins of the Messiah. What about that?  I mean Jesus is descended from a woman who commits an act of whoredom.  In Hebrew the word whoredom is zanah which is also applied to idolatry.  He is also descended from Ruth who was a Moabites’ and not Hebrew and from Bathsheba who had an affair with David while still married to one of David’s trusted warrior.  And that is the lineage of the Savior of the world. Sort of tells us something, doesn’t it.

Back in the early 1900’s there was a child whose mother was a prostitute, she had no idea who her father was and she was being raised by her grandmother.  Other children would taunt her and make fun of her because she was the daughter of a prostitute and did not have a father.  Many times she would come running home in tears after being tormented by those she hoped would be her playmates.  She would climb into her grandmother’s lap, weeping and her grandmother would sing her a little lullaby.  Years later she grew into a beautiful and gifted woman who traveled with a band as the soloist. This opened the door to Hollywood where she became a movie star in her own right and nominated for an Academy Award.  This eventually led to roles on Broadway.  In one Broadway play, The Member of the Wedding she played a nanny who raised two young children. At the end of the play the daughter who was now a young woman was suffering for a heartbreaking situation and the scene called for her to crawl up onto the lap of her nanny as the nanny sung her a lullaby.  The director asked the actress if she knew any lullabies, any one would do.  She indeed did and she sang the lullaby that her grandmother sang to her when she would crawl up into her lap with a broken heart.  The play was a failure but the song, well it became a worldwide sensation. Eventually, this actress joined the Billy Graham team and travel around the world singing her lullaby to millions of people.  I remember as a child when Billy Graham came to Chicago. My parents were counselors for the event and I attended every one of his meetings. There were a lot of famous people who performed on that platform but in my memory I only recall one, Ethel Waters as she sang like I never heard anyone sing from the very depths of her soul, reaching down to all that pain and torment she suffered as a child to sing the song her grandmother sang to her to comfort her as that song has comforted millions, myself included:

Why should I feel discouraged,

Why should the shadows fall,

Why should my heart be lonely

And long for heaven and home

When Jesus is my portion, my constant friend  he

Is His eye is on the sparrow and I know he watches me.

I think the Bible makes it very clear, that if Jesus, our Messiah came out of a dubious background and yet became the Savior of the world. Then we cannot point to anything in our background as an excuse to not be a valuable tool in His hands.