Tamar

Hello everyone! This morning, I read from Tamar's story and would just like to share a little. "Her story has it all: mysterious deaths, deceptive relatives, mistaken identities, hidden babies, even a woman sentenced to burn at the stake!" At one point in my life, it never interested me to pick up my Bible because I thought I'd be bored to death reading about facts and historical figures. No no no, don't be fooled as I was! It is filled to the brim with excitement and intrigue. Her story can be found at the end of Genesis 37, I encourage you to read it for yourself. To sum it up, this poor young woman is married off to Judah's son. Judah was a mean and stubborn old man. Her husband was put to death in his evil ways and she was handed off to his brother (customary of the Levirate tradition) who was also struck dead for the same reason. They were horrible husbands, poor Tamar. After a series of events, not in her favor of course, and over a period of time, she took matters into her own hands. She disguised herself and tricked Judah (the stubborn man, her father-in-law) using her feminine ways to become pregnant with his offspring. And yes, this is a story introduced to me through "Really Bad Girls of the Bible" so bear with me ;) Get to know her and her story before you judge her actions. She was an emotionally abused, grossly ignored woman who'd been through hell and back who was desperate for a child, the child she felt she deserved after everything she'd been through. She was an honorable woman who made one bad decision. But that's the tricky thing about God's grace and master plan, everything happens for a reason friends and when this story comes full circle, a savior is born. Anyway, once he finds out she is pregnant, as his daughter in law and part of his family, he demands she be put to death. But clever Tamar isn't going down so easily. "she sent a message to her father in law. "I am pregnant by the man who owns these," she said. Gen 38:25 You see, she had asked for his seal and staff at the moment of um...how to put this nicely....conception. It was his payment to her. These were items of great importance and identity to the man who owned them at the time and he had given them to her as she had asked (that's what you get Judah!) and finally, for once, Judah did the right thing. When the seal and staff were shown to him, he recognized them and acknowledged them, admitting his wrong doing. In the Bible, he even admits "she is more right than I am". She eventually gave birth to twins, how like God to replace Judah's two sons with twin boys through all of this.

Lesson learned: "The Lord uses her in spite of her sin. That's the hook we hang our hope on, sisters. Not in 'getting it right,' but in knowing that although we get it wrong over and over, consistently, even blatantly, God's power to accomplish his will is not limited to our meager efforts. We are made for one purpose: to worship and glorify God. Our challenge is to stop trying to make things work out for our good and let God work things out for His good and perfect will through us." Which is always in our best interest to begin with, am I right? ;)