26 Judah saw they were his. He said, "She's in the right; I'm in the wrong— I wouldn't let her marry my son Shelah." He never slept with her again. (The Message)
If you have been following along and reading each chapter of Genesis you might be thinking that you couldn't even get this story on TV these days. Yes the Bible is more than we usually think about and it contains stories of life in all ways including some things that we would rather not think about. One of the reasons why I am continually amazed as I read the Bible over and over again is the honesty by which the people are portrayed. The Bible doesn't write out the flaws and missteps of the primary characters but instead tells it like it is. So many times we try to clean up our lives so that we look better than we are. We want to be acceptable in the eyes of the world and even though we know that we aren't perfect (nor are those around us) we hope that we can just gloss over those things that we aren't really proud of in our lives. The stories in Genesis invite us though to look at our lives with a bit more honesty than we like and that is exactly where God wants to show up.
Some thoughts to ponder and share with others:
- What were your first thoughts when you read or heard the story of Judah and Tamar?
- What character in this story can you identify with? Why?
- Have you ever done something that you thought was right at the time only to have to apologize later? How did it feel?
- What part of your life have you tried to hide from others because you didn't want to risk being vulnerable?
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