Continuing a Sunday morning study series on “Flawed Families of the Bible”, this week we looked at Judah and Tamar (Genesis 37-38). Judah is an interesting character study…..and the transformation wrought in his life by Tamar’s move to force him to accept his responsibility to her, as widow of his eldest son, and the later evidence of his changed heart toward his family in his behavior in protecting Benjamin in Egypt, show that people can change……not always because they want to, but sometimes because another person believes that they can and acts in a way that demands that they do so, or risk losing all that means anything to them. The very future of Judah’s tribe seemed to hang on whether or not he did the right thing in regard to Tamar. And, in doing the right thing, Judah’s tribe became the one out of which Jesus was born. Tamar was a foreign woman who sought to belong and find the identity and security within the family to which she pledged her life.
This quote from the lesson: “A woman, without her man, is nothing.” If the punctuation is changed only slightly, it makes a radically different statement! “A woman: without her, man is nothing.” Surely Tamar knew that it was her persistence and courage that led to the transformation of Judah and, beyond to the band of brothers that would become the grand patriarchs of Israel.” (David and Diana Garland, Flawed Families of the Bible, page 124)
Where is the punctuation in your life? Do you know to whom you belong and what you want? Do you know how to stand courageously for what is right? Are you willing to hold others accountable to do the right thing? If so, know that God is on your side and, ultimately, you will receive a blessing.