Genesis 38 – 40

Genesis 38 – 40

It has always fascinated me that the only four women mentioned when Matthew lists the line of Christ are all non-Jews. The first one is Tamar who became pregnant by her father-in-law, Judah, son of Jacob and Leah. Judah married a Canaanite woman and had three sons: Er, Onan, and Shelah. Judah arranged for Er to marry Tamar, but Er was wicked and “the Lord took his life.” Since the custom was for the next older brother to marry and Judah had Er’s brother Onan marry Tamar. Onan did not want to produce an heir for his brother so he “spilled his semen on the ground.” This angered God and Onan died also.

Judah’s youngest son, Shelah, was not old enough to marry Tamar, but Judah told her as soon as Shelah was old enough, arrangements would be made for her to marry him. Judah never intended for this to happen, because he was afraid Shelah would die also. Apparently, he looked on Tamar as a kind of “Typhoid Mary.”

Since Tamar realized Judah would never arrange for Shelah to marry her, she plays the harlot and gets pregnant by Judah without giving away her identity, but she plans ahead. When Judah brings her out to burn her because she “played the harlot” and got pregnant, she shows him his seal and walking stick. I love what Judah says to this: “She is more righteous than I am, because I didn’t arrange for her to marry my son Shelah.

Don’t you love the part about the twins and the red string? Funny how a red string is also mentioned when the story of Rahab, another woman mentioned in the line of Christ, is told.

Joseph, meanwhile, is in Egypt where he is a slave to his master Potiphar, the captain of the palace guard. Even the pagan Potiphar recognized that “the Lord was with Joseph, giving him success in everything he did.”

Clearly, Joseph was what we would call “a hunk” today, so much so that Potiphar’s wife wants him to sleep with her. Joseph refuses, knowing this “would be a great sin against God.” When she sees her wiles are not working, she cries rape. Joseph is thrown into prison.

You can just guess what is going to happen. Yep, “the Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love. And the Lord made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden.”

Joseph not only dreams about the future, he can also interpret the dreams of others as is evidenced by the dreams he interprets for Pharoah’s cup-bearer and his chief-baker. His interpretations come to pass, but the cup-bearer, who had said he would try to help Joseph, forgot all about him.

Isn’t it interesting that several times in chapter 49, the Bible says “the Lord was with Joseph” and yet, circumstances didn’t appear that good for Joseph. He was sold into slavery, accused of rape, thrown into prison even though innocent, and forgotten about by someone he helped. Doesn’t look too good on the surface, does it? But God was with Joseph. Let’s not let our circumstances get us down. Like Joseph, the Lord is with us, no matter how bad things look or what our current circumstances.

Tomorrow, it’s Genesis 41 – 42.

Aunt Rosie’s Sauerkraut Balls

This morning, I made something called Aunt Rosie’s Sauerkraut Balls from a cookbook (Fry Bacon and Onions (The Valentine Family & Friends Cookbook) I got for free on my Kindle. It contains a pound of sauerkraut, 12 oz of shredded corned beef, 3 oz of cream cheese and 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs. Mix it all together and form 1-inch balls which you then roll in flour, condensed milk, and breadcrumbs and then fry in hot oil until brown. They are really quite good, but awfully messy to make.

They are actually quite good before being rolled in the flour, etc and fried.

Until next time…