Lion of Judah

...and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram...     Matthew 1:3 ESV

Well, that's an odd choice for a key verse, is it not?

When I began my annual journey through the Scriptures this year, though I initially uttered an internal sigh at the sight of the genealogy contained in the first chapter of Matthew, that sigh quickly gave way to revelation.  Y'all know I LOVE when I find something "new" in Scripture!

If you've read very far into this blog, you also know that I love redemption stories.  This one was quite unexpected.  Maybe you're more observant than I am, and perhaps this will be less awe-inspiring for you than it was for me, but I just love it when the Lord brings good things out of our messes.

So, for context, here's another verse:

And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.  Genesis 38:6

Still seems a bit random, huh?

To really appreciate the magnitude of this thought, you'll need to read the entirety of Genesis 38.  The basic premise is that Judah, the son of Jacob, had three sons - Er, Onan, and Shelah.  The tradition of the time was that if a woman's husband died and she had not had children yet, her husband's brother was supposed to perform the duties of a "brother-in-law" (marry the widow and father a child to carry on the name of his dead brother).  So Judah's son Er married a girl named Tamar.  Er died, so Onan married Tamar.  Onan died, so Shelah was next in line to marry Tamar, but he wasn't old enough yet.  Some years passed and Tamar realized that Judah had no intention of letting Shelah marry her.  Her response was to pose as a prostitute and seduce Judah.  

There's a lot more detail to the story, but that kind of gives you some background to understand the significance of the genealogy.  

Perhaps you've heard Jesus referred to as the "Lion of Judah."  This is basically a reference to the fact that in Jesus' human ancestry, He was a descendant of Judah.

OK.  I've known that for a long time.  What's the big deal?

What I had never realized, though, was that Jesus was a descendant of Judah through some pretty sketchy circumstances.  Perez was the son of Judah through whom Christ descended, but Perez was the son of Judah's daughter-in-law!

Obviously, we're supposed to notice this.  That's why in Matthew's genealogical record, he adds "by Tamar" as a tag on the birth of Perez.

But why?  

I can only speculate.  Though Judah was so very flawed, having sold his brother Joseph into slavery and having fathered children through prostitution with his own daughter-in-law, yet through Judah's sinfulness, the way was being prepared for future rescue.  Through Joseph's slavery, the children of Israel were preserved through famine.  Through Judah's illicit affair, Jesus was born.  Crazy, huh?

The genealogy of Christ actually contains a lot of redemption stories.  I think that is fitting.  In spite of the very flawed nature of His ancestry, Jesus came as the ultimate Redeemer of all humanity.  

So there's some good news for us today.  I never sold a sibling into slavery, and I'll bet you didn't either.  And probably very few people have gotten caught up in the strange level of sexual misconduct in which Judah engaged.  And yet, for all of his flaws, Judah was not excluded from the redemption story of Jesus.  

And neither were you.  

None of my shortcomings - and they are many - are held against me by my Savior.  And neither are yours.

It's the very nature of redemption, and it is the heart of the Gospel.

...Just a thought...