Title: The Story of the Descendants of Judah
Contents
Today's text is the story of Judah, the fourth of the 12 sons of Israel.
It is recorded that a baby was born as a result of an affair between his father-in-law Judas and his daughter-in-law.
At that time, the brother who played a decisive role in having Joseph sold to Egypt was Judas.
It is recorded that after Joseph was sold, some time had passed, and Judah went down from his brother. The meaning of ‘going down from one’s brother’ here means that he left his brothers and began to lead an independent life, and he began to interact with the Canaanites.
In the end, this choice turned into an unfortunate omen that later led to the Tamar incident.
Why did Judas leave his brothers?
The most direct factor is probably the case of the sale of Joseph into Egypt. No matter how much he hates his younger brother, how he even thought of killing him, and seeing them all lie to his father after selling them, will make you fall in love. You must have thought, 'It would be better to live without seeing people like that.'
So, would you have left the house just because of one incident that sold and ate Joseph? No, the brothers already have many criminal convictions. The eldest brother Reuben had an adulterous affair with his father's wife, the second Simeon and the third Levi murdered people in the Dinah case, and they all became accomplices to Joseph. Since the brothers have become such a relationship, the relationship where they can respect, love and embrace each other has already been cut off. The more I look at it, the more I look like a hypocrite, and I can't believe it, so in the end, Judas leaves his family behind. It was bought by emigrating far away.
Judas' reason for leaving home seemed reasonable, but it turned out to be a big mistake in his life. What we can learn from Judas' mistake is that no matter how hard and painful it is, we should not leave our home. It means that you should not leave the family community just because your business is not working. Of course, the church is also a place with many problems because it is a place where people who are lacking are gathered. They are jealous and jealous of each other. I also fight.
When I was studying in the United States, there was an incident where a young elder and a female deacon met each other and ran away together in a Korean church around LA. Odd events that are hard to see even in the world happen in the church. So some people see this, despair, and leave the church, accusing the church of being inferior to the world. Of course, you can be angry. Seeing such low-level behavior makes me want to go somewhere else right now. What should we do in that case?
Nevertheless, we must remain in the church. Because if you leave the community of faith, things like Judah will happen.
Why didn't Judas have to leave the house? It is the land promised by God. This is the land that God promised to Abraham. It is a land that is destined to be blessed. So no matter what happened, I had to stay in the land. But Judas avoided it. I gave up there and left to live on my own.
We must not leave the community of faith no matter what happens. If you leave, you will be put to the test right away. Satan won't let it go. Coming from all directions. Take a look around, you say you're hurt, and you leave the church. “I’m going to live a life of faith alone in the future,” he says. Is it possible to lead a life of faith alone? Impossible. When we are alone, faith never grows. When we are attached to a faith community, our faith and faith are maintained in it.
Also, we must remember that the Lord calls us first as a community, not as individuals. So when you leave the community, you end up falling
The mistake Judas made after leaving home was that he married a Canaanite woman. The thing to remember is that the spiritual blessings of the family depend on who you marry.
When the time came for the eldest son to marry, he married a woman named Tamar, but God killed him. The reason is that they have committed an evil deed before God. Although it is not possible to know in detail what kind of evil L has done here, it seems to be related to the extreme sin against sexual ethics when looking at the front and back texts.
In ancient society, when the older brother died childless, the younger brother married the younger brother. Then, when the second died childless, the third married again. This system is called ‘passage marriage’. This allowed the family's seed to be passed on.
Judas saw that he had lost both the first and the second son, so if he brought the third son to his brother-in-law, he would die again. I was afraid, so I said that I would let the third one grow up. Why do these bad things keep happening in Judah? Because they left God, they left the community of faith. If he leaves the church or leaves his parents, he will be free because he can do whatever he wants, but tragedy awaits him.
Judas' second mistake is that those who leave home are more likely to lead sexually immoral lives. Tamar disguised herself as a street woman and seduced her father-in-law by the roadside. Why did Tamar plot this? It's not about making money. I'm not trying to sell or fix it. She did this out of a terrifying obsession to maintain her rights as a woman of the family by leaving only her husband's seed. This eventually led to a relationship between her father-in-law Judah and her daughter-in-law Tamar.
Judas knew that his daughter-in-law had committed adultery with another man and became pregnant, so he told him to take her and burn her to death. What we can see from this appearance is that humans usually do not remember their own faults or sins at all, and are always blaming others. Jesus also tells us to look at the log of our own before looking at the log of others.
Some people listen to the sermon and say, ‘Yeah, that’s right, that deacon needs to hear that, and this deacon needs to hear that’, and he leaves it out. This is the heart of most people. Here, at last, Judas came to think of God again.
Why should there be such a story of an affair between a father-in-law and a daughter-in-law in the Bible?
Even if they are God's chosen people, if they distance themselves from God, they must not leave their family community and faith community. It means that we must hold on to God to the end. And Judas leads an immoral and unbelieving life, but God does not give up on Judah,
Just as the Messiah was finally born in his family, I too am erring, immoral, and unbelieving.
There are aspects, but God does not give up on us. Because God's love is greater than our sins and transgressions.