And she conceived, and bare a son; and he called his name Er.
Genesis 38:3 records the birth of Er within the account of the sin of Judah and of his family, which comes after Joseph was sold into Egypt and before Joseph was bought by Potiphar and kept his integrity against temptation. That account stands among the sad fruits of Jacob's mistake in having more than one wife, whose fruits included partiality, jealousy, envy, low moral standards, and crime. It is a case in which a man failed in the duty of a Go'el, or nearest kinsman, and was punished by the Lord.
Tamar's actions in that account were a strategy to obtain the rights guaranteed her by law and custom, which Judah had fraudulently withheld. The sons born from the union were counted as legitimate, and one of them was included in the ancestry of Jesus. The record of Judah's sin and wrongdoing was given to reveal sin so that it may be shunned and to point to God's love, mercy, and power as its remedy.
The story of Tamar identifies Pharez, born of a harlot, as one of Christ's human ancestors; the verse itself does not present Er as an ancestor of Christ or as born of a harlot. Christ's human line included people marked by sin, human weakness, and shameful pasts, including Thamar who acted as a harlot with her father-in-law. With her are to be reckoned Jacob's selfish, crafty, deceitful disposition passed to his sons, David's passions, Rahab's unenlightened heathen background, and the weakness, idolatry and sin of Solomon and later kings of Judah, tending to concentrate in Christ all the weaknesses and sinful tendencies to which fallen human nature is subject.
Christ took flesh not of a sinless being but of sinful man, more subject to infirmities of the flesh than if born before the race had deteriorated physically and morally. Only one who was sinful man subject to death could suffer death, and this was a necessary part of the plan of human redemption. The presence of people with shameful pasts in Christ's lineage presents hope to those who have inherited sinful tendencies. As part of the history of Joseph, the verse belongs to a narrative showing that whatever God has intended a person for He will safely bring them to, and though He may lead by a roundabout way He guides right, so He can be safely trusted to guide.
Genesis 38:3 records the birth of Er within the account of the sin of Judah and of his family, which comes after Joseph was sold into Egypt and before Joseph was bought by Potiphar and kept his integrity against temptation. That account stands among the sad fruits of Jacob's mistake in having more than one wife, whose fruits included partiality, jealousy, envy, low moral standards, and crime. It is a case in which a man failed in the duty of a Go'el, or nearest kinsman, and was punished by the Lord.
Tamar's actions in that account were a strategy to obtain the rights guaranteed her by law and custom, which Judah had fraudulently withheld. The sons born from the union were counted as legitimate, and one of them was included in the ancestry of Jesus. The record of Judah's sin and wrongdoing was given to reveal sin so that it may be shunned and to point to God's love, mercy, and power as its remedy.
The story of Tamar identifies Pharez, born of a harlot, as one of Christ's human ancestors; the verse itself does not present Er as an ancestor of Christ or as born of a harlot. Christ's human line included people marked by sin, human weakness, and shameful pasts, including Thamar who acted as a harlot with her father-in-law. With her are to be reckoned Jacob's selfish, crafty, deceitful disposition passed to his sons, David's passions, Rahab's unenlightened heathen background, and the weakness, idolatry and sin of Solomon and later kings of Judah, tending to concentrate in Christ all the weaknesses and sinful tendencies to which fallen human nature is subject.
Christ took flesh not of a sinless being but of sinful man, more subject to infirmities of the flesh than if born before the race had deteriorated physically and morally. Only one who was sinful man subject to death could suffer death, and this was a necessary part of the plan of human redemption. The presence of people with shameful pasts in Christ's lineage presents hope to those who have inherited sinful tendencies. As part of the history of Joseph, the verse belongs to a narrative showing that whatever God has intended a person for He will safely bring them to, and though He may lead by a roundabout way He guides right, so He can be safely trusted to guide.