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From the Torah reading וישב Vayeshev (“he settled,” Genesis 37:1–40:23), we’ll be focusing this time on a comparison between Judah’s relationship with Tamar and Joseph’s relationship with Potiphar’s wife. As we look into this “intermission” in the story, we’ll take a detour into Hosea 3–4, which will give us insight into why the men in those stories were guilty of a far greater evil than the sins of Tamar and Mrs. Potiphar.
Just as we finish reading Genesis 37, we reach an “intermission” in the story of Joseph when Genesis 38 is inserted regarding Judah and his family. These two stories are tied thematically, not chronologically. A good portion of Genesis 38 occurred before Joseph was sold into Egypt.
Judah’s evil accusation against Tamar
We have an introduction to Tamar and Judah’s three sons. Judah’s three son’s were born before Joseph was sold into Egypt. The three sons are Er, Onan and Shelah.
How evil were Er and Onan that God literally struck them dead. God did not strike Hitler, Mao, or Stalin dead but he struck these two sons dead? Why were their deeds worthy of instant death while Hitler, Stalin and Mao received some degree of mercy? I will not pretend to know what Er did to deserve death but we do know Onan’s sin.
When Er died, Onan’s duty, based on both Canaanite culture and Israelite culture, was for the younger to have relations with his older brother’s wife only until she conceived a child. Once a child was conceived, the brother never had relations with his sister-in-law again. Onan upset this order for his sordid purposes, basically using Tamar as his concubine by spilling his seed after each sexual act so he could return to her repeatedly for sex, frustrating her goal of motherhood.
After both Er and Onan died, Judah sends Tamar back to her father’s house. Judah blamed Tamar for the death of his sons and condemned her to permanent widowhood, childlessness and celibacy.
Judah had no right to condemn her for his son’s sins. Judah should have been looking at himself and his own wife with prayerful introspection to find why Er and Onan were so evil that God literally struck them dead, but instead, Judah took the easy way out and pointed fingers at Tamar. He refused to see that he or his sons were at fault for his son’s death.
Judah set up a scenario where Tamar could only marry Shelah or one of his heirs. Otherwise she has to wait for both of them to die before she could marry someone else. Tamar was Judah’s scapegoat.
Mrs. Potiphar’s evil accusation against Joseph
To be thorough, Potiphar is a eunuch. He is not merely an “officer” of Pharaoh. How does a eunuch have a wife? I suspect that he was fully intact when he married before after he was promoted into the royal household, he became a eunuch. Leviticus 18 describes many varieties of sexual relations that the Egyptians found permissible that God did not permit the Israelites to do.
In light of the fact that Potiphar was a eunuch, he also condemned his wife to permanent celibacy, childlessness and de facto widowhood.
In light of our culture, what both Tamar and Mrs. Potiphar’s did was really bad, but was Tamar really bad?
Why is Tamar ‘more righteous’ than Judah?
Tamar pretended to be a harlot, not just any harlot though. She masqueraded as a temple prostitute. She knowingly has sex for the purpose of conceiving a child.
Judah realizes that Tamar was more right than him, but the reason he finds to commend her are odd: “inasmuch as I did not give her to my son Shelah.” His scales of justice and righteousness seems off. Tamar playing the harlot is a death penalty offense. Refusing to allow your son to marry a widow is NOT a death penalty offense.
Judah saw something, that we can see in the book of Hosea.
“Then the LORD said to me, ‘Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.’ So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley. Then I said to her, ‘You shall stay with me for many days. You shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man; so I will also be toward you.’” (Hosea 3:1–3 NASB)
Just as Judah never “knows” Tamar again, Hosea never knows his wife again.
“Listen to the word of the LORD, O sons of Israel, For the LORD has a case against the inhabitants of the land, Because there is no faithfulness or kindness Or knowledge of God in the land. There is swearing, deception, murder, stealing and adultery. They employ violence, so that bloodshed follows bloodshed.” (Hosea 4:1–2 NASB)
In Tamar’s culture, what she did was not abnormal. Hosea points out that the Israelites are acting like Canaanites (Hosea 4:11–14). Hosea shows us that Tamar’s actions were not a penalty against her but against the one who put her in that position in the first place. Her acts were the direct result of what Judah did to her. Judah now realizes what he did to Tamar. He was acting evil in trying to impose permanent widowhood on her. Judah ruined up Tamar’s life (and nearly murdered her) over his son’s wickedness.
God doesn’t ignore the history of what lead someone to a particular act. That is why His justice and mercy are always perfect.
Why is Mrs. Potiphar more righteous than her husband?
In Potiphar’s wife case, who was the real sinner, she or her husband? I submit that her husband was a eunuch and forced her into a life of celibacy.
Egyptian culture allowed women to seek sexual gratification from men other than their husbands in certain circumstances, but Potiphar denied her that. She wanted the sexual pleasure that Egyptian law granted her and her husband had been denying her. She lied and accused Joseph of a very heinous crime (attempted rape) and unless Potiphar forgives him, Joseph faced a lifetime in prison.
The only god in Egypt is Pharaoh, and the only one who could release Joseph from prison. Joseph, for all intents and purposes, was sentenced to death by Potiphar on the basis of Mrs. Potiphar’s false accusation.
Unlike Judah, Joseph was not responsible for any of what happened to him. Who was actually at fault for Joseph’s circumstance? I would submit to you that Potiphar was the one at fault for putting Mrs. Potiphar in that position.
Our Judge looks deeper than our judges can ever look. We are not just responsible for our own actions but also for how our actions can affect other people’s lives. This is why only God can provide true justice and true mercy as well.
Summary: Tammy