Genesis 38 — Thoughts

We Can Do Better

It must be a bummer to be in the Bible. Can you imagine having your worst moments recorded as Scripture? And yet, I think there's something important to take away from stories like Judah's.

Judah isn't the greatest guy. He raises two sons who are so evil that God decides to kill them. Then, Judah cheats his daughter-in-law, Tamar, out of her cultural rights. And THEN, he hypocritically calls for her to be burned to death for prostitution — after soliciting prostitution himself!

And yet, when the truth is revealed — and all truth will someday be revealed (Luke 8:17) — Judah comes around. He acknowledges Tamar's righteousness and confesses his sins against her. In essence, he repents.

Christians aren't perfect. And I don't mean that as a dismissal of the messed-up things we do; I mean it as a warning: We do messed-up stuff.

This warning is needed because sanctification (becoming more like Jesus) is a process. It doesn't happen immediately at the moment we are saved. It happens slowly over years as we study the Bible, pray, make mistakes, and learn from them.

But sanctification can only happen if we create space in the church for people to struggle, space to shake off the old self and put on the new (Ephesians 4:22-24), space to grow. Church should be known as a place of encouragement in the process of sanctification, and not as a place for judgment (Matthew 7:3-5). I don't think we've done this well.

But I think there's hope. I think we can learn from stories like Judah's that Christians can come around when they mess up and that they need a safe space to do so. They need to experience mercy and grace from other believers — because we have all experienced the mercy and grace of the Savior.

And it's the Savior, not our judgment, that changes lives.⁠

(Originally written August 26, 2020)