1
¶ And it came to pass at that time, that
Judah went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose
name was Hirah. 2 And Judah saw there a
daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was Shuah; and he took her, and went
in unto her. 3 And she conceived, and
bare a son; and he called his name Er. 4
And she conceived again, and bare a son; and she called his name Onan.
5 And she yet again conceived, and bare
a son; and called his name Shelah: and he was at Chezib, when she bare him.
6 And Judah took a wife for Er his
firstborn, whose name was Tamar. 7 And
Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD slew
him. 8 And Judah said unto Onan, Go in
unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.
9 And Onan knew that the seed should not
be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he
spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. 10 And the thing which he did displeased the
LORD: wherefore he slew him also. 11
Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter in law, Remain a widow at thy
father’s house, till Shelah my son be grown: for he said, Lest peradventure he
die also, as his brethren did. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father’s house.
If you recall, the excuse that Rebekah used for
sending Jacob away was the concern about the daughters of Heth, Canaanite
women, from whom Esau selected his wives. Here, Judah, who we now know as being
in Christ’s genealogy rather than his elder brother Reuben, has relations with
a Canaanite woman, the daughter of Shuah. She bore him three sons; Er, Onan,
and Shelah. Judah arranged a wife for Er, named Tamar, but God killed Er who
was wicked.
Judah’s command to Onan to father children by his dead
brother’s wife comes to us in a modern word for the system called a Levirate. In a society where women have
no political and little economic power this system can provide a protector and
offspring, a male child being the only support in old age for a widow. More
importantly to Judah and Onan in this culture the system provides for a man’s
physical lineage to continue by his brother being a proxy. Compare, if you
will, the similar action of a woman providing her maid as a surrogate wife to
bear children for her husband as we have already discussed. The Levirate has
been practiced in several African cultures, as well.
Onan resented his duty to provide offspring in his
brother’s place and practiced a form of birth control we call Coitus Interruptus but has been known,
because of this Bible character, as Onanism,
named after Onan, came to mean any sexual act that was not meant to produce
offspring. This even was carried over into birth control as a sin still not
long ago. Onan’s unwillingness to obey his father invoked God’s displeasure.
Onan clearly knew that Er was the firstborn and any child considered his would
be the heir of Er and his father, Judah’s, wealth, in the main. We see later in
the Law given to Moses how standards of long practice are confirmed by God. In
this case the Levirate will be called for in the Law given to Moses.
Deuteronomy
25:5 ¶ If brethren dwell together, and one
of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without
unto a stranger: her husband’s brother shall go in unto her, and take her to
him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband’s brother unto her. 6 And it shall be, that the firstborn which she
beareth shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name
be not put out of Israel. 7 And if the
man like not to take his brother’s wife, then let his brother’s wife go up to the
gate unto the elders, and say, My husband’s brother refuseth to raise up unto
his brother a name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband’s
brother. 8 Then the elders of his city
shall call him, and speak unto him: and if he stand to it, and say, I like not
to take her; 9 Then shall his brother’s
wife come unto him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off
his foot, and spit in his face, and shall answer and say, So shall it be done
unto that man that will not build up his brother’s house. 10 And his name shall be called in Israel, The
house of him that hath his shoe loosed.
This is evident in the book of Job, for instance, in
seeing that people knew God’s standard long before the Law was given. Many of
the Laws God gave to Moses were not new things but the reinforcement of old
standards along with new commands separating the Hebrews from the behavior of
the Canaanites.
Christ, the Redeemer of mankind, will come through
Judah so there is some importance here that goes beyond simply rebelling
against your father’s wishes so that you inherit all rather than your dead
brother’s heir that you helped make.
God kills Onan. Who knows how? A heart attack, an
aneurysm, or some other of the million or so ways that God uses to end our
physical lives, takes him. Judah tells his unfortunate and perhaps traumatized
daughter-in-law, Tamar, to live in his house until his youngest and only
remaining son, Shelah, is old enough to secure an offspring. Now, the story
gets even stranger, if that were possible. This story was certainly not
invented by someone trying to glorify an ancestor or justify a leader’s
position of authority. It is remarkably disgusting as some Bible stories tend
to be. It certainly isn’t how you or I would write Christ’s lineage unless we
were simply reporting the unpleasant and unvarnished truth.
One thing that this story represents is how God makes
a plan out of the wreck and unseemly life you create for yourself. For all of your
wickedness you cannot thwart God’s will.
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