Clinging to Hope

As we approach Christmas I will be looking at the women in Jesus’ family tree. Each one is a wonderful scandal.

Like Tamar. Childless, and widowed by two husbands, she takes things into her own hands and disguises herself as a prostitute to seduce her own father-in-law and had a baby. No wonder teachers skip this story in Sunday School.

But a closer look at her story reveals that the Bible paints her in a positive light. In fact, her story in Genesis 38 ends with Judah declaring, "She is more righteous than I.” vs. 26.

In what way is she righteous?

Tamar had married into a family with a promise. Through the lineage of this family the Messiah would come. But Tamar was the victim of two horrible marriages; in each case her husband died before a child was produced.

It helps to know that in that culture if a man died without a child, his closest, unwed, relative (like a brother) was required to marry his widow. More than that, recent discoveries of ancient documents indicate that the father-in-law was also responsible in the same way, if no brother would fulfill the duty. This is almost certainly the law of the land when Tamar lived.

But forget that law, because Tamar’s father-in-law had stopped believing, stopped hoping. He had forgotten the family promise.

While Tamar still believed. Still hoped. Still trusted. And within the law of the land she acted in faith in the hope of a promised child.

The focus of her faith would only be realized centuries later in a place called Bethlehem, where the descendant of Tamar -- this descendant of a baby born out of the strangest of circumstances, a wonderful scandal -- was born.

Tamar reminds us that God still has a plan even when things seem bleak. He keeps his promises. This season, remember we have been grafted into a family with a promise. And cling to hope.