-------------------------*Based on ESV.com's Chronological Bible In a Year schedule. If anyone would like to join in, this blog's comments sections would be a good forum in which to share insights from the text.
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Judah, the father of Israel's kings and the ancestor (humanly speaking) of Jesus Christ, was a complete douche bag. I know that isn't polite. But I sat there trying to come up with another way to say it for about 15 minutes, and that word alone really carries the meaning of what I wanted to say. Let's recap: (1) Judah is said to have kept his youngest son from a young Canaanite woman named Tamar, with no intention to let her have him. This would have kept the otherwise re-marriageable woman in her father's house waiting for a husband -a vital support structure for women in those times- who would never come. (2) Things actually got so desperate for Tamar that she disguised herself like a cult prostitute and slept with Judah - meaning that Judah is having sex with prostitutes, which is a serious offense in the Torah. (3) Not only was Judah having sex with prostitutes, but they were cult prostitutes; Judah had apparently adopted the perverted practices of nearby religions. (4) After committing sexual immorality, he is recorded as having the gall to ask that Tamar be burned alive for 'cheating' on the son that he never intended to give to her. (5) On the good side, though, the record in Genesis shows that he humbled himself and admitted guilt in the end.
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Sounds a lot like today's pols. I wonder what kinda dirty secrets they all have buried under a fake outside shell.
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