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Please fill Pastor Anderson with your Holy Spirit. Bless him, Lord, and let his sermon edify us all, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Men, tonight I'm going to be preaching out of Genesis 38, but Genesis 37 provides the necessary background to help understand what we're going to be looking at in Genesis 38. Of course, Genesis 37 contained the familiar story about Joseph being sold into slavery by his brother, and Joseph is the son of his father's old age, and so he's sort of the favorite of his father. So his father gives him a coat of many colors, and because he has this coat of many colors, he's envied by his brother and even more. He has dreams that offend them and so forth, but they end up throwing him into a pit, roughing him up, ultimately selling him into slavery, and that specifically was Judah's idea to sell him into slavery. So in that sense, he's the instigator of Joseph's wrongful imprisonment and being sold down into Egypt and all of that. So that all happens in chapter 37, and then in chapter 39, we pick up the Joseph story again. In chapter 39, verse 1, Joseph was brought down to Egypt, and then the Joseph saga continues uninterrupted pretty much all the way until the end of the book in Genesis chapter 50. So from chapters 37 through 50, we've got this big Joseph story, and then stuck in there, interposed, is chapter 38. Now some people have said, oh well, you know, chapter 38 doesn't really belong there. You know, some unbelieving scholar somewhere says, oh somebody stuck that in later, it doesn't really fit or whatever. And I remember Pastor Jimenez telling the story about how before he was a pastor, when he was a church member, he's sitting in an independent fundamental Baptist Church, and the church was going through the entire book of Genesis, verse by verse, and preaching through each chapter in Genesis, and when they got to chapter 38, they just skipped the whole chapter. They preached everything else in the book of Genesis, and then they just skipped it, and they say, you know, we're gonna come back to this later, but, you know, we just don't want to interrupt the Joseph story. We'll come back to it later, and of course, they never came back to it later. They just preached about Joseph all the way to chapter 50, and this is a chapter that most churches will just never even touch. They'll never even talk about it. Even in a Genesis series, you know, Pastor Jimenez testified that it got skipped. Now this is very wrong because we know that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine. We shouldn't be skipping anything when we're studying God's Word, and if Genesis 38 interrupts the Joseph story, well then guess what that means? The Joseph story is supposed to get interrupted because God interrupted the Joseph story, so let's go ahead and interrupt it. That's why it makes no sense to skip this, and in fact it is connected to the Joseph story. It's not just some random commercial break thrown in that doesn't have anything to add, but actually it adds a lot to the story, and I'm gonna show you lots and lots of tie-ins with the Joseph story and show you how brilliant it is to put this chapter in this exact place and how it functions in the greater story. Now the first thing that I'm gonna throw out there even before we get into the content of Genesis chapter 38 is that Genesis 38 being interposed here allows time to go by. Basically it creates a little bit of suspense because you're reading along and Joseph is sold to these Ishmaelites, he's sold to these Midianites, and we don't really know what happened to him, right? And then it's like we just go back to the family. It kind of creates this feeling of he's going into Egypt, what's gonna happen? And for a little bit of time to go by while we cut over to another story that's going on with Judah, then we come back, it allows there to be a sense of time passing. But look what it says in Genesis 38 verse 1. It says, "...and it came to pass at that time that Judah went down from his brethren and turned into a certain Adolomite whose name was Hira." Now the first similarity I want to point out between Judah and Joseph is the fact that both of them are separated from their brethren and they're both going down because the caravan that Joseph is sold to was said to be going down into Egypt. So Joseph unwillingly goes down into Egypt separate from his brethren and then Judah is willingly leaving his brethren and going down to dwell with the Adolomite. So there's already a huge connection here that we can see what God is doing in this story, what God's showing us, where you have these two brothers going down in two different directions separated from their brethren. One of them against his will, one of them by choice. It says in verse 2, "...and Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shewa and he took her and went in under her and she conceived and bare a son and he called his name Ur and she conceived again and bare a son and she called his name Onan and she conceived yet she yet again conceived and bare a son and called his name Sheila and he was at Kizib when she bare him and Judah took a wife for Ur his firstborn whose name was Tamar..." Now watch verse 7, this is key, "...and Ur Judah's firstborn was wicked in the sight of the Lord and the Lord slew him." Now stop and think for a moment, at the end of Genesis 38 when we leave off with Joseph being sold down into Egypt, Joseph's father Jacob and even his brother Reuben think that he's dead and we see that Jacob is rending his clothes and he's mourning and he's so upset saying that he's bereaved of his child and they try to comfort him. A little bit of time goes by, they figure he's gonna get over it, he refuses to be comforted and says he's gonna go down to the grave mourning for his son so he's bereaved of a child whose fault is it? It's Judah's fault among the other brethren, obviously it wasn't just Judah, but Judah did this to his dad causing him to experience the bereavement of his beloved son Joseph. Well guess what, now isn't that kind of coming back around to Judah because now Judah is bereaved of his firstborn son. Just as Jacob has to go through the sadness of losing a child because he thinks Joseph's dead, well Judah now goes through the sadness of his firstborn son being actually dead. But then the Bible says in verse number eight, and by the way at the end of verse seven it says the Lord slew his son, so this is definitely payback. Now obviously it does say, you know, that Ur himself was wicked in the sight of the Lord and the Lord slew him, but God could still have more than one reason for killing someone. And by the way, having a wicked son is a punishment in and of itself. It says in verse 8, and Judah said unto Onan, go in unto thy brother's wife and marry her and raise up seed to thy brother. 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 he should give seed to his brother and the thing which he did displeased the Lord, wherefore he slew him also. So now Judah has been punished by losing a second child. Two of his children have died. How can this be a coincidence? Judah just caused his father to have to go through the loss of a child, now he loses two children. Obviously not a coincidence, obviously this is important to the story. Now obviously this story is a little bit sordid, this part here in verse 9 is a little rough, but guess what? It's the Bible. And this is why a lot of churches will stay away from this chapter, a lot of pastors won't preach on this passage, but you know, shouldn't we let God decide what is suitable for a general audience? Because we're supposed to read the entire Bible and it's supposed to be read in church, supposed to be read out loud. When it was first delivered to Moses it was read out loud to the entire nation of Israel, men, women, and children. So apparently God thinks that men, women, and children can handle this passage. Now maybe left-wing libtards want to put a parental advisory label on it and say that it's wicked, or even maybe some independent fundamental Baptists have gotten so prudish and they're just so clean-cut that they actually have a cleaner mouth than the Bible, you know, and this is too offensive for them. Well, you know, if you're too offended by the Bible, well what does that make you? You know, like, isn't God the one who decides what is acceptable, what is appropriate, what is right? So it's the Word of God, my friend, and it needs to be all preached, it needs to be all dealt with, it's all profitable, and it's all acceptable for a general audience. There's no scripture in the Bible that I wouldn't read in front of my family at any age because the Bible says every word of God is pure, God's Word is clean, and God's Word is right. That's what the Bible says, oh you don't agree? Okay, well, sorry, but you're not God so I don't really care whether you're thinking that the Bible is okay or not, okay? But of course the God-hating atheists of this world, of course they will get up and say, oh this isn't acceptable for children, you know, meanwhile they will show their children all kinds of things that we would be horrified and offended by, okay? It's hypocrisy. At the end of the day, I'm gonna let God decide what's acceptable, and you know, here's the thing, even when God deals with rough subjects like this, and even when God talks about sordid things like this, he never goes into any kind of graphic detail that would be something that would be, you know, inappropriate or too much information, so therefore it's fine. I like it. So God's two first, excuse me, God slew Judah's two firstborn children, and then it says in verse number 11, then said Judah to Tamar his daughter-in-law, remain a widow at my, at thy father's house till Sheila 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. Now another thing I want to point out is the contrast between the fact that at the end of Genesis 37 when Jacob's son dies he's really upset about it. I mean he's just mourning and he's really upset, people are trying to comfort him, he's refusing to be comforted. Isn't it interesting how in Genesis 38 we don't see any of that from Judah? There's a contrast here where Judah is just very matter-of-fact about the whole thing, you know, his two sons died, whatever, maybe the third one's gonna die, whatever, you know, we don't see the same level of mourning from Judah as we saw from Jacob. Let's keep going with the story here and look for more similarities. It says in verse number 12, and in process of time the daughter of Shewa, Judah's wife, died and Judah was comforted and went up unto his sheep shearers to Timnath, he and his friend Hira the Adolomite. And it was told Tamar saying behold thy father-in-law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep and she put her widow's garments off from her and covered her with a veil and wrapped herself and sat in an open place, which is by the way to Timnath, for she saw that Sheila was grown and she was not given unto him to wife. So here's the situation, Judah's firstborn son Ur is married to Tamar but God slays him, God kills him before he has a child with her. So then he says to Onan, Ur's younger brother, hey you need to marry Tamar and raise up seed unto your brother. He refuses to do that, he dies, and so now Judah says to his daughter and law Tamar, hey just hang out a little bit because Sheila my thirdborn son is a little too young for you but let's let him grow up just a little bit, he's a little too young to get married but we're gonna let him grow up and get to a marriageable age then you can marry him but let's not marry you to him yet let's see if he dies first. You know okay so let's hold off but then happens is Sheila grows up and she realizes like I'm not getting married to Sheila like basically Judah is stringing her along making her wait because Sheila gets to a marriageable age and yet they're not getting married so she's getting impatient she's kind of like what's the deal here what's going on is Judah just stringing me along I need to figure something out here you know I'm a widow I'm just hanging out I'm trying to move forward with my life here what's going on so she hatches this bizarre scheme and it is obviously a very wicked scheme also Tamar is gonna do this bizarre wicked thing of impersonating a prostitute or dressing up like a prostitute okay pretending to be a prostitute but she has a veil over her face like she's ashamed of being a prostitute it's really to conceal the fact that she's someone that he knows that she's actually his daughter-in-law Tamar and so she goes there she wraps her face she covers herself with a veil and she is sitting there and it says in verse 15 when Judah saw her he thought her to be a harlot because she had covered her face okay now let's just stop right there for one second this goes to show that in Bible days every woman isn't walking around with her face covered like a Muslim because if they were then it wouldn't say oh your face is covered you must be a prostitute okay otherwise you'd go to some Islamic country and just be like prostitute prostitute prostitute I'm surrounded by prostitutes okay Islam is a wicked false religion that's not based on the Word of God and I don't want to see a bunch of Sunday school materials with a bunch of women walking around looking like Muslims with stuff wrapped around their face because that wasn't a thing because if that had been a thing where every woman's walking around with their face covered he wouldn't just be like hey prostitute he just think another day at the office I'm surrounded by women with their face covered because I'm in the Middle East and all women have their face covered in the Middle East no he sees her he's like whoa your face is covered you must be a prostitute so basically what I'm saying so what we know about the culture of this time period should come from the Bible not some scholar somewhere making things up and telling us what things were like back then without any real evidence okay so no in biblical days women didn't walk around with their faces covered because if they had this wouldn't make any sense and so he thought she was a harlot because she had covered her face which proves that around 2000 BC when this happened that wasn't a thing and it also proves that when the book of Genesis was written that also wasn't a thing and so it says in verse 16 and he turned unto her by the way and said go to by pray thee let me come in unto thee for he knew not that she was his daughter-in-law and she said what wilt thou give me that thou mayest come in on me so they're negotiating on the price of this transaction and here's what's interesting about this first of all I want to show you the hypocrisy of Judah here because Judah if you remember his wife died and so he's feeling a little lonely and that's why he's even interested in this prostitute by the wayside okay but on the other hand Tamar is pretty lonely too so his attitude toward Tamar is well you can just wait and keep waiting and wait indefinitely but as for me I'm not willing to wait so some chick by the side of the road all right let's go you see the hypocrisy there do you see the double standard there he wants to make Tamar wait indefinitely but he just can't wait for a legitimate union to gratify this lust because what he ought to be doing is marrying someone else and going through the proper process of getting married and having a wife because obviously it is wicked to use a prostitute but another connection here between Genesis 38 and Genesis 37 is that if you remember Joseph when he goes down into Egypt he's confronted with a temptation as well of an illicit encounter with Potiphar's wife because we got Potiphar's wife trying to get with Joseph and he as a godly man resists that temptation whereas Judah when confronted with temptation of an illicit manner he goes headlong into the temptation and he's going to face the consequences of falling into that trap and you know what the Bible says a whore is a deep ditch and he who serve as a hoard of the Lord will fall there in and so every prostitute well he didn't know this prostitute was a trap every prostitutes a trap all right and so it's wicked stay away from that sin stay away from that filth and wickedness it's always gonna be a trap and the adulterous woman she is a trap too and so Joseph successfully avoids the trap of Potiphar's wife while Judah falls into the trap of Tamar pretending to be a prostitute so you can see how these chapters are connected it's not like Genesis 38 is just stuck in there interruption apropos of nothing no because there's a contrast you got two men going down separated from their brethren they're both faced with temptation one of them goes to Egypt unwillingly Judah goes willingly away from his brethren one of them resists temptation and is godly one of them is ungodly and falls into the trap of visiting this prostitute and so you can see the connection here between these two stories not only that one of them has two children and they die and of course he has the third son but is interesting Joseph goes down to Egypt and he has two children that live right Joseph has Ephraim and Manasseh they live Judah has Ur-an-onan that die okay let's keep going here in the story it says in verse number 17 and he said I will send thee a kid from the flock so the price of this encounter is going to be a kid from the flock a kid is a baby goat right or a young goat so this is not a human child but a kid in the sense of a baby goat and so he says I will pay with a young goat that's another connection with the Joseph story because if you remember Joseph's father was deceived by the blood of a goat because if you remember the way that they tricked Jacob into thinking that Joseph's dead is that they kill a goat they take the blood from the goat they rip up the coat of many colors dip it in the blood of the goat and then take it to dad and they say hey is this your son's coat and then that's when he assumes oh man he's dead so Jacob's deceived by the blood from a goat and now basically Judah is deceived by this prostitute and there's a goat involved right because he's offering to pay with a goat and so this woman says well okay but how do I know I'm actually gonna get the goat I want to get the kid right so it says in verse number 17 there she said wilt thou give me a pledge till thou send it so she's basically saying I need I'm gonna have to hang on to some kind of a deposit to make sure that I actually get this kid because otherwise you're just gonna take off without paying the bill and I'm just never gonna see you again so I need to hang on to something right and so basically she says what will thou give me a pledge like can I hang on to something of yours verse 18 he said what pledge shall I give thee and she said thy signet and thy bracelets and thy staff that is in thy hand and he gave it her and came in under her and she conceived by him so the signet ring is sort of like an ID it's sort of like hey leave with me your driver's license and a major credit card you know until you can come back with the cash or whatever that would be like kind of a modern-day equivalent give me your give me your passport and give me you know your necklace or the ring that you're wearing or that kind of thing these kind of tokens that are really specific and unique to him okay so she takes the tokens the pledge from him and he lies with her and she conceived by him and she rose and went away and laid by her veil from her goes back to looking like a normal person not like a Muslim and put on the garments of her widowhood and Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend the Adulamite to receive his pledge from the woman's hand but he found it out so he sends his buddy with the kid so that he can get the ring and the signet or the signet ring and the bracelets and the staff back in exchange for the payment but his buddy can't find the prostate prostitute then he asked the men of the place saying where is the harlot harlot is another word for prostitute where is the harlot that was openly by the wayside and they said what kind of a town do you think this is buddy there was no harlot in this place I added that first part and he returned to Judah and said I cannot find her and also the men of the place said that there was no harlot in this place and Judah said let her take it to her lest we be shamed behold I sent this kid and now it's not funny he's like look whatever I tried to pay let's just drop it lest we be ashamed because it's embarrassing to just keep hey have you seen a prostitute around here hey it was a prostitute you know this is like what get out of here you couple of weirdos you know they don't want to just be constantly searching for this shady woman doesn't make them look any better you know so it says in verse number 24 and it came to pass about three months after that it was told Judah is saying Tamar thy daughter-in-law have played the harlot and they were just using that as a figure of speech they don't mean that literally but she literally did play the harlot and also behold she is with child by whoredom and they don't even know how true that statement is and Judah said bring her forth and let her be burnt when she was brought forth she sent to her father-in-law saying by the man whose these are my with child and she said desert and I pray thee whose are these the signet and bracelets and staff and Judah acknowledged them and said she had been more righteous than I because I gave her not to Sheila my son and he knew her again no more now here's another interesting similarity here go back if you would to Genesis chapter 37 and we just read this before the sermon I want to refresh your memory on this one part but it says in verse number 31 of chapter 37 and they took Joseph's coat and killed a kid of the goats and dipped the coat in the blood and they sent the coat of many colors and they brought it to their father and said this have we found no now whether it be thy son's coat or no now stop and think for a minute okay we've got the sons bringing this item bringing this token to Jacob and saying you tell us know whether this be thy son's coat or not you tell it recognize it is it do you know it these you know and then now compare that with Genesis 38 where she says at the end of verse 25 discern I pray thee whose are these the signet and bracelets and staff do you see the similarity there between them bringing an item to their dad saying take a look at this whose is this and then notice how you know Timar brings the stuff to Judas is hey take a look at this stuff whose is this stuff now do you think that's a coincidence of course not God's showing us a contrast here with these two different stories and one of the main ideas here is that if you deceive you shall be deceived right Judah deceived his father and now in return he's getting deceived and there's such a similarity in the way it plays out to emphasize the connection so again we can see why Genesis 38 is there Genesis 38 isn't just some extra throwaway chapter let's skip it in a Bible study we don't need it it's not about Joseph let's get back to the regular regularly scheduled programming with Joseph no this is part of the story and ultimately Judah is going to get right with God and Judah is gonna be a very different Judah when we see him in Egypt offering to sacrifice himself for Benjamin and for his dad's sake and so forth and so Judah is a key player when it comes to selling Joseph in Egypt Judah is also a key player when it comes to Joseph revealing himself to his brethren and Judah having come around and gotten right with God and being a different type of person and so these stories are very much connected as you can see from these examples that I'm showing you these connections that I'm showing you so these things are shown and also not only that if you think about it just as there's this same wording of like hey look at this stuff whose is this if you think about it the actual thing that was used to deceive Jacob was a piece of clothing am I right it was a piece of clothing because it was the it was the coat that was shredded and dipped in blood everything the piece the thing that was used to deceive Judah was a piece of clothing the face mask right the the the the scarf wrapped around the face a piece of clothing was used to deceive him so you can see how this is all very poetic the way everything comes back around to bite Judah in the story and so once Judah sees the tokens and realizes that he is the one who has committed this act with Tamar now he can't exactly say burner at the stake since he's involved and he's implicated this is very embarrassing and humiliating for him now so he's publicly embarrassed publicly humiliated and Judah acknowledged them I mean at this point Judah is busted and so he says yep that's my stuff that's my ID that's my ring that's my bracelets okay and he says she had been more righteous than I because that I gave her not to Sheila my son and he knew her again no more now what she did was very unrighteous this is just what Judah is saying and just because Judah says she's been more righteous than I doesn't mean she's been righteous it just means that Judah has been even worse than her okay that's all that means verse 27 it came to pass in the time of her travail that behold twins were in her womb and it came to pass when she travailed that the one put out his hand and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread saying this came out first now another interesting thing here is that when Judah sinned against his brother and caused his dad to go through that bereavement of losing a child if you remember he had two sons die right but then now that he's been busted and punished and humiliated and he sort of owns up to his mistake and admits that he was wrong at least about this situation and he at least has some repentance about this situation and admits his wrongdoing now he receives two children is that it's like he lost two sons now he's getting two sons because she's actually pregnant with twins and so one of them starts to come out and the midwife puts a little scarlet thread on it just kind of mark it as the firstborn even though it didn't come all the way out basically just the hand pops out of the mother and she marks it like hey this guy should get credit for being born first just in case he doesn't pop out first you know let's just let's just he called shotgun because he got his hand out there and so she ties a scarlet thread just to mark hey this is the one who stuck his hand out that's an interesting midwife verse 29 and it came to pass as he drew back his hand so then the hand goes back inside of mom they as he drew back his hand that behold his brother came out so the other kid that didn't get the scarlet thread on the finger ends up being born first and she said how has thou broken forth this breach be upon thee therefore his name was called Perez and afterward came out his brother that had the scarlet thread upon his hand and his name was called Sarah okay so again that goes with the whole theme of the book of Genesis where you constantly have this swapping of the firstborn and the younger son swapping roles literally every single time throughout the book of Genesis every single time those roles are reversed and I did a whole sermon on that a while back demonstrating that that was the thing with virtually every case in the book of Genesis okay so then once we're done with that then we get back into the Joseph story and we continue on with that now look ultimately Jacob is gonna find out that Joseph's alive and they're all gonna go down into Egypt and as I said a little bit before Judah actually becomes a righteous selfless person that ends up standing before Joseph when he doesn't know it's Joseph and offering to sacrifice his life for Benjamin offering this you know at first he wanted to sell his own brother into slavery and and maybe even death who knows where he's gonna go being human trafficked like that why did Judah want to sell Joseph into slavery in the first place why didn't his brother unlike him what was the main big reason because because envy because he's the favorite right okay well after Joseph's gone who's the favorite now who's the favorite who's the one where he says hey you guys can all go to Egypt but don't take Benjamin because Benjamin you know I just couldn't live if anything happened to Benjamin you know I mean hey it's too bad about Simeon but we're not sending Benjamin he'd rather have Simeon rotting in prison than to send Benjamin because Benjamin's the new favorite there's no question when you're reading the book of Genesis that Benjamin is now the favorite Benjamin's the most important why because those are the two sons of Rachel right Joseph and Benjamin and so Judah has really changed as a person because at first Judah is willing to put his father through misery and sell Joseph into slavery moved with envy as the New Testament says but now when we have a new favorite Benjamin Judah is saying all sacrifice myself for Benjamin take me instead of Benjamin I don't want to see my dad go through sorrow I don't want to put my parents through that kind of pain so just go ahead and take me instead that's a that's a 180 reversal from how he was earlier okay and so another great thing we can learn from the story is that you've got two young men taking very different paths you've got Joseph who the Lord's with him he is resisting temptation he's remaining pure he's doing things right he's serving God even in the worst type of situation even among the heathen he stays close to God he stays right with God and then you have Judah who just leaves his family he's kind of a black sheep he's marrying a heathen his kids are so wicked they end up getting killed he's going to a prostitute he's got all this weird complicated family drama with his daughter-in-law and all these people and going through all this but in the end though Judah does get right with God Judah does come around and become a godly righteous person so you know this could be encouraging for someone who does go down a dark path because Judah went down a very dark path but yet he's able to be redeemed and in fact when you hear the word Judah typically if you're a Christian if you hear the word Judah you're typically gonna have a positive association I mean if I were just and part of it's because nobody ever preaches on this chapter that's you know so that helps dude out a little bit you know he's like yes skip Judah's in heaven like looking at pastor he meant as his pastor like yeah good yeah good call don't interrupt the story keep moving but anyway the point I'm kidding of course but the point is that if we were to just go around asking Christians just take a survey of Christians if we just listed a bunch of biblical names and just said hey you have a positive negative or neutral association with this name you know if we said you know Judas Iscariot bad Peter good right David's good right and just kind of had a little test like that and then we just kind of put Judah on the list all the other ones are just a decoy for scientific purposes I guarantee you that overwhelmingly Judah would end up in the good category even with all this seedy stuff going on in Genesis 38 and the reason why is because he ended good now I have a suspicion that that if we put Saul on the list Saul would get a lot of negative ticks even though Saul did a lot of great things even though the Bible says that the Spirit of the Lord came upon Saul it says that about him more than anyone else in the Bible Saul and Samson I believe are tied for the most times the Spirit of the Lord came upon him so Saul was a good king at first he did good things but the reason that Saul ends up in the bad column is because he ended badly really your legacy is more determined by how you finish even if you do very wrong things if you finish well that can make up for a lot that can atone for a lot okay obviously not with regard to salvation but with regard to your reputation yes and so if you have gone astray if you've gone down a dark path come back to Christ come back to serving God come back to church come back to the fold get right with God because if Judah can get right with God after all the the stuff that he pulled all the wickedness that he did so can you and God forbid if anybody here today decides to go down a dark path in the future and ends up rebelling against their parents and going out and being the black sheep of the family and doing stupid things and and committing these type of sins fornication adultery etc you know hopefully you'll remember this Bible story and you'll remember this sermon and think to yourself hey you know what I like the prodigal son can also come home again I can get right with God I can make things right even if it's been 20 years or whatever because we're talking about a long period of time going by here okay between the time that Joseph is sold into slavery and the time that all this happens I mean we're talking a couple decades going by and so you can get right with God you can get back on the horse you can make things right and so it's actually an encouraging story that somebody as bad as Judah could still get right but at the same time you don't want to be a Judah though you'd rather be a Joseph because Judah even though he eventually comes around and gets right with God and he ends up getting a really good blessing from his father in Genesis 49 because he ended his life well he gets a good blessing God ends up blessing the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Judah ends up being the tribe that gives us King David and more importantly Jesus is of the tribe of Judah but that doesn't mean that he didn't go through a lot of pain and suffering along the way as a result of of going down a dark path so if you decide to rebel against your parents if you decide to go out commit fornication and go out and live a sinful wicked life and get away from the things of God you're gonna have consequences okay and some of those consequences could be permanent you know I mean Judah had two of his children die and his wife die and he's publicly humiliated and you say well how many people heard about it well I mean we're talking about it right now and it's been like 4,000 years so you do the math okay people heard about it it was well known I wouldn't want to be embarrassed or humiliated in that way would you of course not and so when you go down that dark path that's what you're signing up for public humiliation sorrow pain grief loss you don't want to go down that road it's better to stay right with God be blessed by God stay in the fold but if you do leave the fold come back and that's what we can learn from the life of Judah is that sure you're gonna go through pain and suffering but you can still come back and you can still be used by God you can still have a good legacy in the end let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for this great chapter Lord and and Lord thank you for a no skip Bible where every chapter is worth reading every chapter is worth listening to Lord thank you for giving us this particular chapter Lord I pray that preachers all over America and all over the world would preach the entire Bible including this chapter and and that all of us as Christians would learn what we need to learn from your word as we read chapters like this and Lord I pray that that people would be reading Genesis right now Lord because I pray that they would be on some kind of a Bible reading plan to get through the Bible in 2023 cover to cover and Lord if they're not already on a plan like that I pray that they would jump in and start reading and jump in and read the book of Genesis in January and that they would read the book of Genesis every January or whatever schedule they want to be on in Jesus name we pray amen