Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #9 in Genesis 38, and we will read Genesis 38:16:

And he turned unto her by the way, and said, Go to, I 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 unto me?

I will stop reading there.  We were discussing the Hebrew word translated as “daughter in law,” in our last study, and we saw that it was the same word found in Song of Solomon where it is translated as the word “spouse.”  Let us go there, to Song of Solomon 4:10-12:

How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! how much better is thy love than wine! and the smell of thine ointments than all spices! Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue; and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon. A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

In this chapter of the Song of Solomon, it is telling us of the love between the Lord Jesus Christ and His bride, or spouse, who is all the elect.  He is the Beloved.  When He says, “How fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse,” He is referring to those He has saved.  The same word “spouse” is translated as “daughter in law” in Genesis 38. 

If you remember, we also found that word in Isaiah 62:5:

For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.

The word “bride” is the same word translated as “spouse” and “daughter in law.”  How are we to understand this spiritually?  What does it mean that Tamar is the “daughter in law” who end up marrying her father-in-law, as he unwittingly fulfilled the duty of the “near kinsman,” and raised up seed to the dead that their name not be put out of Israel?  It is all a picture of God’s salvation program, and Judah is a type and figure of the Lord Jesus Christ who is our “kinsman redeemer.” 

But what is the spiritual meaning of Tamar being the daughter-in-law?  We can understand why Tamar, who typifies the elect, is cast as the daughter-in-law because every human being has been placed in a marriage relationship to the Law of God.  We were married to the Law, and we sin, and so the Law condemns us, making us children of wrath even as others.  “There is none righteous, no, not one.”  We have all broken the Law, and we were found guilty, so the Law becomes the “jealous husband,” and it condemns us.  It is just like anyone found guilty of adultery was to be stoned to death.  “For the wages of sin is death.”  We understand that.

But then God had done something wonderful for certain ones, His chosen people, in that He bore our sins, and died for our sins.  Therefore we became “dead to the law by the body of Christ,” thus making us a “widow.”  And because we are dead to the Law, we are qualified to be married to another.  That is all according to the Law of God.  We went through this last time in Romans 7:2-4:

For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

See that statement, “Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another.”  That is why God typifies His elect people as “widows.”  It is because we were married to the Law, but we became dead to the Law through the body of Christ.  Therefore, like a widow, we are free to remarry, and we do enter into remarriage with the Lord Jesus Christ, and this now applies to every individual that would ever become saved. 

So Judah can justly marry his daughter-in-law, and she is not legally his daughter-in-law any longer because her husband had died, and she can legally be married to another.  So I do not think that Judah was committing any sin, even on the natural, historical level because Tamar was not a blood relative.  She was related to him through marriage, but both her husbands had died, and therefore she was qualified to marry.  And Judah’s wife had also died, so he was qualified to marry.

So let us go back to Genesis 38:17-23:

And he said, I will send thee a kid from the flock. And she said, Wilt thou give me a pledge, till thou send it? And he said, What pledge shall I give thee? And she said, Thy signet, and thy bracelets, and thy staff that is in thine hand. And he gave it her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him. And she arose, and went away, and laid by her vail from her, and put on the garments of her widowhood. And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend the Adullamite, to receive his pledge from the woman's hand: but he found her not. Then he asked the men of that place, saying, Where is the harlot, that was openly by the way side? And they said, There was no harlot in this place. 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 thou hast not found her.

I will stop reading there.  Tamar asked for a pledge, and then Judah asked what pledge she wanted.  And she has the list ready – she wants his signet, his bracelets, and the staff in his hand.  And he gave it to her, and he came in unto her, and she conceived by him.  Then she went back to her father’s house, and laid by her the vail she had used to give the appearance of a harlot, and she put on the garments of her widowhood once more.

Then Judah sent his friend to receive the pledge of his personal belongings, but his friend, the Adullamite, was unable to find her.  He asked around, and they said there was no harlot there.  Tamar was not from that area, and she was not actually a harlot.  So he had to go back and say that he could not find her, and the men that place also reported that there was no harlot.  Then Judah said, “Let her take it to her, lest we be shamed.”  

That seems to be the end of the matter as far as Judah was concerned.  Of course Tamar knew what she was doing, and it was all according to her plan.  The matter of the pledge will come up toward the end of the chapter.

But before that, we want to look at what she received as the pledge, the three items.  We are going to spend time looking at each one, and then we will look at the word “pledge” before we move on, and I think we will see very clearly what is in view in the last section of this chapter.  Spiritually, it is just amazing.  It is an incredible historical parable that God has given us regarding the leaving of the pledge with this woman, and how that pledge becomes so important, and it ends up saving her life.  That pledge will result in keeping her from being burned.  She would have been burned to death, and yet she was able to produce the pledge, and instead of being burned she was declared “righteous.”

I am sure you are starting to understand the spiritual implications, just based on what happens at the end of the chapter, but let us look at these three things that make up the pledge.  We will probably look at them in a different order, although the signet is mentioned first, and then the bracelets, and then the staff.  We will look first at the bracelet, and then the staff and the signet, and afterwards we will look at the “pledge,” and we will see the beautiful picture God has illustrated here regarding His Gospel, His salvation program, and His assurance to us.