Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #15 in Genesis 38, and we will read Genesis 38:24-26:

And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. 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, am I with child: and she said, Discern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet, and bracelets, and staff. And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more.

I will stop reading there.  We know that when Judah was going up to Timnath he came across Tamar who had covered her face, giving the appearance of a harlot, on the roadside.  He made a deal with her so that he could go in unto her and have sexual relations.  She requested a pledge, and Judah gave her the pledge of his signet, his bracelets, and his staff.  We have looked at these three things, especially the signet, which has to do with a “seal,” as we saw in Song of Solomon 8:5-6, which relates it to a seal upon the heart.  Spiritually, that is what is in view. 

The point is that Judah is a type of Christ, and he had gone to Timnath, and Timnath identifies with redemption, and Judah ended up performing the role of the “kinsman redeemer” in place of his own son.  He encountered Tamar, and she left with her pledge in lieu of the kid that he would later give to her.  Then when his friend went back to the area with the kid, he could not find her, and that left Tamar in possession of Judah’s pledge.

And it turned out that it was a good thing she kept the pledge because a few months later she began to “show” that she was pregnant.  We read in Genesis 38:24: “And it came to pass about three months after…”  It was after three months that it became evident that she was with child, and a conclusion was quickly drawn.  We do not know who told Judah these things.  It was probably a servant or a family member that told Judah about his daughter-in-law.  And remember that “daughter in law” is the same word as “spouse,” or “bride,” and we understand the spiritual meaning of that because Tamar is a picture of the elect, the bride of Christ, and Judah is a type and figure of Christ, the “kinsman redeemer,” in this passage.

Again, it says in Genesis 38:24:

And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt.

There is the judgment.  There is the condemnation.  In trying to identify the spiritual meaning of this, we would say that in this instance he is portraying Christ as Judge.  Remember that the Bible tells us that He is the Judge in John 5:27:

And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.

The Father has given the role of Judge to the son, and when Christ came the second time, He did come as Judge.  It is not future tense because He has already come back as Judge, as Judgment Day for the world started on May 21, 2011.  Christ came, spiritually, and He is using His Word to execute that judgment, and the saints are judging with him.  The saints alive and remaining on the earth are messengers of Christ, and He is sending us forth with the revelation of His righteous judgment as these truths are being opened up to our understanding.  We are sharing it, and thereby participating in the judgment process: “Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?” 

Looking at Genesis 38, we would say that Judah’s encounter with Tamar on the way to Timnath would identify with Christ’s first coming and the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit.   Then when she was judged by Judah as a type of Christ, this would identify with His second coming as Judge of the world.  The first time He came to deliver, and the second time He came to judge. 

We can see his work as deliverer by the fact that Tamar can produce the pledge in the time of judgment.  If she had not had the pledge, she would have been burnt.  She would have been condemned, and the condemnation would have been carried out by execution; she would have been killed and burned with fire, except she was able to produce the pledge.

We may have talked about this before, but the word “pledge” is a Hebrew word, Strong’s #6162, and it is found three times in verses 17, 18, and 20.  It is the word pronounced “ar-aw-bone',” and it appears to be derived from another word, Strong’s #6148, “aw-rab',” which does not have the ending attached, and this word is translated as “surety.”  Turn to Genesis 43:8-9:

And Judah said unto Israel his father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go; that we may live, and not die, both we, and thou, and also our little ones. I will be surety for him; of my hand shalt thou require him: if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever:

That is interesting because it is Judah speaking, the same man we are reading about in Genesis 38, but it looks like he is “maturing,” and his morality has been stirred up, and now he is willing to become “surety for the lad,” who is Benjamin.  This was a time when Joseph was manipulating his brothers to bring Benjamin down into Egypt, but Jacob refused to let him go.  So Judah was speaking to his father, saying that he would be “surety for him.”  Notice what this means: “…if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame for ever.”  That is exactly what Jesus Christ did for His people.  He became “surety” for us, and He bore the blame for our sins forever.  It was an eternal judgment.  The death of the unregenerate sinners on the last day will be an eternal destruction, being cut off by annihilation from the presence of the Lord. 

We used to say in times past that Christ died the equivalent of eternal death for each of the elect.  That is, His death at the foundation of the world was sufficient and equal to the death that God’s elect (probably as many as 200 people) would have died if the Lord had not stood in our death to become surety for us.  He became the surety just as Judah was telling his father that he would be surety for the lad.  This is the same word used in Genesis 44:32:

For thy servant became surety for the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father for ever.

Again, this is when Judah is interceding for Benjamin because Joseph wanted to keep Benjamin.  So Judah is pleading with Joseph (not knowing that he was Joseph) that he would be the one rather than Benjamin, as it says in Genesis 44:33-34:

Now therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad a bondman to my lord; and let the lad go up with his brethren. For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me? lest peradventure I see the evil that shall come on my father.

Do you see the “growth” in Judah?  He is willing to remain and be a bondman, a slave in Egypt, which was the same horrible thing he had caused Joseph to endure.  Finally, as the Lord worked in his life in bringing him into this situation, Judah is willing to become a bondman.  We know that Joseph’s experience as a bondman and a prisoner in Egypt was a picture of the wrath of God upon the Lord Jesus Christ. 

So Judah became a surety for Benjamin, and it is teaching us about the “pledge.”  It so happens that in the New Testament, we read of Jesus in Hebrews 7:20-23:

And inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest: (For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:) By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.

Jesus was made a surety.  And Judah was also the surety in Genesis 38, and it is the pledge he left.  The word “pledge,” or “ar-aw-bone',” is related to “aw-rab',” the surety, and basically, on the spiritual level, God is saying that when He brought the Gospel to His elect and they became saved through the hearing of the Word, the Spirit of Christ entered into those that became saved, and that Spirit was the “surety.”  That Spirit was the “pledge” of God that He would not destroy them.  He would not burn them.  Instead, they would live and experience eternal life.

We see that on the day that Tamar produced the pledge, he then pronounced her “righteous.”  We will try to look at that a little further because that is the judgment of God as He sits upon His judgment throne in this present Day of Judgment, and all the elect are making an appearance before His judgment seat.  Ultimately, the judgment will be passed: “I find no fault in them.”  He will only see our righteousness because we have received the righteousness of Christ, and that will be the verdict.  That will be the judgment. 

We sometimes forget that a judge can find one innocent, as well as guilty.  Pilot was a judge, and when Christ came before his judgment seat, Pilot said, “I find no fault in him.”  He had no sin upon Him, so of course Pilot found no fault.  God the righteous Judge will find no fault.  He will find no sin or blemish, and “no spot or wrinkle” in His bride, His elect.  We will be declared righteous on that final day of judgment, and it will be immediately followed by our exaltation into the heavenlies.

Now let us go to the New Testament.  It says in 2Corinthians 5:5:

Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

When we look up the word “earnest” in Strong’s Concordance, we find that it is Strong’s #728.  When we look it up, we find the Greek word pronounced “ar-hrab-ohn'.”  It is pronounced exactly like the Hebrew word that we were just looking at in Genesis 38 that is translated as “pledge,” which is ““ar-aw-bone'.”  The Greek word for “earnest” is that same word because it is not actually a Greek word – it is taken from the Hebrew.  It is of Hebrew origin, and Strong’s tells us that, and then Strong’s gives us the Hebrew Strong’s #6162, which directs us right back to Genesis 38.  And it is tied to the pledge in Genesis 38, without question.  That “pledge” that Judah gave to Tamar is the same word that God uses here when He says that He “also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.”  That is salvation – it is the Holy Spirit dwelling within the elect child of God. 

So everything we have been saying about Tamar receiving that pledge fits.  And notice how she presents the pledge at the most critical junction, the time when she was about to be burned, and it prevented her burning and any condemnation upon her.  It will not allow for her to be burned.  Instead, Judah testifies that she has been more righteous than he.  Her righteousness is seen through the producing of the pledge.  Can you see why that is so?  Now in this time period when God is going forth as Judge, and as Apollyon and Abaddon, the King of Destruction, and He is destroying the unsaved inhabitants of the earth like the plague of the death of the firstborn that came upon Egypt in that dark night thousands of years ago.  The Destroyer passed down the streets and brought destruction to the firstborn in  the houses of the Egyptians, but when He came to the home of an Israelite, He saw the blood upon the doorpost, and He passed over.  It became the Passover feast.  That is exactly what it means.  The blood caused the Destroyer to pass by that house and to go on to the next house where there was no blood, and the Destroyer would do His work of destruction.

And that is how it is today in the Day of Judgment.  God’s elect will endure to the end because we have the “pledge,” or the “earnest,” of the Spirit within, and it is as though God sees the blood of Christ covering us and the righteousness of Christ upon us, and He will not destroy us and cause us to perish.