Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #18 in Genesis 38, and we will be reading Genesis 38:27-30:

And 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. And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out: and she said, How hast thou broken forth? this breach be upon thee: therefore his name was called Pharez. And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon his hand: and his name was called Zarah.

We are coming to the close of this chapter, and there is more difficult language found in these verses, and we will try to understand what we can.  Of course our understanding is always by God’s grace in what He allows for us to understand, but we will do the best we can in coming to a faithful conclusion.

I do want to say one thing about a verse we did not read today.  After Tamar produced the pledge of the signet, bracelets, and staff, it said in Genesis 38:26:

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.

Judah knew her again no more.  We wonder about that because if it is true that Tamar is a type of elect, and I think that is an absolute truth based on her producing of the pledge; and if it is true that Judah is a picture of Christ, which I think is also an absolute truth, then this would mean that Tamar is the bride of Christ, and Judah is the Bridegroom.  If it is a picture of Christ and His elect, why would it say that he knew her again no more?

In the historical situation, it makes sense.  He would have been troubled by the whole experience.  He had been deceived, and he had been proven wrong in doing something underhanded by not giving his other son to Tamar.  But spiritually, it is a picture of the elect and the children that are conceived.  We just read about these two sons, Pharez and Zarah, representing all who would become saved.  Tamar and these two boys are picturing God’s salvation of the great multitude as He completed His salvation program.  Their conception is identified with fruitfulness in the Bible, and we know that God has “times and seasons” that He intended to be fruitful.  He would send the early and latter rain, as we read in James 5:7:

Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

The precious fruit of the earth is tied to the “fruit of the womb.”  It is a similar picture if the earth brings forth fruit, or if a woman brings forth fruit.  It paints the same kind of spiritual picture of salvation.  The implication is that once the Lord receives these rains, then He will no longer need to be longsuffering and patient, and He will begin to carry out Judgment Day.  That is exactly what happened in God’s salvation program.  He saved everyone He intended to save.  The church age brought in the firstfruits unto God, and the Latter Rain brought in the great multitude, and then God shut the door and began to carry out His judgment program.

So as far as being fruitful is concerned, there is a time for fruitfulness, spiritually, and Tamar was exceedingly fruitful as she was bearing these twins, and now it was time for judgment: “Let her be burnt.”  But she was able to produce the pledge, indicating she was one of those predestinated to salvation, and so forth.  Now afterwards when it is the time of her carrying these children and travailing in her birth, from this point forward is picturing Judgment Day.  And in Judgment Day, God is not interested in continued “fruitfulness” and bringing forth children, spiritually.  By the way, we know it says in Isaiah 54:1-2:

Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith JEHOVAH. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;

That is, as the great multitude is brought forth, a bigger “tent” is need because God is bringing forth many spiritual children.  We read in Isaiah 49:18-20:

Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith JEHOVAH, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth. For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away. The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell.

Who are these children, and who are the former children?  The children that will be had are the great multitude, after the others are lost, pointing to the end of the church age.  Of course God does not lose any of the elect, but in that figure those that are merely professed children of God (not elect) are spoken of as those He lost in order that He obtain the great multitude of children.  Then it says in Isaiah 49:21:

Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?

It is veery similar to the question presented in Revelation 7 upon the appearance of the great multitude in heaven, when it says, “Whence came they?”  And the answer was given: “These are they which came out of great tribulation.”  These are the ones that were “begotten” once God lost the other.  It is as though He lost the sons of Israel, or the corporate church, but now He has found the great multitude.

So these twin sons are typifying the great multitude, and there will be no more children after that, so Judah “knew her again no more.”  The word “knew” is a word that can be used in the Bible of knowing a woman in an intimate way, as it says in Genesis 4:1:

And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain…

Then it says in Genesis 4:17:

And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch…

And it says in Genesis 4:25:

And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth…

Typically, when God tells us that a man “knew” his wife, He has the purpose of telling us of conception and having a child.  Or when God says that Joseph knew not Mary, He is telling us there were no sexual relations, as she was a Virgin.

Here, when God says of Judah, “And he knew her again no more,” it refers to no more salvation, or no more “fruit of the womb,” as we read in Psalm 127 in our last study where God speaks of the blessing of the womb in Psalm 127:3:

Lo, children are an heritage of JEHOVAH: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

As we live in this world during this prolonged Judgment Day period, there is still the blessing of physical childbirth for couples.  The Bible is not saying anything against that, and God’s people are to continue to leave it in God’s hands whether they have children, or not.  If they do have children, it is a blessing regardless of the child’s spiritual condition.  It is still a blessing to the parent, and that is not in view as we are speaking of spiritual fruitfulness, as typified by childbirth.  Christ will not bring forth spiritual children any longer throughout this period of Judgment Day.  It is sorrowful, but it is the truth of the Bible for Judgment Day.

Let us turn to Isaiah 13, which is clearly speaking of judgment.  It is a chapter that begins with “the burden of Babylon,” and Babylon typifies the kingdom of Satan and all the unsaved inhabitants of the world.  We read in Isaiah 13:9-10:

Behold, the day of JEHOVAH cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.

This is very familiar language, and it happens immediately after the Tribulation, and then it is Judgment Day.  Then it says in Isaiah 13:11:

And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity…

And in this context, the Lord mentions the Medes because it was the Medes and the Persians that conquered Babylon, historically, after a period of seventy years.  Cyrus, King of the Medes and Persians, took the kingdom of Babylon in one night, just as Christ came as a thief in the night on May, 21,2011.  So that is the background for understanding what God is going to tell us in Isaiah 13:15-18:

Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword. Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished. Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.

You see, the “fruit of the womb” is the object of God’s wrath as He uses this figure of the Medes that will have no pity on the fruit of the womb, nor will their eyes spare children.  Spiritually speaking, God is indicating that the blessing of the fruit of the womb (pointing to salvation) is not possible.  It is not going to happen in Judgment Day.  There will be no spiritual conception, and there will be no children coming forth, spiritually.  That is all in view here with the statement that Judah knew Tamar no more.

As we go back to Genesis 38, I would just like to mention that we do read the name of these twin boys.  It is very curious how God describes their birth, and that is what makes this so complicated because we read in Genesis 38:28:

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.

There is a lot of biblical significance to the “scarlet thread,” and we will talk about that in another study.  But it says, “This came out first,” and then it says in Genesis 38:29:

And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out: and she said, How hast thou broken forth? this breach be upon thee: therefore his name was called Pharez.

And the name “Pharez” means “breach,” and that brings on a whole line of subject matter in the Bible.  Lord willing, we will look at that.  Then it says in Genesis 38:30:

And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon his hand: and his name was called Zarah.

It appeared that Zarah was to be born first, and his hand did come forth, and the midwife bound a scarlet thread upon his hand.  Then his hand went back, and out came his brother Pharez, and the midwife called it a “breach” because he had “broken forth,” and we will get into that later.

We wonder, “What is going on with this language?”  Again, it is very complicated, spiritually, although it is not too complicated historically and literally.  You know, this is one of the times when you can see the “emptying of the Gospel” as people just look at just the plain, historical, literal, and grammatical meaning of the verses, and they basically “walk away with nothing” of spiritual worth or value, and with no precious gold and silver of the Bible.  There is a whole lot of spiritual truth here, and that is one thing I know for sure.  I do not know everything that is in view, but there is a whole lot of spiritual information here.

Let me mention just one thing about Zarah.  His name means “rising,” or “being raised,” and I encourage you to look up his name and the related words.  The word “Zarah” is Strong’s #2226, and it comes from #2225, and also there is #2224.  There are some very significant places we find this word, and it is significant to our time.  What God has to say is going to be a great encouragement to those of us that are living at this time.  I guess we should not be surprised about that because I mentioned Tamar coming before Judah, and Judah said, “Let her be burnt,” and that is representing Judgment Day, and she produces the pledge, and the children are also covered by the pledge.  And that is what makes it a little more difficult concerning Pharez because Pharez turns out to be the one that is often mentioned in the line of believers in the Bible, the line of descent, and we can read about him in the book of Ruth and other places in the New Testament in the Gospels.  We do not hear quite so much about Zarah, and that is what makes it more difficult.  But, Lord willing, we will be able to understand a few things, and maybe as we go on we will understand it more.

But we must stop here at this time, and we look forward to looking at this when we get together in our next Bible study.