Judah and Tamar 

And when Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,” she took off her widow's garments and covered herself with a veil, wrapping herself up, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him in marriage.  When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.  He turned to her at the roadside and said, “Come, let me come in to you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?”  He answered, “I will send you a young goat from the flock.” And she said, “If you give me a pledge, until you send it—”  He said, “What pledge shall I give you?” She replied, “Your signet and your cord and your staff that is in your hand.” So he gave them to her and went in to her, and she conceived by him. (Genesis 38: 13 to 18) 

Tamar had been Judah's daughter-in-law for a couple of times as described below. 

And Judah took a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.  But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord put him to death.  Then Judah said to Onan, “Go into your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.”  But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went into his brother's wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother.  And what he did was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death also.  Then Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law, “Remain a widow in your father's house, till Shelah my son grows up”—for he feared that he would die, like his brothers. So Tamar went and remained in her father's house. (Genesis 38: 6 to 11) 

After realizing that Judah was not giving her to his third son Shelah, Tamar tricked Judah to sleep with her to conceive his offspring. It is intriguing for what Tamar had done. Not only it's incest to sleep with her father-in-law but also life threating for a widow to get pregnant. It's even more intriguing that after knowing Tamar was pregnant by him, Judah said that “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” (Genesis 38: 26) 

The reason that Tamar was so determined to have a child from Judah's clan might be that she wanted an inheritance for her child from the family. At that time, we don't know how well Judah had established his wealth in Cannon. However, there was an inheritance that was greater than the worldly wealth and that's the covenant that God made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God promised that they would become a great nation, and their offspring would be as many as sand by the sea and stars in the sky. Judah might have forgotten about it. So, he valued his younger son more than God's will. He would rather have no offspring for his firstborn than to give Tamar to Shelah to multiply.   

What Tamar had done might remind Judah what he and his siblings had done to Joseph. They sold Joseph because they were jealous of him. They let their flesh overcome God's will for the family to multiply. That might be why Judah said that Tamar was more righteous than him.  Indeed, God valued what Tamar had done. So, God gave Tamar twin boys; Perez and Zerah. As a matter of fact, God honored Tamar so much that her name was written in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. 

What Tamar did by no means meet our moral standard. That's because we judge it with our own knowledge of good and evil. God doesn't judge it like us as the Bible described below. 

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55: 8 9) 

To know God's thoughts and ways, we need to be spiritual as described below. 

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (First Corinthians 2: 14 to 16) 

Simply put, if we have the mind of Christ then we will be spiritual. Then we could know God's thoughts and ways. Not only that, but we could also be freed from our own knowledge of good and evil. In other words, we would no longer be shackled by our sinful nature but become godly as Christ. Emmanuel. 

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