The Lion of Judah

1 An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar… Matthew 1:1-3a

Last time we explored the following question: Why would Matthew begin his Gospel with a genealogy filled with “mamzers” or illegitimate children? So we want to begin to explore the mamzers in the family tree of Jesus. The first mamzer in the genealogy of Christ is a pair of twins, Perez and Zerah, sons of Judah by way of Tamar. In order to understand their story, and ultimately to understand why Matthew highlights these mamzers in the genealogy I want to go back all the way to Genesis 37 and get context about Judah and Tamar.

In Genesis 37 Joseph’s brothers sell him into slavery because they are tired of hearing his prophetic dreams that one day he will rule over all of them. They trap him in a pit and leave him to die, but then Judah says:

What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” Genesis 37:26-27

It seems that Judah not only doesn’t want blood on his hands, especially his brother’s, but that he also wants to gain a small profit from the endeavor. After selling his brother into slavery, Judah leaves his other brothers to go live near Hirah the Adullamite .

If we don’t slow down we might not recognize that it’s strange that all of the sudden Judah leaves his family after this incident. Is he ashamed of what they had done? Did he no longer trust his brothers? What kind of shame and guilt did these brothers endure? The text doesn’t say, but it’s enough to notice that it’s strange that he leaves his family.

Not only does he leave his family, but Judah marries a Canaanite woman, which would have been against the Law. What we begin to notice is that Judah’s story isn’t exactly picture perfect here, so why does Matthew specifically highlight this story in his gospel? Why does he choose to highlight brokeness and lack of character, instead of highlighting someone righteous? Let’s hear more of the story.

Judah has three sons by his Canaanite wife: Er, Onan, and Shelah. Er is the firstborn and he marries another Canaanite woman, Tamar, the mother of the mamzers in Matthew 1:3. Genesis 38 explains that Er was wicked in sight of the Lord so he was put to death. Now according to the law set forth in Deuteronomy 25:5-10 it would be the duty of Onan to marry his brother’s widow and propagate his brothers line. So Tamar and Onan get married, but Onan does something wicked himself: in verse 9 it says that Onan spilled his seed as not to get Tamar pregnant.

A Quick Aside

Now a quick aside….did God really kill Onan for not getting her pregnant? In our modern Western mind this seems harsh; however, this is not a question they would have asked in the time of Judah. In the cultural context the Israelites and surrounding cultures would have attributed everything, the changing of seasons, the circumstances in life, and more, to the realm of the gods. For the Israelites, God was the one true God, and so when something unnatural happened, like a son dying at a young age, it would’ve been seen as “the hand of God.” We see this principle in Job, where his friends think that Job must have committed some grave sin, and we also see it in the gospels when the people ask if it is the sin of the father or the sin of the son that the man was born blind. For them this would not have been a problem, but in our mind we question whether a good God would kill someone for this. Also there have been much more abusive husbands than this so why not them? The reality is that God is not operating this way. There is the “wrath” of God that is inflicted upon us when we live in sin, but it’s not clear what actually happens to Onan, but let’s get back to our story.

Back to the Story

So now Tamar is twice widowed, and Judah thinks that the woman is cursed. He has lost two sons, and he doesn’t blame God explicitly, but he might think it’s because Tamar is a Canaanite woman. So under the guise that his third son is not old enough for marriage, he tells her to take on her widows garments and live in her fathers house. Tamar obeys her father-in-law, but the expectation is that when Shelah is older that she will be married to him. A long time goes by and Tamar hears that Judah is coming near, so she goes to spy on him. Tamar discovers that Shelah is old enough for marriage and she has not been given to him in marriage.

In the time to be a widow, meant to be without provision, so this is a fairly dire situation for Tamar. There is an injustice that has been perpetrated by Judah, and she seeks to correct it in her own way. She is sitting near the entrance to Enaim, which literally means “the opening of the eyes”, and Judah notices her and thinks her to be a prostitute. He wants to sleep with her and offers to send her a young goat as payment. She asks for a pledge, a guarantee that he will do what he says, so she asks for his personal seal, cord and staff. This would have been unique to Judah and easily identifiable. It may have even had a lion on it, which we will come back to later.

So Judah sleeps with his daughter-in-law and gets her pregnant. Judah attempts to send the goat to the “temple prostitute,” but nobody knows who she is. In the meantime, Judah hears that Tamar is pregnant by way of prostitution. Suddenly, he wants to follow the rules of Leviticus 21:9, which says:

 When the daughter of a priest profanes herself through prostitution, she profanes her father; she shall be burned to death.

So they bring out Tamar to burn her, but she sends a message to Judah; she sends him his seal, cord, and staff, and says, “Do you recognize these? The man who owns these is who has gotten me pregnant.” And suddenly Judah is convicted by the weight of his sin, his eyes are opened. He realizes that he was in the wrong to withhold his son, to sleep with a prostitute, and maybe he even remembers selling Joseph and the fact that he has married into a Canaanite family. The weight of his sin causes him to confess that Tamar, “is more righteous than me.” He ultimately takes her back into his household and she gives birth to another set of twins. The account of the birth of these twins is unique in itself:

27 When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. 28As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, “This one came out first.” 29 But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, “So this is how you have broken out!” And he was named Perez. 30 Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out. And he was named Zerah.

Even with twins there must be a firstborn, so the baby with the scarlet would be considered the firstborn; however, it is actually the other boy who “breaks out,” which is why they call him Perez. Matthew’s Jewish audience would know this story intimately. So why does Matthew highlight it in his gospel? We see that Jesus is a descendant of Judah and Perez, but why is it important? What is Matthew attempting to say?

He’s highlighting the fact that the long awaited Messiah comes from a story of brokenness and Israel’s failings. Although they are the chosen people of God the Messiah and the coming kingdom is going to come in ways that they don’t expect and from people they wouldn’t expect. The messiah comes from the head of one of the tribes of Israel who broke countless laws and Perez, a mamzer, who was thought to be second-born. Matthew is beginning to hint at the fact that Jesus isn’t the type of Messiah you’d expect.

He is also probably thinking of something that Jesus says to John the Baptist. In Matthew 11, John the Baptist asks if Jesus really is the Messiah. The question is asked in a way that says, “You are not what I expected. Was I wrong? Are you really him?” Jesus responds thus:

4Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with a skin disease are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. Matthew 11:4-6

He goes on to say that the kingdom is “breaking out” or “breaking forth”; it is perets, or exploding. Even in answering the question, Jesus himself, refers to Perez. Yes, I am the Messiah, the Lion of Judah, but I am not what you expected…but I am what you need.

This is the story of the Lion of Judah. He is from the lineage of mixed marriage, of an incestuous relationship, from a son, Perez, who was thought to be the second born. So why does Matthew highlight this in his Gospel? Because Matthew is telling us, that who you think God really cares about isn’t who you thought it was. God isn’t exclusionary. He has a heart for those with broken stories, the ones that aren’t real pretty. So if you are feeing broken or that your life is too messy please know that God sees you, loves you, and can use you in powerful ways.