Advent Special
JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM
Eleventh Day in the company of Tamar – the Canaanite
Ø A Canaanite woman (Genesis 38)
Ø Taken by Judah as wife for his son Er
Story-Line
After the death of Er, she was given to the second son, Onan after the law of Levirate Marriage
Deuteronomy 25:5-6
Levirate Marriage
5 When brothers reside together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the deceased shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband’s brother shall go in to her, taking her in marriage, and performing the duty of a husband’s brother to her, 6 and the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed to the name of the deceased brother, so that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. 7 But if the man has no desire to marry his brother’s widow, then his brother’s widow shall go up to the elders at the gate and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband’s brother to me.” 8 Then the elders of his town shall summon him and speak to him. If he persists, saying, “I have no desire to marry her,” 9 then his brother’s wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, pull his sandal off his foot, spit in his face, and declare, “This is what is done to the man who does not build up his brother’s house.” 10 Throughout Israel his family shall be known as “the house of him whose sandal was pulled off.”
Onan performs onanism
- God punishes him and kills him
- Judah refuses to give his third son
- Tamar disguiesed like a prostitute and slept with her father-in-law Judah
- Gives birth to twins
Who is right – Tamar or Judah?
Judah admits that Tamar was more in the right than he was (Genesis 38:26)
she was a woman of integrity who risked her life to fulfill her duty to herself and her family.
Click the link to know more about Onanism https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/onanism
