Today I read Genesis 38 which is a strange and perverse story. It's about Judah and his family. Judah has 3 sons and he took a wife for his eldest son who died childless. The scriptures state that he died because he was wicked in the sight of God. That is all we are given. Judah gave the second son the woman to be his wife and to raise up children to his brother. He did not want any children that she bore to be his brother's so the scripture states he did not actually lay with her but masturbated as it is written which the Lord was displeased with and caused him to die also. Now, this, to my knowledge, is the main verse that most Christians use to condemn masturbation because the Lord killed him for it. First let me say that I of course, having been to the temple am a proponent of sexual purity and no sexual relations except with your spouse, and this includes sex with ones self, but I do not think this is the reason God caused, Onan was his name, to die.
I think that Onan was taken by the Lord because he refused to raise up children to his brother. This was the custom of the Israelites and even gets included in the law of Moses later on. I do not pretend to understand it and it makes no sense to me, but this is the command they had been given. Now, I think it displeased the Lord that Onan was not sexually pure, but I think the reason he was taken by the Lord was actually because of his refusal to follow the command of his father on earth and his father in Heaven. That is my take on it.
The rest of the story is just plain weird. Judah does not want to give the woman, Tamar, to his third son because he is afraid he will die too. I can understand why he was afraid, but the scriptures state that they did not die because of her, rather they died because of their choices. But I can understand Judah's reluctance. He'd already lost 2 sons and as far as he knew the only commonality was they both married Tamar. So he tells Tamar that he will give her his last son once he is full grown, but he doesn't.
I really don't understand the mentality of people in those days. This is yet another example of how warped their thinking was. But Tamar, what I assume is a few years later, upset that Judah has not given her his last son to be her husband even though he was of age, dresses up like a prostitute and tricks Judah into having sex with her. She gets pregnant and then reveals to him what she has done. Instead of being repulsed by her, he acknowledges his fault in not giving her his last son to be her husband and she eventually bares twins.
I remember as a teenager I had a friend that his family had a saying of "Don't go kicking skunks", or in other words, don't go looking for trouble. And in this story Judah would have avoided trouble if he would have followed the Law of Chastity, of not having sexual relations with anyone to whom he is not married. If he hadn't been having sex with a harlot, it wouldn't have happened. Despite this stories perversity, it really does reenforce the necessity of keeping the law of Chastity and making sure that we are doing everything in the Lord's way. Daily I watch TV, or just look at the news and marvel how much of the tragedy and heart break could be avoided if people would just follow the commandments of God. It always reaffirms to me that God's way is the best and that if we want a happy earthly life, we need to make sure we are listening to Him and what He has to say. It doesn't mean that our life will necessarily be easy and it certainly won't be perfect, but we have a much greater likelihood of a happy life by following His commandments. That's my two cents anyway. Until tomorrow.
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