Patti Burris

I usually find myself skimming over the Genealogy of Jesus found in Matthew 1, but this day, something very interesting caught my eye. The names of four women jumped out at me. I had never noticed this before! These were women I knew. I had read their stories, I knew these were women with a past, and yet here they were, listed among the ancestors of Jesus. I felt the whispers of the Holy Spirit speaking to my own broken spirit. I knew I had something to learn from these women.

Tamar

The story of Tamar can be found in Genesis 38. Tamar was a Canaanite, who became the daughter-in-law of Judah. Remember Judah? One of the brothers who sold Joseph into slavery. Judah got Tamar as a wife for his firstborn, Er, but Er was wicked and God struck him down. Same thing happened when brother Onan took Tamar as his wife. After losing two sons, Judah decided to deceive Tamar to save the life of his youngest son. As the years pass by, Tamar realizes that she has been deceived and takes matters into her own hands. She dresses as a prostitute and tricks Judah into sleeping with her. It works and she becomes pregnant with twins. Personally, I don’t believe Tamar was a bad person. I think that she was forced into a desperate situation and dealt with it the only way she knew how. The Bible doesn’t talk about her relationship with God, but if she is listed as a direct descendant of Jesus, then she must have been a Godly woman. She had lived through marriages with two evil men, been deceived by her father-in-law and had sinned in desperation. That doesn’t make her a bad person. That makes her a broken woman who was blessed by a God who saw her condition and loved her to Him.

Who can blame her? When dealing with a desperate situation that we can see no way out of, it is easy to fall into sin, as a way to help ourselves. It seems so much easier to take control of the situation ourselves, than to trust God with it and allow Him to work things out. What we find out in the end though, is that we usually make a bigger mess of things and need to go crawling to God in submission and repentance.

When will we ever learn to sit still in a posture of prayer and allow God to work in His way? I am challenging you now, if you are dealing with a desperate situation that you can’t find your way out of, STOP, PRAY and WAIT on God to work things out. He will work things out, in His way, in His time and in a way that will glorify His name.

Don’t give up. Don’t dig the hole deeper. Seek God! He will help you. He is waiting!