The Father of the universe has a Son; who also, being the first-begotten Word of God, is even God. And of old He appeared in the shape of fire and in the likeness of an angel to Moses and to the other prophets; but now in the times of your reign, having, as we before said, become Man by a virgin . . .” (Justin Martyr, First Apology, 63. ANF, I:184)
Last evening our sermon passage was found in Genesis 38. It is an ugly passage. It tells the story of Judah, his sons Er, Onan, and Shelah, and Er's wife Tamar. Judah marries a Canaanite woman and has three sons. His sons are so evil that God kills both Er and Onan for their wickedness. Because Judah fears the loss of his remaining son, he fails to fulfill his obligation to Tamar of marrying her to his last son so that an heir might be raised up to Er. Seeing the failure of her father-in-law, Tamar takes matters into her own hand by dressing as a prostitute and sleeping with Judah. Judah, unaware of with whom he has had sex, subsequently hears that Tamar is pregnant by immorality. He demands that she be brought out and burned for her crime (can anyone say "hypocrite?"). Tamar then produces the evidence against her father-in-law and he relents. The story ends with the birth of twin boys. I jokingly called the sermon the "Jerry ...
Comments