The strange story of Tamar, Onan, and Perez

The Lord intended the Messiah to be from Judah (Heb 7:14). With this hindsight, we read the pivotal moment in the genealogical line of the Messiah in Gen 38:

6 Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7 But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death.

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The #1 son, Er was no good. The Lord killed him.

8 Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.” 9 But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he spilled his sperm on the ground to keep from providing offspring for his brother. 10 What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death also.

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The #2 son, Onan, was no good either. What were you doing, Onan? You could have been an ancestor of Jesus. The Lord did not like what he saw and killed him too. From the Lord's point of view, he was quick to slay Onan because the Messiah could have come from him but he did not cooperate.

Bad news: Judah began to see a pattern and did not want to give his #3 son, Shelah to Tamar. Tamar waited until Judah's Shelah had grown up but Judah did not give her to him.

Good news: That did not stop Tamar. She came up with a scheme as a prostitute to attract Judah himself. He had sex with her without knowing that she was his daughter-in-law. She became pregnant by her father-in-law:

27 When the time of her labor came, there were twins in her womb. 28 And when she was in labor, one put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.” 29 But as he drew back his hand, behold, his brother came out. And she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” Therefore his name was called Perez. 30 Afterward his brother came out with the scarlet thread on his hand, and his name was called Zerah.

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The name Perez means breaking out. He seems to know what was at stake Perez was in the line of the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1:

3a Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron.

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Onan was given the chance to be an ancestor of the Messiah, but he threw it away. In contrast, Tamar fought for her right to have children in the family line. Her scheme worked. She gave birth to Perez who became an ancestor of Jesus. This may sound strong to our ears. The heroine here is Tamar among a bunch of incompetent men—the little guy Perez did good also

KevinT said:

It seems quite out of character for God to kill Er and Onan for their malfeasance. Er's sins are not listed, but Onan's is relatively mild when compared to, say, Cain's actions.

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See Why did God punish Cain and Onan so differently? and follow up there