God’s Perfect Plan – by Issan Acosta

Today’s Passages – Genesis 38 – 40 (Click on the references to listen to the passages. Click here to view today’s passage on Blue Letter Bible.)

(Second Milers also read – Mark 1 – 2; Proverbs 15; Psalms 71 – 75)

Listen to this morning’s Scripture Song – Psalm 89:1

Read the “0115 Evening and Morning“ devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Read a previous post from today’s passage – “What About Judah?“

“And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out: and she said, How hast thou broken forth? this breach be upon thee: therefore his name was called Pharez.” (Genesis 38:39)

When reading Genesis Chapter 38, I could not help but see God’s sovereignty through the Messianic line of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Testament clearly prophesied that the Messiah would come out of the Tribe of Judah.

“The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be” (Genesis 49:10)

Before Ruth, a Midianite woman; and Rahab, a harlot, were part of the lineage of Christ, there was a woman named Tamar, also a harlot who was part of our Saviour’s lineage as well.

“And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse” (Matthew 1:5)

“And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram;” (Matthew 1:3)

Tamar was Judah’s daughter in law and she deceived Judah into sleeping with her. She stood where the harlots stood and dressed the way they did. Tamar ends up giving birth to Pharez and Zarah. She is named in the lineage of Christ with her twin boys. Although the Bible does not record positive things that Tamar has done, she was a great, great, great, great grandmother to King David, and was also in the lineage of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even though Tamar used a deceptive method, she was a woman who risked her life to bare a child for her deceased husband. She knew she had the right to a child, and she knew that her first husband (Er) had the right to an heir. It is amazing how God’s plans can develop through the deceptive means of a person. Not one person in this story knew what God was planning in the long term. They were just living their lives, but the mind of God had a plan of which they knew nothing. Christian, you may be living your life today without a clue of what the future holds for you. Know this, however, that God has a plan for your life. Walk with God and stay close to God and he may just unfold his plans for you as He wills.