Genesis 38:6–11
The Bible4Jesus.com Podcast
About this episode
We come now to a chapter in Genesis that many modern readers, and more than a few pastors, would prefer to skip over. It is an interruption in the grand and inspiring story of Joseph. We leave the courts of Egypt and are dropped unceremoniously into the messy, carnal, and deeply dysfunctional family life of Judah. It is a raw, earthy account of sin, duty, deception, and divine judgment. We want a God who is more like a celestial guidance counselor and a Bible that reads like an inspirational coffee table book. We want the glorious mountaintop experiences, but we want to ignore the muddy, and sometimes sordid, valleys through which the path of redemption runs. But the Bible is not that kind of book, and our God is not that kind of God. He is a God who plunges His hands into the muck of human history, into the grime of our sin, to accomplish His sovereign purposes.