Genesis 38:12–19
The Bible4Jesus.com Podcast
About this episode
We live in an age that loves to be offended. Our culture is constantly on the hunt for something to be outraged about, and when it comes to the Bible, it doesn't have to hunt for very long. The modern reader, steeped in a sentimental, therapeutic view of religion, often comes to a passage like Genesis 38 and recoils. They expect the Bible to be a collection of moralistic fables with flannel-graph heroes, and instead they find a sordid story of deception, sexual sin, and profound family dysfunction. And this isn't just any family; this is the family, the line from which the Messiah will come. We want to skip over this chapter, to pretend it's a strange interruption in the much cleaner story of Joseph. And the reason is this: God writes straight with crooked lines. The story of our redemption is not a story of God finding worthy, clean, respectable people to work with.