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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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Genesis 38:7
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The terrible events of this chapter follow Judah’s venture into the world, and surely we are meant to see a connection between his compromise and the ills that followed. His sin costs him his two eldest sons’ lives. God punishes him, but does not utterly destroy him. Exactly what Er did is not revealed, though it was clearly very serious to warrant the judgment of God in ending his life. We learn from the inspired record, what we could not otherwise know – that when Er died, it was because God was punishing him for some wickedness. Matthew Henry says, ‘Note, sometimes God makes quick work with sinners, and takes them away in his wrath, when they are just setting out in a wicked course of life.’ Possibly it involved some sexual sin, for, as Leupold points out, it is mentioned in connection with his marriage to Tamar. God would not allow wickedness to dwell in this family and become established so early in the history of Israel. They were to be a nation that, at least outwardly, must live according to God’s righteous standards. There would be time enough for them to depart from God, and they certainly did so in a big way, but the rot could not be allowed to set in so early.Upon the death of Er, Onan was required to take Tamar as wife and raise up children for his deceased elder brother. But he was a proud individual and did not want to submit to this arrangement. It had not yet been revealed that the royal line would come through Judah – the first time we learn this is during Jacob’s blessing of his sons (Genesis 49:10) – but nevertheless Onan by this sin lost the privilege of being in the physical line of the Messiah. We do not know what great privileges our sins forfeit. He did not want his own physical children to be treated as the children to his elder brother. As far as he was concerned, he had now reached the status of the firstborn in the family, and therefore he refused to cooperate with this as his father obviously required. The only sin that Scripture draws attention to is his refusal to inseminate Tamar. He took steps to avoid her becoming pregnant. But this behaviour also great displeased the Lord, and God took Onan’s life as well because of this.What Onan had refused to do was what was later enshrined in the Law of Moses (Deuteronomy 25:5-10) and known as levirate marriage (from the Latin for ‘husband’s brother’ – levir). The supposed hard question which the Sadducees brought to Christ and which was intended to disprove the resurrection (Matthew 22:23-33) was derived from this practice. It was designed to protect the firstborn and ensure that he was left with offspring to inherit his name, his land, and his property, in the case where he died early in a childless marriage. It was a duty required of all, and a duty which God too endorsed under the law. It was open to a man to refuse to take his deceased elder brother’s wife, though he would suffer shame in society for this refusal. But Onan had taken his brother’s wife, and yet he was attempting to avoid giving his brother a child through her. It was this which caused God to slay him.Judah had one more son, Shelah, but he was too young for Tamar to marry at this time. Judah, who as father-in-law was responsible for these things, promised Shelah to Tamar, but not until he was older; she must wait for him. Once this arrangement was in place, it was understood that she could not marry anyone else and so, quite appropriately, she was sent home to her father’s house until the marriage could take place. Judah promised her that his youngest son would do what Onan had failed to do. Moses says that Judah acted in this way because he feared for the life of his son. Many commentators understand this to mean that Judah never intended to give his youngest son to Tamar. He superstitiously concluded that there was something wrong with her, and that by marrying her Shelah’s life would also be in danger. His fear made him find a way of putting off the marriage, and using Shelah’s relative youth as an excuse in the short term. He did this ‘lest peradventure he [Shelah] die also, as his brethren did’. But Tamar now rightly believed that Shelah had been promised to her and she waited.
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An alternative interpretation is that the words ‘lest peradventure he die also’ explains why Judah offered Shelah to Tamar at all. He was afraid that if he failed to do this, Shelah also might be subject to God’s anger for failing like Onan to raise a child for his brother Er. Seen this way, his request for delay is honest and the reason given – that Shelah is too young at present – is genuine. But this interpretation seems to be ruled out by the way Jacob expresses his fear. The danger in his mind is one that affects both of Shelah’s brothers, and not just Onan. If Jacob had only been worried about Shelah’s failing to produce a child for Er, then only Onan’s death would be relevant, for Er’s death certainly had nothing to do with any levirate duty – he was the first to marry her. Judah’s fear was not that Shelah might be judged for failing like Onan to give Er a son, but that Shelah, like both Er and Onan, would be in danger simply by marrying her. In fact there were clear reasons why God had judged each of these brothers, and they had nothing to do with Tamar.
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