A Messed Up Family and a Redeeming God (Genesis 38) [Jay Thomas]

Chapel Hill Bible Church - Sermons

Sometimes you wonder if these stories in Genesis can get more twisted. Well, they can. You can't make this stuff up.

In Chapter 38, we have one of Jacob's sons, Judah, leave the family, head toward the pagan Canaanites, marry one of them, sire two wicked sons and one nondescript ones. Then, on top of all that, through deception, curated sexual sin, and transactional worldviews, a pagan daughter-in-law is used of God to save the family line by means of relations with her father-in-law! Oh my. And yet, in all of this tragedy, there is a profound turning point. Judah repents. And, Judah ends up being the chosen son through whom King David would come, and through whom the Messiah would come. Unreal. But very real.

We learn to read our story through the gospel as we look back on our own Judah moments. May we treasure Christ together this week.