Isaacs Signed

Were Abraham, Isaac and Jacob Jews? Genesis 38: Royal Judahites and the Canaanite Jews - Part 1 of 2

Who are these two groups of people? Some would say, because of the parentage involved here i.e. the parentage of the patriarch Judah, that both groups were/are Jews? That sounds straight forward enough, doesn't it? Well yes, but then, you know, life is never straight forward, is it? It certainly wasn't straight forward in Old Testament times and it's never straight forward in our 'wondrous' high tech modern times either.

As stated in my earlier articles in this series, if all peoples descended from Judah were carrying a derivation of his name, wouldn't it be reasonable to expect that they would all be called Jews? Well, yes you would think so, but at the same time you would be very wrong. Confused? Don't worry, for all will be revealed. As mentioned, if you have read my other articles in this series, combined with my more recent series of articles entitled: "Did Eve Have Sex with The Devil or Did She Just Eat Some Fruit? - Parts 1 - 4" you will know that the carriers of the genealogical seed line after Noah changed from the male side or male line to the female side or line. This changeover came with Abraham and Sarah (Sarai). It was Sarah's line to Isaac that was as important here, as Abraham's; if not more so. We then have Isaac's wife Rebekah with her influence over the choosing of Jacob over Esau, and then Rachel's influence with regards to the birthright blessings passing to Joseph. The female side of things again featured big time with Tamar and Judah; Tamar's honourable and influential behaviour being a very prominent element to this crucial history.

Abraham, first, had offspring from Hagar, an Egyptian, (Sarah's handmaid) who bore him Ishmael. Ishmael was the forefather of all the Arab tribes and nations. After Sarah's death Abraham took Keturah to wife and she bore him numerous children and from her, came, amongst others, the Midianites. Now, the thing is, it was Isaac only, who inherited the birthright blessings from Abraham through Sarah - neither Ishmael nor any of Abraham's other offspring through Keturah inherited, apart from a few gifts, then Abraham sent them away from Isaac to the east; the Arabs live to the east of Israel to this day and I do not mean the Israelis (Jews) in Israel when mentioning this. The Arabs live in the Middle East and who is it that calls that part of the world 'The Middle East'? Why, it's Isaac's sons (Saxons), or his descendants in the West i.e. England and Anglo-Saxon USA that call it by that name. Israel lives in the west and Ishmael lives in the east.

Gen 25:5-6 And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. 6 But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country.

Moving on, we then get Isaac and Rebekah who pass the birthright on to Jacob rather than Esau his brother, and this, after much collusion and subterfuge by Rebekah, making sure that Jacob inherited and Esau did not. Here again we can see the female influence coming strongly to bear on this situation. Spiritually, Jacob was Rebekah's son, for Isaac wanted to bless Esau, not Jacob, so he had to be fooled into thinking he was blessing Esau.

Now, with Jacob and Rachel, the female influence is less prominent, it's more subtle, because there were three other wives in Jacob's life. However, Rachel was the wife whom Jacob loved, so it was Joseph, who was Rachel's elder son that Jacob favoured. In turn, it was Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who inherited the Birthright blessings whilst Joseph's eleven brothers were each granted a much smaller heritage. In a sense, although blessed, they drew the short straws by comparison to what Ephraim and Manasseh inherited. The only exception amongst the eleven brothers, to this lesser inheritance, was Judah and this is where the story becomes a little more complicated, for Judah's inheritance included the Sceptre with Royalty and Sovereignty over Israel.

If we now turn to Genesis 38 we can take up the story line in detail, and be prepared, for there is a whole load of shenanigans going on in this chapter. As is often the case with these things, we find very important pivotal people making catastrophic mistakes. In Genesis 35:22 we read of Rueben, Jacob's eldest son, who defiled his father's bed by sleeping with Bilhah, one of his concubines, and thereby lost the birthright inheritance. This is one of the reasons why Joseph inherited and you can read the story of that in my article entitled: "Were Abraham, Isaac and Jacob Jews? - Joseph the Patriarch and The Birthright Inheritance."

Now with Judah, like Rueben, it was a case of him not being able to keep his trousers on when a certain Canaanitess came into his life. This unceremonious and illicit unzipping of his apparel would be the cause of massive amounts of trouble and suffering to all of Jacob's/Israel's descendants as a result, i.e. to Israel and to Judah's Royal offspring the Judahites, in the future. Let me make it clear, this was an error, on Judah's part, of cataclysmic proportions and yet at the same time all part of what had to occur in order for prophesy to be fulfilled and for the Lord Jesus Christ to come as planned to redeem the House of Israel and the House of Judah, not to mention the rest of mankind. OK, so here we go, Genesis 38:

Gen 38:1 And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. (Brackets mine)

As we open up the story line we immediately have some strange turns of phrase here in the KJV. Judah 'went down' from his brothers. What does this mean? It means he fell from grace. Not only did he leave the fellowship of the family, he also lowered his standards by befriending and living with people who were beneath him. Hirah was a herdsman and an employee of Judah and God strictly forbade members of Jacob's family to associate, via close intimate ties, with other tribes, especially Canaanites. This action on Judah's part was an act of sheer disobedience and rebelliousness - why did he do it and did he do it in ignorance? We must not forget that it was his idea to sell his half brother, Joseph, into captivity and slavery. Did he have this evil deed on his conscience and felt the need to get away from his family and in particular from his father Jacob who grieved continually the loss of the son he loved? We do not know for sure, but it could have been an issue. What we do know is that we can never truly run away from our difficulties when those difficulties reside within us, as was the case with Judah and his treacherous behaviour regarding his half brother. Moving on, notice the next weird turn of phrase: "he 'turned in' to a certain Adullamite". Again, what does this mean? It means he deliberately turned away from the right path - he knew what he was doing. From Strong's Concordance we read to 'reach or stretch out' i.e. to go out of our way to accommodate; to 'bend away' it says. So he made deliberate distorted overtures to these foreigners in order to be accepted into their community. Moreover, having done this, his disobedience and rebelliousness increases and his behaviour deteriorates further:

Gen 38:2 And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite, whose name was (Bath)Shuah; and he took her, and went in unto her.

Here we can plainly see that after only three generations the very covenant agreement that God made with, and required of, Abraham's and Sarah's seed, is broken. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had faithfully followed the Lord's instructions and married women of their own tribe or clan, keeping the seed line intact, only for this man to undo it all. The consequential evil fallout from this man's actions cannot be measured in terms of the English language. There are not words descriptive enough to describe the horror, pain and suffering that would be caused to, and/or inflicted upon, Jacob/Israel's descendants because of this man's evil deeds, not least by his own offspring, Er and Onan. However, these deeds had to take place in order for prophesy to be fulfilled. OK, so Judah takes a foreign Canaanitess for his wife and the wretched union is consummated.

Gen 38:3-5 And she conceived, and bare a son; and he called his name Er. 4 And she conceived again, and bare a son; and she called his name Onan. 5 And she yet again conceived, and bare a son; and called his name Shelah: and he was at Chezib, when she bare him.

Right, we can see now that three sons come from this illicit and evil union; Er, Onan and Shelah, but notice, a very slight, but very significant change takes place here, a change in authority. Er is named by Judah, but the next two offspring are named by Judah's Canaanitess wife. This tells us that Judah's authority has been usurped within this relationship and the women, Bathshuah (the original mother-in-law from hell) and her daughter are now in control. So let's see what happens next?

Gen 38:6-10 And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, whose name was Tamar. 7 And Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD slew him. 8 And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. 9 And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. 10 And the thing which he did displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him also.

So what do we have going on here? Quite a lot, in verse six Judah shows signs of repentance. How do we know that? Why, through the choice of Tamar as a wife for his son Er. This was no minor decision, because Judah took the trouble to travel in order to find Tamar. How do we know this when there is no mention of Tamar's tribal identity within the pages of the Holy Scriptures? Enter once more the Book of Jasher which also helped me in identifying Noah's wife, Naamah. In the Book of Jasher chapter 45 verse 23 we read:

Jasher 45:23 And in those days Judah, went to the house of Shem and took Tamar the daughter of Elam, the son of Shem, for a wife for his first born, Er.

So, here again we can plainly see that Tamar is no Canaanitess and this can only mean one thing; Judah had realised the mistake he had made and sought, to the best of his ability, to make amends for his seriously bad conduct. Apart from that, what else was special about Tamar? Her name was special and from Strong's Concordance we get the Hebrew pronunciation 'Taw Mawr' which means 'erect'; 'palm tree'; 'upright'. This was a very special lady indeed and as the story line unfolds we shall see.

Continuing with the verses written above, we then see that Er was a bad lot, so bad, in fact, that the Lord had to take his life, but what was his sin, because yet again the KJV is silent about the details? Once more we return to the Book of Jasher for the evidence:

Jasher 45:24 And Er came to his wife Tamar, and she became his wife, and when he came to her he outwardly destroyed his seed, and his work was evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord slew him.

So here we can see Er loses his life for his evil act, but why did he behave in this way? What's going on here and where did this particular type of rebelliousness come from, because as it turns out, through the revelations of the Book of Jasher, we have the eldest son behaving in exactly the same way as the younger son - as revealed in the Holy Scriptures? Did this idea come from these young men themselves? I don't think so. Who put them up to this? We can only guess it was their mother, their grandmother or both of them. Why? Why, because they didn't want Judah's offspring, they wanted these boys married off to Canaanite women. However, Judah instructs his second son Onan to take Tamar as his wife, as this was the Hebrew custom. We need to take note here, too, that again, we can see Judah returning to the customs of his family, but he does have a big problem on his hands. These sons of his are not of his blood line. Remember, at this moment in history, the female carries the blood line with, and after, Noah. These sons are of the blood line of their Canaanite grandmother Bathshua. In turn, this meant that Judah, in trying to correct these sons of his, was the equivalent of someone trying to correct the Devil himself, for these young men were of the Devil's seed from Cain. As we can see Onan, like his older brother, is rebellious and refuses to consummate the union with Tamar by spilling his sperm on the ground. Now here I will digress on one very important point:

This Onan topic, otherwise known as 'Onanism' in religious circles (don't they just love their 'isms') raises all kinds of non-issues within mainstream Christianity i.e. the subject of masturbation and whether or not it's a sin. Now, as far as I know, the Holy Scriptures are silent on this subject, apart from this assumed example in Genesis 38. The thing is, is this verse, as with the verse in the Book of Jasher, about masturbation, or something else entirely? Let's read it carefully so that we fully understand what's going on. I will rewrite the Genesis verse here:

"And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.

"Onan went in unto his brother's wife!!" This means that both sons penetrated her and then withdrew in order to spill their seed (sperm) - the practice of withdrawal; one of the oldest forms of contraception known to mankind. No masturbation occurred at all - period.

OK, having sorted out the nonexistent issue of 'Onanism' and the Lord having sorted out Onan, I will now move on to verse 11:

Gen 38:11 Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter in law, Remain a widow at thy father's house, till Shelah my son be grown: for he said, Lest peradventure he die also, as his brethren did. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house.

Now what have we got going on here, because by modern standards this whole arrangement sounds totally preposterous? The poor girl had to wait umpteen years for the little brat to be old enough to bed her. Still, at least the poor girl could return home to her family. This, though, is only a brief interlude, for our heroine is about to embark upon a life threatening mission:

Gen 38:12-14 And in process of time the daughter of Shuah Judah's wife died; and Judah was comforted, and went up unto his sheepshearers to Timnath, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite. 13 And it was told Tamar, saying, Behold thy father in law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep. 14 And she put her widow's garments off from her, and covered her with a vail, and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place, which is by the way to Timnath; for she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not given unto him to wife.

So here we can see Judah has lost his Canaanite Mrs and goes up to meet his old buddy Hirah to be comforted and no doubt with the help of a few beers with all the lads, as you do. Whilst this is going on Tamar takes the initiative and dresses herself up as a pick up and waits by the roadside for her man to pass by. Here too I must state quite clearly that this episode is falsely portrayed as an act of incest by many in mainstream Christianity and it is not, for Tamar's union with Judah's two sons was never truly consummated. This means that at this point Tamar always was, and still is, at this moment in time, a free agent. She was also a widow and therefore free to remarry.

OK, that's about it for part one and I will continue the story line in part two - so please stay with it.

Charles Crosby.

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"Even if you are a minority of one The Truth is still The Truth" - M K Gandhi

 

About the Author

Gregory Isaacs --- Mr Cop