YOU CAN ERASE YOUR MESS – A CHARACTER STUDY ON JUDAH
HIS BIRTH – A PROPER CHILD
After the seven
years of Jacob’s service in Haran in the house of Laban his mother’s brother, Leah
was given to him instead of Rachel; but for the love he had for Rachel, he
decided to serve another seven years so as to be given Rachel to wife. Through
this seven years Leah was barren.
31 And
when the Lord saw that Leah was
hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren.
Leah gave
birth to four children, the name of the last being Judah after which she was
satisfy. Gen 29:35”35 And
she conceived again, and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise the Lord: therefore she called his name
Judah; and left bearing.”
The
birth of Judah was that through which gave glory to God. His life is to be
meant for God’s praise. Men will see his living and give glory to God. Men will
literally praise the man through whom they can glorify God. Gen 49:8 ”8 Judah, thou art he whom thy
brethren shall praise.” In the Jacob’s prophecy, ‘thou art he’ shows a
rejection of those that came before. Little wonder why the woman should left
bearing at the birth of Judah. It was as though the man she is looking for has
arrived; the man capable of qualifying the other three. She saw the destiny of
the child and said ‘now I can praise God’. Judah - Him shall his brethren
praise. Also, ‘Thy father’s children shall bow down before you’ Gen 49:8. They
shall praise him, and shall bow down before him. Indicating honour and power
not of subjugation but of submission due to excellence and exceptionality.
Though his position in the family of twelve
was of not much significance. But was a child on which much was depending on. A
child that will take the lead. A child of potentials. How many young people
will see today with great destinies; how we see children and can easily notice
divine purpose strategically employed for them to walk in. We see their common
expression a sign of a heavenly knowing, a sanctity, and a pre-ordination that
took place even before they were formed. ‘Children are a heritage of the Lord.
A divine package to be unravelled for an assignment. Judah was a child upon
which you can see the rising star. There was a well in him through which many
will drink. We shall see later why speak such a fit of him.
After
twenty years of service in the house of Laban, with which he served fourteen
years for his wives and six years for his
cattle. It was these six years Jacob had all his children. Joseph was
the last of the child he had in Haran. Thus will can say Judah was not more
than three years older than Joseph, as he was the fourth child of Leah which if
will leave a space of one between each child, Judah should be born the fourth
year which is only about two years older than Joseph ( born may be on the sixth
year).
Gen
31:4 41 Thus have I been twenty years
in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years
for thy cattle…
THE YOKE
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THE PURPOSE OF A MAN IS
FOR A PEOPLE.
DO NOT KILL THE MASTER SO AS NOT TO BECOME A SLAVE.
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INHERENCE
It is
not only through DNA that people differ but also in potentials. Like two plants
if they be of different species, though they should grow up on the same soil,
exposed to the same environment, sunshine and rain cannot be the same. So no
two man can be exactly the same. Two men cannot be the same thing at all times.
Difference in potentials or inherency accounts for the difference in people.
They are twin but you can guess right the one that exhibited a particular
attitude. You can tell the person such words are coming from. You can be
surprise when a man misbehaves because you understand their constituent.
God
have given each person such peculiarities; each man his gift which serves as a
guide to fulfilling their destiny. Each
his likes and dislikes, each his own choice. They have their life stocked up in
them.
When
the brethren of Joseph made the utterance to end their brother’s life though
Judah was yet ignorant with any sense of much responsibility, his little
expressions was a means of delivering the life of joseph from their hand. A
suggestion that he gave made the mind of his brethren content.
Come
now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will
say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of
his dreams.
(Gen 37:20)
Gen 37:26-27And Judah said
unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his
blood?27 Come,
and let us sell him to the Ishmaelite, and let not our hand be upon him; for he
is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content (Gen 37:26-27).
We
know how Reuben made the attempt of saving joseph’s life. He did this because
as the eldest son a responsibility has been placed in his hands -
responsibility due to position, due to age. He knew if anything should happen
to the child, it will be require at his hand. Thus, he was labouring to save
his own head. But here was a man who though having no necessity laid upon him
but reason of inherency, a predestination, a work, an implicit expression of
the kind of destiny he called unto; as a life deliverer, ‘him shall his
brethren praise’ – even joseph, rescued the life of the child even without any
demand but reason of a spirit – a spirit of right. We see his reason; ‘for he
is our brother and our flesh’. A reason that any good man should consider not
because he wanted to please men or because he should give account. This was the
reason for the law: if a man should not kill. The reason why a man should not
steal is for the sorrow, loss, and pain it causes his neighbour. ‘Thou shalt
not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a
jealous God.’ The purpose and reason behind the law is hid in the lawgiver. Ps
60:77 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh
is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver;
Judah
is Israel’s lawgiver. Written in him is the law and its purpose. The expression
of Judah’s living is the work God has given him. Until you come to the very
consciousness of that work, you cannot manage it.
THE DESPONDENCE
Gen 37:33-35
33 And he
knew it, and said, It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph
is without doubt rent in pieces.
34 And
Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his
son many days.
35 And
all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be
comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning.
Thus his father wept for him.
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.
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how
we can tell the work of a man by studying the simple expressions of his
life!
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When Jacob heard of what has happen to his son joseph according to lies of his brethren, he was sore grief. The old man cried like a baby. The child he love so dearly has been taken away from him. Not just an ordinary death; but that which will result in much lamentation that a child was torn apart by a beast with a concrete evidence of his blood soaked cloth. We know how as a man grows the string of life becomes much slimmer and how aged men are quite delicate. No one in the family could comfort the weeping old man. And he made a swearing saying, ‘I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning.
This must have brought upon
the house of Israel a season gloom. Those strong hearted children were
determined to endure all the sorrow of their father. It meant nothing to them,
may be. They were able to sit with their father trying to comfort him for a
wrong they were responsible for. No remorse, no tears, no guilt, because no
actual responsibility for the pain of their father and the death of their
brother.
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You
never care for people because you think they were never your
responsibility.
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Ezek
3:18
18 When I
say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning,
nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same
wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine
hand.
It was at that time that Judah
left home, departing from his brethren to leave with an Adullamite whose name
was Hirah. What might have been the reason for the migration? What must have
driven Judah to leave Israel?
Judah could no longer bear the
grief of the father. His conscience must have accused him, “this is your fault”.
“You are responsible for your father’s pain”. Judah could no longer endure.
Unlike his brethren who were indifferent, and sat together with their weeping
father. The condition of the father drove him out of home. Many have ran away
from their pain, and their actions because of guilt. They see running away as
the only option of dealing with their faults. They rather run than to own up.
They deal with their cross by avoiding it.
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Avoiding guilt by running away is not always the correct panacea.
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A period of gloom for the young man arose. He must be about twenty now, since Joseph was about seventeen. He left home with that dark heart. An outright demean of his person.
THE
BACKSLIDE
You always need an environment
to be preserved. It is a presence that preserves. The fish are kept alive only
in the river. The birds need their environment to express their nature and be
preserved. Bacteria and microorganisms are cultured so as to keep them over
time for study. The manna was kept in the ark before God so that it can be preserve
for many generations without any decay. A man likewise needs an environment, a
presence designed to sustain his destiny and life. In chapter 38 of genesis,
after Judah left his brethren, and had gone to live with Hirah the Adullamite,
he saw a girl called Shuah and took her and went in unto her. Such was the
footsteps of his fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He never informed his
father before taking a wife. He started living according to his own will. He took
a wife for his son but never sought the consent of his own family when choosing
his wife, if actually he married her. The bible just said he saw her, took her,
and went in unto her. The word ‘took her’ might have meant to marry her. I wonder
if he might have married his wife without the father’s notice. The bible never
made mention of his father and his brethren throughout that chapter. He
actually went away from home.
Note that Judah is a seed that
can only grow in Israel. Israel was the rivers of water by which he was
planted. Being disheartened, he left his niche just like Ahimelech the husband of
Naomi left Bethlehem and suffered in Moab. Judah left Israel, and almost lost
everything he gained there. He lost his wife, and two sons, until he came to
his senses, and refrain to give the last son in marriage to Tamar who had been
a wife to two of his sons already. It was as if God was saying any relation
done in that strange land shall be vanity. Judah went against Gods purpose and
could not even train his sons. A man that was made to guide the whole Israel
could not preserve his own family. He almost lost his entire family if not for
the mercy of God. He must have been in much pain and was as though everything was
against him; losing wife and two sons.
He
learnt his first lesson: to be responsible for preserving the life of his son.
Gen
38:11
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.
Though he never knew the
reason, but was not ready to lose the life of that young child. May be he was
thinking, ‘let them get mature first’. Getting married when you are not ready
to a handle a family, will ruin many things.
Apart from him growing up I
think the purpose of not giving Tamar to Shelah was solely for the purpose of
not risking the life of the child. For even when he was grown, he refused to give
her to him. May be he wanted to preserve the last that was remaining. How can
he be so careless not to avoid any risk of losing his only son. And the Lord
keenly warns the believer, ‘strengthen that which remaineth and is about to die’.
As he lived this unaccountable
years after he had bemourn his wife, he went to shear his sheep with his friend
Hirah.
This was a friend that could
not rebuke his vain heart. A friend that have no counsel that could direct his
heart back to Israel. A friend that supported him in evil. And was also helping
him to play some games. O Judah could have ruin his life by joining himself
with a wrong companion. When Judah saw Tamar on the way, she feign herself to
be a harlot, although his friend Hirah was with him, he never rebuked him. ‘Keep
back your eyes from beholding vanity. Such friends who cannot turn your face from
the way of doom, keep yourself from. It is dangerous not have anyone who can
say to you ‘behold the speck in your eyes’. Judah and Hirah must have been
partakers of such vanities, supporting each other.
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When men are bent
towards evil, they always sought for companions moving in the same side of
the road.
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When men are bent towards evil, they always sought for companions moving in the same side of the road.
THE BARTER
Gen
38:13-18
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.
15 When
Judah saw her, he thought her to be an harlot; because she had covered her
face.
16 And he
turned unto her by the way, and said, Go to, I pray you, let me come in unto
you (i.e. to have sexual relation);
(for he knew not that she was his daughter in law.) And she said, what wilt
thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me?
17 And he
said, I will send thee a kid (lamb) from the flock. And she said, Will you give
me a pledge, till you send it?
18 And he
said, what pledge shall I give you? And she said, your signet (ring), and your
bracelets, and your staff that is in your hand. And he gave it her, and came in
unto her, and she conceived by him.
After Judah was comforted of
the death of the wife Shuah, he went to Timnath to shear his sheep, on the way,
he saw a harlot, and decided to commit sin with her. Judah could no longer
restrain his appetite. His urge were now his master. May be he had been living
like this most of the times, just like Samson. May be had an addiction. His friend
Hirah which we suppose should be accounted with such an act was able to withhold
himself. Judah have learnt the wrong life, he was now living like the heathen,
no sense of consequence for sin. He was now blind to what might be the future
result of such an act. He was even begging saying ‘I pray you’. It was his
lifestyle. Oh Judah who had a bright destiny has gone astray! Many in our time
are just living like Judah. They sin without any knowledge of its consequence.
Though they know what danger it might cause, but are bent on satisfying their
lust. Some don’t really care. They take sin as a habit. They see no evil in what
they do. They have form a conscience that excuse them of the evil they do. They
are the wagon that believes that someone cannot live without a particular sin.
Judah saw the harlot and like a culture, went in to her to commit immorality.
No struggle at all in his conscience. A believer no struggle, no rebuke, no
conscience in him when he want to sin, that believer must have lost the Spirit
of grace.
Though he was having nothing,
to give to the woman, yet he decided to give a pledge. Sin must take a treasure
from you. When immorality becomes the need of the hour and you do anything to
fulfil it, then you have been actually enslaved. Sin have a request. You must
pay for sin. A man without a destiny have nothing to trade to sin. It is only
the dead, sin have no demand for because they have no destiny. They have
nothing to trade with it.
Judah
had nothing to offer at the moment. Thus she demanded a pledge of him. The first thing she demanded of Judah was a
signet. A signet is a seal noble men uses to institute authority.
Jer
22:24-25
24 "As
surely as I live," declares the Lord,
"even if you, Jehoiachin c son of
Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would still
pull you off. 2
Dan 6:17
17 A
stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it
with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles, so that Daniel's
situation might not be changed.
The signet, is something that
is of much value. In the book of Jeremiah God was saying a signet is not
supposed to be taken away from your hand. A man is not supposed to trade a
signet for anything. To the believer the signet is like the seal of the Holy
Spirit. A man is to ensure that he does not lose the Spirit’s presence and
power. Judah was as profane as Esau and traded the Holy Spirit for sex. He have
no regard for divine things. Sin will strip you off of the Spirit’s presence. It
demands what is eternal for temporal. The devil has made his subtle request to
as many that will fall prey, not knowing the value of the eternal gift. If only
we see what we exchange for the pleasure of sin, we will by all means obey the
command to flee from all appearance of evil. The devil in his deceit have
succeeded in exchanging what is worthless to what is priceless. He gave Eve
apple and collected life and dominion. He traded similarly with Samson, Reuben,
Cain, David, and so on.
The next she required for was
his bracelet. The bracelet is an ornament of beauty. All that God had done on
the man, or his adornment, all the furnishing that makes you attractive, all
his excellence, his glory, the devil was also demanding that it should be
traded. Don’t just sit down and watch the devil tear down your good records,
don’t let him burn down your Christian curriculum vitae. See the weight of what
the devil wants to empty the man of. The devil has actually set his eye upon
Gods labour for our life. Those Godly character you have develop, he is
desiring that you lose it. Judah mindlessly gave his bracelet to a harlot. How
badly he needed to satisfy his lust! Are you in the category that will do anything,
can pay any money, with the thought that it is just the money that is being wasted?
The enemy is after a greater than we might have imagined.
She
also placed demand upon his staff. Men of old rarely travel without a staff.
When Jacob entered the house of Laban he was only carrying his staff. The man
must need a staff for his journey. You don’t send a man on a journey without a
staff. On what shall the weary lean? In hard times and distress what shall be
our support? The wind in the wilderness of this world will sweep off our feet,
if we tread this land in which we are pilgrims without a staff. What shall the
shepherd correct the sheep that be gone astray without the staff? What shall
bring us back again unto that ancient if will have not our staff? Fi the Lord
should ask us what is it in your hand, what shall will show him if not for the
staff? Why trade that without which you cannot continue your journey? Don’t you
see you will easily fall without a staff? O why should the devil desire to
seize these things from me? Have you really seen that his desire is to stop
you?
Gen
32:10
I had only my staff when I
crossed this Jordan
Mark 6:8
8 These
were his instructions: "Take nothing for the journey except a staff
These
were the Lord’s instructions. He knew if a man must make a successful Journey,
he needs his staff. The staff is the word of God. The devil in trading sin to
us, is intending to steal the word of God from our heart. If he succeeds, the
believer can no longer obey God. Then we will be alienated from God’s perfect
will. A man can’t do without the word of God. The devil wants to take from you that
without you will become a failure. You will agree with me that as Judah was leaving
that harlot, he was leaving empty. Everything that worth it has been taken
away. He was leaving without any glory, all that will make men praise God for
him has been lost to lust.
THE GUILTY JUDGE
Several years later, after
Tamar the daughter in-law of Judah who feign herself a harlot became pregnant
Judah knowing about it was disappointed, and passed judgement over her that she
be brought to be stoned. But they brought it to him that he was responsible for
the sin she has just committed. Judah knew that anyone who have sinned should
die. He passed the judgement strictly. But when Judah later knew the veiled
truth, he could not execute judgement again.
Judah who supposed to be a
ruler, one who will give the law and no man will dare to disobey have now no
power. Sin have stripped Judah of the power of his destiny. Every destiny needs
power for it to perform. Anyone who lost the power of his destiny cannot make
any impact. How the life of Judah as a lawgiver had no effect on that young
woman. A ruler surely pervert judgement when he has sinned. The legal authority
will be taking away from a guilty judge. Your sin will give the enemy boldness
to challenge you. You give the enemy right when you sin. He can now stand
before God who loved you to make accusation that will be acceptable according
to God’s sure foundation.
The
destiny of Judah as a ruler can no longer stand before God because of God’s
declaration as given by the Holy Spirit in
2 Sam
23:3
3 The
God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men
must be just, ruling in the fear of God.
The believer must not judge
thus he be judge when there is a plank in his eye. He should as the Lord has
said, to remove first the thing in his own eyes before becoming so caring as to
notice the speck in his neighbour’s eye. You should understand that what is
wrong with you should be such a great matter to you than what you think is
wrong with your neighbour. Will you just consider that in your eye is the plank
(the bigger) and in your neighbour’s eye is the speck (the smaller). With that,
you will judge yourself strictly until you are well. But when does a man think
he is well, and qualify to judge others?
After that encounter with
Tamar, Judah learnt a lesson that I think brought him back again. There was no
mention of Judah again until Gen 43:3. And by then he was already with Israel
his father. And throughout the scripture, we have read of any other sons born
unto Judah except Shelah who was born by his wife the daughter of Shua and Pharez
and Zarah the two sons of Tamar. Judah from that day took a decision never to
have any sexual affair with her again. It was a decision he made and abide by,
for the rest of his life.
DESTINY RECOVERED
After the incident with Tamar,
and Judah’s decision not to go into her again. Numbers 26:19, 20. May be it was
expected that Judah should take Tamar as a legitimate wife, and after then,
permitted to be having relation with her as a husband will do to his wife, but
Judah decided not to have affair with her again. It was never recorded again
Judah had any other wife or concubine, if he might had, maybe he would have
gotten more children save the two children of Tamar. Judah learnt an invaluable
lesson from his recklessness and sin. Then Judah was not up to 40 years, but
decided to stay without a wife or have any several relation. It was a deep
lesson that brought about repentance with a decision requiring utmost
discipline. Discipline for a man that was like an addict. A man who gave out
precious things just to have sex. He was now deciding to stand, and live
without sex, withstanding the appetite of the flesh till his death. He decided
to live as a eunuch from that day onward. To have great destiny, he had to
oppose his own very weakness. ‘Surely, it is meet to be said unto God, I have
borne chastisement, I will not offend any more: that which I see not teach
through me: if I have done iniquity, I will do no more’. (Job 34:13, 14). To
recover your destiny, decisions like this are inevitable. A complete forsaken
of the way that have dragged you down the grave must take place. Like the
prodigal son, Judah left the occupation of feeding pigs to return to his glory.
He knew he has done evil, but he must not continue. A prudent man must avoid
taking the same instruction and lesson twice. A man that do not want to gamble
with his destiny, must understand, that not at every instance a fallen man will
rise. Some have fallen unto death, and they have committed the sin that is unto
death. To recover, elasticity as a character is required, your ability to
spring back must not be lost. Woe to the man that have exceeded his elastic
limit. The life of Judah teaches that no matter what you have lost, you can
stand again, and with the rest of your life erase your mess. You can actually
let the past be at the past, and run towards that goal you have been hibernated
to.
Judah never reappeared again
until Genesis 43:3. Then he has returned to his brethren, to his father Jacob.
He left his formed environment, his friends, may be his house, and the land
which he was living away from Israel. It is not enough for man to decide to cease
from his sin, but he must also decease anything that has been encouraging sin.
Those tempting sounds, videos, pictures, appearance of evil, evil communication
must be adequately done away with. God demands that a person who has decided to
forsake his evil way, change his destiny, take a new path, must not stay in a
sin cultured environment. God must do in him this two dimensional work of
grace, a deliverance from the power of darkness, and a translation into the
kingdom of his dear son. In fact, it is impossible of a prodigal son in a far
country to deceased feeding pigs without returning, to his father. It is
obvious that we will surely starve to death. Because of his genuine, whole
hearted desire to change, he (Judah) have to take the required and correct step
towards recovering his destiny. Every prodigal son must know that his glory and
destiny is with his father – He that begat all things.
Judah started functioning
fully in his destiny after he return to his brethren and father. You must know
the environment where your destiny can strive. You must know the environment
that can reveal your glory. The fish, birds, lions, dogs, plants needs a suitable
environment to be glorified. The lion might be the king of the forest but not
the king of the sea.
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