Monday, October 8

Uncomfortable reading

This week Rod will be retelling Chapter 38 of Genesis. A tale of deception, family honour ( can you see a theme emerging here ? ) and prostitution.
It's a story that makes most of us uncomfortable and one not often mentioned in sermons.
Is it because the story is explicit in nature or perhaps because it tells of cultural traditions that do not seem relevant to us today ?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

However having read about it there are some interesting things: one commentator said that one reason some bible stories are Not Often Heard because it is portions of scripture either we are unfamiliar with, uncomfortable with, or have little experience with.....


It is precisely because of this that I think we should examine such stories and enlarge our understanding.

Anonymous said...

A critism often levied at Bible readers is that certain parts of it are glossed over or ignored completely. I agree it is important that we tackle such stories, after all....
' All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. ' ( 2Timothy 3:16-17)

Anonymous said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yibbum

might be a helpful reference point to explain some of the background of Genesis 38

Anonymous said...

Well it was quite a meeting with some heavy discusion of some of the (mainly sexual) issues raised.

I'm interested in persuing another matter... does the passage have something else to say (as most OT passages do) about Jesus and salvation?

Any thoughts?

Anonymous said...

Sorry I missed the discussion last night. I read somewhere that one of Judah & Tamars twins, Perez is named in the lineage to Jesus.
So out of sin comes salvation.

Anonymous said...

Perez is in the lineage of David and hence eventually Jesus (Matthew 1:3) - so in deed God can still use our mistakes for good.