She Will Bear a Son: Tamar and the Defender of Widows

This Advent season we are reflecting over the women that Matthew names in his account of Jesus’ genealogy. All five of these women came from difficult circumstances and faced tremendous hardships and challenges. They were victims of abuse and injustice. They were  outsiders and outcasts. They were misjudged and misunderstood. Their stories are not the ones we would choose for ourselves, and yet they were each chosen by the Father to carry on the bloodline that would one day produce their Savior. Each of these women now has a place of honor as one of the “mamas” of Jesus. Each one of their difficult stories tells us something about the heart of the Father for us, and foreshadows what kind of man their Son would one day be.

Tamar is the first woman that Matthew mentions by name. In Genesis 38 we are told that Judah, one of the sons of Jacob, took a wife for Er, his firstborn son. Her name was Tamar. Because Er was wicked, God put him to death. So Judah followed the teachings of his covenant family. He required his second son, Onan, to marry Tamar and provide an heir for his deceased brother. Tamar’s son, though technically fathered by Onan, would be considered Er’s son. He would inherit the firstborn portion and care for his widowed mother. But Onan was also a wicked man. He did not want Tamar to have a child because it would reduce his own share of his father’s inheritance. So through trickery he refused to perform his duty. God saw his wicked heart and put him to death as well.

Judah could have acknowledged that his sons were evil and had borne the consequences of their sinful actions, but he chose to punish Tamar instead. He sent her away to live at her father’s house where she would daily feel the shame of being an unnecessary burden on her family’s resources. Judah told her that when his third son was old enough, she would be given to him in marriage. Judah had no intention of keeping his promise. He relegated Tamar to a life where she was legally bound to a man who would never provide for her. 

So Tamar decided to take justice into her own hands. She dressed as a prostitute and sat on the side of the road waiting for Judah. He did not recognize her since she was heavily veiled, so he hired her services. Through this liaison, Judah fathered Tamar’s twin boys. When faced with what he had done, Judah declared, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” (Genesis 38:26) 

Tamar shows us the heart of God for those who suffer injustice. Tamar’s life was one of suffering from the start. She was married to two wicked men and discarded by a sinful and selfish father-in-law. No one stood up for her. No one defended her. But God saw her suffering. He heard her cry for help. He is the father of the fatherless and the protector of widows. He settles the lonely into his home. (Ps. 68:5-6) Though all the men in Tamar’s life abandoned her, the Lord took her in and provided for her. He rose up and defended her, making sure that everyone knew she was the righteous one. He blessed her with a double portion, twin boys who would honor and care for her in her old age. This is the kind of God he is.

It is this heart that is on full display in Jesus. Jesus was a man like his Abba, a man who cared for orphans and widows in their distress. He stopped the funeral for only son, so that he could raise that boy from the dead and return him to his grieving, widowed mother. (Luke 7:11-17) He cared about impoverished widows, honoring and celebrating their costly faith. (Mark 12:43) He was a man who was angered by injustice, calling out the religious rulers of his day for taking advantage of the poor and the marginalized for their own gain. (Luke 20:47) He restored the broken, healed the hurting and embraced the lonely. Women like Tamar are exactly the kind of people that Jesus sought out, because the Father cares about those who suffer injustice and cruelty at the hands of broken people who operate within evil and unjust systems. He sent his Son into this broken and evil world to break the teeth of injustice, to raise up the oppressed and free the captive. Every Advent we remember that our Champion came to fight for us, to set us free.

Jesus’ genealogy is filled with sufferers, strugglers and sinners. His genealogy is filled with people like us. He is not ashamed to call us his siblings, because he too has suffered. (Heb. 2:10) He knows what it is like to be an outcast. He understands what it is to suffer injustice at the hands of wicked men. He was marginalized, lonely, and abused. Advent is a season every year where we celebrate the gift of a God who knows, a God who identifies with us in our weakness. Every Advent we remember that God put on flesh and lived in our broken world with us, so that he might be a great high priest who knows what it’s like to be us. We remember that he did this out of love for us, so that outcasts would become family, sinners would be forgiven, and captives would be set free.