Day 25

Today’s reading was like watching a telenovela.

In Chapter 38, Judah married a Canaanite woman and had three sons. The first two, Er and Onan, were said to have been killed by God. Er, was said to have done wickedness in God’s sight. I would have loved to read the details.

Onan was asked to sleep with Er’s wife (Tamar) to have an offspring for Er. Instead, he was mating with his late brother’s wife with no intention of having a child. His actions displeased God, and He killed him. 😳 In this case, I wondered if every sin is indeed equal because I have read so many, yet the consequences are different. I am actually not trying to judge if this was too much or not, but I did ask God questions. Could he have been warned to change his ways?

Judah was afraid to give his 3rd son (Shelah) to Tamar and asked her to return to her father’s until he grew up. But Judah did not fulfil his promise. He also lost his wife in the process. Tamar decided to take matters into her hands, disguised as a prostitute and went to Judah after he came out from grieving his wife. He fell for it and got her pregnant without knowing who she was. Before this, Tamar asked for something in exchange for her body. He promised her a goat which he didn’t have at the moment, and she took some of his personal belongings in the interim, which he obliged to. Judah then sent his friend to the prostitute with the goat he had promised and to pick up Judah’s belongings, but she was nowhere to be found — i.e. she wasn’t a prostitute.

Eventually, word got to Judah that Tamar was pregnant, and his judgement was to have her burnt for immorality. He then met himself when Tamar revealed his personal items. The judgement disappeared. Why does the woman get such a harsh judgement, and the man does? Still real today.

We are back to Joseph’s story in Chapters 38 and 39, which is a story I can tell in my dreams. Joseph was one good looking dude for Potiphar’s wife to be that desperate. It’s a shame Potiphar didn’t give a listening ear to the servant he trusted the most. I mean, we pick our family first when there is a situation, before even considering the other. It is an excellent lesson for us. When my husband tells me about a problem at work, I sometimes start getting offended on his behalf. I have learned to ask what leads to any event after listening to him.

My lessons from Joseph are:

• He was competent. Both Potiphar and the prison ward didn’t have to worry about what Joseph was in charge of because he was that good (see 39:6, 23). God favoured Joseph.
• He was consistent. Like the first point, he had the same report in both cases.
• Despite all Joseph went through, he put in his best all the time. In the first instance, he was sold as a slave and found himself in Potiphar’s house. In the second instance, he was falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife, and he landed in prison. Yet, he wasn’t bitter, neither did he take it as liberty to be wicked.
• His attitude was just everything. He clearly believed in his dream, and that drove his attitude. I say so because when the king’s prisoners were worried about the meaning of their dreams, he said interpretation belonged to God and helped them understand the dream. He had a gift because what he said came to pass. This must mean he believed God would come through on the two dreams he had. It was just a matter of when. He seemed to be holding on to that dream. That’s what dreamers do, right? Imagine he mentioned his dreams to any of the people he had met so far. They’ll laugh because, as it is, nothing adds up.

In the closing of today’s reading, Joseph asked the chief cupbearer not to forget him, but we were told he forgot. ☹️ So, so real! I’m sure many of us can relate to both sides.