Genesis 38: The Levirate Law

Genesis 38 is one of those Bible chapters people skip because it’s uncomfortable, complicated, and honestly a little shocking. We don’t skip it. We read the story of Judah and Tamar straight through, then slow down to unpack what’s actually happening beneath the scandal and why this chapter is placed right in the middle of the Joseph storyline. If you’ve ever wondered how to make sense of difficult Old Testament narratives, this conversation gives you a clear path through the details without sanding off the rough edges. 

We talk about the leveret law and the ancient reality behind it: in a world with no social safety net, family responsibility was survival. A widow without protection could become destitute, so the expectation to provide an heir wasn’t just a ritual, it was mercy. We also face the hard moments in the text, including Onan’s refusal, Judah’s broken promises, Tamar’s desperate strategy, and the hypocrisy that explodes when Judah rushes to judge her. The turning point comes when Judah is forced to recognize his own failure and admits the truth, a moment that sets up a bigger transformation later in Genesis. 

Then we bring it home with a practical Christian message that hits daily life: responsibility isn’t automatically a burden, it can be a sign of blessing. The trash, the bills, the overtime, the caregiving, the commitments you didn’t ask for can also be proof that God has given you people to love and opportunities to steward. If you’re studying the Bible, growing in faith, or just trying to rethink your attitude toward duty, this chapter has more wisdom than you’d expect. Subscribe, leave a review, and share this with a friend then tell us, what responsibility do you need to see differently today?

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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us and let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

Subscribe Reviews And Community Links

Setting The Stage For Genesis 38

Judah And Tamar Story Reading

Leveret Law And Social Survival

Responsibility Reframed As Blessing

Prayer And Closing Encouragement

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Genesis chapter 38, and today's title is The Leveret Law. The Leveret Law. This is something that is actually brought into the law of God in the book of Leviticus, but there is something that starts in this chapter that I think is really interesting, and it actually gives us a snapshot of what is happening in the overall story. So we're going to get all that in just a second. It's a very interesting story having to do with Judah, and it's going to be great. So if you have your Bibles, want to open up with me to Genesis chapter 38. While you're doing that, take just a moment to make sure that you have liked, shared, and subscribed to the YouTube channel and the podcast. There are so many of you who listen to this podcast or watch the YouTube channel every day and you are not subscribed and you have not left us a review. Can I ask you to do that? Here's the reason why is when people are looking for a way to dig into God's word on the podcast, they're going to read those reviews to see what they can expect. And I want to make sure that they know that they're welcome here. So I would love for you to show them or tell them how you are engaging with God's word to encourage them to do the same. Also on YouTube, it helps because then you are able to get these in your algorithm so that we can read God's Word together every day. Also, make sure you're going to the Bible Breakdown Facebook page. There's an amazing group of people doing a wonderful job over there, writing devotions every day. And you can get all that information at the Bible Breakdown.com. Well, if you were with us yesterday, we have finally shifted from this long story of how the Jewish nation began, and God said, Through them, I was going to bless the world. He's going to bless the world. And now we're into the life of Joseph. Yesterday we saw how Joseph was a little spoiled. You know, he has some growing to do. And he is sold into slavery by his brothers. And he is now heading down that way. And they've just kind of just, there he goes. You know, he's he's gone now. Jacob, uh the father, is mourning the loss of Joseph, and they're trying to move on with their lives. And there's this little story right here in the middle of this that what I think it does is it gives us a snapshot of what's going on. And so we're going to read this and then also kind of share with you why this is important, and we're going to just maybe get a little something from this about what happens about our responsibility in life. So here we go. Genesis chapter 38, verse 1 says this. About this time, which is about the time that Joseph was sold into slavery, about this time Judah left home and moved to Adullam, where he stayed with a man named Hera. There he saw a Canaanite woman, the daughter of Shua, and he married her. And then he slept with her, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, and he named the boy Er. Then she became pregnant again and gave birth to another son, and she named him Onan. And then she gave birth to a third son, and she named him Sheila. At the time of Sheila's birth, they were living in Kazib. In the course of time Judah arranged for his firstborn son Ur to marry a young woman named Tamar. But Ur was a wicked man in the Lord's sight, and the Lord took his life. Then Judah said to Ur's brother Onan, Hey, go marry Tamar, as our law requires of a brother to Ma Marry Wait a minute, go marry Tamar as our law requires of a brother of a man who has died. You must produce an heir for your brother. But Oman was not willing to have a child who it would not be his own heir. So whenever he had intercourse with his brother's wife, he spilt his semen on the ground. This prevented her from having a child who would belong to his brother. But the Lord considered it evil for Onan to deny a child to his dead brother, so the Lord took Onan's life too. Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter in law, Go back to your parents' home and remain a widow until my son Sheila is old enough to marry you. But Judah didn't really intend to do this because he was afraid Sheila would also die like his other two brothers. So Tamar went back to live with his father's home. Some years later, Judah's wife died, and after the time of mourning was over, Judah and his friend Hera, the Adulamite, went to Timnah to supervise the shearing of his sheep. Someone told Tamar, Look, your father in law is going to Timnah to shear his sheep. Tamar was aware that Shela had grown up, but no arrangements had been made for her to come and marry him. So she changed out of her widow's clothing and covered herself with a veil to disguise herself. Then she sat beside the road at the entrance to the village of Enam, which was the road to Timna. Judah noticed her and thought she was a prostitute, since she had covered her face. So she stopped and propositioned her. So he stopped and propositioned her. Let me have sex with you, he said, not realizing she was his own daughter in law. How much will you pay to have sex with me? Tamar asked. I'll send you a young goat from my flock, Judah promised. But what will you give me to guarantee that you will send the goat? he asked. What kind of guarantee do you want? he replied. She answered, Leave me your identification seal and its cord, and the walking stick you are carrying. So Judah gave them to her. Then he had intercourse with her, and she became pregnant. Afterward she went back home, took off her veil, and put on her widow's clothing as usual. Later Judah asked his friend Hera the Adulamite to take the young goat to the woman who had picked up the things he had given her as a guarantee. But Hira could not find her. So he asked the men who lived there, where can I find the shrine prostitute who was sitting beside the road at the entrance of Inaim? We've never had a shrine prostitute here, they replied. So Hera returned to Judah and told him, I couldn't find her anywhere. And the men of the village claimed they've never had a shrine prostitute there. Then let her keep the things I gave her, Judah said. I sent the young goat as we agreed, but you couldn't find her. We'd be the laughing stock of the village if we went back again to look for her. About three months later, though, Judah was told, Tamar, your daughter in law, has acted like a prostitute, and now because of this, she's pregnant. Well bring her out, let her be burned, Judah demanded. But as they were taking her out to kill her, she sent this message to her father in law. The man who owns these things made me pregnant. Look closely, whose seal and cord and walking stick are these? Judah recognized them immediately and said, She is more righteous than I am, because I didn't arrange for her to marry my son, Sheila, and Joseph never slept with Tamar again. When the time came for Tamar to give birth, it was discovered that she was carrying twins. While she was in labor, one of her babies reached out his hand, and the midwife grabbed it and tied a scarlet string around the child's wrist, announcing this one came out first. But then he pulled back his hand and out came his brother. What? The midwife exclaimed. How did you break out first? So he named so she named him Perez. Then the baby who had the scarlet string on his wrist was born, and he was named Zera. Well, let's get this out of the way. That sounds like a very painful delivery. If they be anyway, you get it. That sounds absolutely terrible. Tamara had a rough delivery of her twins. So what exactly is going on in this? Well, here's how this worked at the time. At the time, there's no social safety net. The social safety net is that you are part of a community. As the husband, he will go out and he will work the fields and he will have a flock and he'll take care of his family with the produce of all of that. And the wife's job was to raise the children and take care of the home. Because he's going to spend the husband's going to spend all of his time trying to just get enough grain, crop, all that stuff to cause them to be able to live. So that was the partnership. And so, therefore, if the husband were to die, there is now no one to then take care of that family, because that was how that would work. And so literally, the wife would be destitute. She would have nothing. And so what would happen was is it was considered to be a mercy that if a husband husband died, the next closest kin would offer to then go and have a like almost be a surrogate and backwards, have have a child so that the family line could continue, and so that the mom would have a child who would then be able to take care of her and help her in that kind of way. That was the way for them to provide an heir and to provide a future for that lady. And that was what everybody did as a way to take care of one another, and then they would take care of her until her son was old enough to then begin to help. That's how they would do that. And so when Tamar's husband died, that's what Judah was saying. Say, hey, I want you to go, I want you to marry Tamar because she needs taken care of. Like she's part of our family, you need to take care of her. Well, then when the brother dies as well, exactly what's supposed to happen, the third one was supposed to go, but Judah no longer is wanting to take care of the family. He is now turning his back on her. But what was amazing is that through this process, she finds a way herself to be able to take care of herself. Now, did she do it the right way? Absolutely not. But that's what was going on. Is she finding a way to take care of herself and actually causing Judah to fulfill his obligation whether he wanted to or not. This is a microcosm of the overall story that's happening because while this is happening, Joseph is being taken to Egypt. Joseph was called by God to be the leader of the family. But the people around the family did not want that, but God's going to work it out anyway. But in this one right here, the important thing to remember is in life, there are times when we have responsibility. And what I think is, is I think that we have to be very careful that we have a proper view of responsibility. Many people think of responsibility as like a cuss word. Like it's it's an unfortunate thing that we have to do. We have to take out the trash, we have to do the dishes, we have to pay the bills, we have to do whatever. And so therefore, just like Judah, he's like, I don't want this responsibility. I'm gonna get rid of her. Yeah, we're gonna just just lie to her and get her out of the way. But the other thing is, is we have to re-look at our relationship with responsibility. Responsibility is not a bad thing, it is a representation of the blessings in our life. Do you know why we take out the trash? Because we have people in our life who are who are making trash we have to have to do, you have to throw away. You know why we have a car payment? It's because God has blessed us with the ability to buy a car. Why do we put gas in our car? Because God has blessed us with the opportunity to go somewhere. Like every like responsibility is a sign of God's blessing. And so for Judah, you know what that lady reminds me of? That lady reminds me that I had a son once. And he was a great son. And he apparently did some bad stuff and and he died. But you know what? I still remember him. That is a sign that I that I once had a family. And and instead of seeing her as a liability, he could have seen her as a blessing. I want to challenge all of us to make sure that we don't look at the responsibilities we have in life as a bad thing, but as a sign of blessing. That doesn't mean that we like it. I don't know anybody who likes taking out the trash. I don't know anyone who likes to, you know, work overtime when they don't want to, and all this kind of stuff. But instead of seeing it as a bad thing, we see it as a sign of God's blessing. And then we begin to look at it differently and it begins to take on a little bit of a different role in our life. And as we do that, we begin to find out that, yeah, while I may not enjoy it, I enjoy what it represents, and then we don't get into a mess like Judah got into. Let's pray together right now. God, thank you so much for today. Lord, thank you. I'm not Judah in this moment where where it all just kind of went sideways. But Lord, there have been times when I've I have, and maybe somebody listening today, we've had the wrong view of responsibility, and it caused things to get sideways. My prayer today, God, is that you will help us to find our way clear of all of that. You'll give us the right relationship with the responsibilities in our life, to realize that our responsibilities represent the blessings, the opportunities that you've given us, and that we will pursue those things with joy. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And amen, what God's Word says in Genesis 1, verse 1, that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. If God can do that, anything is possible. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Genesis chapter 39.