AP

Genesis 38:27-29  When the time came for [Tamar] to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.  As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, “This one came out first.”  But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, “So this is how you have broken out!”  And he was named Perez.

Since the birthright of the first-born son in a family put him in a very privileged inheritance position in relation to all his younger siblings, the ‘scarlet thread’ custom of midwives when twins were born was quite important.  But little Perez was going to usurp this privilege and push out past little Zerah and gain the privilege for himself.

In this sense he was following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Jacob!  But his heritage was even more sordid than that of Jacob – his mother, Tamar, had, contrary to the Mosaic Law, seduced his father (her father-in-law), Judah, in order to become pregnant in the first place.  Yes, there are a lot of skeletons rattling around in this family’s cupboard, so we could hardly expect God to have them having any significant role in the outworking of his Plan of Salvation.  … … But wait!

When we look at the genealogical list in Matthew 1, in the Gospel writer’s account of the ancestral line of Jesus, the Saviour, we find, surprisingly, inter alia, “Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, …” (Matthew 1:3a)!

May we never question the extent and depth of God’s amazing grace, and may we never write off any unexpected avenue he might choose to demonstrate this amazing grace to us!  Yes, he might even be prepared to use us, with all our weaknesses, fears and failures, as some of the means he uses to extend his Kingdom and bring other sinners to himself “by grace through faith” (Ephesians 2:8-9)!

– Bruce Christian