His birth — a proper child
After the seven years of Jacob’s service in Haran in the house of Laban, his mother’s brother, Leah was given to him instead of Rachel; but for the love he had for Rachel, he decided to serve another seven years to be given Rachel as his wife. Through these seven years, Leah was barren.
31 And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren.
Leah gave birth to four children, the name of the last being Judah, after which she was satisfied. Genesis 29:35
“35 And she conceived again, and bare a son: and she said, Now will I praise the Lord: therefore she called his name Judah; and left bearing.”
The birth of Judah was that which gave glory to God. His life is meant for God’s praise. Men will see his living and give glory to God. Men will literally praise the man through whom they can glorify God. Genesis 49:8
“8 Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise.”
In Jacob’s prophecy, ‘thou art he’ shows a rejection of those who came before. Little wonder why the woman should leave bearing at the birth of Judah. It was as though the man she was looking for had arrived; the man capable of qualifying the other three. She saw the destiny of the child and said ‘Now I can praise God. Judah - Him shall his brethren praise. Also, ‘Thy father’s children shall bow down before you’ Gen 49:8. They shall praise him, and shall bow down before him. Indicating honour and power not of subjugation but of submission due to excellence and exceptionality.
Though his position in the family of twelve was not of much significance. But it was a child on whom much was depending. A child who will take the lead. A child of potential. How many young people will see today with great destinies; how we see children and can easily notice divine purpose strategically employed for them to walk in. We see their common expression as a sign of a heavenly knowing, a sanctity, and a pre-ordination that took place even before they were formed. ‘Children are a heritage of the Lord. A divine package to be unravelled for an assignment. Judah was a child upon whom you can see the rising star. There was a well in him through which many will drink. We shall see later why we speak so highly of him.
After twenty years of service in the house of Laban, he served fourteen years for his wives and six years for his cattle. It was during these six years that Jacob had all his children. Joseph was the last of the children he had in Haran. Thus, we can say Judah was not more than three years older than Joseph, as he was the fourth child of Leah, which leaves a space of one year between each child. Judah should have been born in the fourth year, which is only about two years older than Joseph ( born maybe in the sixth year).
Gen 31:4 41 Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle…
The yoke
The purpose of a man is for a people.
Living life seems not to be a design; we live among families, friends, and acquaintances and think it to be by chance. As we live, we also meet with people that we seem to be better than, people that are our equals and those that are better than us; our reaction to each set matters a lot. We awake daily to a routine which, in an instant in time, seems cyclic. We think we are heading nowhere until we measure ourselves in the band of years or look at our past from the end. Judah and his brethren lived like every man has ever lived in a family; doing chores, causing trouble, showing love and compassion, and in extreme negative envy and killing. These brethren threw darts of envy against their younger brother Joseph, whom God has also placed in a great destiny. This nasty cloud that brought spears of dew fell upon the innocent child. His father’s children hated him and on that ill-fated day, as opportunity (time and chance) permitted, they un-leached their plan to eliminate the child. How like the men of Babel, they consented together. How many think the way to become the head is to stop those they think can beat them; to become a mighty man, I have to kill all the mighty men. To become a king, then there should be no king. Oh, how the brethren thought the only way to avoid being a servant was to kill he that will become the master. It was in this yoke that Judah joined himself. Joining his brethren to perform their enterprise. Judah has forgotten that a man should do to others what he wants others to do to him. Thus, by joining to end Joseph’s destiny, he was saying, ‘I permit men to likewise plan to cut off that future God has for me’. To win the race of life is not to kick out from the lane those we compete with, but to outrun them.
Do not kill the master so as not to become a slave
The inheritance
It is not only through DNA that people differ, but also in potential. Like two plants if they are of different species, though they should grow up on the same soil, exposed to the same environment, sunshine, and rain, cannot be the same. So no two men can be the same. Two men cannot be the same thing at all times. Differences in potential or inherency account for the differences in people. They are twin, but you can guess the one exhibited a particular attitude. You can tell the person that such words are coming. You can be surprised when a man misbehaves because you understand their constituent.
God have given each person such peculiarities; each man his gift which serves as a guide to fulfilling their destiny. Each has his likes and dislikes, each his own choice. They have their life stocked up in them.
When the brethren of Joseph made the utterance to end their brother’s life, though Judah was yet ignorant of any sense of much responsibility, his little expression was a means of delivering the life of Joseph from their hands. A suggestion that he gave made the minds of his brethren content.
Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams. (Genesis 37:20)
Genesis 37:26-27, And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood? 27 Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelite, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content (Genesis 37:26-27).
We know how Reuben attempted to save Joseph’s life. He did this because, as the eldest son, a responsibility had been placed in his hands — a responsibility due to his position and age. He knew if anything should happen to the child, it would be on his hands. Thus, he was labouring to save his own head. But here was a man who though having no necessity laid upon him but reason of inherency, a predestination, a work, an implicit expression of the kind of destiny he called unto; as a life deliverer, ‘him shall his brethren praise’ — even Joseph, rescued the life of the child even without any demand but reason of a spirit — a spirit of right. We see his reason, ‘for he is our brother and our flesh’. A reason that any good man should consider, not because he wanted to please men or because he should give an account. This was the reason for the law: if a man should not kill. The reason why a man should not steal is for the sorrow, loss, and pain it causes his neighbour. ‘Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God.’ The purpose and reason behind the law is hidden in the lawgiver. Ps 60:77 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver;
Judah is Israel’s lawgiver. Written in him is the law and its purpose. The expression of Judah’s living is the work God has given him. Until you come to the very consciousness of that work, you cannot manage it.
The despondence
Genesis 37:33-35
33 And he knew it, and said, It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces.
34 And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days.
35 And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.
Genesis 38:1. And it came to pass at that time, that Judah went down from his brethren, and turned in to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah.
How can we tell the work of a man by studying the simple expressions of his life!
When Jacob heard of what had happened to his son Joseph, according to the lies of his brethren, he was sore grieved. The old man cried like a baby. The child he loves so dearly has been taken away from him. Not just an ordinary death, but one that will result in much lamentation, a child was torn apart by a beast, with concrete evidence of his blood-soaked cloth. We know how, as a man grows, the string of life becomes much slimmer and how aged men are quite delicate. No one in the family could comfort the weeping old man. And he made a swearing saying, ‘I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning’.
This must have brought upon the house of Israel a season of gloom. Those strong-hearted children were determined to endure all the sorrow of their father. It meant nothing to them, maybe. They were able to sit with their father, trying to comfort him for a wrong they were responsible for. No remorse, no tears, no guilt, because no actual responsibility for the pain of their father and the death of their brother.
You never care for people because you think they were never your responsibility.
Most of the time, we will live like men without conscience because we do not think that it was our fault to let a thing die. How daily we passed by the poor, injured man, people needing assistance, dying people, and care not for them because we think it is not our responsibility to revive them, or to help. Thank God for that Samaritan who could not pass by that dying man who was on his way to Jericho. See how the priest and Levite passed by, thinking it was not their responsibility to help the man. You can make every man your neighbour by taking responsibility for them.
Ezekiel 3:18. 18 When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
It was at that time that Judah left home, departing from his brethren to leave with an Adullamite whose name was Hirah. What might have been the reason for the migration? What must have driven Judah to leave Israel?
Judah could no longer bear the grief of the father. His conscience must have accused him, “This is your fault”. “You are responsible for your father’s pain”. Judah could no longer endure. Unlike his brethren, who were indifferent and sat together with their weeping father. The condition of the father drove him out of the home. Many have run away from their pain and their actions because of guilt. They see running away as the only option for dealing with their faults. They would rather run than own up. They deal with their cross by avoiding it.
Avoiding guilt by running away is not always the correct panacea.
A period of gloom for the young man arose. He must be about twenty now, since Joseph was about seventeen. He left home with that dark heart. An outright demeaning of his person.
The backslide
You always need an environment to be preserved. It is a presence that preserves. The fish are kept alive only in the river. The birds need their environment to express their nature and be preserved. Bacteria and microorganisms are cultured to keep them over time for study. The manna was kept in the ark before God so that it could be preserved for many generations without any decay. A man likewise needs an environment, a presence designed to sustain his destiny and life. In chapter 38 of Genesis, after Judah left his brethren and had gone to live with Hirah the Adullamite, he saw a girl, Shuah and took her and went in unto her. Such were the footsteps of his fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He never informed his father before taking a wife. He started living according to his own will. He took a wife for his son, but never sought the consent of his own family when choosing his wife, if he actually married her. The bible just said he saw her, took her, and went in unto her. The word ‘took her’ might have meant to marry her. I wonder if he might have married his wife without the father’s notice. The bible never made mention of his father and his brethren throughout that chapter. He actually went away from home.
Note that Judah is a seed that can only grow in Israel. Israel was the river of water by which he was planted. Being disheartened, he left his niche just like Ahimelech, the husband of Naomi, left Bethlehem and suffered in Moab. Judah left Israel and almost lost everything he had gained there. He lost his wife and two sons until he came to his senses and refrained from giving the last son in marriage to Tamar, who had been a wife to two of his sons already. It was as if God was saying any relation done in that strange land shall be vanity. Judah went against God’s purpose and could not even train his sons. A man who was made to guide the whole Israel could not preserve his own family. He almost lost his entire family if not for the mercy of God. He must have been in much pain, and it seemed as though everything was against him, losing his wife and two sons.
He learnt his first lesson: to be responsible for preserving the life of his son.
Genesis 38:11
11 Then said Judah to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, Remain a widow at thy father's house, till Shelah my son be grown: for he said, lest peradventure he die also, as his brethren did. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house.
Though he never knew the reason, but was not ready to lose the life of that young child. Maybe he was thinking, ‘let them get mature first’. Getting married when you are not ready to handle a family will ruin many things.
Apart from him growing up, I think the purpose of not giving Tamar to Shelah was solely to not risk the life of the child. For even when he was grown, he refused to give her to him. Maybe he wanted to preserve the last that was remaining. How can he be so careless as not to avoid any risk of losing his only son? And the Lord keenly warns the believer, ‘strengthen that which remaineth and is about to die’.
As he lived these unaccountable years after he had mourned his wife, he went to shear his sheep with his friend Hirah.
This was a friend who could not rebuke his vain heart. A friend that have no counsel that could direct his heart back to Israel. A friend who supported him in evil. And was also helping him to play some games. O Judah could have ruined his life by joining himself with a wrong companion. When Judah saw Tamar on the way, she disguised herself to be a harlot, although his friend Hirah was with him, he never rebuked him. ‘Keep back your eyes from beholding vanity’. Such friends who cannot turn your face from the way of doom, keep yourself from them. It is dangerous not to have anyone who can say to you, ‘Behold the speck in your eyes’. Judah and Hirah must have been partakers of such vanities, supporting each other.
When men are bent towards evil, they always seek companions moving on the same side of the road.
The barter
Genesis 38:13-18
13 And it was told Tamar, saying, Behold thy father-in-law goeth up to Timnath to shear his sheep.
14 And she put her widow's garments off from her, and covered her with a veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place, which is by the way to Timnath; for she saw that Shelah was grown, and she was not given unto him to wife.
15 When Judah saw her, he thought her to be a harlot, because she had covered her face.
16 And he turned unto her by the way, and said, Go to, I pray you, let me come in unto you (i.e. to have sexual relation); (for he knew not that she was his daughter in law.) And she said, what wilt thou give me, that thou mayest come in unto me?
17 And he said, I will send thee a kid (lamb) from the flock. And she said, Will you give me a pledge, till you send it?
18 And he said, what pledge shall I give you? And she said, your signet (ring), and your bracelets, and your staff that is in your hand. And he gave it her, and came in unto her, and she conceived by him.
After Judah was comforted by the death of his wife Shuah, he went to Timnath to shear his sheep. On the way, he saw a harlot and decided to sin with her. Judah could no longer restrain his appetite. His urges were now his master. Maybe he had been living like this most of the time, just like Samson. Maybe he had an addiction. His friend Hirah, whom we suppose should be accounted with such an act, was able to withhold himself. Judah had learnt the wrong life, he was now living like the heathen, no sense of consequence for sin. He was now blind to what might be the future result of such an act. He was even begging, saying, ‘I pray you’. It was his lifestyle. Oh, Judah, who had a bright destiny, has gone astray! Many in our time are just living like Judah. They sin without any knowledge of its consequences. Though they know what danger it might cause, but are bent on satisfying their lust. Some don’t really care. They take sin as a habit. They see no evil in what they do. They have formed a conscience that excuses them for the evil they do. They are the wagon that believes that someone cannot live without a particular sin. Judah saw the harlot and, like a culture, went in to her to commit immorality. No struggle at all in his conscience. A believer, no struggle, no rebuke, no conscience in him when he wants to sin, that believer must have lost the Spirit of grace.
Though he had nothing to give to the woman, he decided to give a pledge. Sin must take a treasure from you. When immorality becomes the need of the hour and you do anything to fulfil it, then you have actually been enslaved. Sin has a request. You must pay for sin. A man without a destiny has nothing to trade for sin. It is only the dead, sin has no demand for because they have no destiny. They have nothing to trade with it.
Judah had nothing to offer at the moment. Thus, she demanded a pledge from him. The first thing she demanded of Judah was a signet. A signet is a seal noblemen use to institute authority.
Jeremiah 22:24-25
24 "As surely as I live," declares the Lord, "even if you, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would still pull you off.
Daniel 6:17
17 A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the rings of his nobles, so that Daniel's situation might not be changed.
The signet is something that is of great value. In the book of Jeremiah, God was saying a signet is not supposed to be taken away from your hand. A man is not supposed to trade a signet for anything. To the believer, the signet is like the seal of the Holy Spirit. A man is to ensure that he does not lose the Spirit’s presence and power. Judah was as profane as Esau and traded the Holy Spirit for sex. He has no regard for divine things. Sin will strip you of the Spirit’s presence. It demands what is eternal for temporal. The devil has made his subtle request to as many as will fall prey, not knowing the value of the eternal gift. If only we see what we exchange for the pleasure of sin, we will by all means obey the command to flee from all appearance of evil. The devil in his deceit has succeeded in exchanging what is worthless for what is priceless. He gave Eve the apple and collected life and dominion. He traded similarly with Samson, Reuben, Cain, David, and so on.
The next thing she required was his bracelet. The bracelet is an ornament of beauty. All that God had done for the man, all his adornment, all the furnishing that makes you attractive, all his excellence, his glory, the devil was also demanding that it should be traded. Don’t just sit down and watch the devil tear down your good records; don’t let him burn down your Christian curriculum vitae. See the weight of what the devil wants to empty the man of. The devil has actually set his eye upon God’s labour for our life. Those Godly characters you have developed, he desires that you lose them. Judah mindlessly gave his bracelet to a harlot. How badly he needed to satisfy his lust! Are you in the category that will do anything, can pay any money, with the thought that it is just the money that is being wasted? The enemy is after a greater than we might have imagined.
She also placed a demand upon his staff. Men of old rarely travel without a staff. When Jacob entered the house of Laban, he was only carrying his staff. The man must need a staff for his journey. You don’t send a man on a journey without a staff. On what shall the weary lean? In hard times and distress, what shall be our support? The wind in the wilderness of this world will sweep off our feet if we tread this land in which we are pilgrims without a staff. What shall the shepherd correct the sheep that are gone astray without the staff? What shall bring us back again unto that ancient if we have not our staff? If the Lord should ask us what is in our hand, what shall will show him if not the staff? Why trade that without which you cannot continue your journey? Don’t you see you will easily fall without a staff? Oh, why should the devil desire to seize these things from me? Have you really seen that he desires to stop you?
Genesis 32:10. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan
Mark 6:8
8 These were his instructions: "Take nothing for the journey except a staff
These were the Lord’s instructions. He knew if a man must make a successful Journey, he needs his staff. The staff is the word of God. The devil in trading sin to us is intending to steal the word of God from our hearts. If he succeeds, the believer can no longer obey God. Then we will be alienated from God’s perfect will. A man can’t do without the word of God. The devil wants to take from you so that you will become a failure. You will agree with me that as Judah was leaving that harlot, he was leaving empty. Everything that is worth it has been taken away. He was leaving without any glory; all that would make men praise God for him has been lost to lust.
The guilty judge
Several years later, after Tamar, the daughter-in-law of Judah, who had feigned herself a harlot, became pregnant, Judah, knowing about it, was disappointed, and passed judgment over her that she be brought to be stoned. But they brought it to him that he was responsible for the sin she had committed. Judah knew that anyone who had sinned should die. He passed the judgment strictly. But when Judah later knew the veiled truth, he could not execute judgment again.
Judah, who is supposed to be a ruler, one who will give the law and no man will dare to disobey, has now no power. Sin has stripped Judah of the power of his destiny. Every destiny needs power for it to perform. Anyone who has lost the power of their destiny cannot make any impact. How the life of Judah as a lawgiver did not affect that young woman. A ruler surely perverts judgment when he has sinned. The legal authority will be taken away from a guilty judge. Your sin will give the enemy boldness to challenge you. You gave the enemy the right when you sin. He can now stand before God, who loved you, to make an accusation that will be acceptable according to God’s sure foundation.
The destiny of Judah as a ruler can no longer stand before God because of God’s declaration, as given by the Holy Spirit in:
2 Samuel 23:3
3 The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.
The believer must not judge; thus, he is not a judge when there is a plank in his eye. He should, as the Lord has said, remove first the thing in his own eyes before becoming so caring as to notice the speck in his neighbour’s eye. You should understand that what is wrong with you should be a greater matter to you than what you think is wrong with your neighbour. Will you just consider that in your eye is the plank (the bigger) and in your neighbour’s eye is the speck (the smaller). With that, you will judge yourself strictly until you are well. But when does a man think he is well and qualified to judge others?
After that encounter with Tamar, Judah learnt a lesson that I think brought him back again. There was no mention of Judah again until Genesis 43:3. And by then, he was already with Israel, his father. And throughout the scripture, we have read of no other sons born unto Judah except Shelah, who was born by his wife, the daughter of Shua and Pharez and Zarah, the two sons of Tamar. Judah from that day took a decision never to have any sexual affair with her again. It was a decision he made and abided by for the rest of his life.
Destiny Recovered
After the incident with Tamar, Judah decided not to go into her again. Numbers 26:19, 20. Maybe it was expected that Judah should take Tamar as a legitimate wife, and after that, be permitted to have relations with her as a husband will do to his wife, but Judah decided not to have an affair with her again. It was never recorded again that Judah had any other wife or concubine; if he had, maybe he would have gotten more children, save the two children of Tamar. Judah learnt an invaluable lesson from his recklessness and sin. Then Judah was not up to 40 years, but decided to stay without a wife or have any sexual relations. It was a deep lesson that brought about repentance with a decision requiring utmost discipline. Discipline for a man who was like an addict. A man who gave out precious things just to have sex. He was now deciding to stand and live without sex, withstanding the appetite of the flesh till his death. He decided to live as a eunuch from that day onward. To have a great destiny, he had to oppose his own very weakness. ‘Surely, it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more: that which I see not teach through me: if I have done iniquity, I will do no more’. (Job 34:13, 14). To recover your destiny, decisions like this are inevitable. A complete forsaken of the way that has dragged you down to the grave must take place. Like the prodigal son, Judah left the occupation of feeding pigs to return to his glory. He knew he had done evil, but he must not continue. A prudent man must avoid taking the same instruction and lesson twice. A man that do not want to gamble with his destiny must understand that not at every instance a fallen man will rise. Some have fallen into death, and they have committed the sin that is unto death. To recover, elasticity as a character is required; your ability to spring back must not be lost. Woe to the man that have exceeded his elastic limit. The life of Judah teaches that no matter what you have lost, you can stand again, and with the rest of your life, erase your mess. You can actually let the past be at the past, and run towards that goal you have been hibernating towards.
Judah never reappeared again until Genesis 43:3. Then he returned to his brethren, to his father Jacob. He left his former environment, his friends, maybe his house, and the land where he was living away from Israel. It is not enough for man to decide to cease from his sin, but he must also cease from anything that has been encouraging sin. Those tempting sounds, videos, pictures, appearance of evil, and evil communication must be adequately done away with. God demands that a person who has decided to forsake his evil way, change his destiny, and take a new path must not stay in a sin-cultured environment. God must do in him this two-dimensional work of grace, a deliverance from the power of darkness, and a translation into the kingdom of his dear Son. In fact, it is impossible for a prodigal son in a far country to deceased feeding pigs without returning to his father. He will surely starve to death. Because of his genuine, whole-hearted desire to change, he (Judah) has to take the required and correct step towards recovering his destiny. Every prodigal son must know that his glory and destiny are with the Father – He that begat all things.
Judah started functioning fully in his destiny after he returned to his brethren and father. You must know the environment where your destiny can thrive. You must know the environment that can reveal your glory. The fish, birds, lions, dogs, and plants need a suitable environment to be glorified. The lion might be the king of the forest, but not the king of the sea.