Genesis 38:1-7
At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah. 2 There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and made love to her; 3 she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er. 4 She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan. 5 She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him. 6 Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7 But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death.
When I was a kid, and I went to the doctor’s office, there was always a magazine for kids on the table called Highlights. It had all kinds of games in it, one of which was connect-the-dots. The thing about connect-the-dots is that you can’t tell what the picture is going to be until the dots are connected.
God goes by a lot of names in Scripture: Adonai (Lord/Master), Elohim (God), Jehovah Jireh (The Lord will provide), and that is only a few of them. One of the names I’ve come up with for God is: “The God who connects-the-dots.” There have been times in my life where something wasn't making sense in the moment, yet years later, I would look back and say, “That’s why that happened!”
The story of Tamar in Genesis 38 seems like one of those stories. It is harsh and embarrassing and seems like a throwaway story in the middle of the lives of Jacob and his sons. Yet thousands of years later, a giant dot would be connected that would make Tamar’s heartache worth it! Tamar would actually be the person who saves the line of Judah, the line of the Savior, Jesus.
Take a minute to open your heart to the “dots” God is trying to connect in your life!