This story has been on my mind lately. I guess as a woman who goes through the discomfort of a monthly cycle, I certainly could not relate to what the woman in Luke 8:42-48. This poor woman had been having her monthly cycle for 12 years straight….you heard me, 12 years with no stoppage of bleeding. I don’t even know how that is possible…how this woman could even be alive losing so much blood is beyond me. The bible doesn’t tell us if it was just a light flow or a heavy flow or what, just that she had “been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her.” (Luke 8:43) She spent all of her money that she had on doctors who could not heal her. As the story continues, Jesus was on his way to Jairus’ house to heal his daughter. This woman knew that Jesus was in town and she made her way through the crowd to get to Jesus. This took a huge amount of courage and bravery. This is a woman who was required by Jewish law to yell “UNCLEAN” wherever she went so people could avoid becoming unclean by her. Can you imagine the humiliation of this? This poor woman, I can really feel for her! People probably treated her like she had some deadly disease when she was in public. I cannot imagine the isolation she felt with something she had no control over. But Jesus was here. He could heal her. She had faith that he could. So here she was, among the crowd of people who were pushing and shoving to see a miracle that Jesus was going to do for Jairus. After all, Jairus was a very important man, a leader in the synagogue, so could Jesus really heal his daughter? This brave woman reached her hand through the crowd and touched the edge of Jesus’ cloak and she was immediately healed! But Jesus stopped. He had been touched. He said to his disciples, “Who touched me?” No one would admit it, so Peter said it was just the crowd pressing against him. Jesus said again, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.” The woman had to confess. If others who knew her to be unclean saw her in the crowd (where she shouldn’t be), she would be in trouble. So she falls to Jesus’ feet and told him she had done it and why. Uh, oh. She just made our Lord and Savior unclean by touching him! The Law in Leviticus is clear “When a woman has her regular flow of blood, the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean till evening.” (Leviticus 15:19) And Leviticus 15: 27 also says, “Whoever touches them will be unclean; he must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening.” But he needs to save Jairus’ daughter! He needed to bathe and wash his clothes? Jairus’ daughter might die by then!! Did Jesus get angry? NO!! He had compassion for this woman. She told him why she had touched him and that she had been instantly healed. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” (Luke 8:48 ) Daughter….he called her daughter.  She belonged to God’s forever family because of her faith!  Her faith in Him caused her to go out amongst the crowds of people who would condemn her to get healed from the Great Healer and the Savior of the world. So beloved, do you have something that is holding you back from your Savior? Take heart, no matter how badly you feel you have messed up, your Abba Father is always waiting to take you back with open arms. Have faith and courage that whatever you may be going through, there is nothing that the blood of Jesus Christ cannot heal.

August 26, 2008
Categories: Biblical Studies . . Author: spicynutmeg . Comments: 2 Comments

My son saw me doing a search on my computer for Tamar and asked me this question, “Why are you looking up about Tamar?” This is what I told him as I read to him from Genesis 38. Many people love reading the good stories, but the Bible also has a lot of wisdom in all of the stories. Sometimes the “bad” stories where people use lies and deceit are placed there as learning tools for those of us in the future. Take for example, Tamar.

Now the story starts out innocently enough. Judah, the brother of Joseph, left his brothers and moved off. He married a Canaanite woman, the daughter of Shua. She bore him 3 sons. The first born was Er, the second born was Onan, and the last son was Shelah. Now Er married a woman named Tamar. The Bible tells us in Genesis 38: 7, that Er was wicked in the sight of the Lord, so He put him to death. Tamar had no children and biblical law said that the brother of the deceaced needed to produce an offspring with his brother’s widow to carry on his brother’s name. Onan KNEW that these offspring would not be his, so when he lay with Tamar, he spilled his semen on the ground, so that she wouldn’t get pregnant! (Oh, yes, that was THIS Onan!) Well, Onan didn’t please God with this, so God struck him down, too.

Now, that left Judah in a predicament. He had one more son. Would God strike down this son, too, if he gave him to Tamar? So, Judah told Tamar to wait until Shelah was older and he would give Shelah to her to fulfill his brother’s duty. So Tamar goes back to her father’s tent to wait for that day.

The bible says that after a *considerable time”, Judah’s wife passes away, and after his time of mourning, he goes to Timnah to shear his sheep. WHen Tamar finds out that her father-in-law is headed to Timnah, she decides to take matters into her own hands. How much time was this *coinsiderable time*, I don’t know. Considerable makes it sound like she waited more than long enough for Shelah to grow up. So, does she go and confront her father in law? Nope, she decides to deceive him.

Tamar takes off her widow’s garments and dresses for a confrontation with her father in law…but veiled. She sits outside the gate at Enaim, which was on the road to Timnah. There she waited for Judah to pass by. Obviously she felt taken advantage of. Shelah was grown by now, and he wasn’t brought to her to make him her husband. Now, Judah saw her on his travel, he thought she was a prostitute. He wants to use her services, but she asks what he’ll give her for it. He offers a young goat from his flock. She wants collateral for it until the goat arrives, so she takes his seal, his cord and his staff as collateral until her returns with the goat. He agrees and consummates with her and she conceives. After he leaves, she puts back on her widow’s clothing and goes home.

Judah sends a servant back with the goat, but can’t find the prostitute, so he asks the locals about her. They tell him there is no prostitute that sits at the gate. He goes back to report this to Judah, who realizes he would be made a fool if he pursued his things back.

Three months later, Judah finds out that his daughter in law is pregnant. He wants her to be brought out to be punished for her sinful behavior. She sends a message to him…”I am with child by the man to whom these things belong.” (Gen. 38: 25) Judah recognizes his things. He realizes that he had not given his son, Shelah to be her husband. Tamar gives birth to twin boys, Perez and Zerah.

I asked my son, do you understand why I chose Tamar for this lesson? He nodded as I told him there was a lot to learn from Tamar, so that we don’t repeat it ourself. Who knows what would have happened to Tamar if she had waited on the Lord. Would He have still provided her offspring? Sure, he would. It was in his plan that the lineage of Jesus come through her and Judah. Like Sarai, she decided it just wasn’t happening fast enough. So, when Judah was at his lowest, mourning a dead wife and probably really in need of a release, there was Tamar to get her offspring. Could she have done this another way? Sure, there was always another way, but as we learned from the past, we don’t always wait on the Lord. I recently saw a sign on a church marquis that said, “Sin is man’s Declaration of Independence.” While this has been up on the marquis for this church for a long time, it holds some truth to it. We have been given our own free will, and we sure do like to use it for our own purpose, and it leads us to sin. Tamar and Judah were both guilty of sin here. They both made bad choices.

BUT our hope is in the Lord. He forgives all our bad choices. As one of my favorite songs goes “Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord.” (Everlasting God) It is hard to wait on the Lord, but God’s ways are the best ways. Do not let sin tempt you into getting what you believe is rightfully yours. God will provide all your needs according to his riches and glory. (Philippians 4:19)

August 19, 2008
Categories: Biblical Studies . . Author: spicynutmeg . Comments: Comments Off on Taking things into your own hands: Tamar