Genesis 38: ⁶ In the course of time, Judah arranged for his firstborn son, Er, to marry a young woman named Tamar. ⁷ But Er was a wicked man in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord took his life. ⁸ Then Judah said to Er’s brother Onan, “Go and marry Tamar, as our law requires of the brother of a man who has died. You must produce an heir for your brother.” ⁹ But Onan was not willing to have a child who would not be his own heir. So whenever he had intercourse with his brother’s wife, he spilled the semen on the ground. This prevented her from having a child who would belong to his brother. ¹⁰ But the Lord considered it evil for Onan to deny a child to his dead brother. So the Lord took Onan’s life, too. ¹¹ Then Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law, “Go back to your parents’ home and remain a widow until my son Shelah is old enough to marry you.” (But Judah didn’t really intend to do this because he was afraid Shelah would also die, like his two brothers.) So Tamar went back to live in her father’s home.

¹⁵ Judah noticed her and thought she was a prostitute, since she had covered her face. ¹⁶ So he stopped and propositioned her. “Let me have sex with you,” he said, not realizing that she was his own daughter-in-law. “How much will you pay to have sex with me?” Tamar asked. ¹⁷ “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?” she asked. ¹⁸ “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. ¹⁹ Afterward she went back home, took off her veil, and put on her widow’s clothing as usual.

²² So Hirah returned to Judah and told him, “I couldn’t find her anywhere, and the men of the village claim they’ve never had a shrine prostitute there.” ²³ “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 laughingstock of the village if we went back again to look for her.” ²⁴ About three months later, Judah was told, “Tamar, your daughter-in-law, has acted like a prostitute. And now, because of this, she’s pregnant.” “Bring her out, and let her be burned!” Judah demanded. ²⁵ 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?”
²⁶ Judah recognized them immediately and said, “She is more righteous than I am, because I didn’t arrange for her to marry my son Shelah.” And Judah never slept with Tamar again.
this is an example of how differently God thinks from how we do...

the first issue for me personally is the arranged marriage thing... what if you have no attraction whatsoever for this man.. what if he is gross and smelly or something... but... that was the times... so you marry this man.. you pray you come to have some type of feelings for him... then.. if he dies... they want you to sleep with the brother.. for the sole purpose of giving an heir to the dead man... then if this one dies too.. they pass you on to the next one... come on now... an amazing thing is.. these women almost had to view sex as an act like a man does otherwise their feelings would have been tore up behind this...

so the woman disguises herself as a prostitute.. (who wouldn't feel like a family whore by this point..) and she now sleeps with the father but he don't know it is her... she gets pregnant... and he is ready to kill her... for having sex... meanwhile you have been passing her down through the family... and now she must be a whore.. (insert true look of confusion) she brings out his stuff.. which proves he slept with her... now she has to go without sex the rest of her living days because now he is too righteous to sleep with her again.. for what?? everyone else in the family did.. including you.. now you're going to deny her physical needs... (again.. unless he was gross and she didn't want to..)

she doesn't remarry that it is told... but the twins that she has to Judah.. one of the boys is the descendant of David.. and Jesus.. so this was God's plan to have Jesus come from Judah... surely there had to be an easier way.. a less painful way.. a less humitiating way... this is one of the 3women recognized as descendants of Jesus... so this was a great honor...

God really thinks differently than I do....