HOWDY MY NAME IS JUDAH

I am the fourth son of Jacob and Leah. While my mother, Leah wasn’t the favored wife, nevertheless my dad Jacob visited her often at night. She had seven children by him.

Not being the first born I wasn’t in line for that which normally goes to the eldest son. Things were a little confusing around our home because we moved often. With four wives and several kids there was a lot of fighting with dad in the middle trying to keep the peace.

There was a difference in our ages with Reuben being the oldest and Benjamin the youngest. I can't say that thirteen in a family was unusual but with the different mothers, we were clans within a clan so to speak.

I had a brother named Joseph that was a favorite with dad. I and the other brothers resented him because he was too mouthy, always telling things he dreamed. This one dream was the last straw. He said in his dream all us brothers bowed down and gave praise to him as a leader over us.

Well that did it, we had enough of his foolishness, though dad ate it up and thought it was funny.

We brothers decided to kill him but later I convinced them just to sell him for a slave. We dipped his fancy coat in goat’s blood and told dad that some beast had killed him.

Things were miserable around camp because of dad’s mourning, so I decided to cut out to visit a friend of mine. While there I saw this gal named Shua and we got married.

Right off she conceived and had a son we named Er. Then she got pregnant and had a son we called Onan. Then after some time passed we had another boy we called Shelah. Er was growing up so I got him a wife named Tamar hoping that he would settle down, but he was so mean that GOD put him away for good.

In a situation like this Er’s brother Onan was supposed to marry Tamar and the first child would be Er’s child so his line would continue. Well Onan obeyed in part but in the process of having sex with her he withdrew and his seed spilled on the ground. This act ticked GOD off and he killed him.

Tamar was wondering what kind of family she had married into so I told her when Shelah was a little older he would marry her and have children. I sent her home until Shelah was considered to be a man.

Shelah wasn’t into marring his sister-in-law so I just let it slide and Tamar got tired of waiting for me to honor my word.

She found out I was going down to shear my sheep, and I would be there a few days so she dressed up like a whore and sat beside the road. My wife had died and I hadn’t had sex for some time and when I saw this harlot I couldn’t resist her.

She wanted to know how much I would give her so I said; how about a goat? She was okay with that but she wanted something of mine to keep until I sent the goat down to her. I wanted to get on with it so I gave her my signet and staff to hold until I sent her a goat.

Later I sent a servant down with the goat but he couldn’t find her so I thought, that’s her bad luck and I forgot about it. Then one day someone told me Tamar had been messing around and was pregnant.

That really upset me to the point where I said; we must kill her for her unfaithfulness. As we prepared for the execution she sent my signet and staff to me and said, “These things belong to the man who is the father of my child.” As soon as I saw them everything became clear what had happened.

Shortly after I was the father of a set of twins, two fine looking boys. I made sure I didn’t fool around with her anymore for once was enough.

Our family made many mistakes one of my brothers had sex with one of my fathers wives, this act didn’t set too well with my father or her grown sons.

After my sister was raped - - my brothers killed the men of that village and took all their goods and wives and children. Selling my brother Joseph was the low spot in our history though GOD worked it out for our good.

There is so much more that is written in the official record and you can read it there but the last thing I want to mention is father Jacobs blessing upon me as follows;

Genesis 49:8 "Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons shall bow down to you.
9 "Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He couches, he lies down as a lion, And as a lion, who dares rouse him up?
10 "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
11 "He ties his foal to the vine, and his donkey's colt to the choice vine; He washes his garments in wine, and his robes in the blood of grapes.
12 "His eyes are dull from wine, and his teeth white from milk.”

I often think of these words and they have been my main stay through the years. Especially “Until Shiloh Comes!”