01/14/2026
1/14/26 Good Morning! God be Praised! Beginning tomorrow, I will not be posting devotions because I am having spinal surgery today. I do not know when I will be able to begin posting devotions. This will be based on my physical ability to work in my office at home as I go through healing and recovery. My expectation is ten days to two weeks. Your prayers for me, my family and the surgical team at Ochsner are welcomed!
There are lots of sordid stories regarding God’s people throughout the Old Testament. At the very beginning, in Genesis, we find just how despicable God’s chosen people can be. Jacob inherits the covenant God made with Abraham, but this does nothing to prevent his sons from falling into the odious practices of their sin nature. The same holds true today for all humanity, even Christians. Thank God we have the promise of God given and fulfilled for us through His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Verse of the Week: Acts 2:38-39 “And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
Genesis 38:1-19, 24-26
‘It happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and turned aside to a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. There Judah saw the daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua. He took her and went in to her, and she conceived and bore a son, and he called his name Er. She conceived again and bore a son, and she called his name Onan. Yet again she bore a son, and she called his name Shelah. Judah was in Chezib when she bore him.
And Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord put him to death. Then Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother's wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.” But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his. So whenever he went in to his brother's wife he would waste the semen on the ground, so as not to give offspring to his brother. And what he did was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and he put him to death also. Then Judah said to Tamar his daughter-in-law, “Remain a widow in your father's house, till Shelah my son grows up”—for he feared that he would die, like his brothers. So Tamar went and remained in her father's house.
In the course of time the wife of Judah, Shua's daughter, died. When Judah was comforted, he went up to Timnah to his sheepshearers, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite. And when Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,” she took off her widow's garments and covered herself with a veil, wrapping herself up, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him in marriage. When Judah saw her, he thought she was a pr******te, for she had covered her face. He turned to her at the roadside and said, “Come, let me come in to you,” for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. She said, “What will you give me, that you may come in to me?” He answered, “I will send you a young goat from the flock.” And she said, “If you give me a pledge, until you send it—” He said, “What pledge shall I give you?” She replied, “Your signet and your cord and your staff that is in your hand.” So he gave them to her and went in to her, and she conceived by him. Then she arose and went away, and taking off her veil she put on the garments of her widowhood. About three months later Judah was told, “Tamar your daughter-in-law has been immoral. Moreover, she is pregnant by immorality.” And Judah said, “Bring her out, and let her be burned.” As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, “By the man to whom these belong, I am pregnant.” And she said, “Please identify whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff.” Then Judah identified them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not know her again.’
John 6:35-40
“Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
What fascinates me about Genesis 38 is the main character, Judah. Judah is the fourth son born to Jacob and Leah. Among Jacob’s twelve sons, Judah is the one chosen by God to carry forth the covenant and the promise of the Messiah. Judah is the ancestor of both King David and Jesus. We would think that Judah’s life would be somewhat significant as a potential model for his brothers and the descendants of the Hebrews. But we can see in this story that Judah was just like any human being, suffering the effects of sin, failing to maintain the ordinary practices of family life, marrying and having children with the daughter of a Canaanite man, and failing to take care of his daughter-in-law Tamar. To cap it off, he was discovered guilty of immorality with Tamar! The twins born to Judah & Tamar, Perez and Zerah, would be included in the family of Jacob that would spend 400 years in Egypt becoming the promised great nation.
Would we be embarrassed to have an ancestor in our family tree like Judah? Perhaps. But who among us when our book of life is opened on Judgment Day would escape the punishment we deserve for the countless infractions of the law we have done? How were the patriarchs like the sons of Jacob saved? By believing in the promise of God that the seed of the woman would come to redeem us, to reconcile our unholiness with His holiness so that we can enter the new heaven and new earth. Today, we have the very Word of God, written, proclaimed and incarnate in Jesus Christ, that is the Means of God’s saving grace. John 6 says it so very well: ‘For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.’
Let us pray: Father God, “may all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him! For he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper. He has pity on the weak and the needy and saves the lives of the needy. From oppression and violence he redeems their life, and precious is their blood in his sight. Long may he live; may gold of Sheba be given to him! May prayer be made for him continually, and blessings invoked for him all the day!” Amen! (Psalm 72:11-15)
