Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap.

Yesterday, we ended with Joseph's brothers selling him into slavery, and he was subsequently

sold to a man named Potterfair who worked for the King of Egypt.

Joseph's brothers led his father Jacob to believe he was dead, and Jacob was crushed.

Today we have a brief intermission from Joseph's story where we follow what's happening at that

time in the life of his half-brother Judah, Leah's fourth son.

Judah finds a wife from among the Canaanites.

We've seen them a lot already, we'll continue seeing them.

They're the cursed descendants of Noah's son, Ham.

They're not worshipers of God, and they currently inhabit the land God promised to give

to this family.

Judah and his new wife have three sons, and he eventually arranges a marriage between

his oldest son, Er, and a woman named Tamar, but Er was wicked, so God kills him because

he's God and he knows hearts.

God is both just and merciful.

In this instance, he leans into his justice, so if you're feeling any kind of impulse to

set yourself up as a judge over God because of this, I would just encourage you to remember

that he's the one who gets to make those kinds of decisions.

We've all committed treason against God and His kingdom, and we all deserve death.

So no matter what Er did or didn't do, he got what he deserved.

The rest of us are just living on mercy.

After Er's death, Judah gave Tamar his second son in marriage, because if she had neither

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