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

Yesterday we ended with Joseph's brother 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 a husband

nor children, it was essentially a death sentence for her in that day.

There'd be no one to care for her or provide for her.

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