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 Potipher 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 worshippers 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 in 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 it seems like Judah was really trying to take care of Tamar

...