Naylor
Community Christian Church
Naylor, Georgia
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Genesis 38:1-11
Genesis
38:1 At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of
Adullam named Hirah. 2 There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named
Shua. He married her and made love to her; 3 she became pregnant and gave birth
to a son, who was named Er. 4 She conceived again and gave birth to a son and
named him Onan. 5 She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It
was at Kezib that she gave birth to him.
6
Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7 But Er,
Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to
death.
8
Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty
to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.” 9 But Onan
knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s
wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from providing offspring for
his brother. 10 What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him
to death also.
11
Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s
household until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, just
like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s household.
-- I want to open this morning by
sharing with you a story I once heard from a chaplain about the time he
overheard his son playing with friends in the back yard – let me read this to
you now:
-- "When my son was a small boy playing with
his buddies in the back yard, I overheard them talking one day -- and the
conversation was, amusingly, one of those, "My dad can whip your dad'
routines."
-- "I heard one boy proudly say, "My dad
knows the mayor of our town!' -- Then I heard another boy say, “That's nothing!
My dad knows the governor of our state!"
-- Wondering what was coming next in the program of
bragging, I heard a wonderfully familiar voice -- that of my own little son –
he turned to his friends and proclaimed, “That's nothing! My dad knows
God!"
-- "I swiftly slipped away from my place of
eavesdropping with tears running down my cheeks -- I dropped on my knees in my
room and prayed earnestly and gratefully, “Oh, God, I pray that my boy will
always be able to say, "My dad knows God."”
II. What is Righteousness?
-- what does it mean to know God? – what is the
biblical term for that?
-- we all know the terms salvation and justification
– the means of grace which save us from our sins as we repent of our sins and
turn to Jesus in faith and trust for the forgiveness of sins and for eternal
life through Him – but salvation and justification aren’t the term that the
Bible uses to describe knowing God
-- the term is actually “righteousness” – and it
points to the relationship with God that is made possible through Jesus’
atoning death on the cross and His resurrection – it is this relationship that
was restored through Jesus as we were reconciled with the Father through Him
-- that’s why we read in 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 about
the ministry of reconciliation – that God was reconciling the world to Himself
– to reconcile with someone means that you are restoring your relationship with
them – that you are making two conflicting things compatible
– in this case, reconciling the person of God – the holiness
of God – with mankind, who was filled with sin and controlled by a sin nature
that conflicted with God’s holiness
-- the only way we could be reconciled with God was
by Jesus taking our sinfulness away by putting it to death on the cross – and
then replacing our sinfulness with something compatible with God’s nature –
giving us His very righteousness – imputing to us His righteousness -- so that
we would be able to be reconciled with the Father
-- that’s what we read in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For
our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become
the righteousness of God”
– this idea
of reconciliation is why righteousness is sometimes defined as being in a right
relationship with God – it is because we have been reconciled to Him – because
our natures and our being have been transformed – through the righteousness of
Christ that was imputed to us
-- the only way we can “know” God, as the little boy
said his father knew God – the only way we can know God -- the only way we can
be in a right relationship with Him – is through Jesus and His imputed
righteousness
-- so, when we speak about or read in the Bible
about the righteousness that comes from Christ – the righteousness of God –
this is speaking about the attributes of His person – His holiness and purity
and sinlessness – all of which were transferred to us through the cross as we believed
in Jesus and put our faith in His atoning death and resurrection
-- we are holy in the sight of God as Jesus is holy
– not because of anything that we have done – not because of any acts of
holiness that we have done – but only because His holiness – His righteousness
– has been imputed to us
-- but there is another aspect of righteousness that
we read about in the Bible – this is the righteousness of mankind – being in
right relationships with others
-- look up here at the cross – notice that the cross
is made of two parts – there is a vertical part and a horizontal part – the
vertical part of the cross reminds us that Jesus’ atoning death reconciled us
with the Father – He made us righteous in the sight of God by imputing – by
giving – His own righteousness to us
-- but there is also a horizontal aspect to the
cross – which tells us that Jesus’ death on the cross did more for us than
reconcile us to the Father and bring salvation and justification – His death
changed who we are so that we might not only be reconciled with the Father, but
we could be reconciled with mankind – with other people
-- in other words, the righteousness of Christ that
was imputed to us changed us so that we could begin to love our neighbors as
ourselves – to even love our enemies, as ourselves
-- that’s why we say that the commandments that
Jesus said were the greatest commandments in Matthew 22:37-40 – that we are to
“love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your mind” – and to “love your neighbor as yourself” – are now possible because
His righteousness was given to us and we are filled with the power of His Holy
Spirit
-- we are reconciled to both God and to man through
the righteousness of Christ – and this has implications for us in our everyday
lives
-- we sing in church the song, “They will know we
are Christians by our love, by our love” – while we live in open hostility to
those around us
-- we proclaim the command of Christ to love one
another – to love our neighbor as ourselves – to even love our enemies – while
we stab them with the blade of hatred and injustice
-- I saw a meme online this week that said, “Rather
than seeing Christ put back in our nation, I’d like to see Christ put back in
Christians” – and that says a lot about how we treat others – how we act
towards those around us – the very ones that Christ called us to love as proof
of our love of Him
-- so, this morning, I want us to take a moment to
think about what it means to be righteous in this world today – to live in a
right relationship – not only through reconciliation with the Father – but in a
right relationship with those around us
-- to remember that we are called to be righteous
vertically and horizontally – and to live holy and righteous lives in right
relationships with both God and mankind
-- to try to get a biblical perspective on the
importance of righteousness and right relationships with others, we’re going to
look at a story here in the Book of Genesis that you rarely hear taught – it is
hard story to hear – it is a hard story to understand and to apply – but I
think it is timely for us to look at it this morning
-- in the middle of the story in Genesis about Joseph,
we are given the story of Judah and Tamar – it seems like it is out of context –
until you realize that God had Moses include it at this point to demonstrate
that the unrighteousness of the Israelites was systemic – in all their dealings
with others, they were unrighteous and unjust
-- we see that in their relationship with Joseph -- the
sons of Israel were unrighteous to Joseph in the way they treated him and as
they sold him into slavery in Egypt – and we see that in the actions of one of
the leading sons of Israel, Judah -- Judah and his sons were unrighteous to
Tamar – who represents those who are wronged by the very people that should be
harbingers of holiness and righteousness in the world today and who seek
justice and reconciliation from those who wronged them
-- so, let's look now at the story of Judah and
Tamar and see what we can learn about righteousness from this passage
III.
Scripture Lesson (Genesis 38:1-30)
-- I have been trying to impress on you the
importance of exegesis when reading and studying the Bible – of reading it in
context and in light of how God intended His message to be heard by the
original audience before applying it to ourselves
-- so, to follow this principle, let me give you
just a bit of the background and context of Genesis 38 before we begin – as I
said, this chapter occurs in the middle of the story of Joseph – Joseph was
Israel’s favorite son – the firstborn son of his true love Rachel – Israel
doted on Joseph and favored him above all his other sons, except for Joseph’s
brother Benjamin – it was to Joseph that Israel gave the coat of many colors,
which led Joseph’s brothers to be even more jealous and hateful to him
-- in Genesis 37, we read how the brothers’ hatred
of Joseph comes to full force, as he checks up on them in the field – they
attack Joseph and take his coat from him – and consider killing him – before
they eventually sell him to a group of Midianite traders enroute to Egypt on
the suggestion of Judah – thus begins Joseph’s life as a slave in Egypt
-- but the importance of this story was to show the
unrighteous way the brothers acted towards Joseph and towards their father – following
Judah’s lead, the brothers did not consider Joseph one of them, but unrightly
and unjustly sold him into slavery
-- which brings us to Chapter 38 and the story of
Judah and his relationship with Tamar – where once again, we see Judah treating
others unrighteously instead of how God commanded
-- Judah was the fourth oldest son of Jacob or
Israel -- but even though he was not the oldest, he still was the most
influential leader of the 12 sons – we see that throughout the story of the
sons of Israel here in Genesis
-- for instance, after Joseph had been sold into
slavery in Egypt, a great famine occurred in the land of Canaan – and the
Israelites were not able to grow enough food to support their family – Israel
or Jacob, as we sometimes see him called in Genesis – sent all of his remaining
sons to Egypt to buy grain to get them through the famine – all except
Benjamin, his youngest and the full brother to Joseph, who Israel thought was
dead
-- Judah took charge of this trip and it was Judah
who led the negotiations with Egypt to buy grain for the family
-- and, of course, we know that it was through the
family line of Judah that the Messiah was to come – so, even though Judah was
not the oldest son, he was the leader and the most influential of all the
brothers
-- look back at Genesis 38:1-5
Genesis
38:1 At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of
Adullam named Hirah. 2 There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named
Shua. He married her and made love to her; 3 she became pregnant and gave birth
to a son, who was named Er. 4 She conceived again and gave birth to a son and
named him Onan. 5 She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It
was at Kezib that she gave birth to him.
-- after the brothers sold Joseph into slavery, they
continued to live their lives as normal – as though nothing out of the ordinary
had happened – their actions towards Joseph were just reflective of the way
they interacted with everyone around them
-- we read here that Judah left his brothers and
went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hiram – he ended up marrying a
Canaanite woman named Shua – which we should point out was direct disobedience
to the commands of God – God had called His people to be separate from the
world – to live differently from those around them – to not follow their ways
or their practices – and so they were not to marry outside the family to
prevent contamination from the ungodly
-- Judah was not righteous towards Joseph – and now
he shows his unrighteousness towards God by marrying a Canaanite woman – it was
through her that Judah had three sons – Er, Onan, and Shelah
-- verse 6-10
Genesis
38:6 Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. 7 But Er,
Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to
death.
8
Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty
to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for your brother.” 9 But Onan
knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s
wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from providing offspring for
his brother. 10 What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him
to death also.
-- okay, there’s a lot going on in these verses that
we need to explain
-- first, I want to call your attention to how the
sons of Judah are described here – both Er and Onan are described as being
“wicked” – this is an apt description of who they were and how they lived and
related to those around them
-- to be “wicked” in this context is to be estranged
from God – it is to be living in sin and unrighteousness – it is to be doing
things that God does not want you to do
-- all of us were wicked before we came to know
Jesus as our Lord and Savior – it describes the nature of our heart and the
result of the sin nature that lives in all of us – to be wicked is to be
unrighteous and out of relationship with God
-- and even though God had called Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob to be His people – for them and their descendants to be His chosen
race on earth – to be those who would be the image bearers of God and through
whom the Savior of the world would come – it is important to note that the sons
of the leader of the Israelites are both described here as wicked – unrighteous
– sinful – not right with God
-- and we’ll see how their unrighteousness and
wickedness affect their relationships in a moment
-- the second thing we see in these verses is a
description of the enactment of what is known as a levirate marriage – this was
a custom in which the brother of a deceased man is required or expected to
marry his widowed sister-in-law, particularly if the deceased died without
children
-- we see the practice of levirate marriages
described in more detail in Deuteronomy 25:5-6 -- "If brothers are living
together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside
the family. Her husband's brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the
duty of a brother-in-law to her. The first son she bears shall carry on the
name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from
Israel."
-- so, basically, God established this type of
marriage arrangement to ensure the continuation of a family and to ensure that
His chosen people remained faithful to Him and separate from the world, as He
commanded
-- in Biblical times, the lineage of a family and
the fortune of a family followed the eldest son – that means the land and the
wealth and all that was given by God to that family was to be passed on from
Father to the eldest son – so, it was important that his line continued, even
if he passed before having a male heir
-- also, the practice of levirate marriage was a way
of providing for widows – women had no rights and no wealth in this day – they
were dependent on their family to provide for them – for this reason, if a
widow had children, then her children were obligated by law to take care of her
-- this was a way of making sure that both the family line continued and all
members of the family were taken care of
-- we see this concept of levirate marriage as the core
foundational truth in the story of Ruth from the Bible – where Ruth and Naomi
struggled to survive until Boaz redeemed them according to the law of levirate
marriage
-- so, the story of Judah’s unrighteousness begins
when he marries his firstborn son, Er, to Tamar – a Gentile who lived in the
land where Judah was
-- Er was so wicked that God put him to death before
he had a child – that meant two things – first, Judah’s line of inheritance was
broken, since his firstborn son did not have an heir – and second, it meant
that Tamar had no one to protect her and provide for her after the death of Er
-- so, following the law of levirate marriage, Judah
tells Onan, Er’s brother, to fulfill his duty by marrying Tamar and providing her
with a son who would continue to represent the line of Judah and Er as Judah’s
rightful heir
-- we are not told if Onan had another wife or other
children, but since Er had passed without an heir, Onan now stood to receive
the inheritance of Judah – but one thing stood in his way – the righteousness
transmitted through the law of levirate marriage
-- Onan knew that if he fathered a child with Tamar,
then that child would receive all the inheritance of the family -- in other
words, Onan and any children he had through another marriage would not be
eligible to receive the family fortune
-- so, out of greed, he refused to father a child
for Er as the law demanded – and just like with Er, because of his wickedness –
because of his greed and his unrighteousness towards both God and Tamar, the
Lord put him to death, too
-- verse 11
Genesis
38:11 Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your
father’s household until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die
too, just like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s household.
-- at this point, Judah punted and chose to disobey
God by not following the law of levirate marriage – after seeing two of his
sons die after being married to Tamar, Judah decided he would not risk a third
-- and so he uses the excuse that Shelah was too
young for marriage, and he tells Tamar to go back to her father’s household to
live with him as a widow
-- not only does Judah refuse to follow the law of
levirate marriage, he also refuses to take care of Tamar in his household as
the law and as God demanded – instead, he sent her back to live with her father
and to fend for herself
-- and Tamar had no choice but to return to her
father’s household – even though the law and God’s righteousness demanded
otherwise
-- verse 12-19
Genesis 38:12 After a long time Judah’s wife, the
daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to
Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the
Adullamite went with him.
13 When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is on
his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,” 14 she took off her widow’s clothes,
covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the
entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though
Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.
15 When Judah saw her, he thought she was a
prostitute, for she had covered her face. 16 Not realizing that she was his
daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, “Come now, let
me sleep with you.”
“And what will you give me to sleep with you?” she
asked.
17 “I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,” he
said.
“Will you give me something as a pledge until you
send it?” she asked.
18 He said, “What pledge should I give you?”
“Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your
hand,” she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became
pregnant by him. 19 After she left, she took off her veil and put on her
widow’s clothes again.
-- by the time that Judah's wife died, Tamar had
figured out that Judah was not dealing with her honestly – he was as
unrighteous and wicked as his two sons had been towards her, so she took
matters into her own hand -- she was going to make sure the law of God was
followed even if she had to do it deceitfully
-- Tamar dressed as a prostitute and seduced Judah
and conceived a child with him
-- now here’s where exegesis comes into play – we
read this story and see it as an act of sexual immorality – both by Judah and
by Tamar, who pretended to be a prostitute to seduce him
-- but the purpose of this story’s inclusion in the
Bible and the way it would have been understood and heard by the Bible’s
original audience was a story of a family’s unrighteousness and wickedness
towards a vulnerable woman -- they would have understood the story to be
primarily about economics and honor, and the importance of following the
righteousness of God’s holy commands
-- in this case, Tamar rightly did what she had to
do in order to fulfill the law and the righteousness of God since Judah and his
sons acted wickedly and unjustly towards her
-- as Skye Jethani put it, “because three wicked men
had broken their promises and the socially acceptable system for her protection
had failed her, Tamar believed her only choice was to break the rules. Out of
desperation, she concealed her identity, pretended to be a prostitute, and
conceived a child with her father-in-law, Judah”
-- it’s important for us to see this story in that
light and not to read it as a story of sexual immorality – it is a story of someone
seeking justice because of a systemic unrighteousness perpetrated against them
-- skip down to verse 24-26
Genesis 38:24 About three months later Judah was
told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result
she is now pregnant.”
Judah said, “Bring her out and have her burned to
death!”
25 As she was being brought out, she sent a message
to her father-in-law. “I am pregnant by the man who owns these,” she said. And
she added, “See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.”
26 Judah recognized them and said, “She is more
righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not
sleep with her again.
-- when Judah found out Tamar was pregnant, he was
incensed -- he demanded that she be brought before him and be killed for sexual
immorality – for committing adultery
-- but when Tamar presented Judah’s seal and cord
and staff in her defense of her actions, Judah realized the truth of the matter
– he was the father of Tamar’s children – and that meant that when he had been
unrighteous and wicked towards her in the sight of God, that she had acted in a
way to force his righteousness, even when he didn’t want to do it
-- the law of God was fulfilled, even though Judah
himself had tried to keep it from happening
-- the key verse in this entire story about Judah
and Tamar is verse 26 -- "She is more righteous than I"
-- and here we are back at the idea of righteousness
– in this case, the idea of righteousness is referring to the horizontal
understanding of conducting ourselves in right relationships with other people
-- the Hebrew word used here is
"Tsedequah" -- it does not mean holy -- or sinless -- or pure -- the
word Tsedequah refers to having right relationships with other people – it
means that we are to be in right relationships with others and to fulfill the
demands of any covenantal relationships that we are in, such as familial or
marriage covenants
-- to put
this in simple terms, this means that we act in a right way to other people –
especially to people in our family or that we are married to – that we act righteously
and holy towards them – we do what we are supposed to do and we don’t act with
hatred or injustice or persecution to others
-- when King Saul was seeking to kill David, there
was an occasion when David had the opportunity to kill Saul when he took a
bathroom break in a cave – but David refused to do that because Saul had been
called and anointed by God to be king of Israel at that time – and for David to
harm Saul would be an unrighteous act
-- when Saul realizes that David had acted
righteously towards him, even when he was being persecuted by Saul, he
proclaims to David in 1 Samuel 24:17, "You are more righteous than I"
-- when someone says that – when someone does that in
the Bible – what they mean is that in this relationship between them and the
other person, that person was loyal and faithful to the requirements of justice
and honor – they did what was necessary to keep the relationship intact and to
follow the royal law of God to love others as ourselves – not allowing enmity
or injustice to come between them
-- in the case of Judah and Tamar, Tamar did what
she had to do to keep the line of Judah -- the lineage of Er – intact
-- when justice was denied her – when Judah and his
sons acted wickedly towards her -- she became a prostitute to Judah in order to
ensure the requirements of righteousness in the sight of God were met – and
when confronted with the truth, Judah recognized his sin
-- to quote Skye Jethani again, “It’s important to
notice that Judah does not confess his sin of sleeping with a prostitute, but
rather his far greater sin of not keeping his promise to provide for Tamar’s
welfare. He understood that Tamar’s actions came from weakness and desperation,
but he was guilty of abusing his power and neglecting his duty. Therefore, he
had the far greater sin.”
-- “Tamar represents a woman whom the system failed.
She represents those who suffer because men in power misuse their authority and
neglect those in need.
-- “And through her tenacity and willingness to
embrace shame and ridicule, she exposed their wickedness.
-- Tamar became sin to reveal the sin of the
unrighteousness of Judah and to foreshadow what the New Testament would declare
about Jesus in 2 Corinthians 5:21, that we mentioned earlier -- “God made him
who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God”1
-- one thing that we need to remember in this story
of Judah and Tamar is that Perez, the son of their illicit relationship, was a
direct ancestor of Jesus – and in Matthew, we read about Tamar in Jesus’
genealogy
-- why does Matthew include a woman – especially a
Gentile woman – in the genealogy of Jesus? – it’s because her story tells part
of Jesus’ story.
-- just as Judah and his sons were to take care of
her and be righteous in their dealings with her, the leaders of Israel were
responsible to care for the people and prepare for the Messiah.
-- “Instead, they abused their power, neglected the
people, and rejected Jesus. When the established systems of godly authority
failed, like [in the story of] Tamar, Jesus welcomed humiliation and ridicule
by allowing himself to die on a cross. In doing so, he exposed the true evil
and injustice of the world”1 and did what was necessary to restore
righteousness in the world – both vertically and horizontally – by reconciling
man with God and man with each other
IV. Closing
-- so, what does all this mean to
us?
-- in Zephaniah 2:3 we read, “Seek the LORD, all you
humble of the land, you who do what he commands. Seek righteousness, seek
humility"
-- and in Romans 1:17 it says, "The righteous
will live by faith"
-- the story of the cross is the story of
righteousness – through the cross, Jesus reconciled us to the Father and
imputed His righteousness to us – making us holy and pure in the eyes of God –
and breaking the power of sin in our lives
-- and He also made it possible for us to be
reconciled to all those around us – to be empowered through His Spirit to love
our neighbors and our enemies as ourselves – to live in a right relationship
with them – doing what is right and holy in the eyes of God to others
-- Tamar was more righteous than
Judah in their relationship, because she honored and maintained the
relationship, as God’s holy law commanded – granted, she didn't do it in the
most moral way -- but her circumstances and the systemic wickedness that Judah
and his sons had perpetrated against her left her with no other avenue of
recourse – she did what she had to do to fulfill the law of righteousness
-- and because of her actions, God made Tamar and
Judah's son Perez a direct ancestor of Jesus Christ
-- I have been a Christian for a
long time now – and I have tried to serve God and follow His word to the best
of my ability – I have tried to live righteous and holy towards God in my life,
even though I fail all the time – as all of us do
-- but one thing that God has shown
me in the last several years is the importance of not only being in a right
relationship with Him, but in a right relationship with those around me – He
showed me that Christianity is not so much about doing what is right, but
living in a right relationship to Him and to others
-- that was the failure of the
desert fathers – they thought they could achieve true holiness and
righteousness by isolating themselves in the desert alone and in monasteries –
but they realized they had missed the most important part
-- Christ came to reconcile us with
both God and with man – and we cannot be a Christian apart from others – we
cannot love our neighbor as ourselves if we are not near our neighbors – we
cannot fully be who God called us to be unless we are living in righteousness
with both God and His people
-- and we are failing to live as He
intended – we see that in the way the world thinks of us – we see that in the
way the world describes us – when they look at Christians, they are not seeing
love – they are not seeing people seeking righteous relationships – they are
seeing hatred and persecution and injustice
-- the story of Judah and Tamar is
intended to point us to Christ and the cross – to show us a better way – the
way of Jesus – the way of righteousness – the way of love
-- so, as we close this morning, let
us take a moment and consider how we act towards those around us – not only our
family and our friends – but the strangers and the acquaintances and the
enemies in our lives – to those who may vote differently than us or belong to a
different political party
-- are they seeing the love of God
through us? – do we love them and show them the righteousness of God through
how we treat them – through how we act towards them?
-- consider your social media posts
– consider your words and your actions – are you loving your neighbor and your
enemy as God intends? – are you righteous in the way you deal with them?
-- search your heart – open yourself
before God – and if you need to repent of the way you have acted or the words
or the thoughts you have about others – then take a moment now to get right
with God and right with those around us
-- with that, let us pray
--------------------------------------------
1 Skye
Jethani – With God Daily Devotional, 26 October 2026, Tamar: Exposing the
System's Failure
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