Gen 38:26 And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more.

Genesis 38 is about the sin of Judah with Tamar. Judah married a Canaanite woman named Shuah. They had three sons, Er, Onan, and Shelah (v.1-5)

Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. But Er was very wicked in the sight of God and so He slew him. They had an ancient custom that if a brother who is married and died childless, the next brother should marry the widow to preserve the name of his deceased brother that died childless. This custom of marrying the brother’s widow was afterward made one of the laws of Moses (Deuteronomy 25:5). Thereby, Onan married the widow Tamar (v.6-10).

But Onan, though he had agreed to marry Tamar, refused to raise up seed unto his brother. His intention was carnal. He had only lust for her widowed sister-in-law. God slew him. Judah told Tamar to wait until Shelah, the third son, was old enough and then he would be married to her. But Judah did not follow through with his promise. Tamar waited.

Because Judah was not faithful to his promise, Tamar decided to take matters into her own hands. She had remained a chaste widow all this time, dressed only in the garments of widowhood. After Judah’s wife died, an opportunity came for Tamar to seduce Judah by pretending to be a prostitute.

Judah did not know the “prostitute” was her daughter-in-law. He promised to send the “prostitute” a young goat as payment for her services, but Tamar insisted that Judah gave her his signet ring with the cord and his staff as a pledge that he would fulfil his promise to pay. But, a few days later, when Judah sent his Adullamite friend a young goat, intending to retrieve what he had put up as security from the “prostitute”, he could not find her.

Three months later, it was told to Judah that Tamar had committed harlotry and was pregnant. He angrily condemned her to be burned. When brought out, she showed to Judah his staff, seal, and cord, saying: “By the man, whose these are, am I with child” (v.25). Judah, recognizing them as his own, was ashamed. He suddenly understood what had taken place and declared that Tamar was in the right and he in the wrong: “She hath been more righteous than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son” (v.26).

She hath been more righteous than I – Tamar was righteous not in the sense that the thing which she did was morally right. It was wrong of her to practise deception and commit incest with her father-in-law. But Tamar was right to seek pregnancy through her father-in-law in order to continue the line of her dead husband Er. By that, she fulfilled her duty to her husband and helped fulfil God's promise concerning the seed of the woman.

Judah’s sins were numerous. First, he married a Canaanite woman. Second, he deceived Tamar that he would give Shelah to her in marriage when he had no intention to do it seeing two of his sons were dead when they married her; he did not want Shelah to die the same way too. Third, he secured the service of a prostitute. As a widower, he had the right to marry again and not securing the services of prostitutes to fulfil his fleshly desire.

The story of Judah and Tamar is not a pleasant story but through it all we see the wonderful working of God. God can work around the frailties of men and fit them into His scheme of redemption. Our God is great; He can work with anything in His hands. Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is a descendant of Pharez, one of the twins born to Tamar through this immoral relationship with Judah (Matthew 1:3). Great is our God!