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X-rated living by God’s people
Genesis 38
Sermon 03
October 4th, 2009
Remember the last time that you were in one of those situations and you thought, “What am I doing here?” Maybe you had worn the wrong thing…or the conversation had gone the wrong way…or you didn’t know anyone and ended up all by yourself. Genesis 38 is one of those, "Why is this here?" passages.
Last time we ended with Genesis 37 and one of those “stay tuned” passages. We’re ready to move ahead to see what happens next to our hero, Joseph, but then, the writer of Scripture throws us a curve ball, Genesis 38 (p. 29). All of a sudden this weird, wicked passage is thrown in the story. X-rated living by God’s people is an apt description. Most preachers on the life of Joseph skip over it. Leupold, in his commentary on Genesis, has this brief comment on Genesis 38, “Entirely unsuited to homiletical use.”
If the Bible were not inspired by God, Genesis 38 wouldn’t be here. It doesn’t make God’s people, the sons of Jacob, look good. If this had been one of your family members, you'd want to keep it quiet (unless you were offered lots of money to go on Jerry Springer to tell about it!). Why hang your dirty laundry out for everyone to see? But God has a way of hanging in full public view things we’d cover up. Aren't you glad that you didn't live in Bible times, to have your embarrassing family secrets put in the Bible? Hanging dirty laundry out is embarrassing, not only for those whose laundry it is, but also for those who have to view it. When you're around someone who shares intimate problems too freely, you feel awkward. You don't know what to say, so you mumble something and try tochange the subject. But God saw fit to hang this dirty laundry out there. He put it here for our instruction. This isn’t literary pornography. Just because the Bible relates a story that doesn’t mean that it approves all that takes place. Before we work through Genesis 38, let me suggest Two Reasons why it’s here.
a) To show us why the nation had to be removed and isolated in Egypt. God's covenant people were conforming to the corruption in Canaan. It's a “meanwhile, back at the ranch" glimpse of what’s happening in Canaan during those years from Joseph's sale into slavery to Jacob's family's move to Egypt. To preserve His people from being absorbed into the Canaanite culture, God moves them into Egypt, where they became slaves. This forged Israel into a distinct people, preparing them for the later conquest of Canaan, when God's time for judgment on that corrupt culture was ripe.
b) To show us that God’s grace is sufficient to keep us pure and able to resist temptation. Judah is in the Promised Land, near the people of God, yet what he does is vile and immoral. His primary gain is sensual pleasure. If anyone should have resisted temptation, it should have been Judah. Joseph, on the other hand, is a young man in a strange land. His passions are at their peak. Immorality and adultery were just part of Egyptian social life. He had much to gain by this dalliance and everything to lose, but he resists temptation. Joseph could have easily rationalized, “when in Rome.” Yet he chooses to do the right thing when humanly speaking he has every reason not to.
Genesis 38 has a needed message for us! The Church of Jesus Christ is virtually indistinguishable from a perverse world. If you’re taking notes…
1. God’s people frequently complicate His program by refusing to live His way. The best selling book, The Practice of the Presence of God,is a compilation of the wisdom and teachings of Brother Lawrence, a 17th century Carmelite monk. Its constant theme is the development of an awareness of the presence of God. The problem for Judah and for most of us, is not the issue of practicing the presence of God, it’s a problem of failing to acknowledge even the existence of God. Don’t you think that our behavior would really change if we truly believed that God was watching?
Earlier in Genesis we find other patriarchs facing similar circumstances to those here. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob each discovered the Lord's concern for their decisions in choosing a place to live, finding a spouse, bearing and raising children, and in determining an appropriate way to relate to their Canaanite neighbors. Throughout Genesis 38 there’s an absence of any seeming awareness of God’s existence. There’s no mention of God playing a part in Judah's decision to strike out on his own, to befriend and go into business with a pagan named Hirah, and then to marry a Canaanite woman. There’s no reference to the Lord in the naming of their children. Judah and his wife take on that task themselves, Judah naming the first child and his wife the next two. Neither does Judah build any altars. He does not utter a single prayer or ever ask God for guidance. The absence of any communication with Yahweh in regards to these many decisions explains why Judah is open to such a diabolical path. He’s vulnerable because he fails to even acknowledge the existence of God.
We do see some firsts here though. Judah is the first of his brothers to lower himself by seeking relations with the idolatrous Canaanites. And in doing so he brings great and needless heartache upon himself.
2. God’s people are prone to spiritual decay. The hymn writer, Robert Robinson was saved out of a wicked life as a teenager through George Whitefield's ministry in England. Shortly after that, he wrote the hymn Come, Thou Fount. Sadly, Robinson wandered away from the Lord and like the Prodigal Son, journeyed into the distant country of carnality. One day he was traveling by stagecoach and sitting beside a young woman engrossed in a book. She ran across a verse she thought was beautiful and asked him what he thought of it: Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Bursting into tears, Robinson said, "Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then."
Wouldn’t it be great if being born into a godly family somehow protected us from picking up the world’s moral corruption? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if on the day that you trusted Christ, you were completely sanctified and sin no longer had an attraction for you? But as we all know, both Biblically and experientially, it doesn't work that way. We're like Pigpen in the Peanuts cartoon strip, who is clean after his bath, but he steps outside and—Poof! He's instantly covered with dirt.
Judah, the son of Jacob, the great grandson of Abraham, a member of the chief family God was dealing with on the earth, lived just like the Canaanites. It doesn’t matter if you come from a godly family, Judah's life shows how easy it is for God’s people to become as corrupt as our morally putrid culture. His spiritual decay follows an all too familiar progression.
a) Spiritual decay is conceived when you start hanging with the wrong crowd, “At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah” (vs. 1). That Judah “went down” is a veiled allusion to Joseph’s descent into Egypt. But where Joseph has no choice, Judah freely chooses to leave his family and seek out the company of a pagan. While Judah wasn’t very far from the people of God geographically, about eight miles, he moves further and further away spiritually.
The original audience of this story would have been horrified. To leave the faith community was to abandon the covenant, protection, and blessings of God. Later in Israelite history the only punishment worse than death to an ancient Hebrew was banishment from the community.
So why does he do this? Maybe his conscience was bothering him and he had trouble looking at his grieving Dad every day, knowing that he was the cause of it. Remember, it was his plan to sell Joseph as a slave. Its apparent Judah wanted to get away from the constraints of the people of God.
1 Corinthians 15:33 says, “Bad company corrupts good character.” This didn't happen accidentally or immediately. It was a knowledgeable choice on Judah's part. Perhaps he saw the way Hirah and the people of Adullam seemed to have so much fun and enjoyed life, he thought, "I’m tired of living this boring people of God life. I want some fun and excitement. I'll move near Hirah." Although at this point his brothers were not a godly bunch, his move signified a move away from the covenant people of God.
This is where corruption often begins. A young person is attracted to the wicked lifestyle of the popular kids. Or in college, when a young person is first away from home with no one holding them accountable, they pick the wrong crowd to hang with. Years ago we had a girl head to college and she ended up with an older roommate, who was immersed in the drug culture. This young lady, who at one time was on fire for God, has never recovered.
Spiritually, you and I are either thermometers or we’re thermostats. Thermometers take on the temperature of their environment and become like their environment. A thermostat is a change agent. Rather than the environment changing it, the thermostat changes its world. God has not called us to live in isolation. We’re to be “in the world” but not “of the world.” Yet, we’re either influencing those around us for godliness or they are influencing us for godlessness. No one stands still spiritually. It’s essential that we build redemptive relationships with the lost for evangelism, but to do so for the purpose of camaraderie will always corrupt us, not convert them. This is why we need a local church, where we can develop godly relationships that encourage our spiritual growth.
Two factors will distinguish who you are both now and ten years from now – your entertainment choices and your friends. What you watch, listen and read – drastically affects your worldview. The friends you hang with, that you’re comfortable with, dramatically affect your character. We don’t hang around those who make us uncomfortable. If you’re uncomfortable around those with a heart for God, yet find you’re comfortable with those who have little or no spiritual values, there’s a problem. You’re going down Judah’s path. Corruption begins when a believer chooses to distance themselves from God's people and to build friendships with carnal people.
b) Spiritual decay takes root when you marry outside the people of God, “There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and lay with her” (vs. 2). One sin leads to another. One would be hard pressed to find a more serious offense than for a believer to marry an unbeliever. While Malachi tells us that God hates divorce (2:16), yet throughout God’s Word, one legitimate reason for divorce was if you were married to an unbeliever. Ezra actually encourages divorce because God’s people had married pagans (Ezra 9 & 10). It was such a serious sin that Ezra required that mixed marriages be broken up. Abraham sent his servant back to his native land so Isaac wouldn’t marry a Canaanite, Genesis 26:34-35. Marrying a lost person is a terrible act. That’s the premise of sending Jacob to Uncle Laban so he wouldn’t marry a pagan (Gen. 27:46). Judah knows all of this, but in clear violation of God’s revealed will, he marries a Canaanite woman.
Parents – repeat it over and over – tell your children to not date a lost person. If you date a pagan, there’s a higher probability you’ll marry one. Just dating a lost person starts to lower boundaries that will bring a life of heartache. Tattoo on their hearts that they should only date a potential mate and to only marry a believer. 2 Cor. 6:14-16 is a solemn warning, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?... we are the temple of the living God!”
How does Judah get into this mess? The NASV renders verse 2, “Judah saw a Canaanite woman.” The Hebrew has overtones of lust. He saw, he took. The emphasis is on the physical, not the spiritual. Marriage is to be much more than legalized sex, it’s a covenant relationship. But Judah liked what he saw and marries her. Sounds like the basis for a lot of marriages!
At first things look like the normal happy family, “So she conceived and bore a son and he named him Er. Then she conceived again and bore a son and named him Onan. She bore still another son and named him Shelah; and it was at Chezib that she bore him” (vss. 3-5). The only hint of trouble is the increasing dominance of his unnamed pagan wife. Judah names Er but his wife names the next two sons. Judah the Jew is becoming paganized. How low will he go? Sadly, we soon find out.
c) Spiritual decay bears fruits when you live in conformity to a corrupt culture, vss. 6-11. The boys grow up (marriage at 15 was not uncommon back then) and Judah finds a wife, Tamar, for his oldest son, Er.
Recently, I received a heartbreaking call from Amy Schoepke. She shared that her brother and his wife had lost their unborn baby. Last spring, Ben Ketterhagen, one of the church’s neighbors was killed in a motorcycle accident. There’s probably no greater grief than the death of a child. Yet, Judah, contrary to his great-grandfather Abraham's strong warning, picks a Canaanite wife for himself and now for his son. It’s not surprising then to read that Er was so wicked that the Lord took his life. While his sin is not mentioned, he was an evil man. Then, Judah told his second son, Onan, to go in to Tamar and perform his duty as a brother-in-law to her. This is a levirate marriage (from Latin, "levir," meaning "husband's brother"), a common custom in ancient times and later codified in the Mosaic Law.
If a man died childless, his brother was to marry the widow and the first son was regarded as the heir of the deceased man. It was to protect the widow whose economic life was threatened since she no longer had a male protector or provider in that agrarian culture. We find this practice referred to in the book of Ruth. In Jesus’ day the Sadducees debated Jesus concerning the resurrection of the dead using levirate marriage as their point of contention (Matt. 22:23-33).
Onan marries the widow, Tamar, but uses the custom to satisfy his sexual desires while rejecting its responsibility. He doesn’t want to give his brother an heir that would mess up his inheritance. He was now in line to receive the lion’s share of Judah’s estate. Some have wrongly taught that he was struck dead for practicing birth control. That’s not the case. Birth control was an acceptable practice in the Old Testament. God executed Onan because he wanted sensual pleasure without responsibility. This attitude of erotic gratification without responsibility is why we murder babies or teach teens to use condoms or shack up instead of committing to marriage. If God today just held professing Christians accountable for a cavalier attitude toward sexual pleasure without marital commitment, the local morgue would be filled with corpses.
Onan doesn’t give a rip about his brother or his widow. He’s apathetic, just as his father, Judah, was in his care for his brother. Joseph. But Judah doesn’t have a clue as to why his boys are dropping like flies. All he knows is that they marry Tamar and they die. Maybe somehow she’s the cause. There’s no way he’s going to let his last boy marry a woman who’s obviously jinxed. So he tells her to return to home and wait until Shelah is old enough to marry, but he never intends to go through with it. In doing this he sentences her to a life of childlessness and poverty. Like too many parents, Judah blames his children’s spouse for their marital problems. He’s oblivious to the fact that his sons are evil and brought God’s judgment upon themselves. As parents, it’s essential that we know the spiritual condition of our own children.
Satan has used intermarriage with ungodly people to corrupt those from godly homes since the dawn of time. Judah is a nominal believer at best, but when he married this Canaanite woman, it insured that their children would be thoroughly pagan. His pagan wife wouldn’t train them to fear the Lord. If God hadn't struck them dead for their sin, these sons of Judah would have produced a line of godless descendants. Friend, if you’re here this morning and are single, it's crucial that you wait on the Lord for a godly mate. Corruption begins when you distance yourself from God's people. It takes root when you marry outside God's people.
Striking people dead for sin seems incredibly harsh. Many rationalize, “that’s the God of the Old Testament,” but that’s the faulty reasoning of those who don’t know Scripture. The God of the New Testament arranges a double funeral for a couple who fudged on a real estate deal (Acts 5:1-11). Church members at Corinth end up on slabs in the morgue because of their cavalier attitude toward the Lord’s Supper. Our difficulties with the severity and judgment of God, say more about us than they do about God. We get irritated if God doesn’t fit into our notions of what He ought to be like. We don’t want a God we have to fear, which simply means that we don’t want the real God. God is loving and gracious. He’s also holy and just. Hebrews 12:29 reminds us, “our God is a consuming fire.”
Weddings and births are joyous occasions. This passage reminds us that the story does not end when you marry a lost person. The cost of marrying outside of the people of faith is only fully seen at the Great White Throne of judgment, as our children and grandchildren are sentenced to an eternity in Hell. It’s much too high of a price and so needless! Judah experiences tragedy after tragedy but he has no one to blame but himself! His losses are all the consequence of his own sin. He’s the original prodigal wallowing in a pig sty of his own making.
d) Spiritual decay is frequently masked by hypocrisy, vss. 12-26. Years pass and two events occur that set the scene for Judah to depart even further from the faith of his fathers. Remember he’s left the family, formed a business partnership with a pagan, marries a pagan and has three children; two so wicked God kills them. Now his Canaanite wife, whose name is never mentioned, passes away. In a sexually saturated society this puts Judah in a vulnerable position. Sufficient time has also passed for Shelah to marry Tamar to raise up children to Er, his older brother. But while Tamar was officially regarded as the wife of Shelah, the marriage has never been consummated. Judah had never given Shelah to Tamar.
So Judah, along with his unsavory companion Hirah, goes up to Timnah to shear sheep. News of this reaches Tamar. This motivates her to set into action a plan to get a son to carry on the name of her first husband. In that culture not only were younger brothers able to raise up seed to her husband, but so could her father-in-law, Judah. Even in our promiscuous world this is shocking, but it wasn’t an unheard of practice back then. That way a widow wouldn’t be childless and sentenced to poverty. Since Judah is unwilling to risk the loss of his last living son, Tamar forces the issue and becomes pregnant by Judah. Judah is wrong to withhold Shelah, but so is Tamar for taking matters into her own hands. Apparently, Tamar knows how Judah thinks. The moral atmosphere of the annual sheep-shearing might best be understood when compared to modern beer commercials. Visualize a group of hard-working shepherds finishing an exhausting, hot, and thirsty week among the sheep, leaving the fields after having completed this annual task. Suddenly, one yells out, “It’s Miller time!” With a girl on one arm, a bottle of booze in the other, the party begins. Tamar knew well what took place at sheep-shearing season. Apparently, Judah has a reputation. Moral purity is not one of his virtues. Remember he’s an opportunist. Obviously, this isn’t his first liaison with a prostitute. Note too that Tamar is simply veiled; she’s not dressed like a prostitute. The veil symbolizes she’s engaged, not promiscuous. Her being alone is the only indicator that she might be a loose woman. But Judah is not one to miss an opportunity. He handles arrangements like a pro. And Tamar gambled correctly. If she just looked available, Judah would jump at the opportunity and her purposes would be realized. Like an experienced “John,” Judah negotiates the terms. It was probably common practice to ask for some kind of pledge since little could be done to force the “client” to pay after the fact. Judah’s not surprised by her insistence that some guarantee be given, not that Tamar has any interest in payment. She only wants to become pregnant by Judah. The pledge given would serve to prove at a later time that he’s the father of her child.
The seal, cord, and staff were specific for their owner with distinctive characteristics. The seal was an ancient cylinder seal used for making contracts. Today it would be like handing over his driver’s license and Mastercard. The fact too that Tamar becomes pregnant from this one act is one of many subtle indicators that divine providence superintended the events leading to her impregnation. With the encounter over they go their separate ways. Judah never knew the identity of this “prostitute,” and Tamar goes back to her normal routine, living as a widow in her father’s house. Normally such an affair would have been quickly forgotten, but several events occurred which made this immoral interlude a nightmare Judah would never be able to put out of his mind.
When Judah sent the goat with his friend the Adullamite, to receive back his pledge from the “prostitute,” he can’t find her. It’s all becoming an embarrassment to Judah who is increasingly bewildered. The more he seeks out this woman, the more his folly would become tabloid fodder. These were the kind of stories swapped at the local tavern and Judah has no desire to become the town’s laughingstock. Better to take his losses and hope that was the end of the matter. Nearly three months pass by without incident. Judah begins to breathe a little easier. It looks like he’s gotten away with it. She’s not appeared again, nor was there any sign of his personal pledge. It never entered his mind that the matter would end up as it did, vss. 24-25, “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!’ 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’.” Tamar is pregnant! This isn’t just immorality, its adultery. She’s pledged to marry Judah’s third son, Shelah. Judah’s righteous indignation must have been awesome. She must be burned!
It’s an unusually severe punishment. Only in cases of great wickedness was there punishment by burning, Lev. 20:14. Why does Judah demand such treatment for his daughter-in-law? It may have been a sub-conscious overcompensation for his own immorality. Sometimes we attempt to cover up our own sin by a severity in our response to the sins of others. It might have been even more devious. It’s possible, in his low spiritual state; Judah saw this as the solution to a problem over which he’d long agonized. Eventually, he’d have to face the fact that Shelah, his last living son, was pledged to Tamar. Shelah is now mature enough to assume the role of husband and father, but Judah fears losing him too. If Tamar is dead, the problem is solved. No Tamar, no threat. It was almost too good to be true. Judah wouldn’t be the last parent to do evil things to protect his own child.
Tamar’s whole response is incredibly subdued. Most women who’d been wronged as she had been would have shouted the truth from the housetops, seeking to maximize his embarrassment. What an opportunity to capitalize on the situation and find satisfaction for the years of delay and deceit in keeping Shelah from her! It appears that she privately presented the evidence to Judah and politely urged him to carefully consider it. No condemning accusations just the submitting of the seal, cord and staff to Judah. What a shock for him! It had never occurred to him that he was the guilty party who should suffer the penalty he’d pronounced with his own lips. Judah, the forefather of the Messiah, had to admit of this woman, “She is more righteous than I” (vs. 26). He doesn’t say she’s more righteous than he is in the matter of the immorality committed, but she’s more righteous in that she was motivated to procure a son that was rightfully hers, while he was motivated by lust. And he’d lied; he never intended to give her Shelah. Judah receives Talionic Justice. He was given as he’d given. The deceiver who deceived his own father is deceived by his daughter in-law. He’d used a garment to deceive Jacob, and now he’s deceived by a garment himself. He reaps what he’s sown. And it appears that God is starting to get his attention. It looks like Judah has some kind of spiritual turnabout here, for he did not again have any physical relations with Tamar. Also, the next time we read of him he is again back with his brothers and father. Some kind of spiritual renewal seems to have taken place.
Conclusion: This is a “Wow” passage! It’s one we don’t expect in the Bible. Let me close with Four Important Lessons.
a) God’s holiness means that He judges sinners and disciplines His people. Today it’s common to sacrifice God's holiness on the altar of His grace. Christians excuse sin with, “We're under grace. God will forgive me.” God's grace does not exclude His judgment or discipline. Though Judah wasn't struck dead, he’s disciplined by God. He lost two grown sons. We may think we get away with our sin, that it doesn't hurt anybody. Sin always exacts a toll. God is a holy God. That means He must judge sin and discipline His people so that they will share His holiness.
b) God’s mercy means that He cares for those that we often do not care about. When was the last time you noticed a single parent? A widow or divorcee? The last person most of us notice and care about is the one who is in a sense the “hero” of this story. Judah is disciplined. His wicked sons are executed by God. But Tamar, a pagan widow, is shown care and mercy by God. Judah, by his selfishness and inaction sentenced her to a life of poverty. That does not excuse her actions or deceit, but God’s tender care for her, gives us a glimpse of the heart of God. You and I tend to notice the beautiful people, rich, talented…famous. God notices the disenfranchised; widows, orphans, the fatherless and elderly. Those pictures of starving children that we glibly pass by and are so desensitized toward are the very ones noticed by God. He knows of their plight and He cares.
c) God’s grace means that on account of Christ, He shows favor to those who deserve judgment, vss. 27-30. Just two sets of twins are mentioned in Scripture: Jacob and Esau and these sons of Tamar. There are now again three descendants of Judah. It’s the last way we’d expect God to work – through a pagan who deceived her father in-law. Later, Tamar is commended in Ruth 4. Ultimately, she’s in the line of King David and the Lord Jesus (Matt. 1:3). God’s grace is disclosed when we learn that Tamar and her son Perez, born through this sordid act, are included in the genealogy of Jesus. Judah and Tamar were living for themselves and for pleasure, yet God uses them to produce the ancestor of the Messiah. Where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more! Jesus Christ, the descendant of Judah through Tamar, was born without sin through the virgin birth, so that as the spotless Lamb of God, He could die as the substitute for sinners. Thus, God is able to be both holy and gracious through Christ. He is holy in that all sin is punished. If a person rejects Christ, he bears the penalty for his own sin-- eternal separation from God in the lake of fire. If a person trusts Christ, Christ's death pays for that person's sins. God is gracious in extending forgiveness apart from human merit to every sinner who will receive it.
d) God is sovereign and at work bringing about His purposes even through those who are actively pursuing sin. God is providentially at work to fulfill His promise to make the descendants of Jacob a great nation at a time when these brothers seem intent upon diminishing their numbers. In chapter 38 God is at work, providentially assuring the fulfillment of His promise to provide a Messiah through the descendants of Judah. Ideally, God’s sovereign power and all-wise and loving purposes are accomplished through obedient servants. But when His children go their own way, God’s infinite power is still channeled through unwilling, disobedient people, who, in spite of themselves, achieve God’s plans.
Many Christians are wrongly taught that God’s purposes can only be achieved if we’re faithful and obedient. What can they possibly say about this chapter in that regard? Let’s be honest. Who of us believes that God’s purposes were contingent upon our commitment and consistency? Nothing could be further from the truth than thinking that God is somehow limited by man’s sinfulness. The doctrine of the providence of God is one of the most comforting truths in the Bible. It assures us that what God says, He will do, even if men actively resist it and seek to thwart His plan. Human evil cannot stop divine grace. Luther was right. Why did God permit these shameful things to be written? So that no one would be proud of his/her own righteousness or wisdom and that no one should despair on account of his/her sins.
Let me end with a modern Judah story but one without a happy ending. Ernest Hemingway was raised in a solidly evangelical home in Oak Park, Illinois. His godly grandparents graduated from Wheaton College. His grandfather, Anson, was a close friend of D. L. Moody. Ernest's physician father had desired to be a missionary doctor, but his mother was too much of a city girl, and refused to go. Ernest was raised in the church where he tithed his allowance, sang in the choir, and read completely through his Bible and passed a comprehensive exam on it. After high school, he moved to Kansas City to become a reporter. He stopped going to church and began drifting from his upbringing. He enlisted in World War I, was wounded, and starting drinking to ease the pain. He once offered his sister a drink. When she refused, "he told her not to be afraid to taste all of what the world has to offer just because Oak Park had labeled it sinful and off-limits." He married a godless woman and moved to Paris to further his writing career. Totally alienated from his parents, eventually he’d go through four wives. He was notorious for his drunkenness and in his later years, grew distant from everyone. He couldn’t stand up straight and stopped communicating verbally. A friend said of him that his "every hour was filled with the pain of being truly lost and alone." Hemingway's own description of his life was, "I live in a vacuum that is as lonely as a radio tube when the batteries are dead and there is no current to plug into." And finally, on a sunny Sunday morning in Idaho, at age 61, Ernest Hemingway put a shotgun to his head and pulled the trigger. His tragic life did not have to go that direction. He made some bad choices: to distance himself from God's people; to marry outside of the faith; to be conformed to this corrupt world. He could have availed himself of God's grace and been conformed to Jesus Christ. His godly children and grandchildren could have followed in his steps. Instead, his beautiful, famous granddaughter, Margaux Hemingway, just one day before the anniversary of her grandfather’s suicide, took her own life in 1996. Because of the direction Ernest Hemingway set, today his descendants are far from the Lord.
The fact is that we all are prone to corruption. "All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on [Christ]" (Isa. 53:6). But we don't have to be conformed to corruption. If we avail ourselves of God's grace through the descendant of Judah and Tamar, the Lord Jesus Christ, He will save us, protect us and keep us from the corruption of this evil world.
