Broad meadows

In the last installment, we examined Genesis 37 where Joseph’s ornate or multicolored robe was dipped, surprisingly, in goat’s blood. This is unusual to the Christian ear because Jesus is always pictured as the Lamb of God and it’s by his shed blood that we have forgiveness of sins. We were able to demonstrate in earlier writings that Jesus and only Jesus could be the promised messiah. So it certainly begs the question of the significance of the goat and its blood.

Today’s installment, I believe, is the beginning of the telling of that part of the goat’s significance in God’s plan. Genesis 38 is the next stop in following the sun and the goat horizontally through the Bible in order to better understand the prophetic tale that is unfolding. This is the story of Judah and Tamar. Judah takes Tamar to be wife for his eldest son, who subsequently dies and whose brother meets the same fate after marrying his brother’s wife. Judah, not wanting his third son to meet the same fate, withholds him from marrying his brother’s wife, as was the custom. As time goes on, Judah’s wife passes away and Judah goes to spend some time with his friend, Hirah and to the men who were shearing his sheep in Timnah. Timnah reappears in the story of Samson, along with the young goat, but we will examine that in a later writing.

We pick up the account at verses 13-19.

“When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,” 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.
When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. 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.
“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.
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. After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow’s clothes again.”

As in previous writings, one of the first things I do when examining symbolism in the Bible is to see what other symbols are being added, as they add nuance to the prophetic story being told. As collateral for the promised young goat, Judah offers his seal and its chord and his staff. What those three would then seem to point to (remember one of the guidelines that I use in this process is that the last place a symbol appears, usually in Revelation, is the fulfillment of that symbolic prophecy) is one, the seals of Revelation, and secondly the chord and staff. The first rider of the seals riding on a white horse is given a bow. What is a bow without arrows but a chord and stick (staff)? To be more succinct, I’m saying the young goat is that rider on the white horse.

Judah then sends the young goat by friend who is unable to find her. Judah decides she can keep his pledge instead and we pick up the account in verses 24-30.

“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!”
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.”
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 the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, “This one came out first.” But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, “So this is how you have broken out!” And he was named Perez. Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out. And he was named Zerah.”

Here we see two brothers, one in the lineage of Christ, Perez, but Zerah is the one that wears the scarlet thread. This would seem to attach him in the role of goat. This would make sense as Jesus is the Lamb of God. One thing that we can know from scripture is that his name means brightness or scarlet. In the last installment, I spoke of the significance of colors in the tabernacle, blue, scarlet and purple. Here we are getting something about the scarlet thread, so I’ll do a quick rundown on the places scarlet appears in scripture.

1. Part of the tabernacle in the book of Exodus.
2. Scarlet yarn is part of the cleansing ritual for infectious skin diseases.
3. Is the covering for the bread of the presence after a blue cloth covers the table and utensils in Numbers 4.
4. Is part of the water of cleansing in Numbers 19.
5. Is the color of the chord in Rahab’s window in Joshua 2, saving herself and her whole family. This also seems to bring the gentiles into the fold of God’s people.
6. In Isaiah 1 our sins that are as scarlet will be made white as snow.
7. In Jeremiah 4 there is a devastated one dressed in scarlet.
8. Jesus has a scarlet robe put on him in Matthew 27 (and a purple one in Mark 15) during his scourging.
9. There’s a harlot wearing scarlet in Revelation 17 & 18. Remember that the story in Genesis 38 has a woman dressed as a prostitute, also.

If you followed the cup through the Bible with me, you know that the conclusion of that was that the harlot is the Catholic Church due to its consumption of blood. This line of prophecy through the color scarlet seems to be adding some more nuance, perhaps remedy for what ails her. In Genesis 38, what saves Tamar from the flames is the seal, the chord and the staff.