Judah must have been in a bad way!
There are two emotions you cannot afford - one is anger. I have a masters degree in clinical psychology, and I can tell you that the average person loses 25% of their IQ when they get angry - which for the average person would make you retarded!
When was the last time you ‘solved a problem’ or ‘said anything smart’ when you were angry? No. Men do things like: put their fist into walls that don't move! They get so mad - they can't complete sentences, so they groan.
If you're married, and both of you get mad, you've got two mentally-retarded people trying to solve a problem. It's always best to calm down and try to solve something.
The other emotion that causes you to lose 25 per cent of your IQ is sexual arousal. In anger, all the blood leaves your brain, and goes to your major muscle groups to prepare for a fight. In sexual arousal, all your blood leaves your brain and - yeah, okay. [So you actually become retarded in that state as well!
How many good decisions have been made in that state? Lots of promises have been made that couldn't be kept in that state okay - so we become retarded. Ever been angry and aroused at the same time - there's platypuses with greater IQs than that!
So Judah must have been retarded, because he gives his ring - which in Hebrew culture was his signature - it was his ‘Power of Attorney’!
He gives THAT to her, for one moment there; they do what they're going to do, and he goes up to get the goat as promised... He sends the goat back down with his servant - and guess who's not there? The prostitute!
So we've got a real problem don't we? We've got a prostitute running around Israel with his Power of Attorney. Can you imagine the feeling in his gut, that he would have lived with?
It gets worse... She gets pregnant by this encounter; and four months later you can't hide it anymore, so the people come to Judah, and they say: Judah, your daughter is pregnant by prostitution. What do you say we do to her? He says: burn her at the stake.
This is all in Genesis 37 & 38 - I'm not making any of this up. They bring her out to burn her at the stake; and like any good feminist, Tamar goes: excuse me, before we go burning anybody... I've got a ring, and whoever's ring this belongs to is the dad - and it was Judah's ring! So Judah lets her off the hook - because he'd have to burn himself.
It gets worse. She's not just pregnant with one baby, she's pregnant with two – twins!
What happens next is very weird. It says: the firstborn's name was Zerah and he was birthed with his arm first. Pop! And it says: the doctor tied a red cord around his arm. You've got to know who the firstborn is, because firstborns get... Justice; and second-borns get Mercy.
So this firstborns arm comes out, and the doctor marks his arm as the firstborn. The second-borns name was Perez - and his arm came out too (pop); and it says they wrestled. Is this weird?
Perez won the wrestling match, and pulled the firstborn's arm back in the womb. Then it says “he birthed himself” - the one with the legal right to mercy took the form of the first born.
Why would they put that in Jesus' genealogy? Isn't that what Jesus did? Jesus was perfect - the second Adam. He had the legal right to mercy; but He considered Himself of no reputation, and did not consider equality with God something to be seized; but took on the form of Adam. The one with the legal right to mercy, took the form of justice - in order to become the firstborn for all creation!