VaYeshev 9-4

And (he) settled

Genesis 38:1-30

When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. He turned to her at the roadside and said, "Come, let me come in to you," for he did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. 

Gen. 38:15-16a ESV

Can sin serve the Eternal’s purposes?

Yehuda had a special calling and a great spiritual responsibility upon his life. He was the chosen son from among the twelve to be the Messiah’s ancestor. But during a certain time, he wasn’t doing well spiritually, and it is written that he departed from his brothers (v. 1). The Hebrew text says that he went down – yarad ירד – from his brothers. This fact implies that he opened his heart to ideas not in line with the Eternal’s and he did things that weren’t seen with favour by the Him. One of these things was that he married one of the daughters of Kenaan, the perverted and cursed people. That displeased the Eternal and he killed two of his sons with that woman, hindering them from having descendants. He didn’t want those two descendants from Kenaan in the genealogy of the Messiah, and only He knows what this would have implied.

The Torah’s narration seems cruel when mentioning that the Eternal killed these sons, but if He did it, it was good. Had He let them live, the damage in Yehuda’s line would have been irreparable. The Eternal’s plans for them were at risk and that is why He intervened in this way. By killing them He prevented a greater ill.

Now, the older son’s widow wanted offspring and she sought the way to deceive her father-in-law to become pregnant by him. One of the twins she had, became one of the Messiah’s ancestors, and his name was Peretz.

In this way, the seed of Kenaan’s people was prevented from getting in the genealogy of the Messiah, because Tamar, Yehuda’s daughter-in-law became pregnant from Yehuda himself, and not through one of his sons, who had a Kenaanite mother

When Yehuda was living a life with no spiritual focus, his sin of fornication was used by the Eternal to prevent a greater evil. This does not justify sin, but it shows that the Eternal is great enough to use even sin to have His purpose fulfilled in a person’s life. 

The ways of the Eternal are not easy to understand, because He takes into account and uses bad decisions, and even sin of men, to carry out His plans on earth.