Today I taught for the first time here at the Noble Guest house which is truly a very nice place to stay. The grounds, especially, are beautifully maintained, and have Japanese flavor to them. I am teaching in the big conference room which is set up for 21 people. So I will have my hands full. I was surprised to see that Kiko, who picked me up at the airport, was assigned to be my translator. Apparently quite a few of my students are not really able to fully understand English, and so whatever I say must be translated , which of course is true for all their questions. About half the people are pastors of little community churches, and some are there with their wives. Then I believe there are some nurses from a rescue center, I think, who clearly are well educated. They absolutely love what they are learning. Also there are two students in my class who are being trained by the Navigators and have been sent to my class to learn more about the OT and then they need to write a sermon covering some of the passages the found exciting. They speak English fluently and in general are pretty hip.
As usual the first day starts slow. About every 20 minutes after our 9:00 starting time, a few dribble in with the last ones coming in at around 11:30 AM. So I started with about half of my class at a few minutes after 10:00 AM. First I gave a little introduction about myself and what I expect from them, which is mostly that I want them to think about the questions and let themselves get swept up emotionally into these wonderful Biblical stories. Also, I stress how to read the Bible, that is, with expression and, if at all possible, with voices, and to make sure that questions sound like questions, because if they as pastors don’t read their Bibles well, they will lose their congregations. Well, they really try to do it right after that, it is amazing.
It was my plan to begin my teaching by covering the four women in the genealogy of Jesus, who, as you well know of course, are Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba. So the first lesson was about Tamar the Canaanite wife of Judah’s oldest son Er. Now the LORD, who is sovereign over life, gave it to us graciously, but also he can take it back if that is what he believes is best in accordance with his infinite wisdom. Now in the ancient Near East, the custom was that if a male child in a family should die, the next brother to the deceased one ought to take the wife of this brother for the purpose of producing a son. This son would carry the name of the deceased brother and would inherit his estate, while the brother who actually fathered him did not get anything for his efforts. In fact, he would bear the cost of the upbringing of the boy and also have to keep up the estate--a burden that some were just not willing to take on.
So it is here in our story that Onan, the second son of Judah, refuses to impregnate his deceased older brother’s wife Tamar. Then he too is judged by the LORD as being evil and so his life is taken also. Now Shelah, the next son of Judah, is still too young, and so Judah tells Tamar to go back to her father’s house and wait there till Shelah is old enough, and then Judah will call her home to do his brotherly duty. She, as well as Judah, and probably Shelah, all understand that this call will never come, because Judah blames Tamar for the death of his two sons and is not willing to risk the life of his last son. Shelah no doubt is not eager either since he too incorrectly believes that there is no doubt that it must have been Tamar’s fault his brothers died. So Tamar waits and waits.
When Tamar hears that Judah finally is getting his life back together after the death of his wife, and feels good enough to participate in the festivities of the sheep shearers festival, she begins to develop a very clever plan that will give her the son she wants and lawfully deserves. This is because she wants to be part of Jacob’s family whom she clearly believes to be the people of God. Her plan works out beautifully and, in the end, it is Judah himself who impregnates her while thinking that in actuality he is having intercourse with a cult prostitute. He most likely engaged in this act because he had begun to believe in the teachings of the Canaanite fertility cult that intercourse with a cult prostitute re-enacted the same act between the god Baal and the goddess Asherah, who with their annual ritual union triggered the new growing season. However in this case Judah unknowingly impregnates his daughter in law Tamar, who had disguised herself as a cult prostitute, and in doing so Judah fulfills the duty his second son Onan refused to accept.
When Tamar later is accused by Judah of having broken her betrothal to Shelah, proof of which is her pregnancy, he does so with glee because in that culture Tamar now deserved to be burned at the stake. This makes Judah happy because he now has a way to legally get rid of Tamar without the life of his son Shelah being endangered any longer. Suddenly Tamar produces the proof that Judah is the actual father. At this point Judah graciously admits that it must be true that Tamar’s baby is his, and that she had been right to insist that her rights as the widow of Er were to be honored. Anyway because Judah admits that he never had intended to give Shelah to Tamar he proved to be a man of integrity. Therefore, he was truly worthy of the spiritual blessing his father Jacob later bestowed on him--a blessing that ultimately would lead to the birth of Messiah, a blessing that Tamar, by insisting on her lawful rights, had made possible.
Anyway today again proved to be a blessing for the students, as we taught on Hagar, and Bathsheba who both are also listed in the genealogy of Messiah. So much of this is new to them as they are suddenly confronted by the fact that scripture does not discriminate against women, but that rather it is the culture in both biblical and modern times that does. So they are beginning to revise their thinking, which is especially a blessing to the women from the Rescue Center. Also the wives of some of the pastors are clearly “helping” their husbands to change their perspectives, which is fun to watch.
My assistant, Stella, who is a friend of Miriam, is really working out well, though she is a bit overwhelmed that she is in fact required to translate my English into Swahili and then to translate the answers that are given back into English. She was sort of thrown into the fire when after her first few minutes in class she had to translate my teachings on the rape of Tamar. There were a few terms she no longer was familiar with after having lived in the US for a long time now.
Tonight there was a fun moment during our sharing time, when one of the nurses of our medical team had to administer a pregnancy test and she and an other nurse were not sure how to interpret the reading. Was this woman pregnant or not, how could they be sure? So one of them suggested let’s do the test again with my husband’s urine.
Well I am terribly tired and must go to bed.
God bless you all,
Hans
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