“Then Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, (notice the sacred custom whereby a father in his wisdom selects a wife which he deems worthy for his son with such great care, bearing in mind long-term and big-picture implications that perhaps a son in his yet limited view of the world would not even consider [Oh that we would only Trust Our Heavenly Father to do the same for us!]) and her name was Tamar. But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord killed him. (As discussed earlier, Judah was at this point in his life already not without wisdom and character – as indicated also by the fact that he vied for Joseph’s life for example; I would like to propose therefore that he selected for his firstborn son a virtuous and altogether lovely young woman, so much so that perhaps the Lord sought also to save her from a hellish union by smiting this wicked husband she would otherwise be joined to indefinitely; as we can assume that poor Judah – as parents so often are – was blind to the faults and wicked ways of his firstborn. Despite the fact that the Biblical narrative might often seem by the world to be oblivious to the rights of women, it is proven time and time again throughout the Scriptures that the Lord sees and hears their plight and often intervenes when the men who ought to cover and protect them fail them most bitterly; proving Himself to be the Perfect Husband and the Perfect Father 😃.) And Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife and marry her, and raise up an heir to your brother.” (Recognise how respectful Judah is of God’s Divine Order and Righteous Commandments in the Fear of the Lord; there are already many subtle allusions being made here attesting to the fact that Judah allowed himself to be humbled and purified in the aftermath of his own hand in the sin committed against our Joseph.) But Onan knew that the heir would not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in to his brother’s wife, that he emitted on the ground, lest he should give an heir to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased the Lord (literally: “was evil in the eyes of the Lord”); therefore He killed him also.” (How interesting an exercise it is to attempt to fathom the ways of the Lord when it is so clearly evident through narratives such as these that His ways are not our ways; His thoughts are not our thoughts. This section is clearly open for much interpretation and is an invitation to meditation: why would the Lord protect a brother’s right to an heir on the one hand, when He deems him unfit even to live on the other? Is it because he was the firstborn and God is preserving the line of Israel? Why then was He not as concerned with firstborn rights in the narrative of Jacob and Esau? Or was it a permissible “mistake” that Esau was born first and perhaps Jacob always was the intended rightful firstborn in God’s eyes, deception or not? Why did God deem Onan’s action to be so evil? Could it be that it was because he deceitfully enjoyed the sexual encounter without also honouring its intended fruit, namely the lineage it was supposed to plant? Or rather, is it the fact that he deceitfully pleased his father with eyeservice alone [Colossians 3:22] – not unlike the manner in which Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit [Acts 5:3] – by merely performing the act of consecrating the marriage on the one hand, yet again, failing to honour the lineage he was supposed to plant on the other? One can imagine that surely Judah would have had compassion on Onan, he himself being a second-born and fully understanding the pain of forever living in Reuben’s shadow, so why cannot God show him the same compassion? There is so much we don’t understand 😯 Or . . . and this only came to me much later: is the Lord perhaps performing some type of spiritual eugenics in the line of Judah specifically, weeding out any particularly irredeemable character flaw seeing as this is the very line through which He will be born in human form in the flesh and all the conditions for His birth have to be just so in order to save the entire world from all their sins 😀? I love You Lord Jesus 😄. You are so wise and we know nothing.

One thing is certain however, despite the fact that the Law of Moses has not here as yet been formally passed down, this law as described in Deuteronomy 25:5-6 is evidently of great importance to God as it is so clearly already informally instated here – even under threat of death – for posterity’s sake in the interim. I would also recommend a study of the sweet Book of Ruth for a more gentle and nuanced, though equally legally sound, relation of this all-important principle.) 

“⁶Then Judah took a wife for Er his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. ⁷But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD killed him. ⁸And Judah said to Onan, “Go in to your brother’s wife and marry her, and raise up an heir to your brother.” ⁹But Onan knew that the heir would not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in to his brother’s wife, that he emitted on the ground, lest he should give an heir to his brother. ¹⁰And the thing which he did displeased the LORD; therefore He killed him also.”

– Genesis 38:6-10 (NKJV)