Thursday, December 3, 2009

Matthew 1:3

"Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram,"

Am I the only one that was in the dark that Perez is a name in the bible?  It kind of saddens me that that is the name Mario Armando Lavandeira gave his public persona (Perez Hilton).  Because in my opinion, he has left morals far far behind in his search for fame and his love of self.  The KJV says Pharez, which makes me feel better, haha.

I don't really know anything about the biblical Perez/Pharez except for the story of his birth which is kind of interesting...

So there is Judah and he has a son, Er.  He gets a wife for Er, that being Tamar (as a random tidbit, the name means Palm Tree, I looked it up).  So Er is a bad man so the Lord puts him to death.  And Judah tells Tamar, now a widow, to go to her father's house and live as a widow and he would give another of his sons to her when the son is old enough. 

Alot of time passes and Judah's wife dies.  He is sad for a while, but then when he gets over it he went on what seemed to be a business trip where he happened to run into a prostitute.  Or so he thought!  Yup it was Tamar.  I'm not quite sure why she slept with him, but she did.  And she asked for something as a pledge that he would pay her later with a goat.

Oh how times have changed.  Well, times have somewhat changed.  She got knocked up.  And after 3 months (about when she probably started showing I guess?) word got back to Judah that his daughter-in-law (widowed), Tamar was guilty of prostitution and now she's even pregnant.  Judah, not know he was the culprit, was ticked.  So he ordered her to be burned to death.

Well, when she got there, she said "I am pregnant to the man who owns these" and held out the tokens that he had given her as a pledge to pay her with the goat.  (side note, he had tried to pay her with a goat, but when he returned no one knew of a prostitute in that area so he couldnt find her).

Judah not only forgives her, but says she is even more righteous than he.  Which, I guess so since he lied about giving her to his other son, but the standards are little low if you think about it.  I mean they were both sleeping around and they both had told a few lies.  But I guess both of them lost spouses, so maybe that messed them up a little. 

Well, when she was in labor, it turns out she was having twins!  One of them stuck his little fist out and the midwife, always prepared, grabbed her "scarlet thread" and tied it around his wrist.  He pulled his fist back in and his brother snuck in front of him and was born.  However when he was born, the midwife saw the thread and declared him the true firstborn.  (a little bit of a cheater if you ask me, haha).  So he was named Zerah, meaning scarlet, or brightness.  And the sneaky brother was named Perez, meaning breaking out, because he broke out as soon as his brother moved his fist out of the way.

It never fails to amaze me at the craziness of bible stories!

2 comments:

Taumi said...

Yes, Bible stories are crazy, but even crazier is the modern way you tell them. I love it!

Miriam said...

haha, you just made this sound so funny/fresh. I don't even know how you did it! I miss you!