Genesis 38:11-30 Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter in law, Remain a widow at your father's house, till Shelah my son be grown: for he said… 1. There is a season of bearing ordered by Providence and to be observed by us (Ecclesiastes 3:2). 2. Providence may order abundant fruitfulness unto incestuous mixtures. Twins to incest (ver. 27). 3. God sometimes returneth unto unclean conceptions bitter travails. 4. Cross coming of children to birth is God's ordering to mind of sin sometimes. 5. Creatures may be deceived in marking that for first which cometh last (ver. 28). 6. It is God's prerogative to make first and last in births, and other conditions. 7. Even in the fruit of the womb God makes one child retreat that the other may come forth. 8. The breaking out of the fruit of the womb is sometimes wonderful to creatures. 9. The wonders of God are reasonably prepetuated in the very names of children (ver. 29). 10. The first in man's thoughts is many times last in God's. 11. Safe births are great mercies, whether first or last; all come forth under providence. 12. Such mercies should be made known in the very names and beings of creatures (ver. 30). (G. Hughes, B. D.). Parallel Verses KJV: Then said Judah to Tamar his daughter in law, Remain a widow at thy father's house, till Shelah my son be grown: for he said, Lest peradventure he die also, as his brethren did. And Tamar went and dwelt in her father's house. |