Genesis 38:8-10 And Judah said to Onan, Go in to your brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to your brother.… I. IT WAS PROMPTED BY A LOW MOTIVE. It was as selfish as it was vile. Onan's design was to preserve the whole inheritance for his own house. II. IT WAS AN ACT OF WILFUL DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD'S ORDINANCE. Ill deservings of others can be no excuse for our injustice, for our uncharitableness. That which Tamar required, Moses afterward, as from God, commanded — the succession of brothers into the barren bed. Some laws God spake to His Church long ere He wrote them: while the author is certainly known, the voice and the finger of God are worthy of equal respect. III. IT WAS A DISHONOUR DONE TO HIS OWE BODY. Unchastity in general is a homicidal waste of the generative powers, a demoniac bestiality, an outrage to ancestors, to posterity, and to one's own life. It is a crime against the image of God, and a degradation below the animal. Onan's offence, moreover, as committed in marriage, was a most unnatural wickedness, a grievous wrong, and a desecration of the body as the temple of God. It was a proof of the most defective development of what may be called the consciousness of personality, and of personal dignity. IV. IT WAS AGGRAVATED BY HIS POSITION IN THE COVENANT FAMILY. The Messiah was to descend from the stock of Judah, and for aught he knew from himself. This very Tamar is counted in the genealogy of Christ (Matthew 1:3). Herein he did despite to the covenant promise. He rejected an honourable destiny. (T. H. Leale.) Parallel Verses KJV: And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother. |
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