The Last Shall Be First

Genesis 38

Brothers!  Who shall be first and who shall be last?  “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” Matt 20:16 NIV (also Matt 19:30)

Zerah, the first to put his hand out of his mother's womb, ends up being born last.  And the other son, Perez, ends up being born first.  Perez ends up blessed in that he is in the direct geneological line between Adam and Jesus Christ. (Matthew 1:1-16, Luke 3:23-37)

Now their mother, Tamar, had been married to Er, Judah's firstborn son.  According to scripture, Er was wicked in the Lord's eyes, so the Lord put him to death. (Gen 38:7)  Now in order to perpetuate the family line, it was the obligation of a brother to fulfill the late husband's duty by producing off-spring for the brother who had died.  The second son didn't want to have children for his dead brothers, so he cheated her out of off-spring.  The third son never showed up as promised by Judah.  So Tamar tricked Judah into impregnating her.  This was pretty risky business. It's not just a matter of ending up humiliated.  She could have been burned to death for this little maneuver.  But, she was shrewd and Judah recognized that in the end she was more righteous than he.  So the woman who was last in the eyes of Judah and his sons, has received honor (placed first) as she became one of the women in geneology of Jesus.  Those who are last will be first :)

How often do we lament that we can't seem to get ahead?  That someone else pushed their way in front of us.  That no matter how hard we try we seem to be the last on the totem pole.  Relax and remember that often, God has a habit of working things out so that those who are last in the eyes of the world are first in the kingdom of God.