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This morning we’re going to look at the life of a woman named Tamar, from Genesis 38. Tamar was the daughter-in-law of Judah, who was one of Joseph’s 11 brothers, one of the 12 sons of Jacob. As we read this story, we see again loud and clear how God is able to bring something good out of even the worst situations that we get ourselves into. In Genesis 38 the narrator takes a break from the story of Joseph, and we find Judah marrying the daughter of a man named Shua and having three sons, Er, Onan, and Shelah. And Er, the firstborn, marries a woman named Tamar. But the text says that Er was wicked in the Lord’s sight, and so the Lord put him to death.  Now, the Lord does not often put people to death, so Er must have been incredibly wicked.  So Tamar was a widow, and since in these days women were married off shortly after they turned 13, she is probably a 15 year-old widow at this time.  As someone who no longer has a husband and can't really make a living for herself, she is in a very vulnerable position.  To take care of situations like these, in those day there was an important law called the Law of Levirate marriage. When a woman’s husband died, it was the responsibility of the father-in-law (in this case, Judah), to defend and provide for the widow, and if he had any other sons, to give the widow to one of his sons as her husband.  And if you know anything about the Bible, you know that God is very concerned about widows, the fatherless, and all who can not provide for themselves:

Psalm 146:7-9 He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets prisoners free, ⁸ the LORD gives sight to the blind, the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down, the LORD loves the righteous. ⁹ The LORD watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
Psalm 68:5 A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.
Isaiah 10:1-2 Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, ² to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.