Perez

And the sons of Levi were Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

And the sons of Judah were Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah, but Er a- and Onan died in the land of Canaan.

The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.

The sons of Ishchar were Tola, Puva, Iobi, and Shimron.

The sons of Zebulon were Sered, Elon, and Jahleel.

Astonished, the midwife exclaims, how did you break through? May this breach be upon you.

And so the firstborn is named Perez, meaning breach or breakthrough.

The other, with the scarlet thread, is named Zira, meaning brightness or dawn.

A story of reversal, justice and divine continuity, where the promised lineage is preserved through the courage of a woman who refused to be forgotten.

He was the firstborn.

And yet, the unexpected happened.

Perez was the one who emerged first, breaking the natural order and taking a place that, by all appearances, wasn't meant to be his.

This reversal is no coincidence.

He was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary when she was espoused to Joseph 19.

The angel satisfieth the misdemeanor thoughts of Joseph and interprets the names of Christ The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren And Judas begat Pharez and Zerah and Tamar And Pharez begat Esrom, and Esrom begat Aram And Aram begat Aminadab, and Aminadab begat Naasson And Naasson begat Solomon, and Solomon begat Boaz of Rahab And Boaz begat Obed of Ruth, and Obed begat Jesse And Jesse begat David the king, and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias And Solomon begat Robam, and Robam begat Abiah And Abiah begat Asa, and Asa begat Jehoshaphat And Jehoshaphat begat Joram, and Joram begat Ozias And Ozias begat Jotham, and Jotham begat Achaz And Achaz begat Ezekiel, and Ezekiel begat Manasses And Manasses begat Ammon, and Ammon begat Josias And Josias begat Jerconias and his brothers About the time that they were carried away to Babylon And after they were brought to Babylon, Jerconias begat Salathiel And Salathiel begat Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel begat Abiud And Abiud begat Eliakim, and Eliakim begat Azor And Azor begat Sadoc, and Sadoc begat Acham And Acham begat Eliud, and Eliud begat Eleazar And Eleazar begat Matathan, and Matathan begat Jacob And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary Of whom was born Jesus, who was called Christ So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations And from David unto the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations And from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph Before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example Was minded to put her away privily And while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream Saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife For that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus.

For he shall save his people from their sins.

Now Isaac, i.e. laughter, about to be offered up by his father on Mount Moriah, clearly represented Christ, who was crucified on the same mount, and brought salvation and joy to the whole world.

Verse 3.

Judah begat Pharez, and Zerah of Tamar.

Observe here that in the genealogy of Christ, with the exception of his blessed mother, only four females are made mention of, three of them harlots, Tamar, Rahab, and Bathsheba, and the fourth a Gentile, Ruth the Moabitess.

Remember, he had been withholding his third son.

"You ain't marrying nobody here." And then decides, "Okay, I, I'll marry you." And Tamar gave birth to Judah's twin boys, not only pregnant, but pregnant with twins, Zerah and Perez.

And that's how chapter 38 ends.

What a lovely story.

When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.

As she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand.

So the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his wrist and said, "This one came out first." But when he drew back his hand, his brother came out, and she said, "So this is how you have broken out," and he was named Perez.

Then his brother, who had the scarlet thread on his wrist, came out, and he was named Zerah.

Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers.

And Judah, the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar.

Perez, the father of Ezron.

And Ezron, the father of Ram.

Ram, the father of Aminadab.

We just read it.

It says, "And let thy house be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bare unto Judah, of the seed which the Lord shall give thee of this young woman." Like Obed, we don't know much about Pharez at all.

Um, he, he is, again like Obed, more known for his birth than anything he did in his life, and we talked about that last week.

But it leads us to ask, why would the women pray for Obed's house to be like Pharez's? Why would, why would they do that? I've always wondered if I would be required, or it would be necessary to teach from Genesis 38, um, and I wondered how I would handle...

There's some, there's some absolute sensitivities.

There's some very, um, uh...

It's to hunger and thirst after righteousness.

It is to, to see the injustice in this world and to, and to wanna be part of the good, and actually be the one to change it, to, to be, to be an active participant in, in, in, in the aiding those people.

So now we look at some of the genealogy here.

I want you to see Perez.

See where Tamar, who's a Canaanite.

And has the son Perez and Zerah.

Here's the lineage.

And you see all the way down to the son of David.

in that time frame.

So Judah intended to have the son of promise.