Physically and in the natural realm Tamar was the daughter-in-law of Judah, the son of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel.

When Jacob was blessing all of the tribes of Israel this is what he said of Judah:

Gen 49:10 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

So Judah was, through King David and his offspring, to be the ruling tribe of Israel “until Shiloh come.” Judah had several sons, but God was “not pleased” with Judah’s sons and was quickly slaying Judah’s sons until the only way Judah could possibly bring forth “Shiloh” was through Tamar. But Judah did not trust God to bring forth a son through his son. After all, Judah’s sons had all been slain by God. Only Shelah was left. So this whole sad story about how Judah sent Tamar away back to her father, lied to Tamar and wanted her “burnt” was all for the purpose of bringing forth “Shiloh.”

Gen 38:24 And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt.

If Tamar were “with child by whoredom” then there must be a whoremonger somewhere. Of course, that would be Judah. The man who wanted a woman destroyed ended up being unable to even ‘cast the first stone’, much less burn her. Was Tamar a whore? While there is no denying Tamar committed an act of whoredom, in no way was Tamar a common whore. Tamar had spent many years in her father’s house, patiently waiting for Judah to keep his word and give his son to her for a husband. Just as Christ refused to condemn the adulterous woman to death, so also was Tamar proven unworthy of death when her accuser was shown to be the one who had lain with the woman he wanted put to death.

Now for all who can receive it, it becomes a simple fact that when Christ Himself tells us “as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me” these are spiritual words which Are, Have Been and Will Be true at all times. It is with this understanding of what is God’s Word that we can understand why this story of Judah’s mistreatment of his own daughter-in-law is, in the spiritual realm, a shadow of how Judah’s descendants mistreated and killed their own savior.

But this necessitates that we see this whole sad story as a spiritual statement, and until we come to understand that “the sayings of the prophecy of this book” means all of God’s Word, we will never be able to “compare spiritual with spiritual.”

Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

And what is “every word of God?” Do God’s elect “pull scriptures out of the air and spiritualize them?” For those with “eyes to see” here is what all of those words are. Christ Himself will answer that charge:

Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh [letter] profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
Joh 6:64 But there are some of you that believe not [that my words are spirit]. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.

Which words are His words? “Every Word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”

These two verses alone tell us that the story about Judah and Tamar is for us to “live” in some way. Is it not part of “every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God?” Is it not part of the Revelation of Jesus Christ? “Every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” is to be experienced in all of God’s elect in its time and in its season. This is not idle speculation. God’s Word tells us that is so.

Ecc 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
Ecc 3:2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up [that which is] planted;
Ecc 3:3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
Ecc 3:4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
Ecc 3:5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
Ecc 3:6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
Ecc 3:7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
Ecc 3:8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
Ecc 3:9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
Ecc 3:10 I have seen the travail [Hebrew: evil experience], which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised [Hebrew: humbled] in it.

1Jn 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment [which is now on the house of God – 1Pe 4:17]: because as he is, so are we in this world.

God’s elect compare spiritual with spiritual. For example, the natural man sees manna as bread from heaven. The mind of Christ sees manna as Christ. The natural man sees Elijah as the man, Elijah, the mind of Christ sees Elijah as those who witness for Christ. The natural man sees King Saul as anointed by God as Israel’s first king, the mind of Christ sees King Saul as God’s rejected, broken off, fallen from grace, son of the bondwoman, seed of the serpent, yet still the spiritually rejected “seed of Abraham.” The natural man sees king David as the young child who killed beasts and giants in defense of his flocks and his country and was yet hunted and wanted dead by his own master and king. The mind of Christ sees King David as a type of Christ, a “man after God’s own heart.” And this is so in spite of the fact that King David, as God’s truly anointed, killed Uriah and took Uriah’s wife for himself. Even so also, the mind of Christ sees Tamar’s trials with Judah as Christ’s rejection and death at the hands of the people who are guilty of the very thing of which he is accused:

Mat 26:65 Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy.

What is the Truth of the matter?

Rom 2:24 For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.

The mind of Christ sees that God, in a display of grace, spared David’s life just as he spared the life of the woman taken in the very act of adultery. But God’s chastening grace and His judgments plague our spiritual house until the day we die just as God did to David:

2Sa 12:5 And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the LORD liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die [Of course it was king David himself who had “done this thing”]:

Did David, God’s elect, suffer God’s plagues?

2Sa 12:10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.

All of a sudden there is nothing about this part of David’s life which relates to God’s elect as far as the natural man is concerned. However, nothing could be further from the Truth for any and all who see flesh for what it spiritually Is, Was and Will Be:

Mat 20:23 (a) And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with:

2Sa 12:10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.
Rev 15:8 And the temple [1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?] was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man [Is] was [or Will Be] able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

We have all taken the wife of Uriah. Don’t live your entire life and fail to come to see that “Thou art the man” has “proceeded out of the mouth of God.”

Eph 2:3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath [Greek: orge – the same Greek word found in 1Th 5:9], even as others [who are the last to receive God’s plagues of His wrath].

Like Christ did, all of mankind receives the full measure of God’s seven plagues of His wrath. But wrath is not what all men are appointed to. What Paul is speaking of in 1Th 5:9 is the fact, which he always emphasized, that God has appointed all mankind ultimately to salvation, “whether we are awake or whether we sleep in the night.”

1Th 5:5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
1Th 5:6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
1Th 5:7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
1Th 5:8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
1Th 5:9 For God hath not appointed us [mankind] to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Th 5:10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
1Th 5:11 Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.

If Paul had only the elect in view here, then he could not say that “whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.”

What is God’s attitude towards all unrighteousness, even the unrighteousness of His saints?

Rom 2:9 Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first[ God’s elect 144,000], and also of the Gentile [The “great multitude which no man could number”];

Rev 7:9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

Rev 7:13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
Rev 7:14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Yet we have been taught that “tribulation” is a word applied only to God’s first fruit elect, and wrath is a word which applies only to the many, innumerable, called but not chosen. Such is obviously not the case: “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

Was not the wrath of God revealed from heaven against the ungodliness of David? Does not David who replaced Israel’s first king, typify God’s elect? The natural man reads this story of David’s sins and wonders how David, “a man after God’s own heart,” could possibly have done such a thing. But the mind of Christ is ever vigilant and aware that the flesh we are all in is still capable of such hideousness, except for the ever-present sword of the chastening grace of God. The mind of Christ sees the plagues of the wrath of God and the need for all who are “a man who is after mine own heart” to “keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book.” The natural man cannot see Adam and all that in him is as being in Christ, and yet we are plainly told:

Rev 1:11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first [yes, Adam] and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia…

But surely this does not mean that all of the unspeakable sins of mankind are of Christ, does it? What say the scriptures:

Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do ALL these things.

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Rom 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

And a hundred other scriptures just like those.

So who is Tamar spiritually? Did Tamar kill Uriah and take his wife? No, she did not. Was Tamar defrauded by the father of those who would seek to kill Christ? Yes, indeed she was. Did Judah seek to kill Tamar for his own sins? Did Judah tell Tamar he would give her his son to raise up seed to his brother? The answer to all of these questions is a resounding yes. What are we told is the principle which will rule in the day of judgment:

Mat 25:40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Are we going to argue with the very words of Christ, who is the same “yesterday, today and forever” and say this has no application to Tamar? Tamar represents Christ and His elect just as surely and another Tamar represents Christ and His elect. This Tamar was King David’s daughter who was invited to come and minister to her own brother who loved her. But once he came to know Tamar, he hated her and cast her and her coat many colors out. He invited Tamar to minister to him, and then he despised her. All evil ever done is done against Christ:

Psa 51:4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, [and] be clear when thou judgest.

The natural man sees David killing Uriah and still believes David is God’s anointed. The mind of Christ also sees king David killing Christ and still being God’s anointed. King David Himself acknowledges that his sin against Uriah was actually against God. If king David’s murder of Uriah is to be taken as sinning against Christ, are not Judah’s sins against Tamar also Judah’s sins against Christ? God’s anointed see Christ as the victim of every evil deed mentioned in “every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” The mind of Christ sees and understands that those who accuse Christ and His elect of sins Are, Were and Always Will Be always those nearest and dearest to them. Those who are making the accusations will not repent of their own sins. They label God’s elect as spiritual fornicators when the opposite is true.

Gen 38:24 And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt.
Gen 38:25 When she was brought forth, she sent to her father in law, saying, By the man, whose these are, am I with child: and she said, Discern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet, and bracelets, and staff.
Gen 38:26 And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more.

In Hosea, God’s seed is, in type, brought forth out of a harlot. In this shadow and type here in Genesis 38, God’s seed is brought forth through the actions of a whoremonger in the person of Judah, the natural father of those who delivered.

Was it a sin to “go in unto your daughter-in-law.” Yes, it certainly was. But just as King David typifies God’s elect suffering the continued plagues of God’s wrath to the day he dies, so too, does Tamar suffer the rejection of her father-in-law until the day he dies. Many evil deeds are used by God to portray a positive point. David’s sin in the matter of Uriah speaks volumes about the beast still in us all. And the judgment pronounced upon King David speaks volumes about God’s elect suffering the plagues of God’s wrath. If Christ suffered God’s wrath, how can we hope to escape? We have all treated Tamar with disgust while we ourselves have been far worse. Speaking specifically of Christ we are told:

Isa 54:7 For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
Isa 54:8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.

Mat 26:39 And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup [of God’s wrath] pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou [wilt].

Mat 20:22 But Jesus answered and said, Ye [James and John] know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup [of God’s wrath] that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able.
Mat 20:23 (a) And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with:…

It will only be those who cannot see that Judah’s sin against Tamar, like David’s sin against Uriah, was in reality sinning against Christ and His elect. The spiritual parallels between Christ and Tamar are overwhelming. Tamar was lied to, taken advantage of and then, like Christ, rejected and hated by those who “believed on Him” and yet “wanted to kill Him” (Joh 8:31-41). And those who wanted Him dead, just as in the case of Tamar, were far more evil than He. Both Tamars were taken in as lovers and then cast out as profane. How can they be anyone else in type and in shadow but that around which all scripture revolves. Do you wonder what it represents? Even if it’s a “brazen serpent”, it is a type and a shadow of some part of “The Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and The End, The Is, Was and Will Be Christ.”

Joh 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

Christ tells us that Moses lifting up that serpent typified his own corruptible flesh which, just like our own flesh and blood, would have rotted into the ground had it been long in the grave.

Here are the words of our own Lord:

Mat 10:24 The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.

God’s elect see nothing in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, from Gen 1:1 to Rev 22:21, which is not in some way related to “Christ in us, the hope of glory.”

Col 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

Here is a section of God’s Word worth pondering at this time:

Ecc 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven [even or especially so for God’s elect]

Now with the thought in mind that “man shall … live by every word of God,” with the understanding that only God’s elect can see that every word of God is Spirit, let’s read a little further in Ecclesiastes chapter 3:

Ecc 3:2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
Ecc 3:3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
Ecc 3:4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
Ecc 3:5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
Ecc 3:6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
Ecc 3:7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
Ecc 3:8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
Ecc 3:9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
Ecc 3:10 I have seen the travail [Hebrew: evil experience], which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised [Hebrew: humbled] in it.

Is there any part of this that is not for us? No, there is no part of this section of Ecclesiastes which is not for us. Neither is there any part of the book of Genesis that is not for us as we relate to Christ. This is especially true whenever anyone is being wronged and taken advantage of by those who should be their spiritual leaders. Whenever such a story appears in God’s Word, it is talking about Christ and His elect. Tamar was taken in as a lover, and then she was cast out as profane by the very people who profaned her. If this is not a story about Christ, then how, pray tell, can David be considered a man after God’s own heart. But Tamar does typify Christ. And David is also a type of Christ who always ends up saying “Not my will but thine be done.”