January 18 Bible readings -- my daughter-in-law is hot enough to be my hooker

If you’ve fooled around with the same woman two of your sons already fooled around with...


you might be a Jewish redneck: Genesis 37:1-38:30


Demon Hunter: Matthew 12:22-45

Pleasures Forevermore: Psalm 16:1-11

Withold not good: Proverbs 3:27-32

Today’s Bible reading is full of LILYMI – Live It Like Ya Mean It

The story in Genesis is the kind of story that’ll make you blush if you read it out loud. :)

To understand parts of the story, we must first realize that in the ancient Middle East it was a huge shame to die of old age without ever having kids. The people around you thought that you must be an awful person to have been cursed by God with childlessness.

It seems like a perverted thing for Judah to command his son, Onan, to marry Tamar & make babies through her in his brother’s name. But in reality Judah was trying to do both the memory of his son & his still living daughter-in-law a favor by giving them the honor of having kids in their name.

Onan tried to take advantage of his sister-in-law’s situation by getting his kicks from her on a long term basis while at the same time trying to give himself & his kids a bigger piece of the inheritance pie. As long as she was not pregnant, Onan could keep taking advantage of the situation in a sexual manner. As long as Onan’s late brother didn’t have a son, then Onan would get half of Judah’s wealth when he died (with the other half going to Onan’s still living brother, Shelah).

We’re called on to help the needy, not take advantage of them. Apparently, God takes this very seriously.

Jesus’ teaching in Matthew backs this up. “For a tree is recognized by its fruit.” Jesus said this in the context of trying to explain to the Pharisees that He is not a chief demon. Our works make it clear who’s side we’re on -- Jesus' or Satan's. Now, we can’t run on a tangent & say that our works get us into Heaven – lots of places in the Bible say that we’re saved by grace. Yet, we can’t throw out this part of the Bible either. We must love our fellow man – case closed.

Tomorrow when the youth go to work at the mission, we must remember that God puts us in situations like that to help people. We represent Him, not the world. Our behavior needs to reflect God’s love, not Satan’s selfishness.