While we often gloss over the genealogy in Matthew 1, it is truly one of the more shocking things in the Bible. The God of the universe entered the world through a bloodline with so many… issues. Judah and Tamar are one such example. In Genesis 38, we read the somewhat blasphemous history of this family- Tamar was Judah’s daughter-in-law. When his son died, Tamar and another of Judah’s sons were married. When that son died, according to custom, Judah was supposed to give his next son to her as her husband, but he did not. Tamar, realizing that she was vulnerable if she was without any family or children, pretended to be a prostitute so that Judah would solicit her, and she became pregnant. This shameful, sin-filled event is used by God not only to redeem Judah by showing him his sinfulness and how short of God’s standard he’s fallen, but also is used to perpetuate the bloodline that God enters the world through in the person of Jesus. God’s fingerprints of redemption are prevalent all throughout Jesus lineage, and He calls us out of our own lineage of sin and into His lineage of righteousness.