What is righteous?
Genesis 38 takes a temporary break from the Joseph story to document a bit of family intrigue in Judah's little circle.
In the account, Judah gives a Canaanite woman named Tamar to his oldest son Er. God finds something objectionable about Er and acts in some way that results in Er's death. Judah gives Tamar to his next oldest son Onan who, by family custom, should sire a son to inherit Er's birthright (Deuteronomy 25:5-10; Ruth 4). Onan thought about it and decided that he would have Er's inheritance if he failed to sire a son through Tamar; so he used Tamar for sex but he practiced coitus interruptus so that his seed would not go into Tamar. This behavior also displeased God and the result was Onan's death as well.
(Incidentally, there is no basis here to suggest that every death is God's will. Nevertheless, God evidentially reserves the right to sometimes work toward the death of certain persons).
Judah told Tamar that he would give her to his next younger son when he is old enough to take a wife. He then, conveniently, forgot about it. Tamar, on the other hand, was forced into permanent widowhood without any freedom to remarry or to inherit.
Tamar took matters into her own hands. She disguised herself and had sexual intercourse with Judah. She got pregnant. When Judah found out the whole story, he called Tamar "righteous" (Genesis 38:26).
The end result of Tamar's actions is that Judah's lineage was preserved. He became the ancestor of David and Jesus through Tamar. In typical patriarchal fashion, the younger of Tamar's twins is the father of this lineage.
The big question that comes up here and in other places is, What, exactly, is "righteous?" Is morality a long list of DOs and DON'Ts? Is everything that is stated as a rule in scripture the end-all of right behavior? We need look at Jesus' repeated violations of the Sabbath to see that we can focus too closely on the rule at the expense of treating people right.
Is there gray area between right and wrong? If morality is that fluid, how willy-nilly can we be about switching them around? I am reminded of Romans 3:7-8.
But if through my falsehood God's truthfulness abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not say (as some people slander us by saying that we say), "Let us do evil so that good may come"? Their condemnation is deserved! (NRSV)
Addendum, for clarity. A paraphrase.:
If by my unrighteousness I glorify God then my unrighteousness is God's will; so I should have a reward rather than a condemnation. We don't do that. Those who say we do are condemned and deserve it.
/Addendum
Consider the dishonest actions of the Hebrew midwives (Exodus 1:19-21), Rahab (Joshua 2:4-5), David's spies (2Samuel 16:16-19; 17:7-13, 20) and Michal (1 Samuel 19:14; 20:28-29; 19:17). There are good Christians who operate as spies and undercover agents. How do they do it without feeling like they are sinning in their dishonesty? It probably boils down to the fact that being right is less important than love and the good welfare of people.
Fretheim ("Genesis," NIBC) has this to say: [Tamar's] action cannot be universalized so as to be declared righteous wherever it is committed; at the same time, such action may be righteous in another time and place if it becomes the way of doing justice to a relationship. It may be necessary to go beyond the law in order to fulfill the law, which should enable life and well-being to a community (see Deut 6:24; Jesus’ sabbath-breaking, Mark 2:27). Here the OT narrative gives especially high value to the future of the community, in view of which individual acts, which might be normally condemned, are viewed positively. Relationships are more important than rules; faithfulness may mean going beyond the law. We cannot help wondering whether this story has informed Jesus’ saying that “the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you” (Matt 21:31 NRSV) as well as his open response to the woman who was a “sinner” (Luke 7:36-50). We should not “secularize” this note about righteousness; in v. 10, God is explicitly involved in judgment regarding this matter. Hence, Tamar has been truer to her relationship with God than Judah has.
