Today's Favorite Verse: Genesis 38:8

Today's Favorite Verse: Genesis 38:8

"And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother."

Since I didn't understand much about it I tried to read up on this type of marriage. It doesn't appear to be any law or principle given by God. It was a customary law at the time, that a widow with no children had claim on her husband's next oldest brother or closest living male relative. It was called a "Levirate marriage"

"The custom of a widow marrying her deceased husband’s brother or sometimes a near heir. The word has nothing to do with the name Levi or the biblical Levites but is so called because of the Latin levir, meaning “husband’s brother,” connected with the English suffix -ate, thus constituting levirate. This system of marriage is designated in Deut. 25:5–10 (see also Gen. 38:8), is spoken of in Matt. 22:23–33; it also forms a major aspect of the story of Ruth (Ruth 4:1–12)." (Bible Dictionary)

This custom under Moses became a law. I'm thinking now that this was more like the 12th Article of Faith: "We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law." Because it was a customary law, it became a law that Moses upholds. I'm not terribly convinced that it is a law of God. I'd need to do a lot more reading on that.

This is all making me thinking of something I heard in General Conference today about principles and laws. I believe it was Elder Bednar's talk "The Principles of My Gospel". Looks like that should be the first talk I go back and study. I know it's important for me to understand the true principle, for not everything will be spelled out, due to there being different societal customs. I see in this chapter the issue really wasn't that Judah should have had Shelah marry Tamar his daughter-in-law. The real issue was Judah breaking the law of chastity, and Tamar's deception to get what she wanted. It's really easy to get distracted with outward things, when really the principle and laws of God broken are extremely clear.

Day 2197