God Kills Onan

After selling Joseph off to slavery, Judah left his brothers and went to stay with his friend Hiram the Adullamite. He saw a certain Canaanite woman named Shua, so he took her and married her. Time passed. They had three boys, and Judah moved on with his life. As his sons got old enough to marry, Judah took a wife for his firstborn, Er.

Er was doing that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord took his life. We are not told what evil he was doing, only that it was bad enough to warrant an early departure from this life. So Judah instructed his brother Onan to perform the duty of the brother in law to her, to raise up children for his brother. Tamar and Er had no children, so the custom of the next brother bringing forth children with the widow was performed.

Marriage is God’s idea. He created it as a blessed sanctuary for men and women. God wants men to take care of and protect their wives and children. For a man who had no children when he died, his brother was to take the widow as his wife, provide and care for her and see to it that children were raised from her to carry on his brother’s lineage. This seems like an odd idea, but the basic thrust of it was God did not want single mothers running around trying to raise kids on their own. He wanted those mothers provided for. Consider this an early form of welfare.

Onan married Tamar. He took full advantage of every aspect of that relationship, except when it came to ensuring she bore children. He practiced the pull out method and spilled his seed on the ground. This is wickedness. That is not what God wanted. If Onan was to engage in that relationship with Tamar, then he should have completed the task fully. Instead, he withheld his duty because he knew the children would not be his.

God wants a man and his wife to be fruitful and multiply. Onan refused to do that, so God took his life also. God feels so strongly about the blessing of children that He took Onan’s life so Tamar would not have to go through that for the rest of her life. Intimacy is a blessing in marriage. It should only happen inside marriage. We must do that God’s way or we incur the anger of God on our lives.

[churchclothes]

After selling Joseph off to slavery, Judah left his brothers and went to stay with his friend Hiram the Adullamite. He saw a certain Canaanite woman named Shua, so he took her and married her. Time passed. They had three boys, and Judah moved on with his life. As his sons got old enough to marry, Judah took a wife for his firstborn, Er.

Er was doing that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord took his life. We are not told what evil he was doing, only that it was bad enough to warrant an early departure from this life. So Judah instructed his brother Onan to perform the duty of the brother in law to her, to raise up children for his brother. Tamar and Er had no children, so the custom of the next brother bringing forth children with the widow was performed.

Marriage is God’s idea. He created it as a blessed sanctuary for men and women. God wants men to take care of and protect their wives and children. For a man who had no children when he died, his brother was to take the widow as his wife, provide and care for her and see to it that children were raised from her to carry on his brother’s lineage. This seems like an odd idea, but the basic thrust of it was God did not want single mothers running around trying to raise kids on their own. He wanted those mothers provided for. Consider this an early form of welfare.

Onan married Tamar. He took full advantage of every aspect of that relationship, except when it came to ensuring she bore children. He practiced the pull out method and spilled his seed on the ground. This is wickedness. That is not what God wanted. If Onan was to engage in that relationship with Tamar, then he should have completed the task fully. Instead, he withheld his duty because he knew the children would not be his.

God wants a man and his wife to be fruitful and multiply. Onan refused to do that, so God took his life also. God feels so strongly about the blessing of children that He took Onan’s life so Tamar would not have to go through that for the rest of her life. Intimacy is a blessing in marriage. It should only happen inside marriage. We must do that God’s way or we incur the anger of God on our lives.