So, I don't know about you, but we had a good time of unplugging for this last long weekend. Nothing beats hanging with the family and friends. However, in Sunday we continued our walk through Genesis and stopped at chapter 38 with the story of Judah and Tamar.I have never heard the story of Judah and Tamar preached or taught, although I have heard portions of it mentioned from time to time in other settings. Now, there were a few practical elements that we walked away with, but I will throw this one out there:
Was Tamar right to do what she did? This is one of those ethical questions. If Tamar is right to do what she did, the question for us today is would we encourage people today to engage in a sin in order to achieve the greater good?
Thoughts?
2 comments:
Was Tamar right to do what she did? Well, if you don't mind deception, yes. She was, however, entitled under law at the time (from what I know).
Encouraging people to act for the "greater good" is scary because we all have our own definition of what greater good means and until we're on the same page of the implications of what that means, it's too relative.
Terrorists and bible smugglers say that they do what they do for the greater good. In both cases, people risk persecution and death for what they do, and yet they both believe that their actions are necessary, and, for the greater good.
Would we encourage a person to sin to achieve the greater good? Quite the question, and yet all it does is ignite another dialogue on an issue of situational ethics. To me that's is just venturing out on a very dangerous ground. I know that I have a problem with being sinful - this reality makes it very dangerous for me to even contemplate sinning for the cause of the greater good. I need to focus on not sinning and let God take care of the greater good.
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