Judah? Not My Choice!

Quick: whose idea was it to sell his brother, Joseph, as a slave?  Okay, okay, so the title gave it away: Judah.  Okay, pop quiz number two: whose two oldest sons were killed by God?  You're on a roll, now.  Yes, it was Judah, again.  Let's see if you can make it three out of three: which man got his daughter-in-law pregnant because he mistook her for a prostitute?  Did you guess Judah?  I hope so, at least if you want to get an "A" on this test.  Now if you were God, and you knew all of the above about Judah (and probably a lot more), who would you pick of the 12 patriarchs to be in the line of the Messiah?  Probably the most likely choice would be Joseph, for he seemingly never did anything wrong, and, despite all his misfortunes, he ended up the second in command in Egypt and was used dramatically by God.  But God chose to place Judah, and not Joseph, in the Messianic line.  And it wasn't through his third son, Shelah, that the seed passed, but, rather, it was through his little get together with his daughter-in-law that the seed passed.  "Wait a minute," some might say, "I know that Mary's husband's line is listed in the Book of Matthew, so, technically, his seed didn't pass to Jesus."  Okay, you got me.  You're right.  Judah's seed did pass to Mary's husband, Joseph.  But when you flip your Bible a few more pages to the right, you will see that the seed of Judah (and his son by Tamar, Perez) was in the direct line of Mary, too.  What does this speak of?  A little thing known as grace.  Imagine that--God took Judah's most embarrassing act of his life and wrapped it in his grace.  But do you know what is truly interesting?  During his lifetime, Judah had no clue of what God was doing.  Which begs the question: do you think we are in for a few surprises when we die?  I think so.  And I think that the surprises will be laden with grace.