This passage in a nutshell: Judah has three sons. Tamar marries the oldest son Er who does some unspecified evil in the Lord’s sight and the Lord takes his life. Tamar then marries the second son Onan so that Er might have a descendant. However, Onan does not want his child to be Er’s descendant so he sleeps with Tamar, but commits coitus interruptus. The Lord sees this as an evil thing so he kills Onan as well. Judah then promises Tamar his third

It seems that Joseph learned his lesson from when he was younger. When he is interpreting dreams his focus has shifted from what he can do and how he will be blessed to what God is capable of doing. God has blessed Joseph with a great gift and with tremendous insight; when he focuses that gift on what God can do he and the people around him are blessed. In this case Joseph notes that it is not he who is able to interpret the dream, but it is God.

There are many times in my life when I have taken credit for what God is doing. As a pastor it easy to look at weekly attendance as a scorecard of how well you are doing. Obviously if attendance goes up it’s because I am awesome, or if attendance goes down it’s because people don’t understand me. However, that is a poor way to look at what God is doing. I am not capable of leading a church, but God is capable. Throughout life we need to recognize on a daily basis that we are dependent upon God. If we ever think we are doing it ourselves God will teach us that we are wrong. God taught Joseph to depend on Him by subjecting him to slavery and two years of imprisonment. Hopefully we will learn our lessons a little sooner.