Genesis 38 and Scandalous Grace and the Messiness of Life With Sin

I've heard it referred to as scandalous grace. Never really understood that until yesterday at church.

My head still reels from one word that I did not even know was in the Bible. I have a feeling there may be more of them. Let's just say as to what word, the Bible may be very instrumental in sex education and turning things around in that area.

I think if it hadn't been for the floor underneath all of us, our jaws would not have returned but alas, there were a lot of jaws that dropped.

Scandalous stuff in the Bible. No wonder they say that the Bible consists of every literary genre known to mankind.

Psychology, genealogy, sex education, how-to, self-help (sort of), poetry, history, science fiction (hmmm.....), mystery (What happened to Jonah after the book of Jonah finishes?), etc. I think perhaps the only genre that might not be covered is cooking, but honestly, I don't know that it isn't.

Like I said, my head still reels from that passage.

It was good though. Essentially because we live in a fallen world full of broken people with sin, we have to deal with the consequences of that sin. Sin is sloppy and messy. Sin is yucky. That wily devil hits us from every angle imaginable and just when you think you're strong enough to fend him off, here he comes again.

Sometimes it is the devil, but more often than not, it is the sin. Our personal sin, someone else's sin, sin sin sin (Brady Bunch "Marsha Marsha Marsh.").

But just when you think you're down for the count, you can recover (TobyMac "Get Back Up"). You may be down for a season, but as people come to grips with the sin that created the mess, here come the scrub brushes (counsel from others, lessons that you and other people needed to learn, time, etc.) to clean up the mess and set things right again.

Okay, so maybe that wasn't EXACTLY what was being taught in the messiest lesson I ever got from church, but it is what I got. Different people get different things out of the same lesson depending on where they are in life at the present when they hear the lesson and this is what I learned.

Now if only I can get past that one word in Genesis 38.... (Blushing.)