“He asked the townspeople, ‘Where is the temple prostitute who was at Enaim by the wayside?’ But they said, ‘No prostitute has been here.’”—Genesis 38:21

A wink and a smile….that’s what I imagine the townspeople doing after the man asked where she was. They were going to show him. A woman is not defined by her actions.

In seminary, I attended a J term course on domestic violence. One of the places we visited was Genesis House in Chicago. I remember the humanity and vulnerability I saw in these women as they shared their stories of escaping through prostitution. They were more than faces in a crowd. I saw them fully as beloved children of God.

Tamar, Bathsheba, Rahab, Ruth, and Mary are beloved children of God too. Tamar is not who others say she is. She is a mother. She is badass and I love how the townspeople advocate for her in this story. He is going to have to look a lot longer and harder for her. And she isnt going to let him get by because he’s already screwed his brother over in death. If she has the last word, she’s going to screw him over.

Tamar shows us what it means to be a badass woman in the Bible!