For the past few weeks, my family has been watching a new show called The House of David. It’s a dramatic retelling of the life of Israel’s King, with the first season focusing on his being anointed by Samuel, alongside God’s rejection of King Saul. There are several easily-spotted liberties being taken with the Biblical narrative, but every now and then there’s a moment where someone quotes directly from the Bible and it all plays out in a realistic backdrop, depicting what the world would have looked like back then. It’s in those moments where the show shines. I’m digging it.

There is one major complaint I have, however.

For some strange reason, the writers (some of whom worked on The Chosen and other religious-based television shows) decided to depict David as a bastard. There’s a subplot throughout the show that implies (and sometimes outright says) that Jesse, David’s father, slept with a woman that was not his wife. Why they did this, I have no idea. It’s not accurate to David, but there is SOMETHING to be remembered about David and his ancestry of illegitimate children…

There’s a little-studied section in Genesis ch38 that relates to Judah, the son of Jacob. Basically, Judah’s son Er was married to a woman named Tamar, and when his son died (at the hands of God for his wickedness), by custom, Tamar was given to Judah’s other son Onan. Unfortunately (or not, since he too was wicked), Onan was struck dead by the Lord, leaving Tamar once again without a husband. By custom, she was supposed to be given to Judah’s OTHER other son, Shelah, but Judah decided he didn’t want lightning to strike three times, so he put off allowing Tamar to marry Shelah.

Feeling wronged, Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute and tricked Judah into sleeping with her (he paid for the dalliance with his signet ring). As a result, she became pregnant. Later, when her pregnancy was no longer able to be hidden, Judah found out she was with child, and initially condemned her to be burned for immorality (by law, she was betrothed to Shelah, even though Judah was never going to let the actual marriage take place). Tamar then revealed to Judah that he was the father by showing him the ring he’d given her to pay to sleep with her.

This is some afternoon soap-opera level drama!

Judah acknowledged his wrongdoing and that’s basically the end of it, but Tamar would go on to have twin sons: Perez and Zerah. Perez went on to be the ancestor of King David. Here’s the point of all this. In the Law of Moses, when a child is born out of wedlock, he must be denied access to the assembly of the Lord. No going to Tabernacle/Temple for him (Deuteronomy 23:2). In fact, the prohibition extends up to ten generations. Which means no descendant, for ten generations, is allowed to go up to the House of the Lord.

If you apply that Law to the situation involving Judah and Tamar, then no descendant of Tamar, would be allowed access to the House of the Lord, for ten generations. It might interest you to know that David belonged to the tenth generation of the affair between Judah and Tamar. So while he, himself, was not a bastard, he was the product of an illegitimate birth, one that happened ten generations ago, and one that, under the Law of Moses, would have denied his immediate ancestors access to the House of God.

That might give deeper significance to these words that he penned in the Psalms:

“I was glad when they said unto me, ‘Let us go into the house of the Lord.'”

(Psalm 122:1)

Worshipping God is a privilege, not a right. We are given the honor of approaching the Lord, and we do so on His terms. When we have the right to approach Him, we should rejoice, and never take it for granted. Considering his family history, I don’t think David ever took lightly the honor of worshiping God.

~Matthew