At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah. 2 There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and made love to her; 3 she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er. 4 She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan. 5 She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him. Genesis 38:1-5

Judah decided to strike out on his own. It didn’t take long for him to marry and have children. He was being singled out here for a reason; he’s a direct line to David, and ultimately to Jesus. We mustn’t forget that he was part of his family of brothers that lied to their father about what they did to Joseph. As could be predicted, all would not go well with Judah. Many years have passed since he left his brothers. Judah had settled down and was beginning to raise his family.

This period of time is the calm before the storm for Judah. When we look at Biblical characters, we have the benefit of being able to read ahead; they didn’t have the luxury.

Even in life, however, we see many calms before storms (or train wrecks in the making) in people’s lives. We see it but, for some reason, they’re not able to see it.

Perhaps you see one right now in someone’s life. You are powerless to do anything about it, but God certainly isn’t powerless.

Pray for that family that God would reach down and move in that family’s life.. He knows all the intricacies of the situation and can prevent this disaster from occurring. Or He can speed it up to help teach lessons.