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- Uncovering Scripture: The Gospel of Luke
"When disciples followed a rabbi, they followed him closely so they would never be out of his sight, never be someplace where they couldn’t hear him speak. They followed him so closely that his sandals often kicked up dust."
May you be covered in His dust.
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Today’s the day!
The launch of my new book: Uncovering Scripture: The Gospel of Luke.
For most of my life, I just snacked on the Bible.
I’d never read it cover to cover—and rarely even finished a single book.
It felt confusing.
Why were there four accounts of Jesus’ life?
They all seemed to blend together.
Then a friend posted that he’d read 50 chapters of the Bible in one day.
Umm… WHAT?
I reached out.
We set up a Zoom call.
He encouraged me to read the entire Bible in 30 days.
I laughed.
I did the math, “That’s 40 chapters a day!”
Long story short…
I did it.
And that’s where everything began.
I wasn’t reading to understand every detail—I just wanted the big picture.
And here’s what I saw:
God is patient.
God is loving.
Over and over again, His people turned their backs on Him.
Over and over again, they worshiped idols.
And over and over again—He forgave them.
After reading it from 10,000 feet, I decided to get closer.
Much closer.
I slowed down.
I read with a magnifying glass.
And I didn’t move on until I understood what I was reading.
That’s when Covered in His Dust began—
a weekly deep dive into Scripture, shared with people hungry to go deeper.
It took me a year and a half to walk through Luke and Acts.
And this Saturday, I’ll begin taking apart Romans and putting it back together again.
Keep an eye out for it.
Fast forward to the end of last year:
Our academy chaplain stepped away from the ministry, which gave me the opportunity to teach Bible again.
My wife and I prayed about it for weeks.
“How can I make the most impact in their walk with Jesus?”
I wanted them to see what I saw.
To fall in love with Scripture.
To crave it.
This school year, I taught Bible five days a week to to our middle school boys, teachers, and staff—for an hour each day.
That experience shaped something new.
Something built for new believers, and those who’ve stopped noticing what’s right in front of them.
That’s how Uncovering Scripture: The Gospel of Luke came to life.
It’s not a commentary.
It’s not really a devotional.
It’s a companion.
Something to read alongside the Bible.
To slow you down and show you what you might’ve missed.
I took each chapter of Luke and pulled out one or two things most people miss.
Why do we miss them?
Because we think we already know them.
“I know that story.”
“I’ve read that parable.”
“I know who Paul is.”
But the truth is… we don’t.
Not really.
So here’s what I’m doing this week:
Starting tonight and for the next four nights,
I’m going to send you one story from the Bible each night,
written in the same style as the book.
They’re not pulled from the book. But they’ll give you a taste of what it’s like to read Uncovering Scripture.
If you find yourself reaching for your Bible to see if that story is really there… this is for you.
If you find yourself wanting to read just one more chapter… this is for you.
And now—Night One.
Welcome to the first of 5 nights of Uncovering Scripture.
Genesis 38: The Prostitute in Jesus’ Family Tree.
This chapter reads like it doesn’t belong in the Bible.
It’s ugly.
It’s scandalous.
And yet God chose to weave it right into the line of Jesus.
Judah had three sons. Tamar married the first, Er.
But he was wicked, and God struck him dead.
So Tamar was given to the second, Onan.
He was supposed to give her children in his brother’s name.
Instead, he used her. Slept with her. Made sure she never conceived.
God struck him dead too.
Two husbands gone.
No children.
Tamar is left barren and disgraced.
Judah promises her his youngest son, Shelah.
But he’s lying.
He has no intention of risking another boy.
He’d rather Tamar rot as a forgotten widow than trust her with his son.
So Tamar makes a plan.
She disguises herself as a prostitute.
She waits by the roadside.
And Judah, her father-in-law, the man who should have protected her, sleeps with her.
He doesn’t have payment, so he leaves behind his staff, his cord, and his seal as a pledge.
Months later, word spreads: “Tamar is pregnant by immorality.”
Judah is furious.
“Bring her out. Burn her.”
The hypocrisy drips off the page.
The man who abandoned her, who used her, who condemned her,
is ready to kill her for doing what he himself had done.
But Tamar sends a message.
The staff. The cord. The seal.
“These belong to the man who made me pregnant.”
Judah’s face goes white.
The evidence is in his hands.
And he says the line that turns the whole chapter:
“She is more righteous than I.”
Tamar gives birth to twins.
And from Perez — the unexpected son of scandal — comes David.
And from David comes Jesus.
That’s the part people miss.
The Messiah’s family tree doesn’t skip this chapter.
It runs straight through it.
God’s Character Revealed (Genesis 38)
1. God sees hidden wickedness.
“But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord put him to death.” (v. 7)
We might bury our sin in secrecy. God doesn’t. He sees, and He judges.
2. God flips human hypocrisy.
“She is more righteous than I.” (v. 26)
Judah was ready to kill her. God exposed him instead.
3. God redeems through scandal.
Perez is in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:3). God didn’t avoid the mess. He redeemed it, and made it part of the Savior’s story.
The punch to the face of Genesis 38 isn’t just Judah’s sin or Tamar’s trick.
It’s this: God chose to carry the blood of a prostitute scandal into His Son’s genealogy.
If you and I wrote the Bible, we’d scrub this out.
But God left it in.
Not as an embarrassment, but as a reminder that His grace doesn’t run away from the mess.
It runs right through it.
If God left Tamar’s scandal in the Bible, what else have we read right past?
That’s why I wrote Uncovering Scripture: The Gospel of Luke. Grab your copy HERE.
I’ll be sending another story tomorrow night.
Meet me right back here.
I love you,
George
Uncovering Scripture
PS: If a friend shared this Bible study with you and you’d like to receive it straight to your inbox, just click HERE to subscribe—it’s free and always will be!
George Sisneros is a full-time missionary in Guatemala and the founder of Ordinary Missionaries and the El Rosario Christian Academy for Boys.
He’s been married to his wife, Vonda, for 26 years. He’s a father to nine children, five adopted.
In 2024, George and his wife expanded to Cuba, joining forces with nine pastors committed to transforming lives through the gospel.