We Have Found the Messiah!

...in Genesis 49:10

Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes: His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.

Genesis 49:8-12 [KJV]

The sceptre shall not depart from Judah,nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples

Genesis 49:10 [ESV]

These words were spoken by Jacob on his deathbed, and represent one of the most important indications we have in the Old Testament that God intended to provide a messianic figure and redeemer for his own people. The whole doctrine and teaching of the Messiah is central to the Bible, and provides a link which binds all the elements of biblical revelation together. Geerhardus Vos calls this a "link of vital continuity" between the various elements of biblical history and revelation. The units which make up the Bible's story are not to be regarded in isolation from each other, even although they require to be distinguished from one another. We are to explore God's theme of salvation as it runs through the Bible.

The OT demonstrates that God's ultimate intention was that one unique individual would appear on the stage of history as the redeemer and deliver of his people. He would be 'anointed', and set apart for this reason.

There are different types of messianic passage in the OT. Passages dealing with God's covenant are, in a sense, messianic; passages in which people fulfill certain roles for the salvation of his people are messianic to the extent that they provide a type, or fore-shadowing, of the salvific role which Jesus was to assume and fulfill. And passages of future prediction, such as is before us in Genesis 49, are also messianic, predicting the coming of a unique individual.

Let's begin by reminding ourselves of the importance of the Book of Genesis. It is a unique book, a book of beginnings. And it has been written with care. It has a style marked by symmetry and parallelism throughout. It is perhaps unfortunate that the King James Version sets its chapters before us in blocks of justified text. This does not let us see the beauty of the composition. If we confine ourselves to the Joseph cycle of narratives (chapters 37-50), we see that there is a magnificent artistry to this section of the book. For example, the Joseph stories begin with a movement from Canaan to Egypt, and end with a movement from Egypt to Canaan. They begin with Jacob mourning the loss of Joseph, and end with Joseph mourning the loss of Jacob. The more we examine these parallels, the more we see how much care went in to the narrative.

Our focus here is on the prophecy Jacob made concerning Judah. And even if one isolates the strand of the narrative concerning Judah, there is again this striking artistry in the presentation of Judah. At the outset, we note that is was through Judah that Joseph's life was spared; and at the close of the narrative, it is through Joseph that Judah's life is spared. In chapter 38, in the intriguing episode when Judah commits immorality with Tamar, his daughter-in-law, God struck his two eldest sons dead because of his anger against them. Judah is concerned for the life of his youngest son. That is paralleled in the way in which he pleads in chapter 44 for Benjamin. There is a correspondence between his concern (even in his sin) for his own youngest son, and his concern later for the youngest son of Jacob, for whom he is willing to give his own life. In the same way as Judah deceived their father, so he is deceived by Tamar in chapter 38.

In these ways we are brought to marvel not only at the doctrines which are present in the Bible, but at the way in which the tapestry of doctrines has been woven together so skilfully, and in which Jesus Christ is brought before us, wrapped in the tapestry of Scripture.

Here is Jacob, at the close of his life, gathering together his sons in the land of Egypt. That is a remarkable contrast with the opening of the Joseph cycle, in which the family is 'cursed' with 'death', and the result is a breach in the family as Joseph is brought to Egypt. But now, in Egypt, Jacob blesses his sons as they gather round his death-bed.

Jacob tells them that he is speaking to them concerning the 'last days'. What he is to pronounce over them by way of blessing in HIS last days, concerns the last days of his family. The Spirit of God is on him, and the word of God is in him. Here is an intimation of the way in which God will prepare the ground for the coming of the Saviour.

The order in which Jacob blesses his sons corresponds roughly (not exactly) to the order in which they were born. But Reuben, Simeon and Levi are passed over by Jacob. They are the eldest, yet the greatest blessing is reserved for Judah. Because of their sin, these sons are bypassed. But for Judah the promise is that his brothers will 'praise' him (that is significant because the name Judah means 'praise'). He is going to be praised because he will have victory over his enemies. His hand will be on the neck of his enemies. This is an important messianic theme; from the outset, with the intimation of Genesis 3:15 of the one who would have victory over the serpent, we are reminded of the warrior dimension of the messianic prophecy, and the ultimate hope of victory that lies with the Messiah of God.

Judah is a lion's cub -- portrayed as one who will grow into the king of beasts. There is a remarkable echo of this in Revelation 5, where the one who looses the scroll is described as the lion of the tribe of Judah. Jacob sees the cub who will grow into the lion, who is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ.

Here is the specific promise -- the sceptre, the symbol of rule and government, will not depart from Judah. What is the content of this messianic prophecy?

First, the Messiah is to be a king, and Judah will be associated with kingship. The sceptre which the king holds as the symbol of kingship, the insignia of his office, will be held between his hands and his feet. Judah is the tribe from which the lawgiving sovereign will come. As Psalm 60:7 puts it, Judah is God's sceptre. Psalm 78:68 reminds us that God chose Judah's tribe and set it in a position of eminence, giving Judah the place of the law-giver.

Ultimately, of course, God himself is the ruler, the lawgiver, of his people. But he devolves sovereignty upon his chosen kings, from the tribe of Judah. Was this the case? Was it fulfilled in the OT? Our evidence that it was fulfilled comes from the Book of Ruth. At the close of the Book of Ruth we have the blessing pronounced on Boaz, that his house would be like the house of Perez, "whom Tamar bore to Judah" (Ruth 4:12). The genealogy is then taken up in Ruth 4:18, where the line of Perez runs through Boaz to David, the king of Israel.

This is proof enough of the fulfillment of Jacob's prophecy! The sceptre did not depart from Judah; although Judah may have departed from God, God's purpose did not depart from Judah. Through Judah King David himself was to sit on the throne of God's people, as the greatest messianic figure of the OT. In this royal line, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. The world is sunk in sin, but grace is able to bring God's purposes to fruition. There is much to discourage us; and too often we are like the world rather than like Christ. But grace abounds -- even when Judah prostitutes himself with his daughter-in-law, God is laying the foundation for the royal house of David. The sceptre will not depart from Judah. The lawgiver will come, within ten generations, from the loins of Judah.

Even in the later OT period, when through the minor prophets God has to argue with his people about how far they have strayed, God maintains his purpose. Listen to the great affirmation of Hosea 11:12: Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit: but Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the saints. What is God saying? That even in the worst days of apostasy, God is still fulfilling his messianic purpose. God is sovereign, and is bound to his people in bonds of covenant love and faithfulness.

I think it is a remarkable thing that the religion that is today prominent among those who claim to be the sons of Abraham is called Judaism. Even today, with all that the Jews have done in their rejection of the Messiah, there is an echo of the eminence that God gave to this tribe in the Old Testament. He provided a king, and did it out of the tribe of Judah.

The writer to the Hebrews highlights this in his discussion of the priesthood of Christ. The priests came from the tribe of Levi; but in discussing Christ's Melchisedek priesthood he says that "it is evident that the Lord sprang from Judah" (Hebrews 7:14), a tribe of which God had said nothing previously concerning priesthood. But Jesus united several offices in his one Person. The evidence is everywhere in Scripture -- Jesus was the ultimate end, fulfillment and consummation of Jacob's prophecy. That is confirmed in the genealogies of the Gospels,, and is there in the book of Revelation too. The lawgiver did not depart from Judah. Jesus is the King who is also Priest.

What does that mean for us? It means that from Judah, God had always intended to provide one anointed person who would be the sovereign of his covenant people. And even as Jacob lay dying, blessing his sons and pronouncing this spectacular blessing on his sons from the depths of Egypt, he looks beyond his immediate horizon to the day when at last from the tribe of Judah and the loins of David there would come the Messiah who would fulfill the prophecy. It is this one whom God gives to us as his King.

And, as the covenant people of God, we are under the rule of Judah's son. We are under the rule of the Messianic king of Judah's line. That is what it means for us to be believers. We are saying "We have a king over us -- the king God promised".

The second element in this prophecy was that the kingship of which Jacob spoke would be consummated in a particular way.

The prophecy was that Judah would be associated with kingship for a particular and set period of time -- "until Shiloh come". The word 'until' obviously sets a boundary to the promise. There is to be king in Judah's tribe until a certain point in time, or for a defined period. What is that time? The older translation, which appears in the KJV, is "until Shiloh comes". What does that mean? I think this is probably one of the most problematic phrases in the Old Testament.

The word 'Shiloh' appears in the OT as a place-name. It became a centre of religious worship in Israel in the time of the judges, and was situated north of Bethel. In 1 Samuel 1, Hannah and Elkanah devoted Samuel to the Lord and went annually to the temple in Shiloh. There are some who want to link Jacob;s prophecy to the place Shiloh. But if that is the case, then I cannot make any sense of the verse. If Shiloh is a place, then where (and how) is it going to 'come'?

There are others who wish to leave the phrase untranslated, and who understand 'Shiloh' to be a transliterated title for the Messiah. But the problem is there is no parallel for this, and no basis for interpretation. If 'Shiloh' is a proper name for the Messiah, what does it mean?

I cannot make sense of the translation "until Shiloh comes". I think the only way to interpret it is to emend it slightly. That does not mean changing the text; Hebrew was written with consonants. The vowels are added under the consonants. With certain vowel pointing you get the word "Shiloh" with all the difficulties attached to that. Re-pointing the word with different vowels, however, gives another translation. The prophecy then says that the sceptre will not depart from Judah nor the lawgiver from between his feet until he comes, to whom it belongs. That, I think, is the meaning of the text.

What the prophecy is saying is that Judah will have the kingship until at last the one to whom the kingship properly belongs will make his appearance, and when he does, Judah will yield the sovereignty to him absolutely.

There is a parallel passage in Ezekiel 21 which sheds light for us on this. Again, God is dealing with the sins of his people, and in Ezekiel 21:25-27 he says,

And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturnh, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him.

Ezekiel is saying the same thing as Jacob. Indeed, Ezekiel may well be taking the words of Jacob and applying them to Israel in his own day, perhaps even finding a partial fulfillment of the prophecy in them. Ezekiel is saying that Israel cannot bear the crown, until the one whose right it is comes, then God will give Him the diadem. That is Jacob's message too -- the sceptre will be in the possession of Judah, but eventually one will appear who will bear the crown as his personal right, and Judah will yield the sovereignty to him. Who is this? None other but Jesus Christ; and when they crucified him, this is what they wrote on his cross -- Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews! He, to whom the sceptre truly belongs, finally came, and with his coming Judah gladly relinquished the kingship. All the OT, with its form and ceremony, its prophecy and ritual, is fulfilled in Christ, and there will be a new Israel, to whom the people of God will bow.

Jacob's prophecy is not simply saying that one day the Messiah will come; it says that when Messiah comes the old order will acknowledge his kingship and will yield to him who will give his people a new order and a renewed covenant. He will give his people light through his Gospel.

This is one of the great OT prophecies which is saying that there will be an end to the OT when Judah gives the sceptre to the Christ who will rule over all. This is all the more remarkable, given that the prophecy is made at such an early stage of OT revelation. We are looking at the prophecy from a different perspective to that of David. We are saying that the one to whom the sceptre belongs HAS come, and all the prophecy of the OT has found its realisation, and all the ceremony of the OT is assumed in what he achieves in his coming and in his dying as the King of the Jews.

But there is a third element to this. Not just will Judah entertain the kingship until the coming of the Messiah, and that Judah will relinquish the kingship to Christ when he comes; the prophecy is that ultimately Christ will be sovereign over all the nations. "Unto him shall the gathering of the people be".

This prophecy is further given in the OT in different ways. The Messiah of God's providing will be acknowledged as God of the nations.

Is this of any consequence? Well, it is the fact that God promised his Son the nations as his inheritance is our warrant to believe that any will be saved. The reason we ourselves are saved is because the Father gave a people to the Son. His Son says "All that the Father has given me will come to me" (John 6:37). This is Jesus's expression of Jacob's prophecy -- to him the gathering of the people will be. As we look at a world lying in the grip of sin, what is our hope for that world? Is it to make the church more attractive and welcoming? Is it the eloquence of ministers that will save? God forbid.

The one thing that gives us a solid reason for preaching, witnessing and praying for those who are outside Christ is the Messianic promise that the gathering of the people will be to him. He to whom the sceptre belongs is the one who will receive his people to himself; and those who come to him he will not cast out.

We have the greatest hope of all -- grace will enable sinners to bow before the king of Judah's line. Jesus is the king who is the Messianic root of David, and the natural offspring of David; and of him John says "whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely". For a lost world, there is a Gospel that says "whosoever will let him come", because of the sovereignty of this king. We can dream that sinners will come to him only because he is the one who fulfills in his own person and work the salvation we need. All our doctrines of grace are doctrines of his sovereignty -- doctrines which flow from the fact that there is a crown on his head that was intended for no other, a crown which, during the years of OT revelation, sat on the heads of David's sons. It is now borne by Jesus, and the crown that he wears will flourish on his head. Those who have been touched by sovereign grace come to him in need with the great confession that "Jesus is Lord".

© Iain D. Campbell 2002