This portion of scripture, there
are three things that I need to say right up front that make
this such a very important chapter. And I'm gonna present part one
to you tonight, and then part two, the Lord willing, next Wednesday
night. But first of all, these are the
words of Jacob that are recorded in the word of God. That fact
itself makes this very important. Because the scripture says, our
Lord said, heaven and earth will pass away. But not the words
of this book. The words of this book will live
on forever. When the earth is renovated by
fire, when our Lord Jesus rolls up the heavens as a great scroll,
these words of Jacob, will live on forever. This is the Word
of God. That's the first thing I want
to say. The second thing I want to say would be this. These are the last words of Jacob. Here is a man who is in his right
mind. I mean, senility hasn't set in. He's speaking with great clarity. He speaks to his sons. He speaks
to us because this is recorded in the Word of God. And this
is a man who's about to step out into eternity. In fact, look over at the very
end of the chapter, chapter 49. Look at verse 33, the last verse
of the chapter. When Jacob had made an end of
commanding his sons, after he speaks all of these words of
this chapter to his sons, he gathered up his feet into the
bed, he lays down, and he yielded up the ghost and was gathered
unto his people, that is, unto the people of God. What a blessed
final scene. as this man of God speaks these
last words before he goes home to glory. And then he's been
sitting up in the bed, speaking to his sons who have been called
to hear him, to gather around him, and then he just puts his
feet up in the bed, lays his head back on the pillow, yields
up the ghost. So these are the last words of
Jacob, and therefore worthy to be heeded, and they're very important. This is the final, final scene
of this man's life. As surely as one of these days
we're going to face our final scene. But we don't know when
that's going to be. But Jacob knew. The Lord had
spoken to him. These are your last words. The last words of a man deserve
to be listened to and to pay attention to. But here's the
third thing that I want to say. These are certainly the words
of Jacob recorded in the Word of God. These are the last words
that Jacob ever spoke. But even more, even more importantly
is the fact that Jacob speaks as one who is a prophet of God,
which is the reason I entitled this message, The Prophecies
of Jacob. He speaks as one who is the spokesman
for God. And let me spend a little bit
of time on this. Before the Word of God was finished,
and John would have been the last writer, he was the last
apostle, he survived, he outlived all of the other apostles, and
he finished what is generally spoken of as being the canon
of Holy Scripture. He finished writing the Word
of God. Those, the people in the Old
Testament and in the New Testament, the prophets and the apostles
received direct communications from God in different ways. Sometimes angels delivered the
Word of God to them. Sometimes the Lord spoke to them
through a dream or through a vision. And then those men who were the
prophets of God, then they would give out the Word of God to others. Our Lord spoke in different ways,
in different means to different people. And we read that, as
you recall, in the book of Hebrews chapter 1, God who at sundry
times and in various ways spoken to the fathers, but he spoke
by the prophets. And here is God speaking through
a man that we don't generally think of as being a prophet of
God, but he speaks the very Word of God to these, his sons. The root word for prophecy and
for prophet presents the idea to bubble up like a fountain. It's like the Lord poured into
these men, and on this occasion poured into Jacob, that which
you would have Jacob to say, and then the Word of God came
out of him. What he has to say to his sons,
it bubbles forth out of him as though a little fountain was
inside of him as he gives forth the very Word of God to his sons. Now we know all of the prophets
of God, including Jacob, including this man Israel, all of these
men were typical of our Savior, who Moses says in Deuteronomy
chapter 18, God's gonna raise up another prophet, a greater
prophet. and him you shall hear." That's
what Moses says in the book of Deuteronomy, and you can read
it for yourself there in Deuteronomy 18, 15-19. And certainly those men, including
Jacob, they spoke by the very power of the Holy Spirit. And
Jacob, on this occasion, he is delivering precisely the message
that God would have him to deliver to his sons. You remember that Peter says
in 2 Peter chapter 1, that the Word of God came to men by the
power of the Spirit of God as they were moved along. by the Spirit. And the word moved
is born along. The Spirit of God miraculously
and mysteriously worked in their minds and in their hearts so
that that which they wrote, these inspired prophets, and that which
they spoke to people when the Lord inspired them with a message,
was not that the words did not originate with them, they were
the words of God. The Spirit of God bore them along. He bore them along. Jacob, here
in Genesis chapter 49, and throughout the Old Testament, those prophets
of God were inspired to speak the Word of God, but only, and
this, we need to remember this, only as the occasion required. only as the occasion acquired. And so, therefore, we read lots
of times about the Old Testament writers and prophets, the Spirit
of the Lord came upon them. That's when they spoke the inspired
Word of God. That's when they wrote the inspired
Word of God. In other words, every time they
opened their mouth to speak, they weren't speaking as spokesmen
for God, talking to their wife, talking to the children. They
weren't inspired of God then. Only when the Spirit of God gave
them what the scripture says, utterance. Utterance. But notice this of this great
prophet that Moses spoke of. I want you to turn to John chapter
3. John chapter 3. These are the words of John the
Baptist. And he speaks. He speaks of the Lord Jesus. John chapter 3 verse 34. For
he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God. For God giveth
not the Spirit by measure unto him." In other words, the Spirit
of God didn't just occasionally come upon the Lord Jesus, like
the Spirit of God came occasionally upon the Old Testament prophets
and upon the apostles, the writing apostles. They had the Spirit
of God in measure. But our Lord Jesus, when He spoke,
every word He spoke was the Word of God. Every word He spoke. Every word that came forth out
of His lips was indeed the Word of God. Those men spake as they
were moved by the Holy Spirit. but of Christ our Lord, we know
every word that came forth from his lips was the word of God. It's like this, if I had another
container up here, and I poured some of this water into that
container, well, there is a container up here. It's me. There isn't as much
water in this vessel as there was. It's in another vessel. It's in me. And that's the way
it was with those Old Testament prophets because they weren't
filled with the spirit of truth and inspiration as was our Lord
Jesus. So when the Spirit of God poured
into them, if I may use this illustration again, when the
Spirit of God poured into them the water of the words that God
would have them deliver, they delivered the message. When the
water's gone, it was gone. Until the Spirit gave them more
water. Okay? You follow me? But our
Lord Jesus, remember, the idea of a prophet or prophecy. It's a bubbling forth as though
a fountain. Our Lord Jesus, He is the fountain. It is the Word of God that must
bubble forth from Him because of who He is. And as John says
here in verse 34, God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto
him. That's the way Jacob had. He
had the Spirit of inspiration by measure. He was not the living,
walking Word of God, but Jesus Christ was. That's the truth. So every word that the Savior
said was indeed the Word of God. The Word of God. And I understand
the reason why some producers of the Word of God,
publishers of the Word of God, I should say, they put the words
of the Savior in red. Those were His words. Now, really,
it's all God's Word. Because as the Savior said, thy
word is truth. But every word that came out
of every speaker in the Bible was not true. For instance, when Satan spoke,
was he speaking the truth? No. But the Word of God, it truthfully
records those words. You follow me? But the Savior,
every single thing He said as the Prophet of God, was indeed
the Word of God. because he didn't have the Spirit
of God by measure. So we go back to Genesis 49 as
we look in this passage of Scripture. Here's Jacob calling to his bedside
his sons. God has revealed vital truths
to the heart and mind of Jacob and the Lord leads him to speak
in a prophetic manner of what shall befall, not necessarily
these immediate sons in the future, but their offspring, their tribes,
as it were. So this is not so much the sayings
of a dying saint as they're the very inspired words that the
Lord gave to Jacob. And being on this occasion inspired
of the Spirit of God and inspired prophet of God, you may rest
assured that as He gives forth this, the Word of God, He will
focus on the Lord Jesus Christ. Because that's what all the prophets
of God did. So Jacob is not going to get
very far into this little speech that the Spirit of God has given
him before he's going to take dead aim on that one of whom
all the prophets wrote and spoke, even the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
there are several things that Jacob will have to say to his
sons that are kind of bad news. and not very pleasant. But he
will speak the truth. And that's the way it is with
the inspired Word of God. There's bad news for sinners.
There's bad news for rebels. There's bad news for the guilty.
There's bad news for those who persist in unbelief. There's
bad news for those who live and die in rejection and in rebellion
against the Son of God. Those who will not bow. Those
who will not believe. There's bad news. But there's
good news. There's good news to those ears
of those whom God has anointed and appointed to be the receivers
of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You notice how he addresses them. I think this is interesting in
verse 2. Gather yourselves together and hear ye sons of Jacob. That's what they all were by
nature. Sons of Jacob. Chips off the
old block. They were like their daddy. A
fallen man. Sons of Jacob, deceitful, treacherous,
liar by nature. Hearken unto Israel,
your father. That's what some of them were
by grace. Children of God. And so he begins. and I'll just go down, Reuben, and then Simeon, and
Levi, and then Judah tonight. He starts with Reuben. He says,
Reuben, thou art my firstborn. He builds him up. You know, I
was thinking about this today. It's almost like Jacob when he's
speaking to Reuben, He kind of almost like blowing up a balloon.
I mean, listen to this. Thou art my firstborn. Probably
stuck his chest out. That's me. I'm the firstborn. My might. My strength. The beginning of my strength.
The excellency of dignity. You have dignity as the firstborn
and the excellency of power over all your brethren. But then, it's like he sticks
the needle in and he bursts the balloon. Unstable as water, thou
shalt not excel. because thou wentest up to thy
father's bed, he went to the bed of Bilhah, and defiled, defilest
thou it, he went up to my couch." Reuben, the firstborn, who forfeited
his rights and privileges of being the firstborn. It's interesting
that you can study the Scriptures and, According to my research,
and I may stand corrected, but I don't think you'll find a judge,
a prophet, or a prince that came out of the tribe of Reuben. No
person of any great renown came forth from the tribe of Reuben
except Dathan and Abiram. who were noted in their rebellion
against Moses. Those men said, we don't need
Moses, we don't need Aaron. We're all the children of God.
And what they were saying was, we don't need Christ Jesus. We
don't need a mediator. We don't need anybody between
us and God. We're all the children of God. When I think of Reuben, the firstborn,
you know who I think of? Adam. That's who I immediately
think of is Adam. God brought him into this world,
a specimen of mankind. Look at this man. Look at his
excellency in might, his excellency in power. Look at the dignity of this man. He came forth from the hand of
God. God created one man. And there he is. But like Reuben, he proved to
be unstable as water. And that's all of the sons of
Adam. Adam had such dignity and excellency,
but he fell and we lost all dignity and all excellency. We became sinners. Full of guilt. Unstable as water. That's what
Jacob says of Reuben. See, water takes the form of
the vessel into which it's poured. Whatever the shape of the vessel,
you pour water into it, that's going to be the shape of the
vessel. And water always seeks the path of least resistance.
We all know that. And that's what all of the sons
of Adam do. We seek the path of least resistance. It's called the broad road that
leads to destruction. There's no effort. Just go with
the flow. Just go downstream. And unless
God interrupts our fatal plunge downward, we'll wind up perishing
in the midst of the damned in hell. That's why we're unstable
as water. We follow the flow. We go with
the crowd. And unless grace intervenes and
interrupts us, oh, that's the necessity, isn't it? Grace has
got to interrupt us and intervene. Otherwise, we will go down and
perish. Because one thing is for certain. Water doesn't go up. Not on its own. We're as unstable
as water. We don't seek the Lord. Our eyes
are not toward Him. We're not looking to the heavens.
to serve God and worship God and honor God? Oh, no. Oh, no. Our eyes are downward. Downward
upon the things of the earth. Downward upon perishing things. Not upward. No wonder the scripture
has to say even to the people of God, set your affection on
things above. Why do we have to be told that?
Because like water, naturally, we're flowing downhill. Seek those things which are above,
where Christ sits on the throne. Yes, Reuben is like unstable
water. Thank God for a greater man,
Christ Jesus. You see, the first Adam fell. The last Adam, see the Bible
only speaks of two Adams, right? Only speaks of two Adams. The
first Adam, who represented all of his posterity. And when he
disobeyed God, and rebelled against the very
command of God. He began to go downward. And all of his sons and daughters
are going downward. Understand this, when we're born
into this world, we're not born in spiritual neutral. We're born guilty. And the reason
we all sin is because we're born sinners. We fell in Adam. But thank God he sent the last
Adam, who's also a representative. And he represented his posterity,
his seed. And he's the one who lived and
died for us. to honor God, and you know what
He does for us? He lifts us up. He lifts us up! All the way to God. That's what our Lord Jesus does.
And He is the suitable representative for all of His people. Sad, sad case. And I'll tell
you, ours is even sadder. And we've got to have the sovereign
effectual grace of God to do something for us. Oh God, don't
leave us to our wills. I've said it before, religion
today has made an idol, an image out of man's will. Lord, don't
lead me to my own will. Oh, thank God for that passage
in Psalm 110 verse 3. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Lord, make me willing to be saved
by grace alone. Through the doing and the dying,
the bloody death and the righteousness of the Son of God. Make me willing. Make me willing. And then there's Simeon and Levi.
Both had the temperament of cruelty and revenge and deceit. Where'd they get that from? Well,
he got it from Jacob. Where'd he get it from? Fallen
Adam. You see, here's the problem.
Here was the problem with Simeon and Levi in their cruelty, in
their murderous adventure to avenge their sister's rape. They murdered, they killed, they
slaughtered. But you know where those things
came from? The heart. That's where they come from.
This wrath, this vengeance, this anger. I didn't teach my child
that. You didn't have to teach it to
him. He was born with that in him. I tried to bring my children
upright. You'd say, well, we've sought
to do that. We seek to bring our grandchildren,
teach our grandchildren as well. But what we cannot change, we
can change their environment. We can change to a degree their
very surroundings. But what you can't change is
the heart. and it's desperately wicked.
It's full of all manner of evil. And I'll tell you something,
that's yours and mine still. It's like one old writer many
years ago wrote as he was watching the hangman lead a man who was
a murderer and a rapist to be hanged until dead. He said to
his companion, there except for the grace of God, go I. There except for the grace of
God, go I. What is it we need? Oh, thank God for the new covenant
promise. God said a new heart will I give
you. And a new spirit will I put within
you. I'll take away the stony heart.
I'll take it away out of your flesh. I'll give you a heart
of flesh. I'll give you a heart that feels.
That's sensitive to my word. Sensitive to my spirit. Simeon and Levi, but then Judah. And I'll spend the remainder
of my time talking about this prophecy of Jacob to Judah. So far, the prophecies of Jacob
have kind of painted a sad portrait here of three sons and the tribes
that would come forth from them. But things get brighter. In fact,
it's like when I think of Reuben and Simeon and Levi, I think
dark thunderclouds. This is ominous. This looks bad. Before you get to Judah, and
all of a sudden God takes the clouds away, the sun of grace
begins to shine. Because you see, Judah, he's
a picture, he's a type, a portrait of our Lord Jesus in many ways. You'll remember he was the surety
who stood good for Benjamin. Even as our Lord Jesus is said
to be the surety of the New Covenant. He bore responsibility for all
of His people even as Judah bore responsibility for the safety
and the well-being and the bringing of Benjamin and Jacob back together. And our Lord Jesus is the surety
who pledged to the Father, I bring them all home to You, Father.
I pledge myself I know what this involves. It involves me humbling
myself and then putting my life, laying my life aside, shedding
my blood. I know all of that. But I willingly
do it as the surety of the new covenant. This is our great Judah. Judah's name, you know what it
means? Praise. Do you remember that? Praise. Even so, we praise God for Christ. We praise Christ by the command
of God. We praise Christ because He's the worthy and precious
Savior of our souls. That's why I had us open with
that song that Joe led us in. Praise Him. Praise Him. Jesus, our blessed Redeemer. We don't praise the preacher.
We don't praise the church. We don't praise the denomination.
We praise the Savior. Praise the Savior, ye who know
Him, who can tell how much we owe Him. Gladly let us render
to Him all we have and are. We praise Him for His grace.
We praise Him as the Savior. We praise Him as the intercessor. We praise Him as the governor
of the world. Praise. That's what Judah's name
means. Secondly, he'll be victorious over his enemies. You notice
this? Thy hand shall be in the neck of thy enemies. The picture
here is of a wrestler. Two wrestlers and one wrestler. He conquers the other one and
he's got his hand on his neck. Actually, Jacob could speak of
this as being first hand. He knew what it was like to be
pinned by the Savior. To have the hand of the Son of
God, the Almighty One, as it were, upon his neck. And Jacob said, I want to be
blessed. I want to be blessed. Our Lord's victorious over His
enemies. And you know this. You who are the people of God,
you know this because He's been victorious over you. He's been
victorious over me. Has He ever pinned you? Has He
ever put you on the mat? Put you down? And you looked
in the face of the Son of God by faith and say, oh, God, show
me mercy. Oh God, save my wretched soul.
I'm conquered by Your grace. And I'll tell you, it takes grace
to conquer us. He'll be victorious over his
enemies. And I'll tell you, our Lord Jesus, He was victorious
over Satan. Crushed his head. He was victorious
over sin. He nailed it to His cross. And though he died, he bowed
to death, but yet he conquered death. He was victorious over
death. Death couldn't hold him who is
life. And then, it says all of his
father's children will bow down before Judah. And soon, in a matter of years,
many years, the nation of Israel would bow down before sons of
Jacob. I'm talking about great, great,
great, great grandsons of Jacob. David and Solomon. They'd bow down. The nation would
bow down to those men. But behold, a greater than David
and a greater than Solomon. This is a prophecy of the honor
and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's Lord. And all of the nation, what nation? Chosen nation. A royal priesthood. A peculiar people there in 1
Peter 2 verse 9. It means a purchased people.
What do we do? Bow down before Him. We worship
Him. We worship Him who is our God.
We worship Him who is our Savior. We worship Him who is our all.
And one of these days, all of creation's going to bow down
to Him. Going to bow down to this One who is of the tribe
of Judah. Our Lord Jesus Christ. Every
knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that He's Lord
to the glory of God the Father. And then he talks about Judah,
fourthly, as being a lion. And we know in Revelation 5,
Christ is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah. What is a
lion? A lion is the king of the jungle.
Our Lord Jesus, He's the king of this jungle on earth. It is
like a jungle down here, but there sits one in glory, the
exalted lion who rules over all. He's compared to a young lion,
a lion's whelp, because he's strong and courageous. And as a lion, he goes where
he wants to go. Nobody's going to stop him. He does what He wants to do.
Nobody can hinder Him. He fears nothing, and neither
His person, nor His cause, nor His people are ever in jeopardy. It says He couched. He stooped
down. He couched as a lion. Oh, what
a stoop in His humiliation. when He joined Himself to our
flesh. And it says, from the prey, my
son, thou art gone up. Our Lord came to this earth.
He conquered over every foe. And He conquered our enemies.
And He's ascended back to heaven again. He's like an old lion He lays
down. And our Lord Jesus, gone back
to glory, He sits upon His throne of glory. Who would dare to rouse
Him up? And yet one day He will be roused
to judge the world in righteousness. And then fifthly, the scepter
shall not depart from Judah till Shiloh come. Oh, Shiloh. This is a unique
name. A name reserved for the Savior. A special name given by special
revelation for a special person who would come at a special time
to do a special work. of saving his people. It's a
name full of significance. I can only briefly touch on these.
Shiloh means sent. Christ is the sent one. Shiloh
means son. He is the son of God and the
son of man. Shiloh means the one to whom
it belongs. That is the scepter, the crown
right that belongs to Jesus Christ. Shiloh also means peace. It comes
from the same root word, it's Salem, which means city of peace. Our Lord Jesus is called the
Prince of Peace. And He was the peacemaker, He
made our peace by the blood of His cross. Shallow means prosperous. Scripture says in Isaiah 53,
a portion we refer to quite often, we love so much. The pleasure
of the Lord shall, what's the word? Prosper. That's what it
says. Prosper in His hands. And then, sixthly, unto Him shall
the gathering of the people be. The effectual grace of God gathers
the chosen of God to the Savior. And did he not say, and it's
recorded in John chapter 12, and I, if I be lifted up, will
draw all unto me. He'll gather all of his people
to himself. Tell you in the end, when all
of the saints of God, when all of true Israel is gathered around
the throne of Christ Jesus, oh, there'll be plenty of room in
glory, plenty of room in heaven, but no empty seats. We're all
going to be gathered to Him at last. And it says Judah, here's
the last thing, Judah shall be strong and fruitful. Look at
verse 11. Binding his fold under the vine
and his asses cold under the choice vine. You read the commentators
and there are lots of different comments on this. I think the
fold and the ass is cold refers to all the elect of God who are
ignorant by nature and stubborn. But you know what sovereign grace
does? It binds us to that one who is divine, our Lord Jesus
Christ. And he binds us with the bonds
of love. It says, He washed His garments
in wine, His clothes in the blood of graves. What was the garments
of our Lord Jesus Christ? What was He clothed with? Flesh. It's His garments. Look at His
flesh. Upon the cross of Calvary, covered
with blood. The blood of redemption. The
blood of our salvation, the blood of sanctification and satisfaction
to God. In verse 12, his eyes shall be
red with wine. That's joy. Joy. And his teeth white with milk. Purity. Purity. Oh, our great Judah. Our great Shiloh, bless his name. Thank God for him. May the Lord
draw us all closer to our dear Savior, binding us who are like
wild-asses colts to the true vine, and from him receiving
life and nourishment, and by his grace bearing fruit for his
glory. Amen.