All right, Genesis chapter 49.
Today we're going to be looking at just a few verses concerning
two great gospel concepts that I think are brought out here,
that I know that are brought out here that help us to understand
a lot of the Old Testament and the New Testament. And that's
the concepts, the gospel concepts of the scepter and Shiloh. And this is where Jacob is on
his deathbed, and he's blessing his 12 sons. And of course, as
you know, Joseph would be represented by his two sons, Manasseh and
Ephraim. And Jacob is pronouncing the
blessing. on his two sons. And one of the
things, and we're not gonna go through each one of them, we're
just gonna go to verse eight. But I do wanna give you just
a little note here. Verse 18 of this chapter. And
here, when he's blessing his sons,
it's kinda like a side note here that everything pivots on. And Jacob makes this statement,
and this is right after he blesses Dan and before he blesses Gad,
his two sons. And he says in verse 18, I have
waited for thy salvation, O Lord. Now that word salvation, in the
old language would be Yeshua, which is Joshua, which is the
Old Testament name for Jesus, which means salvation. And that's
the first time in the Old Testament that that actual word is used. The next time, I believe, is
in Exodus chapter 14, where Moses cried, stand still and see the
salvation of the Lord. And so, now that's not the first
time that the gospel has been related to, or Christ or Jesus
has been related, but that's the first time that actual word
is used, as Jacob is blessing his sons. But here he is on his
deathbed, and he's blessing all the children of his loins, the
children of Jacob, the children of Israel. And all of this, as
we see, is going to be related to God's purpose to use this
nation, Israel, which will later on become a nation under Moses,
under the old covenant, to use this nation as a means by which
he would bring through the sinless humanity of Christ, who would
come in the flesh the word made flesh. But specifically, he would
come through one of Jacob's sons, the line of Judah. And that starts
in verse eight. Let's just read these few verses.
He says, Judah, verse eight, 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. A young
lion from the prey, my son thou art gone up, he stooped down,
he couched as a lion and as an old lion. Here's an old lion,
so from a young lion to an old lion, who shall rouse him up? And then verse 10, here's where
we get the title from. The scepter 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. And then we'll
read on this. He says, binding his foal into
the vine and his ass's coat into 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. Now all
of that, ultimately, we'll see there's a temporal, physical,
Fulfillment of, this is a prophecy, and there's a temporal physical
fulfillment of this in the actual physical tribe of Judah, but
the ultimate truth here and fulfillment, spiritual and eternal, comes
through Christ, who is, according to his humanity, of the tribe
of Judah. So this is gospel. The name Judah. He says Judah in verse eight,
thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. The name Judah
means praise. His mother was Leah. You remember
Leah? That was Jacob's first wife.
And she named him this when she had him. And you can read about
it in Genesis 29, 35, when she said, now will I praise the Lord. And so she was so happy over
having this son, Judah. The name Jew, I believe, which
you don't see until the book of Esther later on, is a shortened
form of the name Judah. And so you see the progression
of this, but praise. Judah means praise. And of course,
Judah himself, as the line progressed and there came kings from his
line, It was the rest of Israel that would praise him and bow
to him in that sense. Not Judah personally. Judah personally
never was a king. But later on, there were kings
coming out of him. And if you notice the history
of Israel, David was the first king of Israel
that came out of the Judah line. But he wasn't the first king
of Israel, was he? A man named Saul was the first
king of Israel. And he wasn't from the tribe
of Judah. He was from the tribe of Benjamin. So how did that
happen? Well, as the nation Israel began
to form in the promised land when they finally got there,
what does the Bible tell us about the nation Israel? They were
rebellious. They did not believe God. They
rebelled, they intermarried with other nations, which they weren't
supposed to. And eventually, looking at other
nations and how they were set up, who had a king, they wanted
a king, and the key is, like other nations. Now somebody,
I heard a preacher say one time, say, well, Judah, or the Lord,
became angry with Israel because they wanted a king. That's not
so. It's not just because they wanted a king, because God had
already promised them a king right here. He says the scepter,
the scepter is a kingdom. And didn't God tell Abraham in
the covenant, he said kings will come out of you? So that was
already a given. But it was gonna be God's appointed
king in God's appointed time who would rule God's way. But
Israel, they wanted a king of their own choice, a popular man
like Saul, and they wanted to be like other nations. So God
gave them, he let them have Saul as a judgment against them because
of their rebellion and their unbelief and because of their
wanting a king like other nations. They weren't supposed to be like
other nations. They were supposed to be separate. And I think about
passages of scripture through the prophets like Ezekiel. When the Lord came against them
and brought charges against them, he said, you have profaned my
name among the heathen. In other words, you have not
honored and glorified God among the heathens. You haven't been
a good witness to other nations of the true and living God. And
so that's what happened. So Saul was a judgment. He was
certainly in God's providential plan and all that. We know that
God is sovereign. But he let him have Saul. But later on, who became king?
David. He was God's choice. He wasn't
even Samuel's choice. The prophet at first, was he?
When Samuel went down to Jesse's house and got his sons, and he
looked at all the sons, and he looked at Jesse, he says, is
there anybody else? And he said, well, there's one
out there, a shepherd boy who's who's out there and he brought
in David. So David was the first in the line of the kings of Judah. But Judah means praise. And so Jacob's sons through their
posterity would praise Judah in the sense that the line of
Judah became kings of Israel. Now again, the physical Temporal
and temporary fulfillment of that was through the kings of
Judah, but the ultimate eternal spiritual fulfillment of it is
in Christ, the king of kings, who according to his humanity,
his sinless humanity was of the tribe of Judah, even the line
of David, the seed of David. according to the flesh, the scripture
tells us. The gospel is the gospel of God
concerning this person, concerning Jesus Christ, who was born of
the seed of David, according to the flesh, but was declared
to be the son of God. And so we see the constitution
of Christ person there, that he is God manifest in the flesh,
but as to his humanity, he was of the tribe of Judah. the spiritual
and eternal prophecy fulfilled in Christ. He's the Lord by his
deity, and then he's the Lord our mediator by his sinless humanity,
all accomplished. And so Judah, verse eight, thou
art he whom thy brethren shall praise. Thy hand shall be in
the neck of thine enemies. Think about David and him being
a conqueror, We know that a lot of the kings of Judah were failures.
Some of them were conquered later on. And we know the northern
kingdom, you remember, after the kingdom of Sid, they were
conquered. But this points to Christ, who defeated all of his
enemies. And what are his enemies? Well,
we know sin was his enemy, and he defeated our sins by his death
on the cross. Satan was his enemy, but he put
Satan down, didn't he? By his death on the cross. And
even the enemy, the world, he said, you remember he told his
disciples, he said, in the world you'll have tribulation, but
I've overcome the world. Christ is the conqueror, he's
the mighty conqueror, the scripture says. And we're more than conquerors
through him. And then I'll tell you another
group he conquered, his people, he conquered us. He brought,
and we'll see that later, he brings us to himself. He conquers
our rebellion, our sin, and our depravity, bringing us out of
our unbelief, out of our dishonoring of God, and brings us to himself.
And then in his death, he established righteousness that enables God
to be a just God and a savior, so he broke the neck of his enemies. And it says, thy father's children
shall bow down before thee. And again, the physical, temporal
fulfillment of that is the sons of Israel bowing down to King
David and King Solomon and so on, the line of Jew. But the
spiritual fulfillment is in the elect of God, spiritual Israel,
Jew and Gentile bowing down to the Lord Jesus Christ as our
King. He's the King of kings and the
Lord of lords. None greater than him. Well,
look at verse nine. Judah is a lion's web. This speaks
of Christ in his youth. You know, even in his youth,
he was, you know, he was what, 33? According to his humanity,
he was like 33, 33 and a half years old when he accomplished
this. He was so, in other words, he
was able. put in your lesson here, in order
to be the Savior of his people, and this lion's whelp speaks
of his strength, his power, his courage, the lion, the king of
the jungle, as you know. In order to accomplish our salvation,
in order to bring in everlasting righteousness, he had to meet
three qualifications. Number one, he had to be appointed
by God the Father. And that's the thing about when
you see Israel and their history. Saul became Israel's king, and
God let him have that king as a punishment, but he wasn't God's
man. Saul what? David was. He was
appointed. Well, Christ is the one appointed
by the Father before the foundation of the world to be the surety,
the substitute, the redeemer of his people. There's none other
name given among men whereby we must be saved. There's one
God and one mediator between God and men. And so when people
tell you, claiming to be Christian, that there are other ways to
God, they're lying, they're deceived. Christ is the only one, he's
appointed, had to be appointed by God the Father. He said, I
came to do my Father's will. He said, my Father sent me. In
the fullness of the time, God sent forth his Son. And then
the second qualification is this, he had to be able to do what
was required. Now what was required? Well,
sin had to be put down. Satan had to be defeated. Righteousness
had to be established. And so he had to be qualified.
And what did it take to qualify him? He had to be both God and
man in one person. It took God because only God
can produce and give life. Man cannot do that. But this
person who is a man, He did do it, that's to be attributed to
his deity, but it was an act of his entire person. He gives
life from the dead. Only God could establish the
righteousness of God. The righteousness of a mere man
wouldn't do us any good. So only God could do it. But
now also, he had to die. And God cannot die, but this
person who is God did die. That's to be attributed to his
humanity, but it was an act of his entire person. It's mind-boggling,
isn't it? The God-man, he had to die because
the wages of sin is death, and our sins were imputed to him,
and he had to pay that debt. So he had to be able, so in order
for him to be able, he had to be the Word made flesh. He had to be God manifest in
the flesh. God with us. Now, what does that
tell you? Tells you that he's the only
one who's able. None other is able. There's no man or woman,
there's no saint, there's no sinner who's able to do what
Christ did. So he had to be appointed of
the Father, he had to be able to do that, Remember Paul said,
I know he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him
against that day. He's able to save to the uttermost
them that come unto God by him. So he's able. And that's what
salvation's all about. It's about his ability. That's
what our warfare, warfare against sin, against Satan, against the
world, against the flesh, it's all about his ability, isn't
it? It's not about our ability because if it is, we're dead.
We're defeated. But in his ability, I think about
Paul in Romans chapter 7 when he spoke about that great battle
between the flesh and the spirit. and how he was unable to do what
he wanted to do. He wanted to be like Christ.
He wanted to follow God, but he couldn't do it because of
the flesh, sin that dwells in him. And so he comes to this
point, it's almost like a point of desperation, but it's not.
He says, oh, who shall deliver me from the body? Oh, wretched
man, who shall deliver me from this body of death? That sounds
like desperate, but it's not. He says, I thank God through
Jesus Christ my Lord. And then you remember over in
Romans 8 when he says, we are more than conquerors through
him. That's how we win this battle. He's already won it, essentially. Now the third qualification is
this. He had to be willing to do all
that. And I think about, I've got referenced
in your lesson here. I thought I had it referenced,
but I may not have. But it's in the book of John. I may not have had that written
down. But in the book of John, you remember he said this. He
said, no man takes my life from me, I give it. You know, Christ,
I know that we as sinful people coming against him in our nature,
natural state, we had murder in our hearts. But he wasn't
murdered. He wasn't taken by force. He
was led as a lamb to the slaughter. He was willing to do it. And
I think about this. You remember when the soldiers
came to get him in the garden? He asked him, he said, who you
seek? And they said, we seek Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I
am. And they fell back. But he said, come on, take me. So he did it willingly. So he
was the appointed one. He was the able one. He's the
willing one. And that's what it took. And
in all of that, he saved us from our sins. So it says in verse
9, Judah is a lion's whelp. From the prey, my son, thou art
gone up. He went up from the prey. He
left heaven, came to earth, engaged the enemy, redeemed his people
with his power and his blood, and he's accomplished the work.
He said, it's finished. He stooped down. He couched as
a lion and as an old lion, as one who had accomplished his
purpose here on earth. And so he says, who shall rouse
him? Who's going to hinder him? Who's going to stop his progress,
the progress of his kingdom? He's at rest. He's seated at
the right hand of the father, ever living to make intercession
for his people, bringing them, gathering them, he's gonna say
to himself, and nobody can stop him. You can't rouse him up,
he's done, he's finished. And right now he sent his spirit
to bring his people into the fold. And so now we come to the,
to the title of the lesson, verse 10. The scepter shall not depart
from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh
come. The scepter speaks of a kingdom,
the king's scepter, the rod of authority, the rod of judgment,
the rod of power. Shiloh speaks of Christ. And
this is the word that Judah and his descendants first physically,
again, as they occupied the physical throne of Israel for a time,
but that was to be temporary. That was not to last on eternally. How long was it supposed to last?
Until Shiloh come, until Christ comes. And so he'll come through
the tribe of Judah, the family of Jesse, the house of David,
Who will come? Shiloh. Now that name Shiloh,
a lot of commentators differ on that. It can have a lot of
connotations. I've got four examples here in your lesson. Some say
Shiloh can mean sent, one who is sent. And of course, Christ
was truly the one sent of the Father. He was appointed, he
was sent. God sent forth his son, made of a woman. Secondly,
some say Shiloh can mean the son. And they go back to Isaiah
chapter nine, you know, where it talks about, for unto us a
child is born, a son is given, and he's called the Prince of
Peace. And so they say it can mean son. Some say that Shiloh
means the one to whom it belongs. It belongs to him. The scepter,
the crown, the throne, the kingdom belongs to Christ. It's his kingdom. It's his realm. It's his authority
and power, it's his righteousness. But I believe the word Shiloh
in the fourth place, more likely that Shiloh means peace. You've
heard the Jewish word Shalom, that means peace. The name Jerusalem, Salem and
Jerusalem, comes from that the city of peace, the city of David. And it's a word that's used as
Salem, king of peace. You remember with Melchizedek,
the Lord Jesus Christ is the prince of peace. He's the one
who brought peace by the blood of his cross, reconciling God
to sinners and sinners to God on the same ground. And that
brings us to his scepter. His scepter is a scepter of righteousness
or scepter of judgment. You see in Christ, mercy and
truth, righteousness and peace, come together. And so he rules
with a scepter of righteousness, and this is preached out in the
gospel. The gospel is the gospel of peace. You see, by nature,
in our minds, we are enemies of God by wicked works. But God
has been reconciled to his people through the blood of Christ,
that's his righteousness imputed. And so the command and call of
the gospel is now be ye reconciled to God on that same ground. Come
to God through Christ, pleading His blood. My hope is built on
nothing less than Jesus' blood and right. Come to Him pleading
His righteousness, not your works, not your own. Salvation's conditioned
on what Christ did. He accomplished it. He fulfilled
it. He fulfilled all righteousness,
he said. You remember in his baptism,
he said, suffer it to be so that we fulfill all righteousness.
And so he is the Lord our righteousness. And so he says in verse 10 there,
he said, unto him shall the gathering of the people be. You know under
David and Solomon there was a united kingdom, but after that it was
divided. So we see that this union, this
gathering of people didn't last long under David or under Solomon.
But under Christ, it is a gathering of the people. It's a union of
the people. His church, His elect, His sheep will be brought to
Him through the preaching of the gospel and the power of the
Holy Spirit will be gathered unto Him. We will come to Him. He said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. and him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. This is the will of him that
sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose
nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. So it's based
upon this power, the power of his scepter, the righteousness
of his kingdom, that he'll give spiritual life to his people,
his elect Jew and Gentile, and of every tribe, kindred, tongue,
and nation, form that great nation of spiritual Israel. I mentioned
earlier about the name Jew being a shortened form of Judah. And
what did Paul say in Romans 2, 28 and 29? He is not a Jew which
is one outwardly, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly and circumcision
is not that of the flesh but of the heart. And that's how
he gathers his people unto himself. He sends the spirit with the
word and powerfully and invincibly circumcises their hearts. their
minds, their affections, their will, their conscience, the inner
man, and brings them unto himself and gathers them, and he'll keep
them. He'll preserve them. He who started
that good work will bring it to its fruition, its culmination,
and he will not let us go. That's the king of peace, the
king of righteousness, the scepter and Shiloh, okay.